Conclusion A Perfect Friend Of God

Abstract

This noble queen preserved these things with such zeal and extended the gifts of graces she had received to such an extent, that every age, every sex, every condition, every calling, every people, every tongue would feel deep emotion and, without diminishing her stock of virtues, her deeds of mercy were shared with all. A forward-looking manager of her father’s works, she was found even more generous with the kingdom and affairs than with her virtues. Rightly does our age admire her, of whom no modern age nor our ancestors had the like. For her we pray the Lord that he deign to keep her more richly and grant that her future abound in good deeds, until her spirit may reside in her Redeemer.¹ No one knew more, perhaps, about the ancestors of the kings and queens of Castile and León than Archbishop Rodrigo, and no one would have had a greater appreciation of Berenguela’s lifelong effort to preserve and extend the accomplishments of her lineage, even as she surpassed her ancestors in virtue, generosity, and works of mercy. Having grappled over and again with the problem posed by Berenguela’s actions vis-à-vis expectations about her gender, here Rodrigo finally paints an unambiguous portrait of an ideal queen: Berenguela was endowed with grace and foresight; beloved by all, she was generous and merciful, yet uncompromising in her virtue. She protected the kingdom, her ancestral goods. In this penultimate paragraph of his De rebus Hispanie, Rodrigo closed with a prayer, asking for God’s blessings on her and that she continue in her good ways and deeds.