On the death of the queen in 1504 her son-in-law claimed the regency, and was supported by the Castilian nobles.
He also helped her in quieting Ferdinand, who was chafing under the privileges of the Castilian grandees, and succeeded so well that the king also took him as confessor.
The Cid of history, though falling short of the poetical ideal which the patriotism of his countrymen has so long cherished, is still the foremost man of the heroical period of Spain - the greatest warrior produced out of the long struggle between Christian and Moslem, and the perfect type of the Castilian of the 12th century.
The extinction of the western caliphate and the dispersion of the once noble heritage of the Ommayads into numerous petty independent states, had taken place some thirty years previously, so that Castilian and Moslem were once again upon equal terms, the country being almost equally divided between them.
The moral influence of the queen's personal character over the Castilian court was incalculably great; from the debasement and degradation of the preceding reign she raised it to being "the nursery of virtue and of generous ambition."