The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 10 : $b Spain and Portugal
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 10 : $b Spain and Portugal
World history
[25] [Previously to this he waged “the war of the Three Sanchos,” so
called from the fact that he, Sancho of Castile, attacked his cousin
Sancho of Navarre, who called in the aid of Sancho of Aragon; and
together the latter Sanchos defeated the Castilian, in 1068.]
[26] [It is a curious fact that this warrior is known to the Spaniards by
his Arab name of _Cid_ or _Saïd_, that is, lord or leader, while to the
Arabs he is known by his Spanish name of _Campeador_ or “Challenger.”]
[27] [Burke[g] explains the inconsistent enumerations of the kings of
this period as follows:
The curious confusion arising from a twofold or threefold system of
numeration of the Alfonsos of Castile and Leon in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries seems to call for some special notice. Dunham[h],
Romey[s] and other foreign historians and chronologists, among whom the
count de Mas-Latrie[t] must ever be spoken of with the greatest respect,
call Alfonso _el Batallador_, of Aragon, Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile,
as in right of his wife Urraca; and thus call Alfonso _el Imperador_
number VIII; and keep Alfonso III of Castile out of the Leonese or
_Junto_ numeration altogether. Thus and in other ways confusion has been
introduced, and by imperfect explanation still worse confounded.
The following, it is to be hoped, is plain:
Alfonso VI of Leon was the first of the name to reign in Castile; and, as
in the course of the next hundred and fifty years the two kingdoms were
sometimes under the same king, though not formally united, and sometimes
each with a king of its own, the plan has been generally adopted by
modern Spanish writers of numbering the Alfonsos of Leon and of Castile
consecutively, without regard to the kingdoms over which they reigned,
taking no account of the Alfonsos of Aragon. Thus Alfonso _el Sabio_
was Alfonso IV of Castile, and Alfonso IX of Leon, but Alfonso X of the
consecutive Alfonsos, by which title he is always known. And it is by
this numeration that the late king of Spain was Alfonso XII, and his
present majesty is Alfonso XIII.]
[28] [His ambitious assumption of the title of “emperor of Spain” was
scarcely justified by his uncertain conquests from the Almoravids and was
made ridiculous by his failure to subdue his Christian neighbours in Leon
and Castile.[g]]
[29] [Burke[g] says, “The union of Catalonia with Aragon by the marriage
of Queen Petronilla with Raymond Berengar of Barcelona in 1150, was the
foundation of the greatness of Spain.”]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER III. THE HISTORY OF CASTILE TO THE DEATH OF PEDRO THE CRUEL
[Sidenote: [1214-1369 A.D.]]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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