Cluny, Puente del Reina, and Sah

[scruffy1]

I am currently reading another history of Cluny, Edwin Mullins this time around– more gossip then real history but interesting. I have come across several intriguing things and a question or two for those better informed concerning the murky and often fatal royal politics of Early Medieval Spain.

Ferdinand I son of Sancho III dies and divides his kingdom in that German/Frankish/Spanish tradition among his three sons Sancho El fuerte (the Strong) receiving Castillia, Alfonso VI receiving Léon, and García receiving Galicia. Again, according to that tradition, the brothers went immediately to war for supremacy. Sancho won the battles against Alfonso in thanks to his general Rodrigo Díaz (El Cid) but lost the war. With Alfonso in prison, Sancho dreams(?) that Saint Peter (Cluny remember!) comes requesting that he free his brother and in a great show of gratitude Alfonso murders Sancho, later driving Garcia from Galicia and rules alone.

On to Puente del Reina – two conflicting narratives, one the daughter of Sancho the survivor, Urraca (a not uncommon medieval name meaning magpie, a beautiful bird but perhaps not much of a compliment) commanded that the bridge be constructed.

The other insists that the bridge, shown here from the hill of the albergue at sunset, insists that the name of the town was bestowed in honor of Doña Mayor, wife of Sancho III, and that she ordered the building of the bridge.

Can anyone enlighten me? Too many Sanchos Can be Hazardous to your Historiography.

Poor Sahagún, it is now a city of ruins, a fascinating Romanesque Mudéjar church presenting a grand procession at Easter-the statue bearing floats being exhibited afterwards, but usually a town perceived as dusty, uninteresting, and quickly passed. Historically, Sahagún was the Spanish expression of Cluny with a bishop often sent from Burgundy, having fifty or so monasteries and priories dependent upon the great abbey there-a large and prosperous center of commerce, spirituality, and like today, pilgrimage. Sic transit mundus.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

I would say your thumbnail sketch of the history of Fernando's battling sons is rather polemic, too. I got deeply into that period while researching "The Moorish Whore," and got to know the history of Sahagun pretty well in so doing. It is a long way from being a "town of ruins." The ruins have been carted away to build new things, or they've been built-over. Sahagun today is less than half the size it was back when despotic abbots ran the place. It is pretty dusty and dull, but it's got a good sense of its own history. The townspeople burned down the monastery a few times, and only preserved a little corner of it for modern visitors. Maybe they'd rather forget all that?
When it comes to which queen had the bridge built, I would just reach for my Gitlitz and Davidson.
What IS "real history" when you're dealing with records so far back?

 

[alexwalker]

I have good memories of Sahagun, having been there 2 times. I bought my neclace of a cross there.

I enjoyed your book, Rebekah.