The Royal Madness in the "Estoria de España" of Alfonso X the Wise (1252-1284)

Abstract

This article proposes to study the royal madness in the Estoria de España, a chronicle retracing the history of Spain from its origins, written at the end of the 13th century under the aegis of the King of Castile and León, Alfonso X the Wise. In the Middle Ages, the paradigm of madness was clearly codified and referred to a certain number of topics, such as illness, sin, or specific physical attributes, which could concern all categories of the population. Nevertheless, the royal figure is normally excluded from this paradigm because madness and all the disturbances it entails would undermine the very essence of royalty. Strictly speaking, the king can be associated with other forms of misconduct assimilated to insanity, such as sin or divine retribution, but not with mental illness as such. In this context, how does the Estoria de España, which narrates the history of Spain through its kings, reconcile the image of the madness of certain kings - particularly the Roman emperors - inherited from its sources with the conceptions of the 13th century? After a reminder of the conception of madness in the Middle Ages, I analyse the concept of madness under the reign of Alfonso X, through the study of the legal code of the Siete Partidas, and the Estoria de España in order to understand its meaning and function in the narration of historical facts.