A murderous mother foiled

QUESTION What was the function of the Monteros de Espinosa, pictured in Bruegel’s Tower Of Babel? In AROUND AD 1008, the Monteros de Espinosa, the oldest bodyguard unit of royal guards in Europe, was formed. The tale of their creation is a mix of historical fact and legend.

Count Sancho García (died 1017) lived in San Esteban, while his Moorish opponent, Prince Mahomad Almohadio, lived in Gormaz.

Mahomad had an affair with the count’s mother, Aba, who colluded with him to poison her own son. The countess planned to signal THE winner of our £10,000 Christmas Eve Word Search is B. Thomson, of Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, who correctly identified the missing word as PARSNIPS. the success of her plot by throwing straw into the Duero river.

Overhearing the treacherous plan, Aba’s maid, Cobigera, asked her husband Sancho, the count’s major-domo (chief steward of his household), to warn him — and the plot was successfully foiled.

As a reward, the count established the Corps of Monteros of Espinosa, with a generous salary and land for the major-domo. Mr D. Allen, Nerja, Spain. QUESTION Is the Trappist vow of silence a myth? OnE chap joined a Trappist order where the rule was that only four words could be spoken every five years to the abbot, on the anniversary of joining the monastery.

On the first occasion, the monk said: ‘ I hate the food.’ The second time, he said: ‘My bed is uncomfortable.’ The third time, after 15 years, he said: ‘I want to leave.’

The abbot said: ‘Thank God for that. You’ve done nothing but moan ever since you got here.’

Brian Gregory, Wheathampstead, Herts.