Life
His strange title is given to him in the chronicles because of a story in which he tyrannically puts to death two brothers named Carvajal, and was given a time (plazo) by them in which to answer for his crime in the next world. But the tale is not contemporary, and is an obvious copy of the story told of Jacques de Molay, grand-master of the Temple, and Philip IV of France.
His reign came at a time of anarchy. From 1296 to 1301 the Kingdom of León was independent under Juan I of León, being crowned as King of León, Galicia and Seville. He owed his escape from the violence of competitors and nobles, partly to the tact and undaunted bravery of his mother Maria de Molina, and partly to the loyalty of the citizens of Ávila, who gave him refuge within their walls. As a king he proved ungrateful to his mother, and weak as a ruler.
In 1302 he married Constance, daughter of King Denis of Portugal. Their children were:
- Eleanor (1307–1359), married King Alfonso IV of Aragon
- Constance (1308–1310)
- Alfonso XI of Castile (1311–1350)
In 1309 he captured Gibraltar from the Moors (who had held it since 711) with the help of Alonso Pérez de Guzmán of Aragón. He died suddenly in his tent at Jaén when preparing for a raid into the Emirate of Granada on 7 September 1312.
Read more about this topic: Ferdinand IV Of Castile
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“All my life long I have been sensible of the injustice constantly done to women. Since I have had to fight the world single-handed, there has not been one day I have not smarted under the wrongs I have had to bear, because I was not only a woman, but a woman doing a man’s work, without any man, husband, son, brother or friend, to stand at my side, and to see some semblance of justice done me. I cannot forget, for injustice is a sixth sense, and rouses all the others.”
—Amelia E. Barr (1831–1919)
“On the farm I had learned how to meet realities without suffering either mentally or physically. My initiative had never been blunted. I had freedom to succeed—freedom to fail. Life on the farm produces a kind of toughness.”
—Bertha Van Hoosen (1863–1952)
“The exclusive in fashionable life does not see that he excludes himself from enjoyment, in the attempt to appropriate it.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)