Overview
Valladolid is an important Castilian city with associations with some of the most notable figures in Spanish history. Situated in the northwestern Meseta, a flattish elevated region watered by the Duero and Pisuergra rivers (the city grew up along the banks of the latter), from the earliest times this area became agriculturally significant. Much more heavily wooded then, it was an ancient hunting ground for the Iberians but the Romans began a more settled way of life based on the cultivation of wheat and vines.
Little is known of the period 450-900 AD except that the Duero river was one of the de facto boundaries between Muslim Spain and the emergent Christian states of Asturias and Leon. The area was a trading crossroads (See Notes en route), its situation ideal for the gathering of peoples from the north, the west and the centre and one which became strategically more important after the battle of Simancas in 939. This Christian victory over the Caliph Abd al Rahman III pushed the boundary further to the south and led to the fortification of the region, which in itself gave us the name Castilla, or land of castles. It was inevitable that a city of size should develop hereabouts since it was approximately half way between Salamanca and Burgos (or the latter and Zamora) and it straddled one of the major ‘sheep walks of the Mesta’ or shepherds’ guild.
The origin of the name is uncertain – Valle de Lid (vale of conflict) or Belad Walid (Arabic for fatherland) are both proposed as is the Latin Vallum Ludorum, indicating a Roman fort where the soldiery played games on the ramparts What is recorded however, is that the town was granted by Alfonso VI of Castilla y Leon to his supporter El Conde de Ansurez in 1072, upon the monarch’s coronation. Ansurez raised it to the status of municipality and embellished it while all around great castles began to appear as custodians of the campina. Penafiel, Simanca(s), Fuensaldana and La Mota have all through the years played a role in Castilian and Spanish history.
In 1219 Fernando el Santo (III) was crowned at Valladolid with his wife, Beatrice of Swabia, whom the Spanish called Berenguela. In the late 13th/early 14th centuries, during the Regency of Maria de Molina, widow of Sancho IV, the city superseded Burgos as capital of the Castilian Cortes.
In the 15th century Castilla was beset by civil war but as the seat of the court Valladolid grew into a centre of learning, particularly associated with el Condestable (Constable) Alvaro de Luna, the favourite of Juan II, who, before his untimely death in 1454, introduced to Castilla and its language – the Romances of Dante and Bocaccio.
In 1506 at No. 2 Calle de la Ancha (now known as Calle Colon) died the man to whom all (white) inhabitants of the New World owe their nationality: Cristobal Colon – Columbus. The house is now preserved as a
museum. (In 1536 his body was transferred to Santo Domingo, in 1795 to Cuba and returned to Spain – to Seville Cathedral – in 1899).
In 1527 Philip II – creator of El Escorial and launcher of the Armada – was born in Pimenteles Palace to his father Carlos I (Charles V) and Isabel of Portugal. He always adored the city of his birth and, despite celebrating his assumption of the Spanish throne in 1556 with an ‘auto-de-fe’ in the city’s Plaza Mayor, he greatly embellished it. (Passing by, and being begged for mercy by one of the ‘heretics’, he riposted ‘If my own son were a heretic like you I would gladly carry the wood to burn him’. The cathedral, begun in the year of the king’s birth, was initiated by Riano, continued by Ontanon but, half-completed, was pulled down by Herrera who recommenced in a ‘less ostentatious style’. No sooner had he committed his formidable skills to the project than he was taken off and given the commission of El Escorial. As a result the cathedral remained unfinished until the 18th, most of it being the work of Churriguera. Technically speaking, it is still incomplete!
When in 1561, Philip declared Madrid to be the capital, thus dishing the competing claims of both Toledo and Valladolid; the latter fell into a long decline.
Cervantes lived in the city during the reign of Philip III when, apparently, he was called upon to contribute some verses for the christening of the future Philip IV in 1606, which was the occasion for a great fiesta in Valladolid, attended by the English ambassador, Lord Howard. (After the Armada this was the rapprochement). The house in which the author of Don Quijote lived is now a museum, too (Calle de Rastro, 11) Later this event was satirised by Gongora. Another child of Phillip III, Anne of Austria, was also born in the city; she later married the Dauphin of France and her son became Louis XIV, one of whose major political goals was the union of France and Spain under the Bourbon family. (Juan Carlos I de Borbon y Borbon).
In 1809, during the Peninsula war, Napoleon stayed 11 days in Valladolid; after the battle of Salamanca in 1812, the city was relieved by the Duke of Wellington. In 1817 one of Spain’s most celebrated poets – Zorrilla – was born her. (Museum in Calle de Fray Luis de Granada).
Valladolid is a city with a magnificent heritage but which today, despite the modern aspect of much of it, is fascinating for what it was, not for what it is (H.V.Morton)
En Route: Salamanca – Valladolid Tordesillas
The famous treaty dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal was signed here in 1494. In order to avoid conflict between the 2 Iberian powers, Pope Alexander VI (of the famous Borja or Borgia family) mediated and decided between them in this way: all land in the ‘New World’ (which was then believed to be the other side of Asia) that fell west of a line of longitude 370 degrees from the Cape Verde islands became
Spanish while east of this line was Portuguese. Thus Brazil was allotted to Portugal. These were very arbitrary calculations and, were
declared before Vespucci had mapped the new continent. Also at the same time and place the Pope bestowed the title of Catholic Kings on Ferdinand and Isabel. Furthermore, from 1506, the fortified convent of Santa Clara at Tordesillas was the residence of their mad daughter. Juana La Loca, who survived until 1553. Her son was the emperor Charles V of Austria and Carlos I of Spain.
Medina Del Campo
At the ‘City of the Plain’ great agricultural and commercial fairs were held from the 13th century on. Isabel la Catolica died nearby, at Castillo la Mota, in 1504.