Ferdinand II et Saint-Isidore-de-Léon : enjeux d’une « politique de faveurs » (1157-1188)

• Published in: Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez Vol. 42; no. 42-2; pp. 163 - 181
• Main Author: Heras, Amélie de las
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Spanish
• Published: Casa de Velázquez 15.11.2012
• Subjects: collegiate church; diplomas; Fernando II; monarchy; monastic policy; royalty
• ISSN: 0076-230X; 2173-1306
• DOI: 10.4000/mcv.4642

In the reign of Fernando II, for the Leonese monarchy the primacy of San Isidoro in the monastic sphere of Castile-Leon was absolute. This article seeks to establish and explain this relationship by way of diplomatic documents (royal charters), demonstrating that there was clearly a policy of favouring that collegiate church given the scale of royal donations in its favour. This phenomenon was not simply a dynastic tradition. In the context of increased political fragmentation in the Iberian Peninsula following the death of Alfonso VII, it was to that establishment—and in the diplomas or charters that he addressed to it—that Fernando II directed ideal proposals which served his pan-Hispanic ambitions. When that policy became untenable, San Isidoro still remained a first-rate establishment, although its primacy eventually faded.