Devotion to land: The Virgin Mary and the Mudejar in the post-conquest program of Alfonso X of Castile, 1252--1284

This study explores how Alfonso X of Castile (1252-1264) exploited portrayals of Muslims in Christian politico-religious rhetoric in post-conquest thirteenth-century Castile. In the wake of Castilian King Fernando III's (1217-1252) vast conquests, Alfonso X was left with the obligation of maintaining the integrity of the conquered territories as well as that of the larger kingdom. Consequently, he expanded upon twelfth-century notions of possessing land to include the continual maintenance and control of his territories. He developed a concept of devotion to land by which inhabitants were to dedicate themselves to its population, cultivation, and defense. Nevertheless, problems with the nobility and the Muslim populations challenged the fulfillment of his obligation to the reconstruction of the frontier. In buttressing his arguments for his political ideals, he used images of the Virgin Mary as a patroness of his cause and played upon Muslim stereotypes to promote devotion to land.