On Monday we went to Toledo. It is just 33 minutes on the train from Madrid.

The 13th century High-Gothic cathedral is a very large and impressive repository of Spain’s history. It has five naves as it is built on top of a mosque and needed to match the proportions. In the Chapter-house there are portraits of the archbishops from 120 AD to date. Above is Cardinal Mendoza, installed in 1482. This pious portrait taken from Wikipedia gives a false impression of the great man. I prefer this depiction.

Don Pedro was a cardinal, statesman, warrior and lawyer. He introduced renaissance culture to Spain, implemented the unification of Spain, promoted Christopher Columbus’s voyages. For more than twenty years he presided over the royal council earning himself the sobriquet “The Third King” in the reign of Isabel and Ferdinand; a benevolent Spanish Cardinal Richelieu, France’s 17th century cardinal and priest dubbed “The Red Eminence”. Although if Hollywood films are your history book Spain was unified by Charlton Heston in the role of El Cid. El Cid lived in the 11th century and is admired still as an ideal medieval knight: strong, valiant, loyal, just, and pious.

But I digress. Don Pedro was no role model for those in Holy Orders. He sired three strapping sons by two aristocratic admirers. Queen Isabel looked benevolently on this weakness referring to his children as “the delightful sins of the cardinal”. The Mendozas were the most powerful noble family in Spain in the 15th century. I cannot claim to be a direct descendant through my great, great, great, great grandfather: Josef de Mendoza y Rios. Though I like to think it is probable. In any event when confronted with this bottle at the airport on Tuesday I had two tumblers (courtesy of Iberia) to honour my Spanish ancestors.

“BRANDY DE JEREZ

CARDENAL MENDOZA SOLERA GRAN RESERVA