"Alfonso X (1221-1284) reigned as king of Castile and Leon from 1252 until his death. Known to history as El Sabio, the Wise, or the Learned, his appreciation for science and the arts led him to sponsor a number of books on the history of Spain since its Roman settlement. Among them were the Cantigas & Santa Maria, a collection of over four hundred poems exalting his favorite patron saint, Mary, and chronicles of all the kings of Castile and Leon, Navarre, Aragon, and Portugal.".

"Alfonso X died before his own life could be written. His was a reign fraught with political intrigue and double crosses, almost constant war and equally constant diplomacy, royal largesse and economic instability - all of which led to open revolt and efforts by Alfonso's own son to depose the king." "It would be another sixty-some years before King Alfonso XI would commission Fernan Sanchez de Valladolid to write Cronica de Alfonso X to memorialize his great-grandfather."--BOOK JACKET.