In 1210, the truce between Castile and the Almohads expired. King Alfonso VIII took the cross in a solemn ceremony with his son and heir, Prince Fernando. Fernando declared that his first fruits of knighthood would be devoted to the crusade against the Moors.
The King and Prince wasted no time – in May, 1211, they marched south into Almohad territory, raiding Murcia. Meanwhile, two Castilian magnates, Alfonso Téllez de Meneses and Rodrigo Rodríguez, with a force from Toledo, besieged and captured the tower of Guadaleras, previously lost after the Battle of Alarcos. Pope Innocent III praised the Castilians for their valiance, and warned that any Christian ruler who dared to attack Castile would face excommunication.
Al-Nasir, the Almohad Caliph, responded to Castile’s raids that same month; he crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and assembled his army at Seville. He announced his intention to make war on the King of Castile, whom he declared to be “the nearest and strongest of the Christian princes”. Marching through the Puerto del Muradal, in early July the Caliph besieged Salvatierra, which protected the road to Toledo. Salvatierra was the headquarters of the Order of Calatrava since the loss of Calatrava itself in 1195. The warrior monks put up a valiant defense against the Caliph, but were soon forced to make terms. The Caliph allowed them to depart in exchange for surrendering the castle. Al-Nasir proclaimed that he’d “cut off the right hand of the King of Castile”. Satisfied, he ended his campaign for the season and returned south to Seville.
King Alfonso knew well that next season, the Caliph would launch a full-scale invasion of Castile, and he intended to be ready. He assembled his war council, including the Archbishop Rodrigo of Toledo, his close friend and highest-ranking vassal Diego López de Haro, and his son Prince Fernando. The council agreed to launch a massive campaign against the Almohads in 1212; Alfonso instructed his vassals to assemble their men at Toledo the following Trinity Sunday. While the King prepared for next year’s campaign, tragedy struck. Prince Fernando was returning through the San Vicente mountains from a raid against the Muslims when he fell ill. On October 14th the Prince died in Madrid. King Alfonso was devastated. The Kingdom went into a deep mourning. The Queen, Leonor, was grief-stricken beyond words.
Prince Fernando was buried in the royal monastery near Burgos. The Archbishop of Toledo led the funeral mass, and Princess Berenguela acted as the royal representative, dispensing her family’s hospitality upon all of the mourners. The Archbishop later commented on the Princess’s poise on this difficult occasion.
Berenguela was a great comfort to her father and mother in their loss, and her conduct at the funeral was to be a preview of her great benefit to the Kingdom later. Castile’s future, indeed, would fall to her own son.
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