THE WILL OF ISABEL THE CATHOLIC: THE GOOD TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS

Queen Isabel made her will at the castle of La Mota, in Medina del Campo, on October 12, 1504.

On November 23, she added a codicil, in Chapter XII of which she expresses her concern for the inhabitants of the newly discovered American lands.

Therefore, she asks her husband Ferdinand, her daughter Princess Juana, and her son-in-law Archduke Philip to ensure that the Indians are treated with justice and respect and to remember that the main purpose for which they have been granted the territories of the New World is evangelization:

"Whereas, at the time that the islands and mainland of the Ocean Sea, discovered and undiscovered, were granted to us by the Holy Apostolic See, our main intention was, while we begged Pope Alexander VI of good memory, who made us the said concession, to try to induce and bring the peoples therein and convert them to our Holy Catholic Faith, and to send to the said islands and mainland of the Ocean Sea pearls, religious men, clerics, and other learned and God-fearing people, to instruct the neighbors and inhabitants thereof in the Catholic Faith, and to teach and indoctrinate them good customs and to exercise due diligence in this regard, as more fully  In the Letters of the said concession it is contained, therefore I most affectionately implore the King, my Lord, and I charge and command the said Princess my daughter and the said Prince her husband, that they do and comply with this, and that this be their main objective, and that they exercise great diligence in this regard, and that they do not consent or allow the neighboring Indians and residents of the said Indies and mainland, conquered and yet to be conquered, to receive any harm in their persons or property; but I command that they be well and justly treated. And if they have received any harm, that they remedy and provide for it."

THE BATTLE OF LAS NAVAS DE TOLOSA: FAITH, VALOR, AND VICTORY IN HISTORY

INTRODUCTION:

In the annals of history, there are battles fought not only on the fields of war but also in the soul of civilizations. The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, in 1212, is one such encounter that, beyond its military dimension, marked a turning point in the Reconquista and the defense of Christendom in the Iberian Peninsula. In this confrontation, faith and courage united to face a threat that sought not only to conquer lands but to destroy a way of life based on the truth of Christ. The chronicles of Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada and Alfonso X the Wise, along with poetry, allow us to relive that feat, where the cross shone in the darkness of the battlefield.

I. THE RECONQUEST HORIZON: WHY THIS WAR WAS FOUGHT

“Live, then, O religion,

protected within Spain,

for your lights shone

even in such heavy snow.”

—Pedro Calderón de la Barca, The Siege of Breda

The war that led to Las Navas de Tolosa was no ordinary confrontation; it was the culmination of a long struggle between the Christian faith and Muslim dominance that threatened to annihilate Christian civilization in the Peninsula. As recounted by Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada in De Rebus Hispaniae and Alfonso X the Wise in his Estoria de España, the Almohads, led by Muhammad al-Nasir, had strengthened their position and sought to extend their dominance over the Christian kingdoms. But at stake was not only the conquest of territories but the defense of the faith itself.

Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada writes:

“The armies of the infidels had forcefully invaded Christian lands, spreading destruction and terror, and threatened to extinguish the light of faith that still shone in these kingdoms.”

Alfonso X echoes this sentiment in his Estoria de España:

“And the kings of Castile, Navarre, and Aragon said that they would not allow the Moors to extend their power in Christian lands, for it was their duty, as defenders of the faith and the kingdom, to uphold God’s law.”

The war became a crusade, not only in the military sense but also in the spiritual one. The Christian kingdoms could not allow the truth of the Gospel to be replaced by a force that brought with it the destruction of their culture and faith. It was in this context that Pope Innocent III called Christendom to a crusade, summoning the unity of the Christian kingdoms to face the common threat.

II. THE MARCH OF THE ARMIES: A CALL TO CRUSADE

“Glorious Lord, revered Father,

who has always helped your vassals,

to those who call you, you have listened,

and those who plead, you have set free.”

—Gonzalo de Berceo, Miracles of Our Lady

Pope Innocent III’s call was not merely an invitation to take up arms but a summons to embark on a sacred mission. The armies of Castile, Navarre, and Aragon, along with knights and warriors from various parts of Europe, responded to this call, knowing that they were not merely fighting a battle but defending the Christian faith and civilization.

Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, present at the events, describes the march of the armies with an almost religious fervor:

“The Christian armies advanced with the cross held high, trusting that the Lord would guide them to victory. Despite the hardships of the journey, they marched with fervor, knowing that they were fighting not only for their kingdoms but for the cross.”

Alfonso X’s account matches this epic tone:

“Knights came from many parts of Europe, for this war was not only the kings’ but of all Christians who wanted to defend God’s law.”

In this march, Berceo’s poetry deeply resonates, capturing the spirit of hope and devotion that drove the armies forward. The Christians firmly believed that their cause was just and that the Lord would grant them victory. The journey to Las Navas de Tolosa was not just a military trek but a pilgrimage, where every step represented faith in divine victory.

III. THE FEAT AT LAS NAVAS DE TOLOSA: THE BATTLE AND ITS IMPORTANCE

“Do not fear that I will lose the faith,

the cross by me guarded,

the crown destined for the ages

with the valor of so many sacred kings.”

—Lope de Vega, La Dragontea

On July 16, 1212, the Christian armies faced the Almohad forces at Las Navas de Tolosa. Outnumbered, the Christians knew their only hope lay in the strength of their faith and divine protection.

Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada describes the course of the battle in detail:

“The knights of Navarre, led by Sancho, charged with such force that they broke the chains defending Muhammad al-Nasir’s camp, opening the way for victory.”

Sancho VII of Navarre’s intervention and courage were decisive in securing victory. The moment his troops broke the chains surrounding the caliph’s camp was the turning point that tipped the balance in favor of the Christians.

Alfonso X, in his Estoria de España, also extols this heroic moment:

“The Christians charged the Moors with such effort that they broke through their ranks and reached the Miramamolin’s camp, and the chains that guarded it were broken.”

The battle ended with Muhammad al-Nasir’s defeat and the retreat of his forces. The chronicles agree that Christian faith was crucial to their victory. It was a struggle for the survival of Christendom, and the cross, as Lope de Vega expresses, was the guardian of that victory.

IV. THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH: CONSEQUENCES AND LEGACY

“Defeating Moors, strengthening Spain,

whose valor was so grand,

that the shadow of its glory

extends throughout the luminous world.”

—Francisco de Quevedo, Spain Defended

The victory at Las Navas de Tolosa marked a turning point in the history of the Reconquista. Francisco de Quevedo, with his sharp pen and deep insight, shows us how this battle not only strengthened Spain but how its echo resonated throughout Christendom. The defeat of the Almohads signaled the beginning of the end of their dominance in the Peninsula and allowed the Christian kingdoms to advance with renewed vigor toward the complete liberation of their land.

Quevedo speaks of a “grand” valor, a courage that was not only physical but spiritual. The men who fought at Las Navas de Tolosa understood they were fighting for something much greater than themselves: the preservation of truth, faith, and a civilization that respected man’s dignity as a child of God. This victory not only liberated lands; it liberated souls.

CONCLUSION: THE CROSS STANDARD, ALWAYS HELD HIGH

The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa is not just a heroic episode of the past; it is an eternal feat that still resonates in every heart that beats with the blood of faith. Those men, kings and soldiers, knights and peasants, did not march merely toward a battle; they marched toward glory, knowing that defending the cross was the greatest honor they could achieve in life. At Las Navas, it was not only weapons that triumphed, but the spirit. It was the victory of courage, of the truth that burns in the soul, of hearts that, even in the face of death, stood firm, guided by the certainty that fighting for Christ is fighting for all that is worth living for.

Today, the battlefield has changed, but the struggle remains the same. Now it is not with swords of steel but with the sword of truth, the faith that does not bend to error, the courage that defies the world. Each one of us is called to be a warrior of that same militia, to carry the cross standard high, never to retreat in the face of forces that seek to dim the light of faith. As at Las Navas, the enemy may seem immense, but victory always belongs to those who fight with the soul of a soldier of Christ.

Young and old, we are all called to this militia. Let the youthful fervor of those who run into battle ignite our hearts today. We are not mere spectators of history; we are the heirs of those who won glory at Las Navas. And our mission has not changed: to defend the truth, to raise the cross in every corner of our lives, and to remember that the greatest honor is not earthly victory but to fight courageously for what is eternal.

Let the echo of that battle resound in our hearts! May the spirit of the warriors of Las Navas live in us, and may we be worthy of the inheritance they left us: the cross held high, the heart inflamed with faith, and the sword always ready to defend what shall never perish. To battle, with the same strength as those holy and brave men, knowing that victory is already ours, for with Christ at our side, we never lose the war!

OMO

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Jiménez de Rada, Rodrigo. De Rebus Hispaniae (Historia Gótica). Critical edition by Juan Fernández Valverde. Madrid: CSIC, 1987.

• Alfonso X the Wise. Estoria de España. Edited by Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Madrid: Gredos, 1955.

• Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. The Siege of Breda. In Complete Theater. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1970.

• Berceo, Gonzalo de. Miracles of Our Lady. Madrid: Cátedra, 1990.

• Lope de Vega. La Dragontea. In Complete Poems. Madrid: Aguilar, 1960.

• Quevedo, Francisco de. Spain Defended. Madrid: Austral, 1996.

In Spain, the truth is challenged: it is prevented from offering pregnant women to hear the heartbeat of the unborn child before abortion: an infamy

 

In Spain as a result of the so-called Aido Law of 2010, free abortion is allowed at 14 weeks of pregnancy. This law is contrary to the decisions of the Spanish Constitutional Court, which has said that the unborn child embodies a fundamental value: that of human life, constitutionally protected. But that is irrelevant to the electoral calculations of the abundant politicians and henchmen of an alienated, ignorant, hedonistic and consuming citizenry.

Very recently, a case occurred in Spain that eloquently illustrates such a fashion that challenges the truth. The rulers of the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla y Leon issued a protocol to offer mothers the possibility of hearing the heartbeats and seeing echosonogram images of their unborn children, before making the decision to abort in light of the so-called Aido Law that, we insist on, violates the Spanish constitutional principles that protect all human life, including that of the unborn.

When the content of the Castilla y Leon protocol became known, the furies of those who challenged the truth were unleashed, and after unprecedented pressure, the protocol was repealed. It must be clear that said protocol did not impose on mothers listening to said heartbeats and seeing such images, but simply offered them the possibility of doing so as the last opportunity for reflection, discernment, and prudential deliberation, typical of all rational and free human beings.

Hearing the heartbeat of an unborn child, of a human being who lives in the mother’s womb patiently waiting to see the light of day, awakens consciences numbed by perverse ideologies and propaganda, enemies of the truth of things, as was well said recently by a Spanish wise scholar

Seeing images, not of a mass, not of a clot, but of a human person in «transit towards birth», cures blindness and pettiness camouflaged with a legal and moral absurdity: the slogan of a supposed «right» to abort, that is, to murder defenseless human beings, the most vulnerable, as said by a wise man from Spain.

The challengers of the truth at all costs prevent that truth from emerging in the conscience of mothers by listening to the diastole and systole of the little hearts of those who inhabit their blessed wombs, so that the ideology of legalized crime prevails: totalitarianism without precedents. But those same Spanish enemies of life applaud, like seals, that images of blackened lungs, decomposed by smoking, which are reproduced on cigarette packs, in order to discourage smokers in view of the terrible damage to their lungs caused by tobacco.

But the fact that mothers are discouraged from having an abortion when accepting the cited offer, from turning off the heartbeat of a human being forever, is not acceptable, it is something intolerable for the challengers of truth. Pure hypocrisy of those individuals who use double standards at convenience. One defends lungs, the other promotes the annihilation of human hearts that beat defenseless against the evil of the necrophilous world.

It is unfortunate that politicians and followers of the left, center and right in Spain, in Europe as general rule, betray the Christian values that one day gave life and strength to that Europe, to the first parliaments -the first one in Huesca, Spain, before that in England-, later emulated by the nations of the world; that gave life to the first universities, Gothic cathedrals, divine comedies and theological sums, in glorious centuries, the XI, XII and XIII, which encompass the «highest and best civilization of all that history remembers», in words of the brilliant historian Hilaire Belloc, a friend of G. K. Chesterton with whom he fought intellectual struggles in favour of Catholic, universal values in modern England.

Brilliant centuries those of Dante, Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, Louis IX of France, Ferdinand III of Castile, Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, Clare of Assisi. Today Europe is a vile divestiture at the service of the Yankee government, of the imperial hegemony of arms, money, abortion, gender ideology that is ignorant of the truth of the nature of things.

I hope that fresh winds will soon blow from other latitudes to restore Europe, the West, the aging, out-of-date, decadent civilization, with scientific and technological advances that amaze but which at the same time, with unusual frequency, dehumanize, terrify in terms of weapons and eugenic tests to calculatingly supply some of the millions of aborted human beings. It is time to challenge the enemies of the truth with the noble weapons of the spirit, aware that in the end the truth will win the battle.

La Gironda

OCTOBER 7: OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY

• A GREAT DAY FOR CHRISTIANITY!
• WHY IS THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY CELEBRATED ON OCTOBER 7?

All Christian Europe was about to be invaded by the Muslims. Had that been the case, the history of the world would have been completely different. And only God knows what darkness would have invaded all the Christian peoples... just imagine the current persecution in Syria, all Middle East and Africa!

Pope St. Pius V called the Christian nations to form an army to defeat them. Who would command the Christian Armed Forces?!... He celebrated a Mass so that God would illuminate him... and while he was reading the Last Gospel he read ... "there was a man sent from God, whose name was John..." "Heaven has answered," he thought, "Don Juan of Austria, a great man, Christian, soldier, illegitimate son of Charles V, great-grandson of the great Isabel la Católica, would guide the Christian army, infinitely smaller than the Muslim army."

The decisive battle was fought at Lepanto in 1571 ... the enemy forces were far superior, the Pope was praying, the Vatican was wielding the Rosary... and at that moment he had a vision: the Christian army had miraculously won! Christianity had been spared of the invasion that would have ended with all the Christianity in Europe! Thanks to the Holy Rosary!

Therefore, the Pope instituted the Feast of the Holy Rosary on October 7, when the Battle of Lepanto was won.

Let us reflect ... a grandson of Isabel la Católica... the praying of the Holy Rosary...

The year 1571 witnessed "the most memorable and high occasion that the last centuries have witnessed and that future ones may hope to see," said Miguel de Cervantes, the Manco of Lepanto. At the geographical and historical crossroads of the Gulf of Lepanto, Spain, once again provided a decisive battle for the destiny of mankind.

Today we are fighting an even worse battle... we will have to do our part...

For this reason, there is a particular urgency of unity today, when a silent Muslim infiltration is invading Europe, when it is trying to dismember Christianism, when human sacrifices are renewed - through the crime of abortion - in many countries and, paradoxically, in Mexico where Our Lady of Guadalupe came to abolish them, when the Church is occupied - to a great extent - by forces that try to destroy it from the inside, when the dictatorship of relativism invades and numbs consciences, when the family is the target of all the attacks from the infernal forces.

Let us pray our Rosary for our nations during this month, asking for forgiveness for the sins that we commit as a nation, and especially for the abortion. Let us console the heart of Our Lady and strive to eradicate abortion and ban it in our countries.

May God help us all to pray the Holy Rosary with all our hearts, and to do penance so that through the intercession of Our Lady this GREAT BATTLE THAT CHRISTIANITY IS WAGING AGAINST THE DEVIL IS WON.

Catholic Spain

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