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
Under Castillian rule Toledo's supremacy could not continue without
rivalry. First, Santiago had disputed her right to hold her celebrated
councils, and a furious quarrel raged between the Pope, Calixtus, and
the King, Alfonso, as to whether the councils should be held at Toledo
or at Santiago in the north. The pope took the part of Diego the
Galician archbishop, and, for a while, Santiago was regarded as the
primacy of Spain. But, under Honorius, Toledo and her archbishop,
Raymond, recovered their prestige with this time the king against them.
In 1129 a council was held at Palencia. Here Toledo sat at the feet of
Compostella. Charlemagne, himself, is said to have broken a lance in
favour of Santiago which, one knows not by what right, he proclaimed the
head of Spain. Beside the question of the primacy, Burgos put in her
claim for the Cortes, which she held should meet within her walls, and
not on the banks of the Tagus. Here the king was the stout defender of
Toledo. At the great meeting convened to discuss this rivalry, the king
entered the Council Chamber, and haughtily cried: "Let Burgos speak, I
will reply for Toledo." The rivalry of the great families of the Castros
and Laras nearly became a civil war, Toledo fighting on the side of the
Laras, whose chief, Don Manrique, was a character after her heart:
intrepid, dominating and fierce, unequalled in war, untameable in peace.
The little king's uncle settled the dispute by killing Don Manrique de
Lara, and to avenge him Toledo violently conspired through her great
citizen, Stephen Illan, a descendant of the illustrious Byzantine
family, the Paleologos. These animosities were quieted for a while by
the terrible plague and famine that followed quick upon the heels of
victory, and avenged the defeated Moors of Las Navas de Tolosa. Misery
implacably stalked Castille. Seeds bore no fruit for one entire year;
trees were dead and leafless, the land was sterile and the people, wild
with hunger, forsook their dead, their orchards and meadowland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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