Alfonso III of Castile did not long survive the glorious triumph over the Moslems at Navas de Tolosa. After two hostile irruptions into the territories of the enemy, he died in 1214, and was succeeded by his only surviving son, Henry [Enrique] I. As the new king, however, was only in his eleventh year, the regency was entrusted to his sister Berengaria [or Berenguela], the most excellent princess of her age. But neither her wisdom, her virtues, nor the near relation she held to the infante could avail her with the fierce nobles of Castile. The house of Lara, whose unprincipled ambition had on a former occasion been productive of such evils to the state, again became the scourge of the country. She resigned the custody of the royal ward to Count Alvaro Nuñez de Lara, the chief of that turbulent family. No sooner was Don Alvaro in possession of the regency than he exhibited the true features of his character--haughtiness, rapacity, tyranny, and revenge. Those whom he knew to be obnoxious to his party he imprisoned or confiscated their possessions. His exactions, which fell on all orders of the state, were too intolerable to be long borne: remonstrances were addressed to him by the clergy; but as they produced no effect, and as he had laid violent hands, not only on the substance alike of rich and poor, but on the temporalities of the church, he was solemnly excommunicated by the dean of Toledo. Even this ordinarily terrific weapon was powerless with one who disregarded both justice and religion. [Sidenote: [1217-1230 A.D.]]