Two Weddings and a Funeral: Alfonso X's Monuments in Burgos

The cloister portal of Burgos cathedral has always been recognized as one of the masterpieces of Spanish gothic art. And yet its sculptures and reliefs have never been satisfactorily explained. That is probably because its relationship to the rayonnant cloister behind it has not been taken into consideration, nor the events celebrated by that cloister. It is this paper's contention that the sculptures found on the wall beyond the portal represent the 1219 wedding of Fernando III and Beatrix of Swabia in Burgos cathedral, that the fruits of their marriage may be seen in the four crowned youths who stand on the opposite pier, and that all of them exemplify the catechesis on Christian royal marriage proposed in the portal by figures showing Christ's ancestors, incarnation, and baptism. It is also suggested here that Alfonso X, son of Fernando and Beatrix, commissioned the cloister as a didactic venue for the wedding of his son Fernando and his descendants; that King Alfonso arranged this second royal marriage to take place in Burgos on the fiftieth anniversary of the first, at the very same place and on the very same day; and, finally, that that the untimely demise of Infante Fernando, before he could inherit the Crown, skewed the cloister's initial purpose and caused its meaning to be forgotten. The incidents related to the infante's funeral, interment, and tomb in Las Huelgas reveal how reality displaced the history Alfonso X had dreamed for his son and for his lineage.