At his own expense, for years together, the King entertained in his palace at Burgos, that their knowledge might enrich the nation, not only certain free-thinking followers of Averroes and Avicebron, but infidel disciples of the Koran, and learned Rabbis who denied the true faith.  That creed must not interfere with deed, was an astonishing mental attitude for the thirteenth century, and invited a general suspicion of the King’s orthodoxy.  His religious sense was really strong, however, and appears most impressively in the ‘Cantigas a la Vergen Maria’ (Songs to the Virgin), which were sung over his grave by priests and acolytes for hundreds of years.  They are sometimes melancholy and sometimes joyous, always simple and genuine, and, written in Galician, reflect the trustful piety and happiness of his youth in remote hill provinces where the thought of empire had not penetrated.  It was his keen intelligence that expressed itself in the saying popularly attributed to him, “Had I been present at the creation, I might have offered some useful suggestions.”  It was his reverent spirit that made mention in his will of the sacred songs as the testimony to his faith.  So lived and died Alfonso the Tenth, the father of Spanish literature, and the reviver of Spanish learning.

“WHAT MEANETH A TYRANT, AND HOW HE USETH HIS POWER IN A KINGDOM WHEN HE HATH OBTAINED IT”

“A tyrant,” says this law, “doth signify a cruel lord, who, by force or by craft, or by treachery, hath obtained power over any realm or country; and such men be of such nature, that when once they have grown strong in the land, they love rather to work their own profit, though it be in harm of the land, than the common profit of all, for they always live in an ill fear of losing it.  And that they may be able to fulfill this their purpose unincumbered, the wise of old have said that they use their power against the people in three manners.  The first is, that they strive that those under their mastery be ever ignorant and timorous, because, when they be such, they may not be bold to rise against them, nor to resist their wills; and the second is, that they be not kindly and united among themselves, in such wise that they trust not one another, for while they live in disagreement, they shall not dare to make any discourse against their lord, for fear faith and secrecy should not be kept among themselves; and the third way is, that they strive to make them poor, and to put them upon great undertakings, which they never can finish, whereby they may have so much harm that it may never come into their hearts to devise anything against their ruler.  And above all this, have tyrants ever striven to make spoil of the strong and to destroy the wise; and have forbidden fellowship and assemblies of men in their land, and striven always to know what men said or did; and do trust their counsel and the guard of their person rather to foreigners, who will serve at their will, than to them of the land,