A seated
statue of St. James has been preserved in the Abbey of Las Huelgas (Burgos), where
knights of the Order of Santiago armed themselves. The sculpture’s right arm
could be moved by means of a cord, and was used in the ceremony of adoubement
in the mid-thirteenth century. The saint
tapped the side of the sword’s blade onto the king’s shoulders when the
ceremony was performed, as knighthood could not be conferred by anyone of lower
rank. Tradition says that it was the invention of Saint Ferdinand III. Four
other kings of Castile were armed in this way, as well as Edward I of England. Afterwards,
- on November 1, 1254 - Edward
and Eleanor of Castile were married in
the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Monasterio_de_Sta._Maria_la_Real_de_Huelgas_-_Marioneta_del_.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Monasterio_de_Sta._Maria_la_Real_de_Huelgas_-_Marioneta_del_.jpg
The main
character of The Youthful Deeds of Rodrigo advises King Ferdinand I the Great
to be dubbed a knight by St James (in Santiago de Compostela), as the only way
to gain authority. Consequently, he would recognize no authority other than the
Apostle’s. Rodrigo mentions the patronage of St. James and the prayer vigil,
and tells the king “to arm himself during the Mass.” (“Rey, fasta que
non te armases non devías tener reinado; /ca no esperas palmada de moro nin de
christiano, / mas ve velar al padrón de Santiago; / quando oyeres la missa,
ármate con tu mano (…)” (1)
There is
also another remarkable reference to a statue in this epic poem. The Castilians
carved a stone sculpture featuring count Fernán González; then they swore
loyalty to it and, therefore, became its vassals. Hence they could not
recognise another lord – even the “original” one – until they had broken their symbolic
links to the stone.
“(…) the Castilians (…) / neither kissed his
hand nor called him their lord, / as they had paid homage to a stone; they
carried it around in a cart / as their lord, until they met the count [Fernán González]” [(…) los
castellanos (…) / no l’ bessaron la mano, nin señor no l’ llamaron, / ca avían
fecho omenaje a una piedra que traxieran en el carro, / que traían por señor,
fasta que fallaron al conde (Fernán González).”] (2)
(1) Épica medieval española (Carlos Alvar, Manuel
Alvar eds.); Madrid: Cátedra, 1991, 138, vv. 653-56.
(2) Ibíd., 106, vv. 9-12.
