Everything about Kingdom Of Le N totally explained
Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the
Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 913 A.D. when the Christian princes of
Asturias along the
northern coast of the peninsula shifted their main seat from
Oviedo to the city of
León.
Background
The city of León was founded by the
Roman Seventh
Legion (usually written as
Legio Septima Gemina ("twin seventh legion"). It was the headquarters of that legion in the
late empire and was a center for trade in
gold which was mined at Las Médulas nearby. In
540, the city was conquered by the
Arian Visigothic king
Liuvigild, who didn't harass the already well-established Catholic Christian population. In 717 A.D., León fell again, this time to the
Moors. However, León was one of the first cities retaken during the Christian
reconquest of the Iberian peninsula, and became part of the
Kingdom of Asturias in 742 A.D..
León was a small town during this time, but one of the few former Roman cities in the Kingdom of Asturias which still held significance (the surviving Roman walls bear the medieval walling upon them). During Visigothic times the city had served as a
bishopric, and incorporating the city into Asturias brought legitimacy to the Asturian monarchs who sought to lead a unified Iberian church, during a time when most of the Iberian Peninsula was governed by
Muslim powers.
History
Foundation
León was created as a separate kingdom when the Asturian king,
Alfonso the Great, divided his realm among his three sons. León was inherited by
García I (911 - 914). His successor was
Ordoño II of León (914-924) who moved the capital of the kingdom of Astures to León.
Ordoño II of León was also a military leader who brought military expeditions from León south to
Seville,
Cordoba and
Guadalajara, in the heart of the Muslim territory.
After a few years of civil wars during the reign of
Fruela II,
Alfonso Froilaz and
Alfonso IV,
Ramiro II (931-951) assumed the throne and brought stability to the kingdom. A brave military chief who defeated the Muslim armies in their own territory, Ramiro's expeditions turned the Valley of the Douro into a no-man's land that separated the Christian kingdoms of the north from the Muslim territories of Iberia. Ramiro II, nicknamed "The devil" by the Muslims because of his military skill, led Leonese troops in the conquest of
Madrid, and the province of
Toledo, in the middle of the
Caliphate of Córdoba.
Parallel to the advance of the Leonese troops there took place the process called
Repoblación, which consisted of repopulating the
Meseta with people coming from Galicia and especially, from Asturias and León. This migration of Leonese peoples greatly influenced the
Astur-Leonese language. During the Repoblación period there arose a distinct form of art known as
Mozarabic art. Mozarabic art is a mixing of Visigoth,
Celtic, Muslim and
Byzantine elements. Notable examples of the Mozarabic style are the Leonese churches of
San Miguel of Escalada and
Santiago de Peñalba.
During the early 10th Century, León expanded to the south and east, securing territory that would be known as the County of
Burgos. Fortified with numerous castles Burgos remained within Leon until the 930s, at which time count
Ferdinand II of Castile began a campaign to expand Burgos and make it independent and hereditary. He took for himself the title Earl of Castile, in reference to the many castles of the territory (around Burgos), and continued expanding his area at the expense of León by allying with the
Caliphate of Cordoba, until 966 A.D., when he was defeated by
Sancho I of León.
Peak
The Kingdom of León continued to be the most important of all those of the Iberian Peninsula. However,
Sancho III of Navarre (1004–1035) absorbed Castile in the 1020s, and added León in the last year of his life, leaving
Galicia to temporary independence. In the division of lands which followed his death, his son Fernando succeeded to the county of Castile. Two years later, in 1037, he conquered León and Galicia. For nearly thirty years, until his death in
1065, he ruled over a combined kingdom of León-Castile as
Ferdinand I of León. In these clashes in an impoverished and isolated culture, where
salt-making and a blacksmith's forge counted as industries, the armies that decided the fate of the kingdoms numbered in the hundreds of fighting men.
Early in its existence León lay directly to the north of the wealthy, sophisticated, and powerful Caliphate of Cordoba. When internal dissensions divided
Andalusian loyalties in the
11th century, leading to an age of smaller
Taifa successor states of the Caliphate, the impoverished Christian kingdoms who had been sending tribute to the Caliphate found themselves in a position to demand payments (parias) instead, in return for favours to particular factions or as simple
extortion.
Thus, though scarcely influenced by the culture of the successor territories of the former Caliphate, Ferdinand I followed the example of the counts of
Barcelona and the kings of
Aragon, and he became hugely wealthy from the parias of the Taifas. When he died in 1065, his territories and the parias were split among his three sons, of whom Garcia emerged the victor, in the classic fratricidal strife common to feudal successions.
Few in Europe would have known of this immense new wealth in a kingdom so isolated that its bishops had virtually no contact with Rome, except that Ferdinand and his heirs (the kings of León-Castile) became the greatest benefactors of the
Abbey of Cluny, where Abbot Hugh (died 1109) undertook construction of the huge third abbey church, the of every eye. The
Way of Saint James called pilgrims from Western Europe to the supposed tomb of
Saint James the Great in
Santiago de Compostela, and the large hostels and churches along the route encouraged building in the
Romanesque style.
Alfonso VI was the most important king of León of the Middle Ages. He assumed control of first León, and later Castile, when his brother died attacking the Leonese city of
Zamora. He was crowned Emperor of Spain and received the honoring of all the kings of the Iberian Peninsula.
León-Castile
The taking of
Toledo the old Visigoth capital in 1085, by
Alfonso VI of Castile was a turning point in the development of León-Castile and the first major milestone in the
Reconquista. Christian
Mozarabs from
Al-Andalus had come north to populate the deserted
frontier lands, and the traditional view of Spanish history has been that they brought with them the remains of Visigothic and Classical culture, and a new ideology of
Reconquista, a
crusade against the Moors. Modern historians see the fall of Toledo as marking a basic change in relations with the Moorish south, turning from extortion of annual tribute to territorial expansion. Alfonso was drawn into local politics by strife within Toledo. He then found himself faced with the unfamiliar problems of settling garrisons in the small Muslim strongholds dependent on Toledo (which had fallen to him with the city) and the appointment of a Catholic
bishop. Revised definitions of the role of a Catholic king faced with the
independent Muslim client-states that bought him off with gold had to be resolved in timely fashion by a Catholic king now governing sophisticated urban Muslim subjects.
The two kingdoms of León and Castile were split again around 1195, when a major defeat for
Alfonso VIII of Castile weakened the authority of Castile.
The last two kings of León as an independent kingdom (1157 - 1230) were
Ferdinand II and
Alfonso IX. Fernando II led León's Kingdom in conquering
Merida, a former Roman city.
Alfonso IX, besides conquering the whole of
Extremadura (even the cities of
Cáceres and
Badajoz), was the most modern king of his time as he founded the
University of Salamanca in 1212, and summoned the first Parliament with representation of the citizenry ever witnessed in Western Europe (
León's Parliament, 1188).
The last king of León, Alfonso IX, didn't want his kingdom to disappear upon his death and designated his heirs as Sancha and Dulce, the daughters of his first wife. When Alfonso died in 1230, his son by
Berenguela of Castile,
Ferdinand III of Castile, invaded León and assumed the crown. He thus became the first sovereign of both kingdoms since the death of
Alfonso VII in 1157. The Atlantic coastal province separated as the independent
Kingdom of Portugal.
Though later kings of Castile continued to take the title King of León as the superior title, and to use a
lion as part of their
standard, power in fact became centralized in Castile, as exemplified by the
Astur-Leonese language's replacement by
Castilian.
In the 16th century, León became a captaincy-general under a formally unified Spanish kingdom. Castile and León coexisted inside the same federation though they possessed separate institutions up to the Contemporary Age (Spanish Parliament up to the 14th century, Royal(Real) Advancement of León's Kingdom, Major Merino of León, etc).
The modern
province of León was founded in 1833. The former lands of León are now part of the
autonomous communities of
Castile and León,
Galicia,
Extremadura,
Asturias and of the
country of
Portugal.
There is a modern leonese regionalist movement (Leonesismo) that support the raising of an autonomous community departed from Castille. Leonesist parties got the 15% of votes in the León province in 2.007.
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