| Ferdinand III | |
|---|---|
 Ferdinand III in a 13th-centuryminiature | |
| King of Castile andToledo | |
| Reign | 31 August 1217 – 30 May 1252 |
| Predecessor | Berengaria |
| Successor | Alfonso X |
| King of León andGalicia | |
| Reign | 24 September 1230(de facto) or 11 December 1230(de jure) – 30 May 1252 |
| Predecessor | SanchaandDulce(de jure) Alfonso IX(de facto) |
| Successor | Alfonso X |
| Born | 1199/1201 Monastery of Valparaíso, Peleas de Arriba,Kingdom of León |
| Died | 30 May 1252 (aged 50–53) Seville,Crown of Castile |
| Burial | Seville Cathedral, Seville, Spain |
| Spouses | |
| Issue among others... | |
| House | Castilian House of Ivrea |
| Father | Alfonso IX of León |
| Mother | Berengaria of Castile |
Ferdinand III (Spanish:Fernando; 1199/1201 – 30 May 1252), calledthe Saint (el Santo), wasKing of Castile from 1217 andKing of León from 1230 as well asKing of Galicia from 1231.[1] He was the son ofAlfonso IX of León andBerengaria of Castile. Through his second marriage he was alsoCount of Aumale. Ferdinand III was one of the most successful kings of Castile, securing not only the permanent union of the crowns of Castile and León, but also masterminding the most expansive southward territorial expansion campaign yet in theGuadalquivir Valley, in which Islamic rule was in disarray in the wake of the defeat of theAlmohad caliphate at theBattle of Las Navas de Tolosa. His repeated and decisive victories against the Islamic Caliphate earned him the titleAthleta Christi, meaning 'Champion of Christ', which was conferred upon him byPope Gregory IX.[2]
By military and diplomatic efforts, Ferdinand greatly expanded the dominions of Castile by annexing thecrown of Guadalquivir river valley in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, establishing the boundaries of the Castilian state for the next two centuries. New territories included important cities such asBaeza,Úbeda,Jaén,Córdoba andSeville, that were subject of Repartimiento, given a new general charter and repopulated in the following years.
Ferdinand wascanonized in 1671 byPope Clement X. Places such as the cities ofSan Fernando, Pampanga andSan Fernando, La Union; theDiocese of Ilagan and theSan Fernando de Dilao Church inPaco, Manila in thePhilippines; and in the United States, inCalifornia theCity of San Fernando, theSan Fernando Valley, and inTexas theCathedral of San Fernando inSan Antonio were named in his honor.
The exact date of Ferdinand's birth is unclear. It has been proposed to have been as early as 1199 or even 1198, although more recent researchers commonly date Ferdinand's birth in the summer of 1201.[3][4][5] Ferdinand was born at theMonastery of Valparaíso (Peleas de Arriba, in what is now theProvince of Zamora).
As the son ofAlfonso IX of León and his second wifeBerengaria of Castile,[6] Ferdinand descended fromAlfonso VII of León and Castile on both sides; his paternal grandfatherFerdinand II of León and maternal great grandfatherSancho III of Castile were the sons of Alfonso VII between whom his kingdom was divided. Ferdinand had other royal ancestors from his paternal grandmotherUrraca of Portugal and his maternal grandmotherEleanor of England a daughter ofHenry II of England andEleanor of Aquitaine.[7]
The marriage of Ferdinand's parents was annulled by order ofPope Innocent III in 1204, due toconsanguinity, but the legitimacy of the children was recognized.[8] Berengaria then took their children, including Ferdinand, to the court of her father, KingAlfonso VIII of Castile.[9] In 1217, her younger brother,Henry I, died and she succeeded him on the Castilian throne with Ferdinand as her heir, but she quickly surrendered it to her son.
Alfonso of León considered himself tricked, and the young king had to begin his reign by a war against his father and a faction of the Castilian nobles. His and his mother's abilities proved too much for the king of Leon and his Castilian allies. Berengaria continued to be a key influence on Ferdinand, who followed her advice in prosecuting wars and even in the choice of a wife,Elisabeth of Swabia.[8]
When Ferdinand's father died in 1230, his will delivered the kingdom to his older daughtersSancha andDulce, from his first marriage toTeresa of Portugal. But Ferdinand contested the will, and claimed the inheritance for himself. At length, an agreement was reached, negotiated primarily between their mothers, Berengaria and Teresa. The resultingtreaty of Benavente was signed on 11 December 1230, by which Ferdinand received theKingdom of León, in return for a substantial compensation in cash and lands for his half-sisters, Sancha and Dulce. Ferdinand thus became the first sovereign of both kingdoms since the death ofAlfonso VII in 1157.[10]
Early in his reign, Ferdinand had to deal with a rebellion of theHouse of Lara.
Since theBattle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 halted the advance of theAlmohads in Spain, a series of truces had kept Castile and the Almohad dominions ofal-Andalus more-or-less at peace. However, a crisis of succession in the Almohad Caliphate after the death ofYusuf II in 1224 gave Ferdinand III an opportunity for intervention. The Andalusian-based claimant,Abdallah al-Adil, began to ship the bulk of Almohad arms and men across thestraits toMorocco to contest the succession with his rival there, leaving al-Andalus relatively undefended. Al-Adil's rebellious cousin, Abdullah al-Bayyasi (theBaezan), appealed to Ferdinand III for military assistance against the usurper. In 1225, a Castilian army accompanied al-Bayyasi in a campaign,ravaging the regions ofJaén,vega de Granada and, before the end of the year, had successfully installed al-Bayyasi inCórdoba. In payment, al-Bayyasi gave Ferdinand the strategic frontier strongholds ofBaños de la Encina, Salvatierra (the oldOrder of Calatrava fortress nearCiudad Real) andCapilla (the last of which had to be taken by siege). When al-Bayyasi was rejected and killed by a popular uprising in Córdoba shortly after, the Castilians remained in occupation of al-Bayyasi's holdings inAndújar,Baeza andMartos.
The crisis in the Almohad Caliphate, however, remained unresolved. In 1228, a new Almohad pretender,Idris al-Ma'mun, decided to abandon Spain, and left with the last remnant of the Almohad forces for Morocco. Al-Andalus was left fragmented in the hands of local strongmen, only loosely led byMuhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Hud al-Judhami. Seeing the opportunity, the Christian kings of the north – Ferdinand III of Castile,Alfonso IX of León,James I of Aragon andSancho II of Portugal – immediately launched a series of raids on al-Andalus, renewed almost every year. There were no great battle encounters – Ibn Hud's makeshift Andalusian army was destroyed early on, while attempting to stop the Leonese atAlange in 1230. The Christian armies romped through the south virtually unopposed in the field. Individual Andalusian cities were left to resist or negotiate their capitulation by themselves, with little or no prospect of rescue from Morocco or anywhere else.
The twenty years from 1228 to 1248 saw the most massive advance in thereconquista yet. In this great sweep, most of the great old citadels of al-Andalus fell one by one. Ferdinand III took the lion's share of the spoils –Badajoz andMérida (which had fallen to the Leonese), were promptly inherited by Ferdinand in 1230; then by his own effort,Cazorla in 1231,Úbeda in 1233, the oldUmayyad capital ofCórdoba in 1236,Niebla andHuelva in 1238,Écija andLucena in 1240,Orihuela andMurcia in 1243 (by the famous 'pact of Alcaraz'),Arjona,Mula andLorca in 1244,Cartagena in 1245,Jaénin 1246,Alicante in 1248 and finally, on 22 December 1248, Ferdinand III entered as a conqueror inSeville, the greatest of Andalusian cities. At the end of this twenty-year onslaught, only a rump Andalusian state, theEmirate of Granada, remained unconquered (and even so, Ferdinand III managed to extract a tributary arrangement from Granada in 1238).
Ferdinand annexed some of his conquests directly into theCrown of Castile, and others were initially received and organized as vassal states under Muslim governors (e.g. Alicante, Niebla, Murcia), although they too were eventually permanently occupied and absorbed into Castile before the end of the century (Niebla in 1262, Murcia in 1264, Alicante in 1266). Outside of these vassal states, Christian rule could be heavy-handed on the new Muslim subjects. The range of Castilian conquests also sometimes transgressed into the spheres of interest of other conquerors. Thus, along the way, Ferdinand III took care to carefully negotiate with the other Christian kings to avoid conflict, e.g. thetreaty of Almizra (26 March 1244) which delineated the Murcian boundary withJames I of Aragon.
Ferdinand divided the conquered territories between theKnights, the Church, and the nobility, whom he endowed with greatlatifundia. When he took Córdoba, he ordered theLiber Iudiciorum to be adopted and observed by its citizens, and caused it to be rendered, albeit inaccurately, intoCastilian.
The capture of Córdoba was the result of a well-planned and executed process whereby parts of the city (the Ajarquía) first fell to the independentalmogavars of theSierra Morena to the north, which Ferdinand had not at the time subjugated.[11] Only in 1236 did Ferdinand arrive with a royal army to take the Medina, the religious and administrative centre of the city.[11] Ferdinand set up a council ofpartidores to divide the conquests and between 1237 and 1244 a great deal of land was parcelled out to private individuals and members of the royal family as well as to the Church.[12] On 10 March 1241, Ferdinand established seven outposts to define the boundary of the province of Córdoba. Following his conquest of Cordoba, Pope Gregory IX hailed Ferdinand as an "athleta Christi"(champion of Christ) and ordered bishops in Castile and Leon to provide him with 20,000 gold pieces a year, for three years.[13]
On the domestic front, Ferdinand strengthened theUniversity of Salamanca and erected the currentCathedral of Burgos. He was a patron of the newest movement in the Church, that of themendicant Orders. Whereas theBenedictinemonks, and then theCistercians andCluniacs, had taken a major part in theReconquista up until then, Ferdinand founded houses forfriars of theDominican,Franciscan,Trinitarian, andMercedarian Orders throughout Andalusia, thus determining the future religious character of that region. Ferdinand has also been credited with sustaining theconvivencia in Andalusia.[14] He himself joined theThird Order of St. Francis, and is honored in that Order.
He took care not to overburden his subjects with taxation, fearing, as he said, the curse of one poor woman more than a whole army of Saracens.[15]
Ferdinand III had started out as a contested king of Castile. By the time of his death he had delivered to his son and heir,Alfonso X, a massively expanded kingdom. The boundaries of the new Castilian state established by Ferdinand III remained nearly unchanged until the late 15th century. His biographer, Sister María del Carmen Fernández de Castro Cabeza,A.C.J., asserts that, on his deathbed, Ferdinand said to his son "you will be rich in land and in many good vassals, more than any other king in Christendom."[16]
Ferdinand's death was attributed to adropsy he contracted in the winter of 1251. His death took place on 30 May 1252, and he was buried in theCathedral of Seville by his son, Alfonso X. The funeral took place on 1 June 1252 and was officiated by Remondo, Bishop of Segovia, in the cathedral. In the city there were royal vassals, bishops, abbots and wealthy men of the kingdom, who had come to show their lament. His tomb was inscribed in four languages:Arabic,Hebrew,Latin, and an early version ofCastilian.[17]
He wascanonized as Saint Ferdinand byPope Clement X in 1671.[18] Today, theincorrupt body of Saint Ferdinand can still be seen in the Cathedral of Seville, for he rests enclosed in a gold and crystal casket worthy of the king.[19] His golden crown still encircles his head as he reclines beneath the statue of the Virgin of the Kings.[20] Several places namedSan Fernando were founded across theSpanish Empire in his honor. His supposed likeliness,enthronement,sword and orb are depicted on the crest ofSevilla Fútbol Club.
The symbol of his power as a king was his swordLobera.
Saint Ferdinand III | |
|---|---|
 Painting of St. Ferdinand III byBartolomé Esteban Murillo (17th century) | |
| Honored in | Catholic Church |
| Canonized | 4 February 1671 byPope Clement X |
| Feast | May 30 |
| Patronage | Cities:Seville,Aranjuez,San Fernando de Henares,Maspalomas,Pivijay Military:Spanish Army's Corps of Engineers |
Saint Ferdinand is thepatron saint of Seville,Aranjuez,San Fernando de Henares,Maspalomas,Pivijay, and of several other localities. He is also the patron of theSpanish Army's Corps of Engineers,[21] and engineers generally.[22]
Since the establishment in 1819 of theDiocese of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, also called "Diocese of Tenerife" (Canary Islands), Saint Ferdinand is the co-patron of the diocese and of itsCathedral pursuant to thepapal bull issued byPope Pius VII.[23] This is because La Laguna is asuffragan diocese of theArchdiocese of Seville whose capital city has Saint Ferdinand as one of its co-patrons, together with theVirgen de los Reyes. Saint Ferdinand is also the patron of theUniversity of La Laguna, since this institution was founded under the name ofUniversidad Literaria de San Fernando (Literary University of Saint Ferdinand).[24]
In 1219, Ferdinand marriedElisabeth of Swabia (1203–1235).[a][26] She was the fourth daughter ofPhilip, Duke of Swabia, andIrene Angelina.[25] Their children were:
After he was widowed, he marriedJoan, Countess of Ponthieu, before August 1237.[28] They had four sons and one daughter:
Ferdinand III of Castile Cadet branch of theHouse of Ivrea Born: 5 August 1201 Died: 30 May 1252 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | King of Castile andToledo 1217–1252 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | King of León andGalicia 1230–1252 | |
| Preceded by | King ofCórdoba 1237–1252 | |
| Preceded by | King ofMurcia 1241–1252 | |
| Preceded by | King ofJaén 1246–1252 | |
| Preceded by | King ofSeville 1248–1252 | |
| Preceded by | Count of Aumale 1239–1252 withJoan | Succeeded byas sole ruler |
| Preceded by | Count of Ponthieu 1251–1252 withJoan | |
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