ABSTRACT

The coming of the friars to the Iberian Peninsula in the thirteenth century caused a dramatic transformation not only in spiritual perceptions but also in temporal matters such as politics, economy, social relations and the intellectual world. The energetic expansion of the mendicant friars, however, was limited neither to Christian territories nor to the immediate frontier. The friars traveled with the royal armies and served as chaplains. With the reunification of Castile-Leon, the conquest of Andalusia and the Castilianization of the south, thirteenth-century Castilian monarchs were ready to implement a more authoritarian rule which concluded in the concentration of more power. Within this context of close contact between monarchy, papacy and mendicants, King Ferdinand III's well-known, though poorly documented, ceremonial entrance into Seville took place weeks after the city was captured from Almohad power on November 23, 1248. Mendicant churches were frequently the meeting places of the patricians and magnates.