Yusuf II., who succeeded his father in 1391, was so averse to war that his subjects suspected him of Christian sympathies. His son rose against him, and the pacific monarch was disposed to abdicate rather than draw the sword. The exhortations of the Moroccan ambassador induced him to take a manlier course, and putting himself at the head of the army lately arrayed against him, he ravaged Murcia with fire and sword. It was against this peace-loving sultan that Don Martin de la Barbuda, the Quixotic Master of Calatrava, directed his wild expedition--defeated, of course, and emphatically disavowed by Enrique III. of Castile. Yusuf’s younger son and successor, Mohammed VII.,[A] was a prince of a very different stamp. Accompanied by only twenty-five horsemen, he penetrated to Toledo, and negotiated in the heart of Castile with Enrique III. The peace thus concluded was soon interrupted, and Mohammed was quickly waging war throughout the length and breadth of Andalusia. The war continued with varying fortunes, and was carried on, as was usual in those days, by a series of forays, neither side making any determined effort to take the other’s capital or to secure his conquests. On feeling his end approaching, the warlike Sultan bethought him of his elder brother, Yusuf, whom he had confined in the castle of Salobreña. Fearing that the captive might now supplant his own son, Mohammed sent a messenger to command his execution. Yusuf was playing chess with the governor of the castle when the fatal mandate arrived. He asked leave of the emissary to finish the game, and before he had made the final move, the news arrived of the death of Mohammed and of his proclamation as Sultan of Granada. Yusuf showed himself as calm and unmoved at his accession to the throne as when he had stood upon the threshold of death. As peaceably disposed as his father, Yusuf III. had to withstand some of the most determined assaults upon his doomed kingdom. In his reign took place the celebrated siege of Antequera by the Castilians, the survivors of which founded the suburb of Antequeruela adjacent to Granada. Yusuf ultimately found peace and a valuable ally as the outcome of a strange story of fraternal animosity. The people of Gibraltar revolted against Granada and proclaimed themselves the subjects of Fez. The Sultan of that realm sent his hated brother, Abu Saïd, to take possession of the town, and treating him as David did Uriah, left him at the mercy of the enemy. Yusuf, however, treated the captured prince with generosity, and showed him a letter which he shortly after received from the Sultan of Fez, requesting that he might be poisoned. Thirsting for vengeance, Abu Saïd procured arms and soldiers at Granada, and, invading Morocco, drove his perfidious brother from the throne. Thereafter he was the sworn ally of the Sultan of Granada, whom Castile and Aragon no longer ventured to trouble. Yusuf III. passed away in 1417.