Albigensian Crusade

Albigensian Crusade

The matter of heresy in the Catholic Church threatened the unity of Christendom precisely at the time that the pope was calling for an all-out war to reclaim the Holy Lands from the Muslims. Pope Innocent III conceived of the plan to wipe out the Albigensian heresy in the south of France in the early decades of the 13th century. He would call for a crusade.

At first the plan seemed ingenious: The pope would grant to fighters the spiritual benefits of a crusade, but the time of service would be brief (40 days) and close to home in comparison to earlier wars in the Holy Land. His ultimate goal was to unify Europe under papal authority so that he could marshal its resources into the Byzantine Empire, Muslim Spain, and, most important, the Holy Land.

However, the twists and turns in the politics of the Albigensian Crusade (1208–29) ultimately drained resources from the wars abroad and strengthened the anti-Roman forces in France. In the next centuries the blunder of the Albigensian Crusade would be apparent in the schism of Avignon, where a French pope would oppose a Roman pope.


Innocent at first supported the work of preaching and persuasion to win back the Albigensians, a loose network of sectarians and heretics of southern France. A variety of church investigators, from Bernard of Clairvaux to the pope, readily admitted that Catholic clergy serving the Albigensian natives stood in grave need of reform. But when peaceful measures did not make speedy enough progress, Innocent lost patience and turned to war.

His decision came in 1208 when the papal delegate was murdered in Toulouse. Innocent held Count Raymond of Toulouse accountable both for his death and for the protection of the heretics in southern France and summoned the rest of France to take up arms. Some 20,000 knights and 200,000 foot soldiers responded.

Their leader was the crusader veteran Simon de Montfort. Raymond lost no time in making peace with the papal forces, but Simon could never conquer the whole area of the Albigensians. Resistance was too entrenched, and Simon could only count on French troops for 40 days at a time, the terms of service that the church allowed for this crusade. Also, Simon was an outsider and extremely unpopular because of his brutality in war.

In 1213 Innocent seemed to recognize the folly of the crusade and called it off. The king of Aragon, a warrior renowned for his battlefield skills against Muslims in Spain, took up the cause of Raymond. In effect, the Albigensian conflict became a tug of war between Spain and France. Although the pope now supported Raymond, the French nobles supported Simon.

In the political melee that followed, another crusade was summoned. Though it was nominally against heresy, it was really against Raymond and his Spanish allies. On the battlefield the French-backed forces defeated the Spanish-backed forces. Simon’s shocking brutality led to his excommunication by Innocent. He died in battle in Toulouse in 1218. His nemesis Raymond died in 1222.

The Albigensians rebounded throughout these latter years, leading many Catholic and French officials to threaten yet another crusade. Raymond’s son, however, was able to negotiate the Treaty of Meaux (1229), ceding the territory to Capetian France and institutionalizing Catholic influence everywhere. The church meanwhile found a new weapon to combat latent heresy: the Inquisition.

Pre-Reformation Heresies

Pre-Reformation Heresies

In the centuries before Martin Luther led Christian dissent into an alternative faith of the 16th century, there were other progenitors for reform. In southern France and northern Italy there was a movement associated with the Albigensians that took deep root and provoked a crusade against them in the early 13th century.

This group included some who were no longer Christians, the Cathari and Bogomils, and others who were misunderstood as heretics, the Waldensians. Yet another group arose later in England, the Lollards, associated with John Wycliffe. The seed of the Lollards took root in central Europe under the Bohemian John Huss. What unites these peoples is that they existed before the Protestant Reformation and were severely persecuted by the official church.

The Cathar sect claimed its roots among “pure” devotees of the distant past. Perhaps they originated from the Manicheans and or the Christian dualists (Gnostics), who used the Greek word catharos (pure) to describe themselves in their teachings.


Their territory and tribal background were in contact with Arianism as championed by fourth-century missionary Ulfilas. More directly the Cathari benefited when crusading armies returned from the East and brought new ideas and contacts with them. In 1167 a religious leader from Constantinople named Nicetas visited Italy and France.

Nicetas represented several non-Orthodox communities who affirmed Manichean or Gnostic beliefs. He gave lectures throughout the region around Toulouse, France, and anointed several more bishops for like-minded devotees before going back to the East. Other itinerant preachers from the East soon followed Nicetas.

The doctrines of the Cathari are dualistic: God rules the spiritual world, and Satan rules the material one. The Catharist goal is to escape from the body of death in order to unite with God in the spirit. Christ appeared in the world to show the way to escape the physical world, and many Cathari myths tell this tale.

The Cathari attracted followers who were disenchanted by the worldliness and corruption of the Catholic clergy. Many were nobles who wanted freedom from the controls of the remote centralized state and church, but peasants were impressed at the rigorous lifestyles of the Cathari.

At the heart of the sect were the “perfected,” who were inducted through a ceremony called the “consolamentum.” They would renounce the church of Rome and agree to follow rules involving chastity, diet, and companionship.

Other Albigensian groups often lumped in with the Cathari—and massacred along with them in the Albigensian Crusade (1208–29)—did not accept heretical doctrines. Among them were the Waldensians, also called “Poor Men of Lyons,” followers of a pious merchant of Lyons named Peter Valdes (Latin, Waldo).

Valdes renounced possessions and took up a lifestyle of itinerant preaching. He made such an impact that he received an audience with the pope at the Third Lateran Council (1179). The pope commended the Waldensians for their faith and simplicity but restricted them in their preaching.

This limitation was unacceptable to Valdes and his followers, and eventually the Waldensians came to reject Catholic sacraments and male priesthood, purgatory, and conventional church ideas on just war, oath taking, and even the need for churches.

The group however did not stay unifi ed. Some turned against the hierarchy of the church and were condemned at the Council of Verona in 1184. Others stayed loyal and actually were active in their opposition to the Cathari. Still others went into hiding and formed a shadowy church with its own rituals and dogmas.

Unfortunately the differences among the Waldensians did not exempt them from severe repression in the Albigensian Crusade and the Inquisition that followed. In 1487–88 war broke out against them, and a settlement was not reached until 1509. Even so, hostilities continued throughout the 1500s and drove most of them into the arms of the Reformed Church. One Italian faction, the Lombard Waldensians, organized themselves into a separate denomination.

Another tiny and pilloried faction among the Albigensians were the Bogomils. They are named after an Orthodox priest named Bogomil who lived in the Balkans, the same area where the Cathari were settled in the 800s. Bogomil had contempt for the official Orthodox Church, rejected the Old Testament and the sacraments, and retained only the Lord’s Prayer as valid.

His critique was lashed to the Cathari dualistic views that the world was evil and demonic, but the spirit was good and divine. Bogomils found their way to Constantinople and became more heretical in their views. Many Albigensian Bogomils migrated out of southern France and northern Italy. They went to the land of their spiritual forebears. In Bosnia, they held their own and forced the Franciscans to leave. As late as 1875 there was evidence of them there.

After the Albigensian Crusade the leadership of the Cathari shriveled and moved out of France into Italy. Some hid in the Pyrenees or migrated elsewhere. Even there they disappeared as the Catholic hierarchy found better ways of competing for the hearts of the common folk through the popular preaching of the Jesuits, the Cistercians, and the Dominicans.

Mockers gave the Lollards their name. It comes from Middle Dutch and means “mumbler” perhaps “idler” in Middle English. John Wycliffe (c. 1330–84), a professor at Oxford, inspired this group with his teachings against the elitism of the church. At first the Lollards consisted of educated priests who had known Wycliffe as a theologian.

When the archbishop suppressed the priests, leadership passed on to humbler members of the English Catholic Church, who were fed up with hypocrisy among the hierarchy. Few nobles identified with the movement. When its champion, Sir John Oldcastle, was hung as a traitor and heretic in 1417, the demoralized commoners were now without a leader, and they disintegrated by 1431.

John Huss adopted Wycliffe’s ideas and was burned as a heretic in 1415. His disciples, the “Hussites,” grew popular among Slavic commoners. The Council of Constance condemned Wycliffe formally, and his bones were exhumed and burned as a sign of his soul’s irredeemable condition. Against Huss and his ilk on the Continent, a long and bloody crusade (1418–37) was approved. Both Wycliffe and Huss laid the foundation for the emergence of the Protestant Reformation in the next century.

Third and Fourth Lateran Councils

Fourth Lateran Councils

In the 12th, 13th, and 16th centuries in the Lateran Palace in Rome, the Roman Catholic Church held five councils. The first took place in 1123 to ratify the Concordat of Worms (1122), while the second took place in 1139 to reaffirm church unity after the schism of 1130–38.

The Third Lateran Council (1179) was called by Pope Alexander III to end the schism (1159–77) of antipope Calixtus III and his predecessors and to establish procedures for the election of popes. The Fourth Lateran Council, the most important of the five, was the culmination of the Lateran effort, with the fifth being largely unproductive.

In March 1179 about 300 church fathers met at Rome for the Third Lateran Council. The Third Lateran Council was to ratify an earlier agreement between the pope and the Holy Roman emperor. Alexander and Emperor Frederick I (1152–90) had agreed at Venice in 1177 to end the long-standing schism in the church.


Frederick had supported Victor IV over Alexander as pope and declared war against the Italian states and Roman church. The schism lasted long enough to bring into power two additional antipopes, Paschal III (1164–68) and Calixtus III (1168–78), both opposed to Alexander. Alexander finally prevailed and, as he promised at Venice, called the general council to end the schism and the dispute with the emperor.

Having resolved the schism, the council established procedures for election of the pope; electors were to be only the College of Cardinals, the Sacred Conclave, and election required a two-thirds majority of all cardinals voting. Having undone the damage done by the antipopes and settled the election of the pope, the church fathers condemned the Albigensians and Waldensians as heretics.

Also known as the Poor Men of Lyons, the Waldenses or Waldensians or Vaudois were led by Peter Waldo, a Lyonnaise merchant. Waldo gave away his property in 1176 and began a life of itinerant preaching of apostolic poverty as the route to perfection. Waldensians believed only in the Bible, and simple Bible reading, sermons, and the Lord’s Prayer constituted their services.

They rejected the papacy, indulgences, the Mass, and purgatory. They also believed that all Christians contained the Holy Spirit and could preach; lay believers could replace priests. Their doctrines are contained in the Waldensian Catechism of 1489. Similar pre-Reformation groups include the Humiliati. The Albigensians took another heretical approach.

Because the church barred lay preaching, in 1179 the Waldensians met with Alexander III, who blessed them but prohibited their preaching without approval from their local clergy. The Waldensians preached anyway. Lucius III declared them heretics in 1184, as did the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. In 1211 at Strasbourg, more than 80 Waldensians were burned as heretics.

The Albigensians were French Cathars, probably named for the southern town of Albi, which was the center of their movement. Labeled by Innocent III as dualists, they were followers of the old Mediterranean-area Manichean belief that good and evil had their own divinities. They believed that existence is a struggle between good and evil, Jesus Christ and God against Satan.

Material objects—food, wealth, and the human body—belonged to Satan, who had imprisoned the soul in a body. A good life could free a soul, but a failed life meant that the soul was reincarnated to try again. Believing that the church was a tool of Satan, they refused to become Catholic.

The Albigensian Crusade (1208–29) was Alexander’s answer to their refusal to join the church. Simon de Montfort also crusaded against them until 1218. In 1233 the Dominican inquisition effectively ended the Albigensian heresy, although persecution of survivors persisted into the 14th century.

In Italy until 1184 local bishops were responsible for dealing with heresy. In that year Pope Lucius III and Emperor Frederick I met at Verona and issued a condemnation of various sects, including the Cathars, Humiliati, and Patarines. The pope issued the bull Ad abolendam, which set out penalties for heresy by clerics and laymen while establishing a process of inquisition by the bishops.

The legislation against French heresy applied equally to Italy. There were no missions or Crusades in Italy as there had been in France. Heresy remained a duduk perkara despite the best efforts of the church leaders at the Third Lateran Council. Innocent III would have to address it again at the Fourth Lateran Council.

Although one of the youngest popes ever elected, Innocent was perhaps the best pope of this period. He built the Papal States, reduced the power of his possible rivals in Hohenstaufen Germany, elaborated a theory of papal authority, and defined the relative limits of kingship in relation to that authority. He sponsored the Fourth Crusade, planned the Fifth Crusade, and took measures to eradicate heresy. Most of this work was part of the Fourth Lateran Council.

Innocent was the author of the position that “there is but one Universal Church, outside of which there is no salvation.” He felt the power of the papacy increasing, but he also knew that the Crusades were going badly, with the Children’s Crusade of a few years earlier being the worst.

He needed a council to reinforce the defense of the faith, aid the crusaders in Palestine, and reaffirm freedom of the church from lay interference. He sent church and secular rulers his bull of April 19, 1213. Pope Innocent III called the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.

This council was the most important of the Lateran Councils. More than 1,000 churchmen attended. Some 71 patriarchs and metropolitans (including two from the Eastern church), 412 bishops, 900 abbots and priests, and many representatives of European rulers responded and met at the largest council ever.

The council issued 70 decrees that dealt with penalties for heresy and procedures against heretics and those who protected them, a proclamation of papal primacy, and order of succession through the various sees—Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The council established rules for the clergy concerning hunting, drunkenness, attendance at performances, performance of surgeries, and conduct of trials by combat or ordeal.

It also dealt with taxes, litigation within the church, matrimony, tithing, simony, and Jews. It barred the establishment of new monastic orders. It defined the Easter duty, utriusque sexus, that required confession at least annually, and it prescribed that Muslims and Jews had to dress in such a way that they were distinguishable from Christians.

The council defined the Eucharist to include transubstantiation for the first official time. It made official that transubstantiation was the mysterious change of bread and wine becoming the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

The council affirmed that Frederick II, not his rival Otto, was the Holy Roman Emperor. It also promoted a new crusade in the Holy Land as well as one against the Albigensians and Waldensians. This council was the peak of the medieval papacy’s prestige. The Fourth Lateran Council was a summary and reaffirmation of existing laws regarding heresy. When Innocent died in 1216 the church had everything it needed, including the precedents for the Inquisition.

Blanche of Castile

Blanche of Castile

Blanche was born in Palencia, present-day Spain, the third daughter of Alfonso VIII, the king of Castile, and Eleanor, daughter of English king Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. She married Louis VIII (1187–1226) of France, the son of Philip II (1165–1223) of France, on May 23, 1200 at Portmouth, in English territory, as part of a treaty between Philip and King John of England (1167–1216).

The aging Queen Eleanor (1122–1204), her maternal grandmother, personally escorted the vivacious Blanche to France. John granted to Blanche as fiefs Gracay and Issoudun, as well as some English Crown lands. Blanche and Louis had 12 children over an 18-year period, but six children died. Their son Louis IX (1214–70) was the heir to the French throne and was later canonized as Saint Louis because of his pious and kind-hearted nature.

While waiting for the French crown, Louis claimed the English crown in Blanche’s name and she offered him her avid support, although Philip dissented. Blanche worked tirelessly and organized the invasion from Calais. Louis’s invasion of England was initially well received by the barons, but he later received only scant support from the other inhabitants.

It was also unsuccessful because King John died, and after 18 months the novelty wore off and most people offered allegiance to young King Henry III (1206–72). The Treaty of Lambeth ended Louis’s English adventure. Louis was crowned on July 14, 1223.


He became ill with dysentery upon his return to Paris from the Albigensian Crusade that he had quelled and died at Montpensier on November 8, 1226. Blanche was left to act as regent for 12-year-old Louis, and she served as legal guardian of the other children.

Seeing an opportunity, the barons and the counts of Champagne, Brittany, and LaMarche (to name a few) revolted against Blanche’s somewhat suppressive hand, secretly aided by Henry. With astounding capability Blanche broke up the league of barons.

She also repeatedly repelled assaults by Henry III, who fought to have lands obtained by Philip returned to England. Blanche forced Robert de Sorbon (1201–74), founder of the University of Paris, to accept her authority. Blanche also extended French territory by adding the area of the Midi to the Crown lands, and made beneficial alliances.

Coronation of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castille

Upon Louis’s service on the Seventh Crusade, Blanche served as regent from 1248 until 1250, when she served as co-regent with her son Alphonse until 1252. Blanche helped raise the exorbitant ransom for Louis’s release from prison in the Holy Land. Her influence on Louis remained strong until her death.

Blanche’s health failed on November 1252 at Melun. She was moved to Paris but died soon thereafter and was buried at Maubuisson. Blanche is remembered as one of the most capable rulers of the Middle Ages. Saint Louis, known in history as the best of France’s medieval monarchs, was aided during his reign by Blanche’s advice and determination.

Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound

One of the most influential as well as controversial figures inward twentieth-century literature, Ezra Pound was a bang-up poetic innovator as well as i of the essential shapers of the cultural movement known equally Modernism.

He was also a purveyor of conspiracy theories, some concerning heretical medieval religious cults, as well as others focusing on modern state of war as well as international finance, alongside the latter type ofttimes demonizing Jews. Ultimately, Pound wove these threads together into a grand conspiracy myth.

Born inward Hailey, Idaho, inward 1885, Pound attended Hamilton College as well as the University of Pennsylvania, where he distinguished himself inward the written report of Romance languages as well as medieval literature. In 1906, Pound traveled to Europe to make thesis research and, though he never completed his dissertation, he made fruitful discoveries, amidst them a rare collection of troubadour manuscripts at the Ambrosian Library inward Milan.


Troubadours, Cathars, as well as the “Mediterranean Sanity”

Troubadours, the singer/poets who came to prominence inward twelfth-century Provence, became for Pound a focus of inspiration as well as fascinated inquiry. The troubadours were also associated alongside the Cathars, a religious movement based inward Provence, against which the Catholic Church waged a bloody war, the Albigensian Crusade, from 1208 to 1229.

The brutality of the crusade was such that few if whatever actual Cathar documents survived, a fact that allowed after writers, ofttimes of an occultist bent, to contradict Church accounts of the heresy.

In 1909, inward London, Pound gave a serial of lectures concerning such matters, collected equally The Spirit of Romance, inward which he suggested that troubadour fine art reflected an ecstatic dry soil of consciousness rooted inward sensuous experience, highly attuned perception, as well as a sacramental vision of nature.

Framing this sensibility equally an outgrowth of Greco-Roman paganism as well as after labeling it “the Mediterranean sanity”, Pound contrasted it alongside what he saw equally the otherworldly, life-denying thrust of Hebrew as well as Hindu religiosity. Eventually, he speculated that troubadour civilization indicated the survival, hush-hush inward Provence, of the Eleusinian mysteries as well as Hellenistic goddess worship.

Pound’s version of Provençal spirituality contrasted sharply alongside the Church’s concern human relationship of Catharism, a fact that aroused Pound’s suspicion. According to the Church, the Cathar heresy was “Manichean”—that is, it preached a pessimistic dualism that framed the trunk equally a prison home as well as the cosmos equally the devil’s creation.

But, argued Pound, “If in that place were whatever Manicheans” inward twelfth-century Provence, they “left no delineate inward troubadour art”, a dot that begged the question: Could 2 such radically dissimilar spiritualities flourish at the same time, inward the same pocket-size cultural niche? Pound’s respond was that the heresy was non what the Church had claimed it to be. Rather, Cathars as well as troubadours must receive got been united inward devotion to a neopagan religiosity that the Church had conspired to destroy as well as misrepresent.

The New Age, Social Credit, as well as the “Causes of War”

Pound spent much of the menstruation from 1911 to 1921 inward England, where he married Dorothy Shakespear as well as collaborated alongside older artistic masters similar W. B. Yeats equally good equally avant-garde innovators similar Wyndham Lewis.

He produced a large trunk of poetry, translations, as well as criticism piece studying theosophy, Japanese theater, as well as Chinese linguistic communication as well as philosophy. He also labored generously to promote the operate of then-obscure contemporaries similar T. S. Eliot as well as James Joyce.

Pound published much of his prose from this menstruation inward The New Age, a London-based magazine of politics as well as the arts edited past times A. R. Orage, a proponent of Guild Socialism.

Through Orage, Pound met C. H. Douglas, whose theory of Social Credit proposed to correct economical problems past times counting the cultural inheritance equally a shape of wealth held inward mutual past times all people of a nation. Like other socialist groups, the New Age circle opposed British entry into World War I, viewing the conflict equally benefiting exclusively ruling elites as well as fiscal profiteers.

Pound lost several unopen friends to the state of war as well as depicted it inward his poesy equally the self-destruction of “a botched civilization”. In a biographical sketch from 1949, he wrote: “1918—began investigation of causes of war, to oppose same”.

In 1921 Pound moved to Paris and, past times 1924, on to Italy, where he resided until the terminate of World War II. During this period, he made headway on an ambitious epic poem, The Cantos (1972), as well as became increasingly isolated from friends as well as collaborators. He devoted bang-up release energy to a elbow grease to popularize Social Credit, which he instantly saw equally the cure for modern social ills.

Pound became enthusiastic well-nigh Mussolini due to the fascist dictator’s apparent openness to Social Credit policies. In diverse tracts, Pound argued that in that place were parallels betwixt the thoughts of the Duce as well as that of U.S. founders similar Jefferson as well as Adams, as well as he railed against the ability of key banks similar the U.S. Federal Reserve as well as the Bank of England.

In 1939, he voyaged to the U.S. for a lecture tour. In Washington, D.C., he spoke alongside some congressmen well-nigh Social Credit as well as sought, unsuccessfully, to come across alongside President Franklin Roosevelt, whose policies he detested.

Audiences as well as erstwhile friends were disturbed past times his obsession alongside coin as well as outbursts of antisemitism. Pound instantly attributed economical insecurity as well as modern state of war to a conspiracy of powerful fiscal interests and, increasingly, he identified those interests alongside the Jews.

Fascism, Antisemitism, as well as Private Mythology

Soon dorsum inward Italy, Pound began inward 1941 to brand radio broadcasts sponsored past times the fascist government that, he after claimed, were used exclusively for “personal propaganda inward back upward of the U.S. Constitution” (Pound 1957, n.p.). The broadcasts consisted largely of obscure lectures well-nigh coin as well as civilization laced alongside rants well-nigh alleged Jewish conspiracy.

At times the twisted logic of his conspiracism seemed to pick out handgrip of Pound up, equally inward the next passage where he mentions Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the notorious antisemitic forgery purporting to document a Jewish excogitation for basis domination. Pound acknowledges the document to live a forgery, but nevertheless attempts to recuperate his conspiracy scenario: “Certainly they are a forgery, but this is i proof nosotros receive got of their authenticity.

The Jews receive got worked alongside forged documents for the past times twenty-four hundred years”. In 1941, inward a conversation that “shook” Pound, the leftist Romano Bilenchi conveyed the floor of an SS massacre of German linguistic communication Jews as well as insisted that “it was Hitler as well as Himmler who had organized a conspiracy”; nonetheless, Pound clung to his antisemitic beliefs.

Indeed, these beliefs were key to a individual mythology that integrated the many divergent strands of Pound’s intellectual concern. An idiosyncratic variation on Matthew Arnold’s thought that Western civilization swings betwixt phases of Hebraism as well as Hellenism, this mythology framed European history equally a scrap betwixt embattled exponents of the Hellenistic “Mediterranean sanity,” similar the Cathars, as well as groups, similar the Calvinists, or the Jews themselves, who supposedly pulled the West inward a Hebraistic direction.

Pound’s aversion to abstractions did non forestall him from edifice his mythology but about the crudest racist stereotypes. Far from beingness business office of some imagined Jewish “essence,” the association of Jews alongside usury tracked dorsum to the piece of cake medieval menstruation Pound knew so well, where moneylending, deemed past times the Church a sinful business for Christians, became for Jews i of the few available professions. Similarly, the ikon of the Jew equally unnatural alien, poisoning the wells of Christendom, was a staple of medieval rhetoric concerning enemies of the Church.

Treason, Mental Illness, Silence

In 1943, the U.S. indicted Pound for treason and, when the Allies took Italy inward 1945, he became a prisoner of war. Initially held inward Pisa, he spent thirty-one days inward an outdoor cage, eventually beingness moved to Washington, D. C., to expression upward charges. With a conviction belongings out the possibility of the decease penalty, defense forcefulness lawyer Julien Cornell decided to plead Pound equally insane.

Indeed, erstwhile friends similar Ernest Hemingway pointed to Pound’s radio broadcasts equally proof that he had lost his wits years before. Ultimately, a panel of psychiatrists as well as a U.S. jury constitute Pound unfit to stand upward case as well as he was confined to St. Elizabeth’s, a Washington, D.C., infirmary for the mentally ill, where he remained from 1946 to 1958.

St. Elizabeth’s director, Dr. Wilfred Overholser, constitute Pound to live suffering from some kind of debilitating mental disorder as well as at times used the discussion “paranoid” to depict his mental state, though he never diagnosed him equally paranoid (i.e., schizophrenic) inward the clinical feel of the term.

In 1949, amid much controversy, Pound was awarded the Bollingen Prize inward American poetry. In 1957, literary supporters of Pound petitioned the attorney full general to driblet the treason indictment as well as inward 1958 Pound gained release from St. Elizabeth’s, soon thereafter returning to Italy.

He remained by as well as large in that place until his decease inward 1972 as well as for many of his terminal years he was seldom heard to speak, the quiet seeming to some similar a sign of affliction as well as to others similar self-imposed punishment. On rare occasions when he conversed alongside visitors, he characterized his operate equally a wrongheaded failure as well as “the prejudice of antisemitism” equally his “worst mistake”.

Pope Innocent III

Pope Innocent III

Innocent III was born into the noble family of Scotti and named Lothar. Aided by his familial ties to Pope Clement III, Innocent rose rapidly through the curia. The popular debate regarding the pontificate of Innocent III can best be summed up in the title of a series of essays edited by James M. Powell regarding the life and pontificate of Innocent III entitled Vicar of Christ or Lord of the World.

While the reign of Innocent is viewed as the high point of medieval papal power, both religious and secular, the debate continues as to whether Innocent’s involvement in the secular world was for his own benefit, or because of his own view of papal authority.

The young Lothar received the scholastic education expected of young nobles of his day, studying in Rome, Paris, and Bologna before being elevated to the rank of cardinal-deacon at the age of 29. Innocent was elected pope on the very day, January 8, 1198, that Pope Celestine III died. The Orsini Celestine III, in a display of family politics that dominated medieval Rome, campaigned from his deathbed against the potential candidacy of Innocent.


Political uncertainty because of the recent passing of Emperor Henry VI led many cardinals, who were concerned for their own personal safety, to abandon the dying Celestine III in the Lateran for the more secure Septizonium of Septimius Severus, the site of the papal election.

Legend has it that cardinals concerned that Innocent III was too young were reassured when a white dove landed on his shoulder during the voting. Innocent’s consecration ceremony was delayed seven weeks until the deacon could be ordained into the priesthood and then installed as a bishop.

Innocent provided the 13th century with a model of an active, reforming pope. Innocent turned his reforming intention first to the curia, where he reduced the size of the bureaucracy and the luxurious lifestyle of its members. In response to concerns over the quality of men appointed to the episcopate, Innocent excluded candidates for being too young or for lacking an adequate education.

He also enforced the strict observance of celibacy and, in order to bring an end to the accumulation of multiple benefices by priests, enforced residency requirements. Innocent may be best remembered for recognizing new religious orders such as the Franciscans and the Dominicans during his reign.

Innocent did not reserve his reforming zeal simply for the religious. In an age where rulers routinely requested the dissolution of marriage vows to rid themselves of an inconvenient spouse, Innocent refused to dissolve marriage vows for the rulers of France, Castile, Bohemia, and Aragon. Innocent was the author of several treatises both before and after his election to the papacy.

As a scholar his interest in the Eucharist resulted in the treatise De sacro altaris mysterio (On the Sacred Mystery of the Altar) and in the adoption of the doctrine of transubstantiation at the Fourth Lateran Council. Innocent also decreed that a Catholic must perform the sacraments of Holy Communion and confession at least once a year.

The largest area of controversy surrounding the reign of Innocent III lay with his views of the papacy regarding secular affairs. A few months prior to his election, the seat of the emperor was left vacant by the death of Henry VI. Early in his papacy Innocent asserted the right of the pope to evaluate the merits of the two leading candidates for emperor: Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick. Innocent’s involvement in election politics would continue for most of his papal reign.

As the guardian to Frederick, son of Henry VI, Innocent aligned himself with King Philip II Augustus of France against Emperor Otto III in support of Frederick’s claim to the throne. Innocent’s strong assertion of papal supremacy in secular affairs continued the policy of pope Nicholas I and Gregory VII.

Innocent based his view of the papal role in secular affairs on the belief that bishops were in part responsible for the souls of their kings and that the pope was successor of Peter and vicar of Christ.

Innocent asserted papal temporal authority in several fields including the appointing and deposing of kings, the right to intervene in kingly conflicts that potentially involved the commission of a sin, to protect the interests of widows andssion orphans, to protect crusaders, to confirm agreements between rulers, and to hear appeals from persons in the absence of appropriate temporal courts. The notion of the pope’s hearing appeals led Innocent to hold public hearings three times a week.

The continued existence of heresy in southern France combined with the unwillingness of local rulers to deal with the issue led Innocent to call for the Albigensian Crusade in 1208. Innocent would die in 1216 before he had the opportunity to fully implement his reforms, and while remembered as the most powerful pope of his era, he would not be granted the title of “great” by the church.

Hugh Capet

Hugh Capet

The founder of the Capetian dynasty of French kings (987–1328), Hugh Capet was born the second son of Hugh the Great, duke of Francia and count of Paris, and Hedwig, sister of Otto I, the emperor of Germany. In 961 he was made duke of Francia, holding vast fiefs in these regions and administering considerable power over the Neustrian nobility.

Around 970 he married Adelaide, sister of William IV, duke of Aquitaine and Poitou. The union with Adelaide added influence and prestige to Hugh, whose powers already were superior to those of the nominal king of France, Lothair (954–986). Hugh’s rising power provoked a conflict with the king, which became especially apparent from c. 980.

In May 985 Gerbert of Aurillac, the future Pope Sylvester II (999–1003), spoke of Hugh as “king ... not in name, but in effect and deed,” while Lothair was “king of France in name alone.” A year later Lothair died and his son Louis V the “Sluggard” ascended the throne, only to die a year later without an heir. Upon his death, on May 21, 987, Hugh was unanimously elected as the king and on July 3 he was crowned at Noyons.


His power extended over feudal domains and towns in the areas of Paris, Orléans, Senlis, Chartres, Touraine, and Anjou, while vassals, who might challenge his authority, held other parts of France. Shortly after his coronation Charles of Lorraine, Louis V’s uncle, presented his claims to the throne, although Adalberon dissuaded him from using force against the new king.

In 988 the townsmen of Laon handed their city over to Charles, and Hugh failed to recapture it. Hugh’s power was challenged not only by his lay rivals, but also by some ecclesiastical authorities. In 989 Adalberon, bishop of Reims, died and his place was taken by Arnoulf, who refused to acknowledge the Capetian rule and attempted to restore the Carolingian dynasty, with Charles of Lorraine as the king. Gerbert switched sides too, for a brief time, proclaiming Charles as the legitimate king and calling Hugh the “interrex,” or temporary king.

Charles had Laon and Reims in his hands. The significance of the control over the latter city was twofold, for Charles exercised his power not only over his secular subjects, but also over the archbishop, who crowned kings. The situation was highly unfavorable to Hugh, who acted decisively to restore his power. On March 991 Arnoulf and Charles were captured and imprisoned.

In the same month the bishop of Laon returned to Hugh and left his town exposed to the king’s mercy. The Council of St. Basle (June 17–18, 991) deposed Arnoulf and elevated Gerbert, who changed sides again, to the archbishopric. The deposition of Arnoulf and installation of Gerbert consolidated Hugh’s royal power, while the cities of Reims and Laon seemed to stay loyal to him. Charles and his family died in captivity.

The papacy remained silent regarding the deposition of Arnoulf. It was probably under the influence of Otto III, the German emperor (983–1002) that John XVI (985–996) banned the appointment of Gerbert. Hugh sought to gain the support of the French churchmen against the pope, who was in that time a puppet in the hands of the German emperor. He bequeathed lands to monasteries and defended their rights against lay lords and bishops.

Between 991 and 996 Hugh and his son issued a number of charters. Most of Hugh’s barons recognized his authority and suzerainty, but there was one last attempt to overthrow him. In 995 Odo of Blois and Adalberon, bishop of Laon, attempted to reinstall a son of Charles of Lorraine as the king. Their plan was revealed and crushed.

In order to consolidate the power of the nascent dynasty, Hugh sought a suitable mate for his son, Prince Robert, later Robert II the Pious (996–1031). After he failed to obtain him a bride from the Byzantine court, he married him to Rozola Susanna, the widow of the count of Flanders and daughter of a former king of Italy. The marriage likely took place in 989 and lasted until 992, when Robert divorced his wife, who was about 15 years older than he.

Hugh died in October 996, while on a military campaign near Tours. Perhaps an insignificant figure compared to his later descendants, Hugh was remembered as a symbol of the French monarchy and was commemorated in the literature of the High and Late Middle Ages, chiefly in the chanson de geste genre, as well as in some English literary sources.

The Capetian dynasty ruled in France until 1328. Their authority was largely decentralized until the end of the 12th century, mainly because of the emerging power of the Norman dukes, who also ruled as kings of England since the Norman Conquest of England of 1066 and exercised control over Normandy, Anjou, and Aquitaine from the ascension of Henry II Plantagenet in 1154. The Aragonese Crown periodically encroached on some of southern territories.

Royal power became increasingly centralizing under Philip II Augustus (1180–1223), who reconquered Normandy from the hands of John the Lackland of England (1199–1216) in 1204 and annexed considerable territories of Languedoc, in the course of the Albigensian Crusade (1209–29) and the war against Pedro of Aragon (1213). Philip’s heirs adopted the same policy of expansion and consolidation, including Louis VIII (1223–26), Louis IX the Saint (1226–70), Philip III the Bold (1270–85), and Philip IV the Fair (1285–1314).

The latter had three sons, Louis X (1314–16), Philip V (1316–22), and Charles IV (1322–28), who died without heirs. As the result, the rule of the direct Capetian kings came to its end and the Crown passed to the dynasty of Valois, a branch of the Capetian family. The death of the last Capetian led also to the outburst of the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) between England and France.

Christian States of Spain

Christian States of Spain

When the Moors from Morocco invaded Spain in 711, they easily managed to capture most of the Iberian Peninsula with the exception of the area around the Asturian Mountains in the north. When they did get around to attacking that region in 718, the Christians defeated the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga, near Asturias.

The Moors decided to leave that part of Spain unconquered, marking what became the first battle in what the Spanish called the “Reconquista,” or Reconquest of Spain for Christendom. Over the next centuries several Christian kingdoms emerged in Spain, notably Asturias, León, Castile, Aragon, and Navarre.

These gradually expanded and eventually managed to defeat the Moors using their alliances. They ejected them from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, when Isabella, heir to the throne of Castile, and Ferdinand II, king of Aragon, captured Granada, the last Muslim possession on the peninsula.


Kingdom of Asturias

The kingdom of Asturias was, in origin, a Visigoth kingdom of Spain created by Pelayo (Pelagius), a grandson of King Chindaswinth, who had been defeated by the Moors. Pelayo established his capital at Cangas de Onis, securing his independence with a victory at the Battle of Covadonga. The Moors, rather than sending more soldiers into Asturias, headed into France and in 732 were defeated at the Battle of Tours.

For the next century the Moors were on the defensive and this allowed Pelayo and his successors to rebuild their strength. Pelayo’s son, Favila, became king on his father’s death in 737 but died two years later in a boar hunt. He had no son so his brother-in-law was proclaimed King Alfonso I.

He enlarged the kingdom of Asturias by annexing Galicia in the west, and León in the south. He also extended his lands in the east to the borders of Navarre. When Alfonso died, his cruel son Fruela I came to the throne. One of Fruela’s first acts was to kill his own brother, Bimarano, who he thought wanted the throne. After reigning for 11 years, Fruela was murdered on January 14, 768, and was succeeded by his cousin Aurelius (son of Alfonso’s brother Fruela).

He was, in turn, succeeded by Silo, a nephew, who had married Alfonso I’s daughter. Aurelius had managed to prevent the Moors from attacking by paying them tribute, and all that is known about Silo is that he moved the kingdom’s capital from Cangas de Onis to Pravia. This period coincided with Charlemagne’s invasion of Spain, and his capture of Barcelona.

Silo’s successor, Mauregato, was an illegitimate son of Alfonso I (his mother allegedly being a slave) (r. 783–788) and was alleged to have offered 100 beautiful maidens annually as tribute to the Moors. The next king, Bermudo I, a brother of Aurelius, had been ordained deacon and reluctantly accepted the position as king, abdicating three years later and allowing Alfonso II “The Chaste,” a son of Fruela I, to become king.

Initially people were worried that Alfonso might try to avenge the murder of his father—instead he ruled for 51 years. He had been married to Berta, said to have been a daughter of Pepin, king of the Frankish tribe, but they had no children as he had taken a vow of celibacy.

During his long reign he stabilized the country’s political system amd attacked the Moors, defeating them near the town of Oviedo, which they had recently sacked. Alfonso II was so impressed by the beauty of Oviedo that he moved his court there and proclaimed it his capital. It was to remain capital of the kingdom of Asturias until 910, when León became the new capital.

Work began on the construction of the Oviedo Cathedral, where Alfonso II was eventually buried. Alfonso’s main achievement was that he conquered territory from the Moors, moving the reach of his Christian kingdom into the edges of central Spain. The Moorish king Abd ar-Rahman II (r. 822–852) was, however, able to check the advances of Alfonso, drive back the Franks, and stop a rebellion by Christians and Jews in Toledo.

The next king of Asturias was Ramiro I, a son of Bermudo I. He began his reign by capturing several other claimants to the throne, blinding them, and then confining them to monasteries. As a warrior he managed to defeat a Norman invasion after the Normans had landed at Corunna, and also fought several battles against the Moors. His son, Ordono I, became the next king and was the first to be known as king of Asturias and of León.

Ordono extended the kingdom to Salamanca and was succeeded by his son Alfonso III “The Great.” Alfonso III reigned for 44 years (866–910) and during that time consolidated the kingdom by overhauling the bureaucracy and, then fought the Moors. He managed to enlarge his lands to cover the whole of Asturias, Biscay, Galicia, and the northern part of modern-day Portugal. The southern boundary of his kingdom was along the Duero (Douro) River.

Kingdom of León

Alfonso had three feuding sons who plotted against each other and then against their father. To try to placate them all, Alfonso divided his kingdom into three parts. Garcia became king of León, Ordono became king of Galicia, and Fruela became king of Oviedo (ruling Asturias). This division was short-lived as wars among the young men resulted in all the lands eventually coming together under one ruler.

García only reigned for four years before he died, without any children. Ordono II ruled in Galicia before dying 14 years later and eventually Fruela II “The Cruel,” Alfonso III’s fourth son, who had outlived the others, reunited the kingdom in 924. However he died of leprosy in the following year, with Ordono II’s son’s becoming King Alfonso IV.

He did not want to rule and abdicated in order to spend the rest of his life as a monk. This allowed Alfonso IV’s brother to become King Ramiro II. Soon after this, Alfonso tried to regain the throne, only to be taken by his brother, blinded, and left at the Monastery of St. Julian, where he died soon afterward.

Ramiro II was succeeded by his elder son, Ordono III, and then by a younger son, Sancho I “The Fat.” There were two years when Ordono IV “The Wicked,” a son of Alfonso IV, was king, but then Sancho I’s only son became King Ramiro III. He was five when he became king and the Normans decided to attack again, destroying many coastal towns. Eventually he abdicated and allowed his cousin, Bermudo II, son of Ordoo III, to become king.

It was during the reign of Bermudo II that the Moors attacked and managed to get as far as León. When Bermudo II died in 999, his son Alfonso V was only five, and Don Melindo González, count of Galicia, became regent. In his 20s Alfonso V led his armies into battle against the Moors, recaptured much of León, but was killed in battle with the Moors at Viseu in Portugal, on May 5, 1028.

His only son, Bermudo III, was 13 and during his nine year reign faced more threats from the neighboring Christian kingdom of Castile. In 1037 he was killed at the Battle of the River Carrion fighting King Ferdinand I of Castile, and the kingdom of León, as it was then known, was absorbed into Castile.

Kingdom of Castile and Granada

The kingdom of Castile began as a dependency of León and was controlled by counts. However in 1035 Ferdinand I “The Great” was proclaimed king of Castile and two years later after defeating and killing Bermudo III, became king of Castile and León, ruling for the next 27 years.

These new kings saw themselves as lineal descendants of the heritage of Asturias, even if not by blood. When Ferdinand I died he divided his lands among his children and Sancho received Castile, Alfonso received León and Asturias, García was given Galicia and northern Portugal, his daughter Urraca was given Zamora, and Elvira was given Toro.

This was meant to end squabbling by them but only ended up with much fighting. At this time, a nobleman, Rodrigo Díaz de Bibar, emerged as the great Spanish pahlawan El Cid. Interestingly he later tried to set up his own kingdom of Valencia, which ended in his death. Eventually Alfonso ruled all the lands as Alfonso VI “The Brave,” king of Castile.

Alfonso VI launched a number of attacks on the Moors but most of these were overshadowed by the efforts of El Cid. In 1085 the Christians were able to capture the city of Toledo, and Alfonso reigned until his death in June 1109 at the age of 70. He had five or six wives. His daughter Urraca succeeded Alfonso VI. She married first Raymond, count of Burgundy, and later Alfonso I, king of Aragon.

Her successor was Alfonso VII (r. 1126–1157), titling himself as “Emperor of All Spain.” When he died his lands were divided between his eldest son, Sancho III “the Desired,” who was given Castile; and his second son, Ferdinand II, who was given León.

Sancho III only reigned for a year and his only surviving son became Alfonso VIII, r. 1158–1214. In 1212 he defeated the Moors at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, giving Castile control over central Spain. When he died, Henry I, his youngest but only surviving son, succeeded him. He died and was succeeded as king of Castile by his nephew Ferdinand III.

Meanwhile in León, Ferdinand II had reigned for 31 years, and when he died in 1188, his brother, Alfonso IX, succeeded him. Alfonso IX’s first wife Teresa, from whom he was divorced, was later canonized as Saint Teresa in 1705. His eldest surviving son with his second wife was Ferdinand, who had already become king of Castile. When Alfonso IX died in 1230, the kingdoms of Castile and León were reunited.

Ferdinand III embarked on a series of wars against the Moors, managing to capture the cities of Córdoba (1236), Jaen (1246), and Seville (1248). With the capture of Seville, the “Reconquista” was almost complete—the Moors held only the city of Granada. The forces of Ferdinand were unable to take that city, although the emir of Granada did acknowledge his overlordship.

Ferdinand III also founded the University of Salamanca, died on May 30, 1252, and was buried in Seville Cathedral. In 1671 Pope Clement X canonized him, and he became St. Ferdinand (San Fernando). Ferdinand’s son, Alfonso X, had two titles, “The Wise,” and “The Astrologer.”

During his reign he codified the laws, wrote poems, and had a large number of scholars produce a great chronicle of Spanish history. One of his advisers, Jehuda ben Moses Cohen, wrote that the king was someone “in whom God and placed intelligence, and understanding and knowledge above all princes of his time.”

He was also elected as King of the Romans in 1257, renouncing the title of Holy Roman Emperor in 1275. However Alfonso X was faced with a dynastic succession crisis. His eldest son, Ferdinand de la Cerda, died in 1275, leaving two young sons, Alfonso X did not want a young boy on the throne so nominated as his successor his second son, Sancho. Ferdinand’s wife championed the cause of her two boys, and Alfonso X’s wife sided with her.

The conflict continued when the French—Ferdinand’s wife was a French princess—declared war on Sancho, who had the support of the Spanish parliament, the Cortes. War seemed inevitable, but when news arrived that Sancho was ill, Alfonso died of grief and despair.

Sancho IV “The Brave” became the next king, his illness being not as serious as was first thought, and after reigning for 11 years, he was succeeded by his son Ferdinand IV “The Summoned,” who was only nine when he became king—his mother ruled ably as regent. Little of note happened during Ferdinand IV’s reign and he gained his title from sentencing to death two brothers who had been accused of murdering a courtier.

They went to their execution protesting their innocence and “summoned” Ferdinand to appear at God’s court of judgment in 30 days. As Ferdinand was only 26 years old at the time he was unconcerned, but on the 30th day after the execution his servants found him dead in bed.

His one-year-old son, Alfonso XI “The Just,” became the next king and in 1337, when he was 13 years old, attacked the Moors of Granada. At the Battle of Río Salado on October 30, 1340, the Spanish, supported by the Portuguese, defeated a Moorish army. It was said to have been the first European battle where cannons were used. Alfonso XI reigned until 1350 when he was 39.

Alfonso was married to Maria of Portugal but spent most of his reign with Leonor de Guzmán, a noble woman who had recently been widowed. Alfonso and Leonor had a large family but when Alfonso died, Leonor was arrested on orders of the queen and taken to Talavera, where she was strangled. The next king was the son of Alfonso and Maria, Pedro I “The Cruel,” who reigned from 1350 until 1366.

During the reign of Pedro I he also married Blanche of Bourbon, cousin of the king of France, but fell in love with Maria de Padilla. Initially Pedro appointed Maria’s friends and family to positions of influence, but some nobles forced the dismissal of supporters and relatives of Maria.

In 1355 he had four of these noblemen stabbed to death, and apparently blood splattered over the dress of his wife, earning Pedro his title “The Cruel.” In 1366 he was deposed by his half brother Henry II of Trastamara, “The Bastard,” but managed to oust Henry and returned as king in the following year, spending the next two years in battles with his half brothers, and assisted by the English led by Edward the “Black Prince.”

These events formed the backdrop of the French novel Agenor de Mauleon (1846) by Alexander Dumas. Eventually Pedro was murdered and Henry II was restored to the throne. Over the next 10 years, until Henry died, attempts were made, ultimately successful, to prevent John of Gaunt from invading Spain.

Henry II’s only legitimate son, was John I, 21 years old, and he became king when his father died. Some 11 years later, while watching a military exercise, John I fell from his horse and was killed. His 11-year-old son, Henry III “The Infirm,” became the next king. When he died in December 1406, his one-year-old son was proclaimed John II. When he was 13 years old, the Cortes declared the teenager to be “of age,” and John II ruled in his own right.

The king had many favorites, one of whom was Don Alvaro de Luna, who later writers suggested was a boyfriend of the young king. John II reigned until his death in 1454, was succeeded by his son, Henry IV, who reigned until 1474. He had a daughter and before Henry IV died, the heiress, Isabella, married Ferdinand of Aragon, uniting Christian Spain.

Kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre

The royal House of Aragon, in northeastern Spain, traces its origins back to Ramiro I (r. 1035–1063). His father, Sancho III, king of Navarre, had left him Aragon, as Ramiro was illegitimate. Ramiro was a warrior prince and quickly extended his lands, even briefly taking part in forays into the land of his half brother Garcia III, who had inherited the rest of Navarre.

In a war with the Moorish emir of Saragossa over tribute, Ramiro was killed in battle on May 8, 1063. Ramiro’s successor was his eldest son, Sancho I, who managed to recapture lands from the Moors, pushing the boundaries of Aragon to the north bank of the river Ebro. In 1076 when his cousin, the king of Navarre, died, Sancho succeeded to the throne of Navarre.

In June 1094 Sancho was killed during the siege of Huesca. His son and successor, Pedro I, then became king of Aragon and Navarre, carrying on the siege of Huesca for another two years. In 1096 he defeated a large Moorish army and its Castilian allies, at the Battle of Alcoraz, with help, legends state, from St. George. Pedro’s two children died young, and in grief both he and his wife died soon afterward.

Pedro was succeeded by his brother Alfonso I “The Warrior.” Having no children he was succeeded by his younger brother, Ramiro II “The Monk.” Ramiro was only king for three years, abdicating to spend the remaining 10 years of his life in a monastery.

His only child, Petronilla, became queen, when she was one year old. When she turned 15 in 1151, she married Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona. Twelve years later she abdicated the throne in favor of her son Alfonso II (r. 1163–96).

His eldest son and successor was Pedro II, who was alleged to have kept scandalous company with many women. With the outbreak of the Albigensian Crusade in France, and the persecution of the Cathars in southern France, Pedro II led his army into the region to demonstrate the historical ties of Aragon to the region.

He tried to stop the carnage that was taking place around Carcassone and urged the pope to recognize the area as a part of Aragon, not France, which would have ended the crusade. He failed and on September 13, 1213, at the Battle of Muset, was killed in battle with the crusaders led by Simon de Montfort.

Pedro’s son James I “The Conqueror” was only five when he succeeded his father. After a terrible regency, James took control and led his armies in taking the Balearic Islands (1229–35), conquering Valencia from the Moors in 1233–45, and also in the campaign against Murcia in 1266. When James died his son, Pedro III, succeeded him, leading his armies against the Moors.

He had a claim to the kingdom of Sicily through his wife and invaded the island in 1282, earning the title “The Great.” He was badly injured in the eye during fighting with the French and died soon afterward to be succeeded by his son Alfonso III “The Do-Gooder.” This interesting title came from the fact that he granted his subjects the right to bear arms.

His brother and successor James II “The Just” conquered more land from the Moors and was in frequent disputes with the papacy. In 1310 he conquered Gibraltar, and possibly to placate Pope Clement V, two years later he suppressed the Order of the Knights Templar.

James II was succeeded by his son Alfonso IV “The Debonair” or “The Good.” Most of his reign was spent in disputes over the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, which were captured by the Genoese. His son and successor, Pedro IV, held a huge coronation, apparently with as many as 10,000 guests, and earned the title “The Ceremonious.”

He managed to lead his army into Sicily, which he recaptured, and when he died in 1387, his feeble son John I succeeded to the throne. His wife, Iolande de Bar, was actually in control of the kingdom. John died after being gored by a boar during a hunt, and his younger brother Martin “The Humane” became king.

It was during his reign that the famous santo cáliz was transferred to Valencia Cathedral, where it is still revered by many as the Holy Grail. It was said that St. Peter took it from the Holy Land to Rome, and it was taken to Valencia. Martin lost the throne of Sicily and when he died in 1410, there was a brief interregnum until Ferdinand I “The Just” was proclaimed king.

Ferdinand I was the son of John I and was elected king by the nobles. When Ferdinand I died in 1416, after reigning for just four years, his eldest son, Alfonso V “The Magnanimous,” became king. There was a plot to overthrow him, and he refused to hear the names of the conspirators, allowing them to go unpunished.

He spent much of his time and energy in his possessions in Italy: Naples and Sicily. When he died, his lands in Spain went to his brother John, who had been king of Navarre, and he became king of Aragon and Navarre. His Italian lands went to his illegitimate son Ferdinand. John II reigned from 1458 until 1479.

His greatest achievement was arranging the marriage of his son, Ferdinand, to Isabella, heir to the throne of Castile. They were married in 1469 at Valladolid. When John died on January 19, 1479, the Christian kingdoms of Spain were united with Ferdinand and Isabella as joint rulers. In 1492 the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella finally took Granada, the last Moorish part of the Iberian Peninsula, ending the “Reconquista.”