man who came to Burgos in the train
of the English Queen, Eleanor Plantagenet.[5] He was sent to Speyer as
ambassador from the Spanish Court to bring back the Princess Beatrice
as bride for Saint Ferdinand. Maurice's mission took him through those
parts of Germany and France where the enthusiasm for cathedral-building
was at its height, and he had time to admire and study a forest of
exquisite spires, newly reared, particularly while the young lady given
him in charge was sumptuously entertained by King Philip Augustus.
Naturally he returned to his native city burning with ardor to begin a
similar work there, and probably brought with him master-builders and
skilful artists of long training in Gothic church-building.

Queen Berengaria and King Ferdinand met the Suabian Princess at the
frontier of Castile. The first ceremony was the conference of the Order
of Knighthood, in the presence of all the "ricos hombres" (ruling men),
the cavaliers of the kingdom with their wives and the burgesses. The
sword was taken from the altar and girded on by the right noble lady
Berengaria. We read that the other arms had been blessed by Bishop
Maurice and were donned by the King with his own hands, no one else
being high enough for the office. Three days later Ferdinand was married
to "dulcissimam Domicellam" in the old Cathedral by the Bishop of Burgos
without protest from the Primate of Castile, Archbishop Rodrigo of
Toledo. This took place in 1219, and two years after King and Bishop
laid the corner-stone of the new edifice.

[Illustration: Photo by J. Lacoste, Madrid

CATHEDRAL OF BURGOS

View of the nave]

The work must have been spurred on by all the religious ardor which
fired the first half of the thirteenth century, for only nine years
later services were held in the eastern end of the building. The good
Bishop was laid to rest in the old choir, where he still lies
undisturbed, though to-day it is the Capilla Mayor. By the middle of the
century, the great bulk of the old structure must have been well
advanced. The lower portions of the towers and the eastern termination
are fourteenth-century work; the spires themselves, fifteenth. A
multitude of changes and additions, new chapels and buildings,
gradually, as years went on, transformed the primitive plan from its
first harmony and beauty to a confused mass of aisles, vaults, and
chapels. When we compare the present fabric with the early plan, we see
with what masterly ski