Grain © Mark Wade

When Dona Urraca knew that her brother King Don Alfonso had fled to Toledo, she sent to him three good men of the kingdom of Leon, that they should be his counsellors, for she loved him well.

These were Don Pero Ansures, and Don Ferran Ansures, and Don Gonzalo Ansures, all three brethren: and they went with King Don Sancho's permission, for it was God's pleasure.

Now Alimaymon rejoiced in the King Don Alfonso, and loved him as if he had been his own son.

And Don Alfonso made a covenant with him to love him and defend him and serve him always, so long as he should remain with him, and not to depart from him without his leave; and the King covenanted on his side to love him and honour him, and defend him to the utmost of his power.

And Alimaymon ordered fair palaces to be edified for him, by the wall of the Alcazar, on the outer part, that the Moors of the city might do no displeasure neither to him nor to his companions: and they were hard by a garden of the King's, that he might go out and disport himself therein whensoever it pleased him.

And for these things King Don Alfonso loved to serve King Alimaymon.

Nevertheless when he saw the great honour of the King of Toledo, and how powerful he was, and that he was the Lord of so great chivalry, and of the noblest city which had belonged unto the Gothic Kings, from whom he himself was descended, it grieved him in his heart to see that city in the hands of the Moors: and he said within his heart, Lord God and Father Jesus Christ, it is wholly in thy power to give and to take away, and right it is that thy will should be done, even as thou hast done it to me, to whom thou gavest a kingdom, and it was thy will to take it away from me, and thou hast made me come hither to serve the enemies who were at the service of the King my father.

Lord, I put my hope in thee that thou wilt deliver me from this servitude, and give me a land and kingdom to command, and that thou wilt show unto me such favour that this land and this city shall by me be won, that thy holy body may be sacrificed in it to the honour of Christendom.

This prayer he made with great devotion and with many tears; and the Lord God heard him, as hereafter you shall hear in this history.

In those days King Alimaymon was at war with other Moorish Kings his enemies, and King Don Alfonso fought against them on his side, and did such good service that he quelled their power, and they durst no longer offend him.

And in time of peace Don Alfonso and his companions went fowling along the banks of the Tagus, for in those days there was much game there, and venison of all kinds; and they killed venison among the mountains.

And as he was thus sporting he came to a place which is now called Brihuega, and it pleased him well, for it was a fair place to dwell in, and abounded with game, and there was a dismantled castle there, and he thought that he would ask the King for this place.

And he returned to Toledo and asked it of the King, and King Alimaymon gave it him, and he placed there his huntsmen and his fowlers who were Christians, and fortified the place as his own.

And the lineage of these people continued there till Don Juan, the third archbishop of Toledo, enlarged it, and peopled the parish of St. Pedro.