Ferdinand III of Castile
Ferdinand III united Castile and León permanently and took most of Andalusia from the Muslims. Born around 1199, he was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile, whose marriage was annulled for consanguinity — which left his legitimacy contested and his inheritance disputed. His mother inherited Castile in 1217 and abdicated in his favour immediately, and he took León on his father's death in 1230, buying off his half-sisters' claims. The two crowns were never separated again. He exploited the disintegration of the Almohad empire after its defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, when North African authority in Spain collapsed into competing taifa kingdoms. He took Córdoba in 1236, the old Umayyad capital, and had the bells of Santiago de Compostela — carried off by al-Mansur two and a half centuries earlier — brought back on the shoulders of Muslim captives. Jaén fell in 1246, and Seville, the largest and richest city in Spain, after a siege of sixteen months in 1248 in which a fleet under Ramón Bonifaz broke the bridge of boats on the Guadalquivir. Murcia became a vassal in 1243. The Nasrid emirate of Granada survived as his tributary, which is why it lasted another two and a half centuries. He resettled the conquered territory with Christian colonists and expelled much of the Muslim population, transforming Andalusian agriculture and society. He founded the University of Salamanca's charter, promoted Castilian as an administrative language, and began the translation of legal texts his son completed. He died in Seville in 1252 and was canonised in 1671.
- Lived: 1199 CE – 1252 CE
- Nationality: Spanish
- Roles: ruler
