Ferdinand, having recommenced his campaign in Andalusia, conquered the town of Ubeda (1234); and in the same year the Christians took possession of the western suburb of Cordova, defending themselves there with daring courage. As soon as this news reached the king, who was at Benavente, he set out and bore down upon Cordova, which the king of Seville dared not succour, and the siege becoming every day more rigorous, this large town, formerly chief seat of the Mussulman monarchy, was compelled to capitulate (1236), the inhabitants being allowed to depart freely with such of their goods as they could carry. This conquest filled Christian Spain with joy, not only from its importance but as being the herald of more glorious victories. The cross was raised upon the highest pinnacle of the mosque, which was converted into a Christian church. The pious monarch caused the bells of the church of Compostella, which were being used as lamps, and which had been brought thither by Almansor on the shoulders of captive Christians more than two centuries and a half previously, to be carried back to the church of the Apostle by captive Mussulmans.[c] BURKE’S ESTIMATE OF QUEEN BERENGARIA [Illustration: QUEEN BERENGARIA, SPAIN (From an effigy)] Ferdinand’s mother, Berengaria [who died in 1246], was one of those rare beings who seem to have been born to do right, and to have done it. From her earliest youth she was a leading figure, a happy and noble influence in one of the most contemptible and detestable societies of mediæval Christendom. Married of her own free will to a stranger and an enemy, that she might bring peace to two kingdoms, she was ever a true and loyal wife; unwedded by ecclesiastical tyranny in the very flower of her young womanhood, she was ever a faithful daughter of the church; inheriting a crown when she had proved her own capacity for royal dominion, she bestowed it on a strange and absent son, with no thought but for the good of her country and of Christendom; and, finally, as queen-mother and ever-faithful counsellor, she accepted all the difficulties of government, while the glory of royalty was reserved for the king whom she had created. Berengaria was ever present in the right place and at the proper time, and her name is associated only with what is good, and worthy, and noble, in an age of violence, and wrong, and robbery--when good faith was well-nigh unknown, when bad men were all-powerful, when murder was but an incident in family life, and treason the chief feature in politics.[d] FERDINAND’S CONQUESTS [Sidenote: [1246-1247 A.D.]]