Ferdinand II ( 1137 – 22 January 1188), was a member of the Castilian cadet branch of the House of Ivrea and King of León and Galicia from 1157 until his death.
Life Family Born in Toledo, Castile, Ferdinand was the third but second surviving son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and Berenguela of Barcelona. His paternal grandparents were Count Raymond of Burgundy and Queen Urraca of León and his maternal grandparents were Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, and Douce I, Countess of Provence. He had seven full-siblings, of whom only three survived infancy: the later King Sancho III of Castile, Constance (wife of King Louis VII of France) and Sancha (wife of King Sancho VI of Navarre), and two half-siblings from his father's second marriage with Richeza of Poland, of whom only survive Sancha (wife of King Alfonso II of Aragon).
Childhood and early years
Ferdinand's education was entrusted to a Galician magnate, Count Fernando Pérez de Traba, member of the same lineage as the former knights of his grandmother, Queen Urraca, and of the tutors and defenders of his father, King Alfonso VII. Soon he was initiated into the tasks of government. From 1151 he is associated with the throne by his father, along with his older brother Infante Sancho, so in documents from León and Galicia his confirmation with the title of King, or King of Galicia, is common. He was surrounded from the beginning by the Leonese and Galician magnates, such as the Counts Ponce de Minerva, Ramiro Froilaz, Pedro Alfonso and the aforementioned Fernando Pérez de Traba.
In a council begun in Valladolid in the year 1155, were agreed the terms of the division of the domains of the still-living King Alfonso VII. There the Kingdoms of León and Galicia were assigned under Ferdinand's sovereignty, excluding Tierra de Campos, Sahagún and Asturias de Santillana. Ferdinand earned the reputation of a good knight and hard fighter, but did not display political talent or organising ability.
Beginning of reign and first marriage with Urraca of Portugal In 1157 his father, King Alfonso VII died, and according of his will and the previous dispositions of the council of Valladolid of 1155, his second son inherited the Kingdoms of León and Galicia under the name of Ferdinand II; during the early months of his reign, the new monarch had to resolve his disputes with the powerful local nobles and an invasion by his brother Sancho III of Castile.The Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol.9, Ed. Thomas Spencer Baynes, (Henry G. Allen and Company, 1888), p. 80. In 1158 Ferdinand II signed the Treaty of Sahagún with his brother Sancho III, under which they agreed to jointly wage war against the Muslims, to divide up the conquered territories, the provision that in case one of the two brothers died without issue, the survivor would inherit the domains of the deceased brother, and the partition of the Kingdom of Portugal. The death of his brother Sancho III in the same year and the succession of his infant son Alfonso VIII, annulled the clauses of the Treaty of Sahagún.
During the minority of age of his nephew Alfonso VIII, in the Kingdom of Castile began the dispute between the Houses of Lara and Castro to exercise the regency on behalf of the child king. Taking advantage of the anarchic state in which the kingdom of his late brother was found, Ferdinand II invaded Castile at the head of an army, and demanded, in order to restore order, that the Lara surrender him to his nephew Alfonso VIII, whose education he wished to take charge of.
In March 1160 Fernando Rodríguez de Castro, commanding the forces of the House of Castro, defeated the Lara supporters in the Battle of Lobregal, in which his father-in-law Count Osorio Martínez lost his life, and Nuño Pérez de Lara was captured. That same year, Ferdinand II was cured of a serious illness supposedly through the intercession of Saints Martin of Tours and Eufemia of Orense. In 1162 Fernando Rodríguez de Castro was appointed Majordomo mayor of Ferdinand II, a position he held twice: firstly from 15 August 1162 until his dismissal on 6 September 1164 and secondly from 19 October 1165 until 15 May 1166.
The boundary troubles with Castile restarted in 1164: he then met at Soria with the Lara family, who represented Alfonso VIII, and a truce was established, allowing him to move against the Muslim Almohads who still held much of southern Spain, and to capture the cities of Alcántara and Alburquerque. In the same year, Ferdinand II defeated King Afonso I of Portugal, who, in 1163, had occupied Salamanca in retaliation for the repopulation of the area ordered by the King of León.
In May/June 1165 Ferdinand II married with Infanta Urraca of Portugal, daughter of King Afonso I, as a gesture of reconciliation and alliance between the Kingdoms of León and Portugal. At that time, he restored and repopulated the cities of Ledesma and Ciudad Rodrigo, and this caused the inhabitants of Salamanca who, apparently, had bought the city of Ledesma, took up arms against the king and the magistrates of Ledesma; when Ferdinand II learned of it, he marched with his army against the rebels and forced them to return to their city.
The war against the Kingdom of Castile (1162–1166)
In 1162, Ferdinand II conquered the city of Toledo, snatching it from the Castilians, and subsequently naming Fernando Rodríguez de Castro as Governor of the city. The city of Toledo remained in the power of the Kingdom of León until 1166, when it was recovered by the Castilians. On 27 September 1162, Ferdinand II signed an agreement, known as the Treaty of Ágreda, with Alfonso II of Aragon.
In 1164 Fernando Rodríguez de Castro entered the Kingdom of Castile for the second time with an army and defeated Count Manrique Pérez de Lara at the Battle of Huete, fought in June or July of that year. Four years later he was appointed Mayor of León, being his duty to control and be in command of the existing fortresses in the city, until the year 1182, when he left the office.
Ferdinand II and the members of the House of Lara met in Soria and agreed that, to defend the city of Toledo from the Saracens, they would hand over to the Knights Templar the city of Uclés, located in the current Province of Cuenca, and which would later become the headquarters of the Order of Santiago. The King of León, fearful that the members of the House of Lara would break the agreed peace, allied himself with King Sancho VI of Navarre to intimidate them and, in this way, be able to direct his troops against the Almohads, from whom he snatched the cities of Alcántara and Albuquerque.
Conquest of Badajoz and war with the Kingdom of Portugal
Despite Ferdinand II's marriage to Infanta Urraca of Portugal, the disputes with the Lusitan kingdom continued. Between 1166 and 1168 King Afonso I of Portugal seized cities belonging to the Leonese kingdom. Ferdinand II then repopulated Ciudad Rodrigo, and the Portuguese monarch, suspecting that his son-in-law was fortifying it with the purpose of attacking him in the future, sent an army commanded by his son and heir, Infante Sancho of Portugal, against that city. The King of León came to the aid of the besieged Ciudad Rodrigo and, in a meeting he had with the Portuguese troops, put them to flight, capturing many prisoners. Afonso I then invaded Galicia, occupying Tui and the territory of Xinzo de Limia (former fiefs of his mother), and in 1169 attacked the city of Cáceres. However, as his troops were also besieging the city of Badajoz, which was in the power of the Saracens, Ferdinand II was able to push the Portuguese out of Galicia and to rush to Badajoz. When Afonso I saw the Leonese arrive he tried to flee, but he was disabled by a broken leg caused by a fall from his horse, and made prisoner at one of the city's gates. Afonso I was obliged to surrender as his ransom almost all the conquests he had made in Galicia in the previous year. In the peace signed at Pontevedra the following year, Ferdinand II got back twenty-five castles, and the cities of Cáceres, Badajoz, Trujillo, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Montánchez, previously lost by León. When in the same years the Almohads laid siege to the Portuguese city of Santarém, Ferdinand II came to help his father-in-law, and helped to free the city from the menace.
At the beginning of the summer of 1169, Geraldo Geraldes Sem Pavor ("without fear"), of the kingdom of Portugal, took the city of Badajoz after a long siege, but the governor of the city took refuge in the Alcazaba of Badajoz, and the siege had to continue. Seeing the opportunity presented to him to add the main city of the region to his dominions at the expense of his Christian and Muslim enemies, Afonso I of Portugal an army to Badajoz in order to replace Gerardo Sem Pavor as conductor of the siege.
The city of Trujillo became the head of the domains assembled by Fernando Rodríguez de Castro. This provoked the opposition of Ferdinand II, who argued that Badajoz belonged to him. The King of León then headed south at the head of an army, at the request of the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf, who had already sent a contingent of 5,000 knights to help his besieged governor. Fernando Rodríguez de Castro, as the monarch's Majordomo, was one of the Leonese leaders of the expedition. The Portuguese who besieged the Alcazaba of Badajoz, were then besieged by the Leonese, fighting broke out in the streets of the city. While trying to escape, Afonso I of Portugal was captured by the men of Ferdinand II, after breaking his leg. At the same time, Leonese monarch captured Gerardo Sem Pavor. After the capture of the city and the Alcazaba of Badajoz by the Leonese, the latter left the city in the hands of their Muslim allies. Gerardo Sem Pavor had to surrender several of the towns he had conquered to the Kingdom of León, in exchange for his freedom. Ferdinand II kept the city of Cáceres, but the towns of Trujillo, Montánchez, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Monfragüe became the property of Fernando Rodríguez de Castro. After this donation, Fernando Rodríguez de Castro became the lord of a semi-independent principality located between the Tagus and Guadiana rivers, whose headquarters were in the city of Trujillo. Alfonso VIII realized the strategic importance of the fortresses granted to the Castilian, with a view to a future repopulation, since the fortresses were in the area that according to the Treaty of Sahagún of 1158 belonged to the area of influence of the Kingdom of Castile. Defeated by Afonso I of Portugal, the Muslims attacked the Kingdom of León in 1173, trying to seize Ciudad Rodrigo; but Ferdinand II, who had knowledge of his purposes, entrenched himself in the city of Salamanca with the troops he was able to gather in León, in Zamora, in various places in Galicia and in other parts of the kingdom, at the same time giving order to the rest of his army to meet him asap. The Muslims were defeated and only those who fled could keep their freedom.
In 1170, Ferdinand II created the military-religious Order of Santiago de Compostela, with the task to protect the city of Cáceres. Like the Order of Alcántara, it initially began as a knightly confraternity and took the name "Santiago" (St. James) after St. James the apostle, with the purpose to protect the pilgrims who visited the tomb of the Apostle Santiago.
Second marriage with Teresa Fernández de Traba