St. Ferdinand III. The greatest of the Crusaders.

St Ferdinand III of Castile (1200-1252) is largely unknown.  El Cid (1045-1099) who did far less to eject the Musulmans from Spain, has far greater renown than Ferdinand.  Yet it was the latter who decimated the Muhammadans in the early-to-mid-13^th century, ensuring that the Jihad and Sharia, which had destroyed Spain, was erased barring the statelet of Granada which after repeated raids into adjoining Christian territory and endless horrors and murders was finally effaced in 1492 by Isabella and Ferdinand.  During his time, San Fernando was named the ‘terror of the Saracens’.  His lineage as noble, chivalrous Christian knight was impeccable, being the maternal grandson of Alfonso VIII the hero of Las Navas de Tolosa, and related to Alfonso VI the conqueror of Toledo and the mighty El Cid, with Richard the Lionheart a grand-uncle by marriage.

San Fernando was raised in part by his grand-father the famous Alfonso VIII, who impressed upon the boy the need to eject the Musulmans from Spain, reclaim the peninsula for Christ and end the endless persecutions, destruction, murders, rapes and sex enslavement enacted by the cult of Muhammad upon Christians.  From an early age Fernando practiced the arts of war, and observed the political skills of his grandfather.  His mother and entire family were pious Catholics and love of God and Christ was central to Fernando’s character and education.  He was convinced that Christ was calling on him to spread the Holy Cross and ensure the safety of Christians from the Musulman menace.

Alfonso VIII died just 2 years after his famous victory at Tolosa, in 1214, during an engagement with the Almohads.  His son Enrique inherited the crown but died 3 years later.  The burden of government fell to his eldest sister who passed it on willingly to Ferdinand in 1217.  For reasons of land and power, his own father Alfonso IX, the King of Leon, declared war on his son and Castile.  The son did not react and wrote to his father that he would not strike against his own ‘lord’ and father, and would wait until Alfonso regained his senses.  The father relented and a treaty was made. 

Ferdinand married Beatrice of Swabia in 1219, who between 1221 and 1234 bequeathed him seven sons and two daughters.  In the same year as his marriage Ferdinand knighted himself with the ‘sword of war’ an ancient weapon which symbolised knighthood.  As he consolidated his power, Ferdinand read the history of the Musulman Jihad in Spain, planning and contemplating his own actions and campaigns.  He was greatly influenced by Archbishop Rodrigo of Toledo who provided advice, books, material and guidance, and had been a friend of Alfonso VIII and a combatant at Las Navas de Tolosa.  Rodrigo translated the Koran and spent time and energy educating people as to what the book actually meant and what it said about Christians.  He also wrote a ‘History of the Arabs’ outlining the history of Muhammad and his cult dedicated to world domination and the fusion of the church and state in the form of a pagan celestialism and totalitarianism. 

By 1224 Ferdinand was ready.  The Musulman state in the south of Spain was in disarray and disunity.  The hardened warrior Christian monks of Spain, from the battle-ready military orders including Santiago, Calatrava, Montesa and the Temple and Hospital were told to take the cross for the great Crusade.  The Castilian army and nobles were enjoined to take the crusading oath along with mercenaries from beyond Castile.  Near the end of 1224 Ferdinand personally led the army against the important Musulman fortress of Quesada, formerly a Christian fort, not far from Toledo.  He was the first over the wall and the first to scale the town’s mosque, planting a Cross on top of the minaret.  It was the first of many victories.

By the end of 1228 much of the frontier had been reclaimed for Christianity.  Many Muslim emirs or Lords paid tribute and confirmed vassalage to Ferdinand.  On campaigns through Jaen and Granada, thousands of Christian prisoners were freed, many near death from starvation.  Mosques were converted into churches and religious triumphalism was everywhere apparent.  This was payback for the Musulmand destruction of thousands of churches, monasteries and abbeys.  In 1230 his father died, leaving Ferdinand as King of Leon as well as Castile.  The consolidation of the 2 realms occupied his time for a few years and obstructed his Holy Crusade which was reduced in intensity and volume for a time.

In 1236 a small party of Christians and Muslims who had renounced their cult, took over an area of Cordoba, the Musulman capital.  Word was sent to Ferdinand to help.  Cordoba was a large Muslim majority city, containing perhaps some 50.000 people, not the apocryphal 1 million of Musulman and modern day atheist propaganda (If the city had 1 million Musulmans there was little chance that Ferdinand’s comparatively small force would have taken it and the city's ancient medieval walls now excavated, reveal a place of some 40-50.000 or the same as under the Visigoths).  The few Christians and Musulman collaborators could not hope to hold out for long.  Some 30.000 Musulmans were encamped near the city.  Ferdinand suddenly appeared before the city with a much smaller Christian force but his name and his well-known ferocity impressed the Musulman army to retire to Sevilla to the north east.  Ferdinand invested the city and after 5 months took it, dealing a shattering blow to Musulman prestige. 

Unlike the Musulman conquests of the previous 500 years, Ferdinand always granted generous terms to the defeated, allowing Musulmans to leave unmolested, or remain and practice their cult as long as they were good citizens under the Castilian regime.  Under Ferdinand and his leadership, there was never wanton destruction, rape or pillaging of Musulmans, their assets or their cities once they were defeated.  Yet curiously this chivalric example is little commented upon by Western historians.  The reason is simply the Catholicity of Ferdinand and his deep Christian piety, which offends the modern ‘secularist’ and ‘academic’.

The great mosque of Cordoba was rightly converted into a Church, and given that it was built from the destroyed Christian basilica of St. Vincent, this represented simply a return to what existed before the Mahometan Jihad.  The great bells of Santiago de Compostela, taken some 250 years earlier by the Muslim Jihadist Almanzor, transported to Cordoba from Santiago on the backs of Christian slaves, was sent back to its cathedral of origin, on the backs quite rightly, of Musulman slaves.

With Cordoba secured Ferdinand took the almost impregnable fortress of Jaen to the east of Cordoba in 1245 and forced the emir of Granada to accept the suzerainty of Ferdinand in 1246.  The only unconquered Mahometan kingdom left was that of Sevilla, the most opulent and prosperous of Musulman cities and statelets.  Its position on the Guadaliqivir river and its access to the Mediterranean and North Africa made it an important strategic asset and trading entrepot.  Its ringed set of walls possessed some 166 towers, staffed by a large fanatical Musulman army.  Ferdinand attacked Sevilla in 1246, assaulting the area around the town, taking one by one, the ring of fortresses near to the city, and devastating the surrounding countryside.

Sevilla was put into a tight and effective siege.  A single bridge, well defended by men and chains, protected the main supply route from the surrounding countryside.  Christian ships on the river were unsuccessful in cutting off this supply and communications channel.  Fasting, praying, sleeping and eating with his men, doing the same work as they did, Ferdinand fell ill.  The siege affected both the besieged and the besiegers.  By the summer of 1248 disease was rife.  The siege was entering its second year.  Incredibly Ferdinand decided to turn his camp into a Christian city complete with hospitals, stores, churches, artisans and civilians.  He built a city around Sevilla.  Eventually the Christian ships were able to break the heavy chain across the river and decimate the Musulman ships.  The end was nigh, the Musulmans now had no recourse to food, supplies or communications.

On November 23 1248 Sevilla surrendered to Ferdinand.  It was a monumental victory and signalled the collapse of Mahometan pretensions in Spain.  Only Granada, a statelet paying Castile a yearly ransom had escaped the Christian Reconquista.  Musulmans in Sevilla and elsewhere, were permitted to sell their properties and leave with their movable goods.  No Musulmans were raped or murdered.  Their property and goods were unmolested.  Thousands of Mahometans left Sevilla and the surrounding areas.  Ferdinand replaced them with Christians who flocked to the liberated city and its environs.  As with Cordoba, the golden age of Sevilla was to begin with both cities leading the way to Spanish hegemony over large parts of the globe during the 16^th century. 

In Crusading lore, St. Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon, is accounted as the foremost warrior.  A pious man, dedicated to Christ, an ascetic, a governor of moderation, a law giver and honest broker, a warrior and a father, a husband and a leader, Ferdinand III is simply an icon of what a man can be and can do.  Without doubt Ferdinand was both a Crusader and a Saint.