so says Christian Grabbe, and this epigram may
well be applied to Berenguela's case. Her heart was her world, and she
fought for it, and in her victory she won, not only for herself, but for
Spain as well. And it came about in this way. Berenguela was married,
and with her own consent, to Alfonso IX., King of Leon, who had of late
made war upon her father, and with this marriage and the peace which
followed between the two countries, Spain prospered for a time.

This Alfonso of Leon had already made one marriage venture which had
come to grief, for he had previously wedded the Princess Teresa of
Portugal, and his marriage had been forcibly dissolved by Pope Innocent
III., who was then, as Hume puts it, "riding rough-shod over the nations
of Christendom." This divorce had been pronounced on the ground that the
young couple were too closely related to each other; and as they
ventured to resist, they were for a time excommunicated. So Alfonso and
Teresa were finally separated, though not until several children had
been born to them, and then the young king led Berenguela to the altar.
This marriage, in its immediate result, was but a repetition of what had
gone before. The pope annulled it promptly on the same grounds of
consanguinity, and turned a deaf ear to every plea for reconsideration.
The case was not an unusual one; many marriages which were far less
regular in form had been sanctioned by this new Roman Caesar; and the
result of the marriage could be but for the benefit of Rome, as domestic
peace in Spain gave assurance of more successful opposition to the
Moslem rule. But the pope was firm, his holy permission had not been
obtained before the marriage had been celebrated, and, piqued at this
unintended slight which had been put upon his august authority, he
revealed his littleness by this show of spite.

Rebellious under this harsh decree because of its manifest injustice,
Alfonso and Berenguela endeavored to hold out against the pontiff, and
for seven years they lived together as man and wife, making their home
in Leon. Their life was to some degree a happy one together, children
were born to them, but ever about their path was the shadow of doubt
that was cast by the pope's decree. As a sad and pitiful end to it all,
Berenguela, a mother though not a wife, was forced to return to her
father's court in Castile, leaving the eldest son, Fernando, with the
father. In but one thing had the pope shown any mercy for th