Virgin of the Battles, at the Cathedral of Seville. Photo by Jose Luis Filpo Cabana. This ivory statue went with St. Ferdinand in all of his warlike undertakings. He carried the Image, set in his saddle horn.
After exchanging farewells, the Castilian representatives returned to their encampment, accompanied part of their way by the negotiating team from León. The Castilian ambassadors were quite pleased with the success of their mission and approached the King’s tent to render him an account of the events. They did not find him, and his camp bed was unmade. They looked at each other with embarrassment. Then, the Archbishop, who had the most authority, approached the tapestry dividing the tent and called, “Lord!”
He received no answer. He dared to lift it and look inside.
Ferdinand had reserved that area of the tent for an oratory. In the dying light of a candle, Don Rodrigo saw kneeling in front of a small image of Our Lady a white figure, whose arms were spread in the form of a cross. It was the King.
“Lord,” the Archbishop called softly again, with the same result as the first time. As he carefully approached him, he noticed that the whiteness of his fine linen tunic was stained with spots of blood.
“Lord,” Don Rodrigo called loudly. This time Ferdinand heard him and turned abruptly.
“Give thanks to God, my Lord, that the truce has been made and that the King of León has asked the archbishop of Santiago and the bishops of Zamora and Astorga to remain behind to negotiate a stable and lasting peace.”
Ferdinand looked at Our Lady with an expression of love.
“I know well, Lady, that whatever I entrust to thee will never fail,” he murmured.
In a moment of spontaneous impulse, forgetting the rigid etiquette of the Castilian court, he embraced Don Rodrigo tightly, saying to him, “You, Archbishop, and your companions, have rendered me a greater service than I have asked of you; it would have been very wrong and a terrible example for a son to wage war against his father.”
“Glory be to God and His glorious Mother!”
The next morning both camps broke up. Only the six prelates who were the designated ambassadors remained. Ferdinand, already on horseback, watched the army from León disappear, his face clouded with a veil of sadness. Deep inside, he had expected more from his father: he had hoped to kiss his hand in an interview to seal the reconciliation or at least to receive a letter answering his. At least, in Burgos, Doña Berenguera awaited his return, hoping to help him forget his father’s lack of love.
A few days later, the agreements concluded, Ferdinand signed the treaty. The kings of Castile and León promised to help each other in the war against the infidels. The King of León agreed to a clause that stipulated severe penalties for any future invasion of Castile. He would be excommunicated and the kingdom placed under interdict. Don Ferdinand agreed to the same conditions upon the insistence of the Leónese bishops. Both kings wrote to the Pope asking him to ratify the agreement.
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Sr. Maria del Carmen Fernández de Castro Cabeza, The Life of the Very Noble King of Castile and León, Saint Ferdinand III (New York: The Foundation for a Christian Civilization, Inc., 1987), 55-60.
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 434
