One of the biggest heroes of Christianity, the Western World and especially Spain, was the famous third king with the name Ferdinand. He was born in August 1199 as the oldest son of king Alphonso IX. of Léon and Berengaria of Castile. He became king of Castile in 1217 following his uncle Henry I. and by the death of his father in 1230; he also became king of Léon and united the two kingdoms under his strong and wise reign. At that time, big parts of middle and southern Spain were occupied by the Moors and the north was split up into several kingdoms. The “reconquista”, the liberation of Spain from den Moors, went hand in hand with uniting and forming the kingdom of Spain which came to a successful end by the marriage of king Ferdinand II. “The Catholic”, king of Aragon with Isabella of Castile in 1474. From the reign of Ferdinand III. onwards, Léon and Castile were permanently united. Ferdinand III. is also know as “the Saint”, for he was canonized by the Pope in the 17th Century. Under king Ferdinand III. the reconquista reached a new pinnacle and vast territories were liberated from the Moors. In 711 the Moors came to Spain and conquered the majority of its land. It took many centuries to regain the lost territories by the Christian Spanish nobility. One of the biggest steps in this big project was fulfilled by Ferdinand. Beside of Castile and Léon, Asturia and Galicia became part of the greater kingdom and by this the base of Castile’s glory and power was led. Ferdinand expanded the power of his state to the southern sea (Spain’s Atlantic coast to the south, next to Portugal). Glorious triumphs he made by defeating the Moors at Cordoba (a very symbolic act) in 1236, Jaén in 1246, Seville in 1248 and Cadiz in 1250. By this the majority of the Iberian Peninsula came under his reign. The Moorish kingdom of Granada stayed independent but became dominated by Castile until the final end of Moorish influence in Spain by conquering Granada and its symbol of power, the castle of the Alhambra (“the red one”).
In 1239 he founded the famous University of Salamanca. The legal system was improved by the king and a royal court of appeal was established, before which everybody could appeal. A code of behaviour as a strict rule, for all the clerks of the king was passed and became a guiding line for centuries of Spanish administration. Ferdinand was as strong believer and defender of the Christian believe. For he was not a brutal man and always united wisdom, belief and moderation but stayed strong and invincible about questions of belief. Being king and living a Christian life was always very difficult for occidental rulers. Ferdinand succeeded admirably, like other Christian Saints who were kings like Louis IX. of France or king Olaf II. of Norway. Ferdinand fought strongly against heretics and was eager to secure the purity of Christian belief. Many dioceses were founded by him. One well known building, he let built, was the cathedral of Toledo (another city which was reconquered by one of Ferdinand’s ancestors). Before the king could follow his plans to invade Africa to free the Christians in the Moorish land, he became very sick. Ferdinand’s main interest was not power, but promote the glory of Jesus Christ and bringing back people to the Christianity. Part of this plan of course was to win against the enemy with whom there was no compromise possible: Islam. None the less, he showed a great heart, by treating the unbelievers rightly and let them sell there goods and let them return to the African continent. Also he was enormously successful, he never became arrogant, stayed humble before god and devoted everything to the Lord’s greater honour. As an outer sign of this, he built the cathedral of Burgos.
Ferdinand became famous as “the protector and defender” of the church. There are very beautiful paintings which show the Saint, which are seated in the Prado-Museum in Madrid and the Louvre in Paris. The Cathedral of Burgos owns a painting on which the king can be seen with the devil in the body of a dog, which is lying under the feet of Ferdinand. The royal family had a lot of offspring. As the result of the first marriage of Ferdinand with Beatrix of Swabia (the daughter of the German emperor Philipp of Swabia) arose seven sons and three daughters. His daughter Eleonor (1241 – 1290) became the wife of king Edward I. of England.
Ferdinand died on May 30th in 1252. In 1671 be became canonized by Pope Clement X. His day to remember is May 30th, the day of death.
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