MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 169 



There was one, the marriage of Alfonso VI., that was distinctly 

 bad, as its average value was incapable as well as vicious. The re- 

 maining one introduced mostly poor stock but had a small element 

 of goodness in it. I refer to the marriage of John the First of Castile. 

 Half the pedigree of Henry II. of Transtama and of Alfonso VI. 

 are uncertain for different reasons, as will appear. 



Beginning now with the most ancient times let us take up the 

 character of each sovereign and discuss the effect on the breed of 

 blood introduced in the marriage of each. Sancho I. by his courage 

 and mental and physical energy extended his dominion in all direc- 

 tions. He reduced important fortresses on both banks of the Ebro, 

 recovered Eioja and conquered the country from Tudela to Najera, 

 Tarragona and Agreda, and the mountain districts surrounding the 

 sources of the Duero. He was also prudent and pious by nature and 

 his conquests were retained throughout his life by the wisdom of his 

 acts. He died in 994. 



Sancho married Urraca, daughter of Ferdinand, belonging to 

 the same stock. They had a son Garcias, called 'the Trembler,' about 

 whom little is known with certainty except that he won battles and 

 apparently he was a successful warrior. The name of 'Trembler' 

 was applied to him because before battle, as he himself put it, 'My 

 body trembles before the danger to which my courage is about to 

 expose it.' The pedigree of his wife, Ximenia, is unknown to me, 

 but from this time on to the present, the descent of the female side 

 can be shown with very satisfactory completeness, and it is these 

 pedigrees which show that qualities were infused in the stock all the 

 way down the line, sufficient to keep up the elements of greatness 

 which never ran out in Spain until the death of the Emperor Charles 

 Quint. After this the worst possible unions were made, and then 

 Spain fell. 



Sancho III., who died in 1035, was the son of the 'Trembler.' 

 He must have had great ability for war and government, as he made 

 himself the most powerful prince of his age and country. He mar- 

 ried jSTunnia, the heiress of Castile, who belonged to a powerful 

 family. He held what he got by inheritance and marriage and even 

 extended his dominions by conquest. He was called 'the Major,' or 

 'the Great.' 



Sancho III. was followed by his son, Ferdinand I. He had high 

 abilities and virtues and made himself the most powerful among 

 many monarchs in Spain. He also is called in history 'the Great.' 

 He married a daughter of Alfonso V. of Leon, a successful soldier and 

 ruler and the son of the valiant Bermudo II., who had won distinc- 

 tion by defeating the Moors. 



