Our Lady's King & Knight San Fernando Play Outline and Scene 1-4 beginning dialogue and sequences (Just beginning) By Fred Martinez & Cathal Gallagher (The co-authors of the successful play "Viva Cristo Rey")

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Aug 13, 2009 — Other plays Gallagher has produced include “Viva Cristo Rey,” about the Mexican Jesuit martyr Blessed Miguel Pro...

San Fernando Play Outline

Scene One 

Narrator: Who drove the Muslims or Moors out of Spain?  Ferdinand and Isabella? They took part in the reconquest. And freed Granada. There was a prince in Castile who paved the way for the reconquest, but received little credit. He would become known as Fernando III. 

Narrator: this is a map of Spain prior to the Advent of Fernando. Points to Spain and Andalusia on the map. Muslim occupied. Compare the map after the conquest. All that remains is Granada. 

Narrator: A little background on Fernando. He was born in 1199 the son of King Alfonso the 9th of Leon and Berenguera of Castile. Bearing area was the daughter of King Alfonso the 8th and when his brother Enrique died was the next in line for the throne of Castile. 

Queen Isabel victory speech: 

After 7 centuries, my husband Fernando named after the greatest Catholic king in history has just completed the longest crusade against  the invaders of our land by defeating the last stronghold of the Moorish enemy in Granada. He and I know that if it wasn't for generations of heroes this day would never have come. I especially remember my great friend and the historian Don F. telling my how my great-great-great-grandfather the saintly King Fernando III and his grandfather were the cornerstone of this day that ending today after 740 years. But without my great-great-great grandmother Queen Berenguera's trust in God's mercy and her giving her son Fernando to Our Lady we  would have completed the 700 crusade for Christ and Christoper Columbus have opened a new world to bring the salvation of Christ.

Two hundred years ago, my great ancestor Donna Berenguera in tears was kissing her son just a boy with a body covered with cruel sores causing him unrelieved torture at the door of death. She made a decision then to take him to the Church of Our Lady of Ona to beg the Blessed Mother for the life of Fernando that saved Spain from the invaders and opened the door to a new world being evangelized  for Christ.

Faded away. 

Berenguera in tears at the church with Fernando lying in front of her and Our Lady of Ona behind him, she cries out: 

Mistress of Heaven, remember that you are the Mother of Mercy! Turn your eyes away from my sin as a queen and consider my sufferings as a mother. I know well the mercy of thy Son. You, my Mother, who suffered these same sorrows help me in my need. The reason for his affliction is the punishment for my sins forgive my sins.

Look, oh Mother at this my son because he's yours and never was it heard that whoever is yours and trust in you was left desolate and unaided. Remember that he is your servant and you must cure him if you desire any service of him. 

Berenguera then is quiet with her hands folded in prayer and her head on her hands and then she looks at her son. The sores are gone and she weeps for joy seeing Fernando sitting up cured and she makes the sign of the cross and says:

Thank you, Mother and Queen of Heaven, for my son sores are gone and he is as unblemished as the day he was born. I can see his soul is changed for I see his eyes now shine with a deep light that is proof that you have accepted him as your son and he has eternally chosen you your Son as his King and you as his Queen. 

My God, You and your most Blessed Mother have condescended to answer my prayers. He is now  your servant and son. 

Fade away.

Scene change and a 10 year old Fernando says to his mother:

Thank you for telling me again how Our Lady of miraculously cured me and you consecrated me to her I thank you for your love for me and I thank Holy Mary for her love for you and me. But most of all I thank the King of Kings, 

Berenguera smiles saying: 

I love you very much but she loves you even more and you are consecrated to her and her Son 

Fernando relies: 

Mother as soon as I become a tall man I will build in my land a very great church and will call it Holy Mary  and when I return for making war against the Moors who have invaded our Land and winning great winning great battles I will retake our invaded land and I will hang all their standards before the altar of our Lady.

The boy Fernando's eyes shined as he as he asks the warrior Archbishop:

Tell again me what happened that day when my grandfather King Alfonso saved Spain from total destruction.

Archbishop Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada: 

Remember what your great grandfather and grandfather faced, the Moors desire to destory the Christian kingdom while raping and taking of our wifes, sisters, and daughters as sex slaves as well as trophy beheadings and massacres that were continual. They cut off the knights head dead or alive and send them to the theirs principle towns of the Muslim empire. Sometimes the skulls and corpses were to huge piles of bloody mass.

With this in mind, what you grandfather with his small Christian army proposed to do was courageous sheer madness when he readied to charge down into a Muslim combined army of over a hundred thousand as his troops seemed ready to crumble. 

I remember the battle was seemingly almost lost, your grandfather shouted, "Archbishop, let you and me die here!" I roared back, "Here you shall defeat the enemy! 

He burst into into the battle-lines where we were about to be defeated and the whole battle turned. Seeing your fearless grandfather, the other three kings rallied their knights, with the Christian of banners of Santiago and Our Lady and broke through the line and the Moors huge army fled or were killed. Spain miraculously by Our Lord and Our Lady was saved  

Berenguera beaming says: 

Your grandfather and the archbishop saved Spain, but Our Lady saved you when you were a boy covered with layers of sores of disease and corruption and you belong to Christ the King through her and you will do great things for her.

Scene change next paragraph 

Berenguera is crying but says to Fernando

My son, all of Castile is in mourning for the death of your grandfather the king yet you do not weep.

Fernando who is 16 years old now it says mother:

 I am sorrowful because grandfather was unlike my father he showed me what it was to be a man and a knight. No one was more wise more valiant and more skilled in battle and yet more loving to his family unto his subject I miss him very much oh Lord and our lady have shown me that I have never known a greater man because by God's grace he raised you and me to put God first what remains of his kingdom now what remains of his kingdom now but the good deeds he did for God in Grace the Justice he administered to the poor and the helpers who he protected his deep and practical faith is All that remains nothing else remains I know with certainty that nothing else mattered grandfather fought the good fight and is gone to enjoy the word he married it 

Berenguera:

Son at the funeral mass after receiving our Lord and holy Communion you seemed a million miles away 

Fernando:

Mother, Jesus Christ spoke to me and I spoke to him I told him that he is my king and I am his Knight who will suffer great labors for him in the wars against the Moors I want to shed my blood for him told him and that of his glorious mother 

Sometime later...

Berenguera:

My son, your uncle's death has put in motion many things your uncle Enrique who is only a boy is under the control of the Count Alvaro family, a family who I fear do not put God first, but will be power 

Fernando:

 I know mother and my distant father who I have not seen since I was a boy is calling for me to go to his kingdom and I must go and leave you and my home and leave you in my home but Jesus Christ redeemed us not in his mother sweetheart arms but in the hard arms of the Cross and his night shall not serve him in any other way

Curtains close and it's some years later

Fernando now a young man of 18 arrives looking for his mother: 

Where is my mother and who will soon be my queen, as I was racing to her I was thinking of how she and Our Lady saved me when I was a boy. I rushed here because I know she will be queen with the death of my uncle Enrique. I'm here to defend her against the approaching traitor Count Alvaro and his army who wants to steal the crown. I want nothing more than to defend her honor, my future queen. 

Berenguera raising Fernando as he kneels in front of her: 

You must be very tired, but it's not the time for rest. Kings and queens must not live for themselves. We must be on our way to the city of Palencia for the Cortes to decide the succession of the crown.

The Cortez, St Mary's church. In attendance members of the Cortez, nobles, Dona Berenguera of Castile, Berenguera, Don Lopez De Haro, an Archbishop Ximenez. Cheers from the assembly they proclaimed Dona Berenguera Queen of Castile.

Archbishop Ximenez approaches Dona Berenguera seated on the throne. He whispers to her. The Archbishop exits. 

Dona Berenguera: I have an announcement to make to the Cortez. I have just found out my son arrived from Leon. I would like him to hear what I have to say. 

Enter Archbishop Ximenez with Fernando. Cheers and applause. 

Scene 3 

Nobleman and knights present in this church. I am grateful for the honor bestowed upon me this day. However my reign as Queen will be short. Therefore let it be known with your consent and witness I intend to renounce my claim to the throne of Castile. A prolonged applause

Scene 4 

Dona Berenguera and Fernando exit to the outer chamber along with Don Lope De Haro.

Fernando: Do you have their support? 

Dona Berenguera: Except for a few nobles.

Fernando: I don't want them harmed. 

Dona Berenguera: They won't be. 

De Haro: Someone else seeks the throne. 

Fernando: Who? (Long silence)

 

Dona Berenguera: Your own father. 

To be continued....

Scene 5 page 73

Narrator: Fernando was overwhelmingly proclaimed King of Castile. He was 18 years of age. He promise to honor the laws of Castile and to fight for Spain so he could give it to Christ the Lord.

Scene 6 

Narrator: the first order of business was to deal with his father Alfonso the 9th. Send him a letter saying he would not fight him but was enraged he would send an army against his own son. Read the letter. And it worked. Alfonso Express his regret and retired from the field.

Narrator. The first engagement against the Moors was the battle of Quesado. pages 116 to 119. Great victory. After the battle possible dialogue between Fernando and Gonzalo Ruiz explores scaling the walls of Quesado. Dialogue in presence of Dona Berenguera.

Scene 7. 

Dona Berenguera makes statement to nobles on Fernando's fake. It is no ordinary Faith but a faith that can achieve the impossible. It is due to Fernando's life of prayer he believes God is with them in every battle.

Scene 8. 

Surrender of King Muhammad of breza. Page 114. Muhammad comes to visit Fernando. Gonzalo Ruiz is uneasy. Maybe a trap. Some dialogue here.

Scene 9.

Fernando planning his next campaign. The Battle of Jean. Page 125. Speaks to his knights, warriors, etc. they include Don Lope Deharo., Gonzalo Ruiz. His younger brother Don Alfonso.

Scene 10. Page 98 

Dona Berenguera interrupts. Ask to speak to Fernando alone. They meet in another room. Compliments her son on his achievement in battle and in castillo. But if he dies the kingdom might descend into chaos. Fernando. "The answer is to provide an heir." You have someone in mind. Dona Berenguera. Exactly. Fernando. You have someone in mind. Dona Berenguera. Her name is Princess Beatrice and she's on her way here. Fernando. What a remarkable coincidence.

Scene 11. 

Narrator. Battle of Jaen. Priegos and Loja. See page 129 for betrayal by Muslims who negotiated surrender. It enraged fernando. Good dialogue here.

Scene 12. 

The capture of Cordoba. Buy a much smaller Christian force. Chapter 18. Starting page 213. Perhaps the greatest miracle of all. Please should probably end here. Fernando's greatest achievement. The defeat of Idn HUD.

End of outline.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Research:

Saint Fernando III Page 312:

"Queen and Mother of Mercy, help me!" Fernando beheld... the Virgin's head inclined slightly toward him...  the lips of the statue moved and a delicate smile...

Just beginnings of Play: The Battles of the Queen Mother, her Son the Saint & Knighted King who was consecrated to the Queen of Heaven By Fred Martinez

St. Ferdinand III

Three Act Play about King St. Fernando III

By Fred Martinez

Ten year old Fernando lying in bed dying with repulsive sores.

Berenguera says in tears to three knights and three ladies: 

Help me to take Fernando to the Church of Our Lay of Ona because death is looming over him.

At the church with Fernando lying in front of her and Our Lady of Ona behind him, Berengurea cries out: 

Mistress of Heaven, remember that you are the Mother of Mercy! Turn your eyes away from my sin as a queen and consider my sufferings as a mother. I know well the mercy of thy Son. You, my Mother, who suffered these same sorrows help me in my need. The reason for his affliction is the punishment for my sins forgive my sins.

Look, oh Mother at this my son because he's yours and never was it heard that whoever is yours and trust in you was left desolate and unaided. Remember that he is your servant and you must cure him if you desire any service of him. 

Berenguera then is quiet with her hands folded in prayer and her head on her hands and then she looks at her son. The sores are gone and she weeps for joy seeing Fernando sitting up cured and she makes the sign of the cross and says:

Thank you, Mother and Queen of Heaven, for my son sores are gone and he is as unblemished as the day he was born. I can see his soul is changed for I see his eyes now shine with a deep light that is proof that you have accepted him as your son and he has eternally chosen you your Son as his King and you as his Queen. 

He is now your servant and son. 

Scene change and a 10 year old Fernando says to his mother:

Thank you for telling me again how Our Lady of miraculously cured me and you consecrated me to her I thank you for your love for me and I thank Holy Mary for her love for you and me. But most of all I thank the King of Kings, 

Berenguera smiles saying: 

I love you very much but she loves you even more and you are consecrated to her and her Son 

Fernando relies: 

Mother as soon as I become a tall man I will build in my land a very great church and will call it Holy Mary  and when I return for making war against the Moors who have invaded our Land and winning great winning great battles I will retake our invaded land and I will hang all their standards before the altar of our Lady.

The boy Fernando's eyes shined as he as he asks the warrior Archbishop:

Tell again me what happened that day when my grandfather King Alfonso saved Spain from total destruction.

Archbishop Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada: 

Remember what your great grandfather and grandfather faced, the Moors desire to destory the Christian kingdom while raping and taking of our wifes, sisters, and daughters as sex slaves as well as trophy beheadings and massacres that were continual. They cut off the knights head dead or alive and send them to the theirs principle towns of the Muslim empire. Sometimes the skulls and corpses were to huge piles of bloody mass.

With this in mind, what you grandfather with his small Christian army proposed to do was courageous sheer madness when he readied to charge down into a Muslim combined army of over a hundred thousand as his troops seemed ready to crumble. 

I remember the battle was seemingly almost lost, your grandfather shouted, "Archbishop, let you and me die here!" I roared back, "Here you shall defeat the enemy! 

He burst into into the battle-lines where we were about to be defeated and the whole battle turned. Seeing your fearless grandfather, the other three kings rallied their knights, with the Christian of banners of Santiago and Our Lady and broke through the line and the Moors huge army fled or were killed. Spain miraculously by Our Lord and Our Lady was saved  

Berenguera beaming says: 

Your grandfather and the archbishop saved Spain, but Our Lady saved you when you were a boy covered with layers of sores of disease and corruption and you belong to Christ the King through her and you will do great things for her.

Scene change next paragraph 

Berenguera is crying but says to Fernando

My son, all of Castile is in mourning for the death of your grandfather the king yet you do not weep.

Fernando who is 16 years old now it says mother:

 I am sorrowful because grandfather was unlike my father he showed me what it was to be a man and a knight. No one was more wise more valiant and more skilled in battle and yet more loving to his family unto his subject I miss him very much oh Lord and our lady have shown me that I have never known a greater man because by God's grace he raised you and me to put God first what remains of his kingdom now what remains of his kingdom now but the good deeds he did for God in Grace the Justice he administered to the poor and the helpers who he protected his deep and practical faith is All that remains nothing else remains I know with certainty that nothing else mattered grandfather fought the good fight and is gone to enjoy the word he married it 

Berenguera:

Son at the funeral mass after receiving our Lord and holy Communion you seemed a million Miles away 

Fernando:

Mother, Jesus Christ spoke to me and I spoke to him I told him that he is my king and I am his Knight who will suffer great labors for him in the wars against the Moors I want to shed my blood for him told him and that of his glorious mother 

Sometime later...

Berenguera:

My son, your uncle's death has put in motion many things your uncle Enrique who is only a boy is under the control of the Count Alvaro family, a family who I fear do not put God first, but will be power 

Fernando:

 I know mother and my distant father who I have not seen since I was a boy is calling for me to go to his kingdom and I must go and leave you and my home and leave you in my home but Jesus Christ redeemed us not in his mother sweetheart arms but in the hard arms of the Cross and his night shall not serve him in any other way

Curtains close and it's some years later

Fernando now a young man of 18 looks at his mother: 

My mother and who will soon be my queen, as I was racing to you I was thinking of how you and Our Lady saved me when I was a boy. I rushed here because I know you will be queen with the death of uncle Enrique. I'm here to defend you against the approaching traitor Count Alvaro and his army who wants to steal the crown. 

Fernando kneeling at her feet:  

I want nothing more than to defend your honor, my future queen. 

Berenguera raising Fernando: 

You must be very tired, but it's not the time for rest. Kings and queens must not live for themselves. We must be on our way to the city of Palencia for the Cortes to decide the succession of the crown.

Berengueera after they arrive at the Cortes and she says in front of the assembly of nobles and clergy: 

I renounced the throne in favor of her son you must  proclaimed him king with Fernando looking shocked. 

After hearing of Fernando being proclaimed king. King Alfonso who is Fernando's father and was Berenquera's husband until their marriage annulled by the pope because they were cousins and after hearing of Count Alvaro's revolt decided to invade Castile also saying:

What does it matter if a handful of nobles did make Berenquera their queen? I was her husband and will take what is should be mine with my army. [Fitzhenry page 70]

Fernando: The army of my father and the traitor Alvoro are surrounding León. I will deal withe traitor, but I will not fight my father. Archbishop Ximénez de la Rada this parchment I give to you to take to my father to 

In the next scene, the Archbishop reads the letter to Fernando's father:

“Lord Father King of León, Don Alfonso, my Lord: What rage is this? Why do you wage war and harm me, when I do not deserve it? It seems that my well-being makes you sad. Rather, you should be very happy to have your son the King of Castile, for it is to your honor. There is not a ruler, Christian or Moor, that would dare come to me with a plan to do you harm. And what is the reason for this rage? You should remember, that it was you who attacked, and now we have two large opposing armies in the field and, normally, any king in such a position as yours should expect an all-out attack from us. But I cannot strike at you because you are my father and my lord. So, I am prepared to sit here and suffer with my troops until you come to your senses.”

King listens with a grim face and says: 

“Archbishop, you will tell the King of Castile that the war is due to the fact that he has not paid the ten thousand maravedis that King Don Henry had promised me in exchange for Santibañez.”

Picture of San Fernando:

Painting of Alfonso IX de León by José María Rodríguez de Losada.

Archbishop: “I assure you, Lord King, that this sum will be paid to you very quickly because Ximénez de la Rada. I know well the King Don Ferdinand my lord. I am certain that if he has not yet done it, it is because he has had no knowledge of it.”

“If that is the case,” concluded the King of León, “there will be no difficulty on my part for peace; and I will name the archbishop of Santiago, along with the bishops of Zamora and Astorga, to negotiate it.” [https://nobility.org/2014/10/king-st-ferdinand-endures-war-from-his-father-part-3/] 

(When the Archbishop returned with the peace treaty for Fernando to sign with his father He found that Fernando had been in prayer in the tent the day he had been gone entreating Our Lady to bring peace)

Virgin of the Battles, at the Cathedral of Seville. Photo by Jose Luis Filpo Cabana. This ivory statue went with St. Ferdinand in all of his warlike undertakings. He carried the Image, set in his saddle horn.

Next scene, Archbishop, who had the most authority, approached the tapestry dividing the tent of the king and called, “Lord!

Fernando (who heard him and turned abruptly as he looked at Our Lady with an expression of love with blood on the ground from his scourging which he did as reparation for his and the sins of his father as well as his ancestors) said:

I know well, Lady, that whatever I entrust to thee will never fail. You, Archbishop, and your companions, have rendered me a greater service than I have asked of you; it would have been very wrong and a terrible example for a son to wage war against his father. Glory be to God and His glorious Mother!

Fernando: Yes mother with all my being I want to punish Alvaro for the evil he has done to you and our kingdom but our suffering Lord Jesus Christ King of Kings came to me and said he wishes me to spare the count he said it would be a it would not be a sin to put him to death, but come to myself and He asked me to forgive him.

B: My son are you troubled 

Fernando: My mother and my queen after the Queen of heaven you are the greatest benefits and it angers me to count on who is not who is not only who was not only guilty of murder and treason but he has slandered you and tried to destroy you it is only just that he should be punished with death for his crimes 

B: I can see that punish them for his many crimes is not what troubles you. 

Fernando: Yes I am going to forgive him for the Lord but yet I I am worried that my forgiveness will be seen by our subjects as weakness of a young king of 18 who cannot carry out his duty his duties 

B: My advice is what the Queen of heaven said at the wedding piece of Cayman do whatever he tells you 

Fernando: Yes mother I know he will probably betray me and only stop trying to harm me at his death but I fear neither him nor my enemies as long as my God and my Lord is on my side vanquish my passion that my enemies can be vanquished 

B: I predict that the count will be trade your clemency and will again be defeated and at his death he will humbly repent of his infamy and you will win a soul for Christ and his mother and I will supply the needs for his Christian burial in forgiveness for our enemy for love of our Lord and our lady

One year later, Fernando who loved and reverenced his mother as a saintly and wise woman turning to her said:

I needed your prayers and wisdom to govern as Our Queen in Heaven want me this last year to get our kingdom to be safe and lawful, but now I need you to take over administrative duties so I can on put on my armour, grip my sword and ride forth to free Spain of the invaders who destroy our churches and make sex slaves of our captured woman.  

Berenguera: I agree that that is what the King of Kings to calling you to do, but first you need to marry, give Castile a heir and formally become a knight.  

To be continued..