Sancho II. was only thirteen when he succeeded his father, and, as might have been expected during a minority, the turbulent nobility and intriguing bishops tried to undo the effect of the late king’s labours to consolidate the royal authority. The old statesmen and advisers of Affonso II., Gonçalo Mendes, the chancellor, Pedro Annes, and Vicente, Dean of Lisbon, saw that it was necessary to get the interdict removed if there was to be any peace during the king’s minority, and prudently retired into the background, and Sueiro Gomes, the great Bishop of Lisbon, came to the front, and with the help of the pious infantas, the king’s aunts, made peace with the Archbishop of Braga and with Pope Honorius III., who solemnly confirmed the crown to the boy king. The archbishop then became the most powerful man in the kingdom, and with Abril Peres, the new Mordomo Mor agreed with Alfonso IX. of Leon that the Portuguese should attack Elvas, at the same time that the Spaniards laid siege to Badajoz. The opportunity was a favourable one; a disputed succession had resulted in a civil war amongst the Mohammedans both in Spain and Morocco, and Elvas was stormed in 1226. At this siege the young king performed prodigies of valour, and the Portuguese knights and soldiers looked on him with admiration as a worthy successor of Affonso Henriques. Confiding in the love and support of his people, young Sancho, though only seventeen, then took the reins of power into his own hands, and recalled his father’s friends to power making Vicente chancellor, Pedro Annes Mordomo Mor, and Martim Annes Alferes Mor.