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72-594: Alfonso XI (11 August 1311 – 26 March 1350), called the Avenger ( el Justiciero ), was King of Castile and León . He was the son of Ferdinand IV of Castile and his wife Constance of Portugal . Upon his father's death in 1312, several disputes ensued over who would hold regency, which were resolved in 1313. Once Alfonso was declared an adult in 1325, he began a reign that would serve to strengthen royal power. Born on 13 August 1311 in Salamanca , he

144-623: A march on the eastern frontier of the Kingdom of Asturias , protected by castles, towers , or castra , in a territory formerly called Bardulia . The County of Castile, bordered in the south by the northern reaches of the Spanish Sistema Central mountain system, was just north of modern-day Madrid province. It was re-populated by inhabitants of Cantabria , Asturias , Vasconia and Visigothic and Mozarab origins. It had its own Romance dialect and customary laws. From

216-510: A coup. One of the rewards he was given by a sultan of Granada was the famous ruby, a reward for killing an usurper, that is now in the crown of England, brought back by The Black Prince of England along with Peter I's surviving two daughters (Constance and Isabella of Castile, who were legitimized). Not all of Peter's reputation comes from the works of the chronicler Pero López de Ayala , who after his father's change of allegiance had little choice but to serve Peter's usurper. After time passed, there

288-440: A key part of the religion. These new ideas enabled the amassing and translation of Greek concepts to disseminate like never before. During the 12th century, Europe enjoyed great advances in intellectual achievements, sparked in part by the kingdom of Castile's conquest of the great cultural center of Toledo (1085). There Arabic classics were discovered, and contacts established with the knowledge and works of Muslim scientists. In

360-646: A long time. One of Bertrand's men said 'This is your enemy.' But King Henry asked if it was he and King Peter said twice, 'I am he, I am he.' Then King Henry recognized him and hit him in the face with a knife and they ... fell to the ground. King Henry struck him again and again." Having dispatched his half-brother, Henry left Peter's body unburied for three days, during which time it was subjected to ridicule and abuse. From The Monk's Tale O noble, O worthy PETRO, glorie OF SPAYNE, Whom Fortune heeld so hye in magestee, Wel oughten men thy pitous death complayne! Out of thy land thy brother made thee flee, And after, at

432-782: A military campaign against Granada in 1319 at the Disaster of the Vega , which left Dowager Queen María as the only regent until her death on 1 July 1321. Alfonso inherited the throne at a time of instability within the region, decline in populations, reductions in the royal treasury and increasingly ambitious regents caused numerous problems during his young reign. After the death of the Infantes John and Peter in 1319, Philip (son of Sancho IV and María de Molina, thus brother of Infante Peter), Juan Manuel (the king's second-degree uncle by virtue of being Ferdinand III's grandson) and Juan

504-536: A pale complexion, blue eyes and very light blonde hair; he was 1.83 metres (6 ft 0 in) tall and muscular. He was accustomed to long, strenuous hours of work, lisped a little and "loved women greatly". He was well read and a patron of the arts, and in his formative years he enjoyed entertainment, music and poetry. He was to be married to his contemporary Joan , the second and favourite daughter of King Edward III of England ; however, on their way to Castile she and her retinue travelled through cities infested with

576-467: A period of anti-Jewish riots and forced conversions in Castile that lasted approximately from 1370 to 1390. Peter took forceful measures against this, including the execution of at least five anti-Jewish leaders of a riot. The prominence of Samuel ha-Levi , King Peter's treasurer, has often been cited as evidence of Peter's supposed pro-Jewish sentiment, but Ha-Levi's success did not necessarily reflect

648-411: A permanent capital (neither did Spain until the 16th century), so the cortes were celebrated in whichever city the king chose to stay. In the earliest Leonese and Castilian Cortes, the inhabitants of the cities (known as "laboratores") formed a small group of the representatives and had no legislative powers, but they were a link between the king and the general population, something that was pioneered by

720-477: A personal union, creating for the first time since the 8th century a single political unit, referred to as España (Spain) . "Los Reyes Católicos" started policies that diminished the power of the bourgeoisie and nobility in Castile, and greatly reduced the powers of the Cortes (General Courts) to the point where they became rubber-stamps for the monarch's acts. They also brought the nobility to their side. In 1492,

792-460: A reduced Castile. In 931 the county was reunified by Count Fernán González , who rose in rebellion against the Kingdom of León , successor state to Asturias, and achieved an autonomous status, allowing the county to be inherited by his family instead of being subject to appointment by the Leonese king. The minority of Count García Sánchez led Castile to accept Sancho III of Navarre , married to

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864-422: A seege, by subtiltee, Thou were bitraysed and lad unto his tente, Where as he with his owene hand slow thee, Succedynge in thy regne and in thy rente. Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales Popular memory generally views King Peter I as one of the few monarchs who sided with an Islamic sultan (Granada), while also being a Catholic king. Granada paid Pedro I tribute. He helped them during several invasions and

936-508: A servant of the new rulers and of Peter's aristocratic adversaries. The change of dynasty can be considered as the epilogue of the first act of a long struggle between the Castilian monarchy and the aristocracy; this struggle was to continue for more than three centuries and come to an end only under Charles I of Spain , the grandson of Ferdinand II of Aragon (Ferdinand V of Castile) and Isabella I of Castile ( The Catholic Monarchs ), in

1008-476: A vast sheep pasturage; the fact that the greater part of Spanish sheep-rearing terminology was derived from Arabic underscores the debt. The 8th and 9th centuries was preceded by a period of Umayyad conquests, as Arabs took control of previously Hellenized areas such as Egypt and Syria in the 7th century. It was at this point they first encountered Greek ideas, though from the beginning, many Arabs were hostile to classical learning. Because of this hostility,

1080-552: A war with his brother-in-law Vermudo. At the Battle of Tamarón Vermudo was killed, leaving no surviving heirs. In right of his wife, Ferdinand then assumed the royal title as king of León and Castile, for the first time associating the royal title with the rule of Castile. When Ferdinand I died in 1065, the territories were divided among his children. Sancho II became King of Castile, Alfonso VI , King of León and García, King of Galicia, while his daughters were given towns: Urraca

1152-522: The Black Death , ignoring townspeople who had warned them not to enter their settlements. Since the plague had not yet entered England, it is likely that they underestimated the danger. Joan soon contracted the disease and died in 1348, aged 14. About two years later Peter began his reign when almost sixteen years old and subject to the control of his mother and her favourites. Though at first controlled by his mother, Maria of Portugal, Peter ascended

1224-544: The Iberian Peninsula , bringing with him two of Peter's daughters, Constance and Isabella of Castile, whom he had taken as hostages as assurers that Peter would pay up. He married the princesses to his younger brothers, most famously Constance to his brother John of Gaunt, in order to make a claim on the Castilian throne. Meanwhile, Henry of Trastámara returned to Castile in September 1368. The cortes of

1296-557: The Order of Santiago . Henry prevailed with the assistance of Bertrand du Guesclin . Peter took refuge in the fortress, which, being controlled by a military order of Galician origin, remained faithful to him. Negotiations were opened between Peter and his besieger, Henry. Peter met with du Guesclin, who was acting as Henry's envoy. Peter offered du Guesclin 200,000 gold coins and several towns, including Soria, Almazán, and Atienza to betray Henry. Ever opportunistic, du Guesclin informed Henry of

1368-655: The Palacio de los Vivero in Valladolid began the familial union of the two kingdoms. They became known as the Catholic Monarchs (los Reyes Católicos) . Isabella succeeded her brother as Queen of Castile and Ferdinand became jure uxoris King of Castile in 1474. When Ferdinand succeeded his father as King of Aragon in 1479, the Crown of Castile and the various territories of the Crown of Aragon were united in

1440-622: The " War of the Two Peters ", in which he showed neither ability nor skill in his support of his English ally or Castilian interests in the Mediterranean against the French and Aragonese. The king of Aragon then supported Peter's bastard brothers against him. It was during this period that Peter perpetrated the series of murders which made him notorious. In 1366 began the calamitous Castilian Civil War , which would see him dethroned. He

1512-582: The 6th century King of Persia, Anushirvan (Chosroes I) the Just was the introduction of many Greek ideas into his kingdom. Aided by this knowledge and the juxtaposition of beliefs, the Abbasids considered it valuable to look at Islam with Greek eyes, and to look at the Greeks with Islamic eyes. Abbasid philosophers also advanced the idea that Islam had, from the very beginning, stressed the gathering of knowledge as

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1584-527: The Chancellor Pedro López de Ayala (1332–1407). To put that in perspective are a biography by Prosper Mérimée , Histoire de Don Pedro I, roi de Castille (1848) and a modern history setting Peter in the social and economic context of his time by Clara Estow ( Pedro the Cruel of Castile (1350–1369) , 1995). Strictly speaking, Peter was not defeated by Henry but by the opposing aristocracy;

1656-521: The Council of Burgos in 1080 the traditional Mozarabic rite was replaced by the Roman one. Upon his death, Alfonso VI was succeeded by his daughter, the widowed Urraca, who then married Alfonso I of Aragon, but they almost immediately fell out. Alfonso tried unsuccessfully to conquer Urraca's lands, before he repudiated her in 1114. Urraca also had to contend with attempts by her son from her first marriage,

1728-703: The Cruel ( el Cruel ) or the Just ( el Justo ), was King of Castile and León from 1350 to 1369. Peter was the last ruler of the main branch of the House of Ivrea . He was excommunicated by Pope Urban V for his persecutions and cruelties committed against the clergy. Peter was born in the defensive tower of the Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Burgos , Spain. His parents were Alfonso XI of Castile and Maria of Portugal . According to chancellor and chronicler Pedro López de Ayala , he had

1800-605: The Kingdom of Castile conquered the last Moorish state of Granada, thereby ending Muslim rule in Iberia and completing the Reconquista. On Isabella's death in 1504 her daughter, Joanna I , became Queen (in name) with her husband Philip I as King (in authority). After his death Joanna's father was regent, due to her perceived mental illness, as her son Charles I was only six years old. On Ferdinand II's death in 1516, Charles I

1872-555: The Kingdom of León from his father Alfonso IX , having previously received the Kingdom of Castile from his mother Berenguela of Castile in 1217. In addition, he took advantage of the decline of the Almohad empire to conquer the Guadalquivir Valley whilst his son Alfonso X took the taifa of Murcia . The Courts from León and Castile merged, an event considered as the foundation of the Crown of Castile, consisting of

1944-552: The One-eyed (his second-degree uncle, son of John of Castile who died in 1319) split the kingdom among themselves according to their aspirations for regency, even as it was being looted by Moors and the rebellious nobility. A 14th century chronicle mentioned his appearance as "...King Alfonso was not very tall but well proportioned, and he was rather strong and had fair skin and hair." His effective reign began in August 1325 when he

2016-622: The ancient Cantabrian hill town of Amaya , west and south of the Ebro river, which offered an easier defense from the Muslim military expeditions and command of the main highway, still functional from the Roman Empire , passing by, south of the Cantabrian ridge all the way to Leon. Subsequently, the region was subdivided, separate counts being named to Alava, Burgos, Cerezo & Lantarón, and

2088-480: The borderland areas. He is variously known among Castilian kings as the Avenger or the Implacable, and as "He of Río Salado." The first two names he earned by the ferocity with which he repressed the disorders caused by the nobles during his long minority; the third by his victory in the Battle of Río Salado over the last formidable Marinid invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 1340. Alfonso XI never went to

2160-557: The chronicles of Alfonso III of Asturias , the first reference to the name "Castile" (Castilla) can be found in a document written during AD 800. In the Al-Andalus chronicles from the Cordoban Caliphate , the oldest sources refer to it as Al-Qila, or "the castled" high plains past the territory of Alava , further south than it and the first encountered in their expeditions from Zaragoza . The name reflects its origin as

2232-413: The city of Burgos recognized him as King of Castile. Others followed, including Córdoba , Palencia , Valladolid , and Jaén . Galicia and Asturias , on the other hand, continued to support Peter. As Henry made his way toward Toledo , Peter, who had retreated to Andalusia , chose to confront him in battle. On 14 March 1369, the forces of Peter and Henry met at Montiel , a fortress then controlled by

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2304-458: The conquest of Algeciras in 1344. Once that conflict was resolved, he redirected all his Reconquista efforts to fighting the Moorish king of Granada. During his reign a political reform in the municipal government took place, with the substitution of the concejos abiertos by the regimientos . He fostered the issuance of cartas pueblas as strategy for the demographic strengthening in

2376-518: The contiguous maritime valleys of Mena and Encartaciones in nearby Biscay ; some of those settlers had abandoned those exposed areas of the Meseta a few decades earlier, and taken refuge in the much denser and more intractable woods of the Atlantic valleys, so they were not that foreign to them. A mix of settlers from the Cantabrian and Basque coastal areas, which were recently swelled with refugees,

2448-452: The date wrongfully at 27 March) becoming one of the most prominent victims of the Black Death . The Castilian forces withdrew from Gibraltar, with some of the defenders coming out to watch. Out of respect, Alfonso's rival Yusuf I of Granada ordered his army and his commanders in the border regions not to attack the Castilian procession as it traveled with the king's body to Seville. Alfonso XI first married Constanza Manuel in 1325, but had

2520-416: The extreme lengths of his son Peter of Castile , but he could be bloody in his methods. He killed for reasons of state without any form of trial. He openly neglected his wife, Maria of Portugal , and indulged a scandalous passion for Eleanor of Guzman , who bore him ten children. Stricken with plague during the 1349–1350 siege of Gibraltar , Alfonso died in the night of 25–26 March 1350 (some sources put

2592-475: The first half of the 9th century until the middle of the century, in which it came to be paid more attention, it was administered and defended by the monarchs of Leon, due to the increased incursions from the Emirate of Córdoba . Its first repopulation settlements were led by small abbots and local counts from the other side of the Cantabrian ridge neighbor valleys, Trasmiera and Primorias and smaller ones, from

2664-550: The first half of the century a translation program , called the "School of Toledo", translated many philosophical and scientific works from the Classical Greek and the Islamic worlds into Latin. Many European scholars, including Daniel of Morley and Gerard of Cremona , travelled to Toledo to gain further knowledge. The Way of St. James further enhanced the cultural exchange between the kingdoms of Castile and León and

2736-551: The general experience of the Spanish Jewry in this period which was often marked by discrimination and pogroms. Following Peter's death, Jews had to wear a yellow badge, as punishment for having supported him. In the summer of 1366, Peter took refuge with Edward, the Black Prince , who restored him to his throne in the following year after the Battle of Nájera . The health of the Black Prince broke down, and he left

2808-449: The innocence of Alfonso in the matter of the murder of his brother is well known. During the first years of the 12th century, Sancho, the only son of Alfonso VI, died, leaving only his daughter. Because of this, Alfonso VI took a different approach from other European kingdoms, including France . He gave his daughters, Elvira, Urraca, and Theresa in marriage to Raymond of Toulouse, Raymond of Burgundy, and Henry of Burgundy respectively. In

2880-465: The involvement of John of Gaunt 's claim to Castille . Peter's children by María de Padilla were: Peter had one son with Juana de Castro : With María de Henestrosa, cousin of María de Padilla: With Isabel de Sandoval, aya of his son Alfonso: With Teresa de Ayala, niece of Pero López de Ayala : The great original but hostile authority for the life of Peter the Cruel is the Chronicle of

2952-573: The king of Galicia, to assert his rights. When Urraca died, this son became king of León and Castile as Alfonso VII . During his reign, Alfonso VII managed to annex parts of the weaker kingdoms of Navarre and Aragón which fought to secede after the death of Alfonso I of Aragon. Alfonso VII refused his right to conquer the Mediterranean coast for the new union of Aragón with the County of Barcelona (Petronila and Ramón Berenguer IV). The centuries of Moorish rule had established Castile's high central plateau as

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3024-569: The kingdoms of Castile and León. Eventually the representatives of the cities gained the right to vote in the Cortes, often allying with the monarchs against the great noble lords. During the reign of Alfonso VIII, the king began to use the canting arms of Castile as its emblem, in its blazons and banners , which were gules, a three towered castle or masoned sable and ajouré azure. Peter of Castile Peter ( Spanish : Pedro ; 30 August 1334 – 23 March 1369), called Peter

3096-515: The kingdoms of Castile, León, taifas and other domains conquered from the Moors , including the taifa of Córdoba , taifa of Murcia, taifa of Jaén and taifa of Seville . The House of Trastámara was a lineage that ruled Castile from 1369 to 1504, Aragón from 1412 to 1516, Navarre from 1425 to 1479, and Naples from 1442 to 1501. Its name was taken from the Count (or Duke) of Trastámara. This title

3168-407: The monarch " by the grace of God ", as the legal formula explained. Nevertheless, rural and urban communities began to form assemblies to issue regulations to deal with everyday problems. Over time, these assemblies evolved into municipal councils, known as variously as ayuntamientos or cabildos , in which some of the inhabitants, the property-owning heads of households ( vecinos ), represented

3240-458: The nobles accomplished their objective of enthroning a weaker dynasty (the House of Trastámara ), much more amenable to their interests. Most of the bad stories about Peter are likely to be colored by black legend , coined by his enemies, who finally succeeded in their rebellion. The Chancellor López de Ayala , the main source for Peter's reign, was the official chronicler of the Trastámara,

3312-467: The offer and immediately bargained for greater compensation from Henry to betray Peter. Having made a deal with Henry, Du Guesclin returned to Peter. Under the guise of accepting his deal, du Guesclin led Peter to his tent on the night of 23 March 1369. Henry was waiting. The historian López de Ayala described the encounter as follows: "Upon entering du Guesclin's tent, Henry saw King Peter. He did not recognize him because they had not seen each other for

3384-638: The party striving to coerce him enabled him to escape from Toro , where he was under observation, to Segovia . In 1361, Queen Blanche died at Medina Sidonia . French historians claim that Peter ordered two Jews to murder her; another version of the story says she was poisoned; a third one that she was shot with a crossbow, although it may have been the plague. Also that year, Maria de Padilla died in Seville. After Maria's death, Peter declared that she had been his first and only legitimate wife. From 1356 to 1366, Peter engaged in constant wars with Aragon in

3456-513: The peasants and burghers subjected to the nobles by late feudal gifts and by the merchants, who enjoyed security under his rule. The English, who backed Peter, also remembered the king positively. Geoffrey Chaucer visited Castile during Peter's reign and lamented the monarch's death in The Monk's Tale , part of The Canterbury Tales . (Chaucer's patron, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster , had fought on Peter's side in his struggle to reclaim

3528-462: The principles of aristocracy they represented themselves. But his moral superiority was reduced too by the violent means, including fratricides, by which he sought to suppress opposition; he at times was extremely despotic and unpredictable, even by the standards of his age. In this he was preceded by his father Alfonso XI, who since the crisis at the death of Alfonso X had faced multiple rebellions against royal authority. The death of King Peter ended

3600-516: The religious Caliphs could not support scientific translations. Translators had to seek out wealthy business patrons rather than religious ones. Until Abbasid rule in the 8th century, however, there was little work in translation. Most knowledge of Greek during Umayyad rule was gained from scholars of Greek who remained from the Byzantine period, rather than through widespread translation and dissemination of texts. A few scholars argue that translation

3672-469: The rest of Europe. The 12th century saw the establishment of many new religious orders, like the rest of Europe, such as Calatrava , Alcántara and Santiago ; and the foundation of many Cistercian abbeys . Alfonso VII restored the royal tradition of dividing his kingdom among his children. Sancho III became King of Castile and Ferdinand II , King of León. The rivalry between both kingdoms continued until 1230 when Ferdinand III of Castile received

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3744-515: The rest. By the 14th century these councils had gained more powers, such as the right to elect municipal magistrates and officers ( alcaldes , speakers, clerks, etc.) and representatives to the parliaments ( Cortes ). Due to the increasing power of the municipal councils and the need for communication between these and the King, cortes were established in the Kingdom of León in 1188, and in Castile in 1250. Unlike other kingdoms, Castile didn't have

3816-553: The sister of Count García, as feudal overlord. García was assassinated in 1028 while in León to marry the princess Sancha, sister of Bermudo III of León . Sancho III, acting as feudal overlord, appointed his younger son (García's nephew) Ferdinand as Count of Castile, marrying him to his uncle's intended bride, Sancha of León. Following Sancho's death in 1035, Castile returned to the nominal control of León, but Ferdinand, allying himself with his brother García Sánchez III of Navarre , began

3888-535: The throne with the encouragement of his mother's second cousin, the Portuguese minister Count Alburquerque . Becoming attached to María de Padilla , he married her in secret in 1353. María turned him against Alburquerque, who fled to Portugal. In the summer of 1353, the young king was practically coerced by his mother and the nobles into marrying Blanche of Bourbon ; he deserted her at once upon hearing rumors that she had slept with his half-brother Fadrique, who

3960-462: The throne.) The English Lake Poet Robert Southey was presented in 1818 with a copy of a five-act play by the novelist Ann Doherty , entitled Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon . Peter had many qualities of those later monarchs educated in the centralization style. He built a strong Royal administrative force ahead of his times. He failed to counter or check all the feudal powers that supported his rivals, however illegitimate and opposite to

4032-524: The town, but the Castilian king was assassinated in 1072 by Bellido Dolfos, a Galician nobleman. The Castilian troops then withdrew. As a result, Alfonso VI recovered all his original territory of León, and became the king of Castile and Galicia. This was the second union of León and Castile, although the two kingdoms remained distinct entities joined only in a personal union . The oath taken by El Cid before Alfonso VI in Santa Gadea de Burgos regarding

4104-594: The traditional alliance of Castile and Navarre with England, which had been started by the Plantagenets to keep France in check. The alliance was later renewed by the Trastámaras and Tudors . His death also led to the Fernandine Wars , where portuguese king Ferdinand I would claim the throne of Galicia , which would eventually lead to the historical alliance between Portugal and England with

4176-572: The unhesitant execution of possible opponents. Alfonso XI ordered the assassination of Juan the One-eyed in Toro in the 1326 feast of All Saints, along with two of the latter's knights, luring the former with promises of reconciliation. He managed to extend the limits of his kingdom to the Strait of Gibraltar after the important victory at the Battle of Río Salado against the Marinid dynasty in 1340 and

4248-518: The union annulled two years later. His second marriage, in 1328, was to his double first cousin Maria of Portugal , daughter of Alfonso IV of Portugal . They had: By his mistress, Eleanor of Guzmán , he had ten children: After Alfonso's death, his widow Maria had Eleanor arrested and later killed. He was depicted in the 1802 play Alfonso, King of Castile by the British writer Matthew Lewis . It

4320-463: Was a nullity. The bishops of Avila and Salamanca were asked to concur, and were afraid to say otherwise. Peter and Juana were married in Cuellar, and Juana was proclaimed Queen of Castile. After two nights, he then deserted her. They had a son who died young, after Peter's death. A period of turmoil followed in which the king was for a time overpowered and, in effect, imprisoned. The dissension within

4392-525: Was a reaction in Peter's favour and an alternative name was found for him. It became a fashion to speak of him as El Justiciero , the executor of justice (the Lawful). Apologists were found to say that he had killed only men who would not submit themselves to the law or respect the rights of others. Peter did have his supporters. Even López de Ayala confessed that the king's fall was regretted by many, among them

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4464-402: Was assailed by his bastard brother Henry of Trastámara at the head of a host of soldiers of fortune, including Bertrand du Guesclin and Hugh Calveley , and abandoned the kingdom without daring to give battle, after retreating several times (first from Burgos , then from Toledo , and lastly from Seville ) in the face of the oncoming armies. Peter fled with his treasury to Portugal, where he

4536-472: Was coldly received by his uncle, King Peter I of Portugal , and thence to Galicia , in the northern Iberian Peninsula , where he ordered the murder of Suero, the archbishop of Santiago , and the dean , Peralvarez. Peter's rival Henry II of Castile continuously depicted Peter as "King of the Jews", and had some success in taking advantage of popular Castilian antisemitism. Henry instigated pogroms beginning

4608-568: Was first staged at London's Covent Garden Theatre with Charles Murray in the title role. Kingdom of Castile Throughout that period, the Castilian kings made extensive conquests in southern Iberia at the expense of the Islamic principalities . The Kingdoms of Castile and of León, with their southern acquisitions, came to be known collectively as the Crown of Castile , a term that also came to encompass overseas expansion. According to

4680-413: Was given Zamora, and Elvira was given Toro . Sancho II allied himself with Alfonso VI of León and together they conquered, then divided, Galicia. Sancho later attacked Alfonso VI and invaded León with the help of El Cid , and drove his brother into exile, thereby reuniting the three kingdoms. Urraca permitted the greater part of the Leonese army to take refuge in the town of Zamora. Sancho laid siege to

4752-495: Was led under the protection of Abbot Vitulus and his brother, Count Herwig, as registered in the local charters they signed around the first years of the 800s. The areas that they settled did not extend far from the Cantabrian southeastern ridges, and not beyond the southern reaches of the high Ebro river valleys and canyon gores. The first count of a wider and more united Castile was Rodrigo in 850, under Ordoño I of Asturias and Alfonso III of Asturias . He settled and fortified

4824-560: Was more widespread than is thought during this period, but this remains the minority view. The main period of translation was during Abbasid rule. The 2nd Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur moved the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. Here he founded a great library, containing Greek Classical texts. Al-Mansur ordered this collection of world literature translated into Arabic. Under al-Mansur, and by his orders, translations were made from Greek, Syriac, and Persian. The Syriac and Persian books themselves were translations from Greek or Sanskrit. A legacy of

4896-518: Was proclaimed as king of Castile and of Aragon (in authority) jointly with his mother Joanna I as the Queen of Castile (in name). As the first monarch to reign over Castile and Aragon, Charles I may be considered as the first operational King of Spain . Charles I also became Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire in 1519. As with all medieval kingdoms, supreme power was understood to reside in

4968-428: Was supposed to be guarding her virtue and made her instead "an unwilling Isolde to his Tristan," according to one historian. This marriage necessitated Peter's denying that he had married María, but his relationship with her continued and they had four children. He also apparently went through the form of marriage with Juana de Castro , widow of Don Diego de Haro, convincing her that his previous marriage to Queen Blanche

5040-422: Was sworn in as king as he was proclaimed to have reached the age of majority in the Cortes of Valladolid . Following a ritual that took him to Santiago de Compostela and to the monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos , his self-crowning took place in 1332. As soon as he took the throne, he began working hard to strengthen royal power by dividing his enemies. His early display of ruthless rulership skills included

5112-425: Was the son of King Ferdinand IV of Castile and Constance of Portugal . His father died when Alfonso was one year old. His grandmother, María de Molina , his mother Constance, his granduncle Infante John of Castile , son of King Alfonso X of Castile and uncle Infante Peter of Castile , son of King Sancho IV assumed the regency. His mother died first on 18 November 1313, followed by Infantes John and Peter during

5184-463: Was used by Henry II of Castile , of the Mercedes, before coming to the throne in 1369, during the civil war with his legitimate brother, King Peter of Castile . John II of Aragón ruled from 1458 to 1479 and upon his death, his daughter became Queen Eleanor of Navarre and his son became King Ferdinand II of Aragon . The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile , in 1469 at

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