Contents: Preface; By way of introduction: the Spanish Middle Ages and the 19th century; A papal legation and its aftermath: Cardinal John of Abbeville in Spain and Portugal, 1228-1229; Dates and doubts about don Lucas; Don Rodrigo and the government of the kingdom; Don Juan de Soria: unas apostillas; Juan de Soria: the chancellor as chronicler; the case of the impugned chirograph and the juristic culture of early thirteenth-century Zamora; Columpna firmissima: D. Gil Torres, the cardinal of Zamora; La conquista de Sevilla y los historiadores; The king's touch and the dean's ministrations: aspects of sacral monarchy; "Quedam de quibus dubitans": on preaching the crusade in Alfonso X's Castile; The invention of Toledo; El cuatro de mayo de 1282; A misattributed tomb and its implications: Cardinal Ordoño Ãlvarez and his friends and relations (with M. Torres Sevilla); The English mission of Cardinal Petrus Hispanus, the Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, and news from Castile at Carlisle (1307); Patronage and indebtedness: Portugal, Castile and the papal court around the year 1300; Fiat A; the earliest known roll of petitions signed by the pope (1307), with P.N.R. Zutshi); Index.