IV De Leon
Alfonse De Leon, Male 1039 - Jul 1109
Married to Constance De Bourgoyne. Father of Urraca De Castile. Son of Sancha De Leon and Ferdinand De Leon.
Alfonso VI (before June, 1040 - June 29/July 1, 1109), nicknamed theBrave (El Bravo) or the Valiant, was King of Leon from 1065, King ofCastile and de facto King of Galicia from 1072, and self-proclaimed"Emperor of all Spain". After the conquest of Toledo he was alsoself-proclaimed victoriosissimo rege in Toleto, et in Hispania etGallecia. Much romance has gathered around his name.d Sancha ofLeon, Alfonso was allotted Leon when the kingdom was divided followinghis father's death, while Castile was given to his elder brotherSancho, Galicia to younger brother García, and sisters Urraca andElvira given the cities of Zamora and Toro respectively. Each of thebrothers was also assigned a sphere of influence among the Taifastates. Alfonso appears to have taken the first step in violating thisdivision, in 1068 invading the Galician client Taifa of Badajoz andextorting tribute. In response, Sancho attacked and defeated Alfonsoat Llantada but three years later in 1071 they joined forces againstGarcía. Sancho over-marched Alfonso's Leon to conquer García'snorthern lands, while Alfonso himself is found issuing charters in thesouthern part of the Galician realm. García fled to taifa Seville, andthe remaining brothers then turned on each other. This conflictculminated in the Battle of Golpejera in early January, 1072. Sanchoproved victorious and Alfonso himself was forced to flee to his clientTaifa of Toledo. Later that year as Sancho was mopping up the last ofthe resistance, besieging his sister Urraca at Zamora in October, hewas assassinated, opening the way for Alfonso to return to claimSancho's crown. García, induced to return from exile, was imprisonedby Alfonso for life, leaving Alfonso in uncontested control of thereunited territories of their father. In recognition of this and hisrole as the preeminent Christian monarch on the peninsula, in 1077Alfonso proclaimed himself "Emperor of all Spain".tattributed by medieval poets to the greatest kings, and to Charlemagnehimself. He is alternately the oppressor and the victim of heroic andself-willed nobles - the idealized types of the patrons for whom thejongleurs and troubadours sang. He is the hero of a cantar de gestawhich, like all but a very few of the early Spanish songs, like thecantar of Bernardo del Carpio and the Infantes of Lara, exists nowonly in the fragments incorporated in the chronicle of Alfonso theWise or in ballad form.elanguage), where his brother Sancho endeavored to imprison him, hischivalrous friendship for his host Almamun of Toledo, caballero aunquemoro, "a knight although a Moor", the passionate loyalty of hisvassal, Pero (Pedro) Ansurez, and his brotherly love for his sisterUrraca of Zamora, may owe something to the poet who took him as ahero.ed the kingas having submitted to taking a degrading oath at the hands of RodrigoDiaz de Vivar (El Cid) to deny intervention in his brother's death inthe church of Santa Gadea at Burgos, and as having then persecuted thebrave man who defied him.rong manfighting as a king whose interest was law and order, and who was theleader of the nation in the reconquest. He impressed himself on theArabs as a very fierce and astute enemy, but as a keeper of his word.A story of Muslim origin, which is probably no more historical thanthe oath of Santa Gadea, tells of how he allowed himself to be trickedby Ibn Ammar, the favorite of Al Mutamid, the King of Seville. Theyplayed chess for an extremely beautiful table and set of men,belonging to Ibn Ammar. Table and men were to go to the king if hewon. If Ibn Ammar gained he was to name the stake. The latter did winand demanded that the Christian king should spare Seville. Alfonsokept his word.an andMuslim, we know that Alfonso represented the two great influences thenshaping the character and civilization of Hispania.n than hispredecessors. The marital practices of the Iberian royalty had beenlargely endogamous, previously limiting choice of partners to thepeninsula and Gascony, but Alfonso married French and Italian wives,while marrying daughters to French princes and an Italian king. Hissecond marriage was arranged, in part, through the influence of theFrench Cluniac Order, and Alfonso is said to have introduced them intoIberia, established them in Sahagun and choosing a French Cluniac,Bernard, as the first Archbishop of Toledo after its 1085 conquest. Healso drew his kingdom nearer to the Papacy, a move which broughtFrench crusaders to aid him in the reconquest, and it was Alfonso'sdecision which established the Roman ritual in place of the old missalof Saint Isidore - the Mozarabic rite.e protectedthe Muslims among his subjects and struck coins with inscriptions inArabic letters. He also admitted to his court and to his bed therefugee Muslim princess Zaida of Seville.f Sagrajas,at the hands of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, and Abbad III al-Mu'tamid, and wasseverely wounded in the leg.
Sources
- Cross, Carolyn.ged - provided by LifeTimes Research
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