El Caballero de Dios y la muy noble reina: María de Molina's patronage of the Libro del Caballero Zifar

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the political discourses on chivalry and gender in Libro del Caballero Zifar and provides textual evidence in support of the theory that María de Molina was an original patron of this anonymous work from the cathedral school of Toledo. Using the portrait of the queen in the prologue as a point of departure, this study explores the intertextuality of Libro del Caballero Zifar and contemporary royal chronicles, elucidating the manner in which the political discourse of the former supports the political propaganda of the latter, ultimately creating a legitimizing discourse for María de Molina's rule as queen of Castile-León at the turn of the fourteenth century.

KEYWORDS:

• Cathedral school of Toledo
• Libro del Caballero Zifar
• María de Molina
• patronage
• Fernán Sánchez de Valladolid

Notes

1. In this study I understand chivalric discourse to be synonymous with political discourse. See Rodríguez Velasco for an explanation of this relation between chivalry and politics in medieval Castilian literature (168).

2. For further discussion of this phenomenon in modern historiography, see Earenfight (1–12).

3. Although Benavides denies that CFIV gives credence to the legend of the emplazamiento of Fernando IV by the Carvajales brothers, the fact that the events of the emplazamiento and the timeline that coincides with that legend are included in the chronicle suggests otherwise (Benavides 686–96; CFIV 169).

4. The expression “la (muy) noble reina” is used very frequently throughout Sánchez de Valladolid's chronicles to refer to María, especially in CFIV (103, 104, 110, 111, 119); Zifar is the descendant of the disgraced King Tared and María of the revered Queen Berenguela.

5. For a discussion on the topics of upward mobility, nobility, and inheritance in LCZ, see Cacho Blecua and Rodríguez-Velasco.