The Meseta, and El Hostal Guzmán el Bueno and Medieval Galician Poetry…What???

[scruffy1]

The Camino is a wonderful experience, one which can be enriched with just a slight bit of reading and knowledge - history, art, or architecture never hurt anyone. Many pilgrims, especially inattentive pilgrims not reading their guidebooks or following closely their App have been surprised by the sudden steep climb after Castrojerez up to the Meseta. The Meseta is often loved but others are less than impressed by its loneliness and seemingly desolation. The Meseta has a grand history. Before 1273 the Meseta was indeed a wasteland. Alfonso X (The Learned) ruled Castile, fought against the import of cheap wool from England, and opened the Meseta for some 3000 sheep holders to graze their animals preserving valuable farmland for crops. King Alfonso XThe Wise) developed a court culture that encouraged cosmopolitan learning welcoming and supporting all scholars regardless of religious beliefs, a widespread phenomenon in much of Spain until Ferdinand Isabella in 1492. He embraced knowledge and science, astronomy, history, and created a system of law still in use in parts of the Southwest USA. Alfonso was a prolific sponsor of Galician poetry, such as the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which are equally notable for their musical content as for their literary merit. An amazing man. Wait wait Scruffy, what does all this have to do with El Hostal Guzmán el Bueno in Leon? Before marriage, Alfonso had a romantic relationship with Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, who bore him a daughter, Beatrice.

 

[jungleboy]

Alfonso X The Wise was also the patron of the ‘Estoria de Espanna’, a landmark history of Spain written in the Spanish of his time, rather than Latin. I was lucky once upon a time to be involved in a digitisation project of this text. I wrote a bit about what I did as part of this project here for anyone interested:

Estoria de Espanna - Spirit of the Camino

My experience being involved in digitising the 'Estoria de Espanna' for the University of Birmingham's Estoria Digital project.

spiritofthecamino.com

 

[scruffy1]

Alfonso X The Wise was also the patron of the ‘Estonia de Espanna’, a landmark history of Spain written in the Spanish of his time, rather than Latin. I was lucky once upon a time to be involved in a digitisation project of this text. I wrote a bit about what I did as part of this project here for anyone interested:

Estoria de Espanna - Spirit of the Camino

My experience being involved in digitising the 'Estoria de Espanna' for the University of Birmingham's Estoria Digital project.

spiritofthecamino.com

History does not repeat itself, idiotic humans do. Periods of tolerance, understanding, embracing knowledge, and education, as well as an infatuation with science as exemplified by the court of Alfonso, are quickly followed by periods of ethnic 'purity', intolerance, embracing ignorance, infatuation with fabricated reality and conspiracies, and violence. Not politics, we could learn much from Alfonso as far too many people today experience narrow-minded prejudices, the oppressive policies approaching the ideology of the Inquisition concerning their beliefs, their sexual orientation, and their politics as under the rule of Ferdinand and Isabela.

 

[dick bird]

Estonia de Espanna

Is your spellchick up to its usual trucks?

 

[jungleboy]

Is your spellchick up to its usual trucks?

Whoops!

 

[Pelegrin]

. Wait wait Scruffy, what does all this have to do with El Hostal Guzmán el Bueno in Leon? Before marriage, Alfonso had a romantic relationship with Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, who bore him a daughter, Beatrice.

Mayor Guillén de Guzmán was aunt of Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán known as "Guzmán el Bueno" ( Goodman the good).

 

[Philtration]

Alfonso X The Wise was also the patron of the ‘Estoria de Espanna’, a landmark history of Spain written in the Spanish of his time, rather than Latin. I was lucky once upon a time to be involved in a digitisation project of this text. I wrote a bit about what I did as part of this project here for anyone interested:

Estoria de Espanna - Spirit of the Camino

My experience being involved in digitising the 'Estoria de Espanna' for the University of Birmingham's Estoria Digital project.

spiritofthecamino.com

Wow Nick! What an interesting project and what an opportunity!

 

[David Tallan]

King Alfonso XThe Wise) developed a court culture that encouraged cosmopolitan learning welcoming and supporting all scholars regardless of religious beliefs, a widespread phenomenon in much of Spain until Ferdinand Isabella in 1492.

Just a note that the religious tolerance in Spain did not come to a sudden end with Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 and the expulsion of the Jews (and the forced conversion of the Muslims a few years later). Look up, for example, the Massacre of 1391, a century earlier.

 

[jungleboy]

Wow Nick! What an interesting project and what an opportunity!

Thank you, and yes to both!