Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/179

Rh Sancho's reign was short, lasting only eleven years. During the life of the queen mother, she exercised, as we have said, a beneficial influence, but after her death the reign of the feeble Ferdinand IV. was one long list of disasters. Some may wonder why Ferdinand should have been so weak, but as many of his immediate ancestors were far from being endowed with vigorous minds, of course he had a chance to get qualities from the poorer of them. He did repeat the cruel, passionate and tyrannical disposition to perfection, but no one appears to have paid any attention to his wishes.

Now again when the mental qualities are threatened we find them brilliantly restored. Constantine, the wife of Ferdinand, was just the one to effect this, as a glance at the chart will show. It is interesting to see Alfonso X., the scholar and poet, again in his grandson Diniz of Portugal, in another country and in another day where probably no influence of environment could come into play. Alfonso was the first and he was the second royal personage who was also a man of letters. The issue of this union was another one of the heroes of old Castile, Alfonso II., who succeeded to the throne in 1312, when only one year old; grew to be a great warrior against the Moors, and taking after his maternal grandmother possessed a large share of prudence and virtue, some of the rarer characteristics of his tribe. As an example of the respect felt for him even by his enemies the following may suffice: The Moorish king of Granada is said to have exclaimed when he heard of Alfonso's death, 'We have lost the best king in the world—one who knew how to honor the worthy, whether friend or foe.' This eulogy is, however, somewhat offset by the evidence that he was extremely cruel at times.

It is now to be noted that there are an unusual number in the pedigree of Alfonso, who have the adjective cruel or some other designation of depravity attached to them. Now a close intermarriage here will undoubtedly give rise to some of those great and valiant qualities, courage, energy and ability in the leadership of men, which were possessed by some, though not by all these royal lords and dames. There is a fair chance that the literary or possibly the pious and amiable qualities may reappear. But such a close intermarriage would be a hazardous one to say the least.

Let us take a survey of the pedigree of Alfonso XL in order to see what proportionate amount of cruelty and depravity there is in the ancestry of each succeeding generation.

In five degrees of kinship back of Ferdinand II. (d. 1187) we find three such, among the nine persons whose records were obtainable. In the same degree for Alfonso IX. there were only two among the nine. Ferdinand III. (d. 1252), who represents the next