Toledo, the Story of an Old Spanish CapitalLynch, Hannah
History
Toledo, the Story of an Old Spanish Capital
Lynch, Hannah
Toledo (Spain) -- Description and travel; Toledo (Spain) -- History
Zocodover, and then up the narrow hilly street to the imposing Alcazar.
All the balconies and windows were filled with lace-wreathed women's
heads, and the excitement and enthusiasm were intense. At the gates of
the Alcazar the standard-bearer knocked thrice loudly, and called out:
"Alcalde, Alcalde, Alcalde! are you there? Hear, hear, hear!" Within a
voice as loudly demanded: "Who calls without the gates of the royal
Alcazar?" To which the standard-bearer haughtily replied: "The king."
The gates were opened, revealing an immense and picturesque concourse of
splendidly apparelled knights and men in gleaming armour, a blaze of
brocade and damascene. The standard-bearer cried again: "Alcalde,
Alcalde, Alcalde; hear, hear, hear; Toledo to-day has lifted this royal
pennon for the king, Don ----, our lord, whom God preserve for many and
happy years. And, accompanied by its municipality, it has sent me, its
standard-bearer, to bring it to you as the Alcalde of those royal
palaces, that you may receive it in his majesty's name, and place it in
the tower, which is called the tower of the Atambor." The palace doors
were then closed, and as soon as the pennon floated above the high tower
wall, the Alcalde shouted thrice the same formula as that of the
standard-bearer when he raised the standard above the balcony of the
town hall, and the people below each time responded 'Amen.' The
procession returned to the town hall, and this ended the picturesque
ceremony.
The greatest Toledan figure of this period is the mitred figure of the
conqueror of the battle that virtually demolished the Moor in Spain, Las
Navas de la Tolosa. Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada was more than an
illustrious archbishop at a time when archbishops were rulers of men,
and when the archbishop of Toledo might be said to be the practical
sovereign of Spain. He was a valiant soldier, a commander of genius on
the battlefield, a zealous prelate and an erudite man of letters and
historian. Conqueror of _Las Navas de Tolosa_, no mean victory, since
the Moors were in tremendous excess, conqueror of Quezada, of Cazuola
and Cordova, the honoured friend and adviser of two kings, first of his
day in all things by right of genius, industry and merit, Toledo owes
him something more than Christian victory over the Moor, something far
more immortal and magnificent than that dull and prejudiced monument his
history, so often quoted--La Historia de España--which he wrote in 1215.
It owes him her great, her unique, her matchless cathedral. To have won
the most glorious of Spanish battles--a victory so stupendous,
considering the odds and the results that the great archbishop himself
insisted it was nothing less than due to the intervention of heaven--and
to have built the cathedral of Toledo! What epitaph needs a man who
accomplished two such deeds in a single life? His epitaph, as befits so
illustrious a personage, is simplicity itself:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account