Alfonso X Rey de Castilla, King of Spain
Alfonso X of Castilla "El Sabio" was one of the most important kings of the medieval Christian era of Spain between the years 1253 to 1284. He was one of the most cultured monarchs since he encouraged literature, music and astronomy during his reign, also, he was one of the most influential characters in the enrichment of Spanish since he demanded that it be written and spoke as an official language. During his reign he also participated in different conflicts between religions and civil wars, which led him to write the seven games. Alfonso X was a Christian absolutist since, in the seven games, especially the seventh, there were economic, social differences, and freedom of expression among Christians and Muslims and Jews.
During the centuries of the Middle Ages the Iberian Peninsula became a space of contact between Christians, Jews and Muslims. Dominated in the north by the different Christian kingdoms and in the South by the Islamic State of Al-Andalus, the Peninsula also had an important Jewish community that could prosper under the Andalusian rulers and then with the Christian kings. The coexistence of the three religious communities led to complex relations that produced cultural manifestations and social phenomena of great diversity, including situations of cultural exchange and also episodes of war and conflict.
This coexistence, positive and negative, led King Alfonso X to make public the seven games. This was the most important work of Spanish law since its content covered various issues. Previously called the book of laws, this document tried to create a unified legal code. The first departure was about the creation of laws, the Catholic religion, and that everything dictated by the monarch should be obeyed. The second departure was about the duties of the Court and the emperors. The third departure was about judicial procedural law. The fourth dealt with wills, the regulation of marriages and family areas. The fifth game was about loans, purchases and trade. The sixth deals with succession law. And finally, the seventh party, the complex and controversial ace of all, dealt with the daily life and profession of the faith of Christians, Jews, and Muslims (the seven games, Alfonso X).
In title twenty -four of the seventh game, the king "wise" talks about the Jews. This game begins with a prologue saying that Jews are free to live and profess their faith among Christians;However, laws say otherwise. The second law says that “Jews must pass their lives among Christians in silence and without disorder, practicing their own religious rites and without speaking evil of the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, that Christians recognize. On the other hand, a Jew must be very careful to avoid preaching or converting any Christian to the purpose of becoming a Jew, exalting his own belief and belittling ours ”. Thus, the Third Law prohibited them from having positions or jobs that oppressed Christians. Among the eleven laws on the Jews there were also prohibitions in the location of their synagogues, they could not tell their religion to Christians, there were punishments for those who became Jews, and prohibitions sovereign the relations between Jewish men and Christian women. If the Jews failed to comply with all these norms and laws imposed by Alfonso X, they were punished with the death penalty and the dispossession of the right of all their proprieties.
In this way, title 25 was about Muslims (Moors). “We say that the Moors must live among Christians in that same way we said in the title before this that the Jews should do: keeping their law and not denouncing ours. This is why in the villas of Christians should not have the Moorish Mosques. . . and the mosques that had formerly must be from the king, and he can give them to whoever wanted. And since the Moors do not have good law, however, while living among Christians, in their security they should not take or steal their own by force ”(Alfonso X, 196). In title 25 there were ten laws imposed before Muslims by the king, although they could find a right in several, most were prohibitions, just as title 24 was for the Jews. In these laws, mentions are made on the punishments that will be granted to those who become Muslims, Muslims who lack respect for Christians, Muslims who rob, and those who have relations with Christians or Jews. Muslims had less severe punishments than Jews: most of the time they were only imprisoned or stripped of their assets.
According to the theologian and historian, Alexander Marey, "[Alfonso] is defined as a bad king who received her power incorrectly or, having received it correctly, uses it in a bad way" (Marey, 237) Marey argues that Alfonso X was aTyran monarch since in his first four games he grants the maximum power, that is, no one could be over him and the entire people had to comply with his orders and wishes, otherwise he would be punished with the death penalty. He also says that the peoples (Christians, Jews, and Muslims) did not dare to get up in rebellion before the king since “they are linked to him by organic ties and, second, he is responsible himself for the sins and perversions of his king-Tirano ‘(Marey, 238).
Undoubtedly, Alfonso X was one of the most influential kings in the history of Spain thanks to his vast contributions to literature, culture, Castilian language, and to the school of translators of Toledo, but, the crimes of the crimes of thewhich he was participating: the death of millions of Jews and Muslims. Regardless of the religion of which each individual perishs, there should be no power, such as the one that Alfonso X had, to dictate which religion is superior than another and what is allowed or prohibited to do.
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