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Alfonso VI of León and Castile
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Alfonso VI of León and Castile
Alfonso VI (c. 1040/1041 – 1 July 1109), nicknamed the Brave (El Bravo) or the Valiant, was king of León (1065–1109), Galicia (1071–1109), and Castile (1072–1109).
After the conquest of Toledo in 1085, Alfonso proclaimed himself victoriosissimo rege in Toleto, et in Hispania et Gallecia (most victorious king of Toledo, and of Spain and Galicia). This conquest, along with El Cid's taking of Valencia would greatly expand the territory and influence of the Leonese/Castilian realm, but also provoked an Almoravid invasion that Alfonso would spend the remainder of his reign resisting. The Leonese and Castilian armies suffered decisive defeats in the battles of Sagrajas (1086), Consuegra (1097) and Uclés (1108), in the latter of which his only son and heir, Sancho Alfónsez, died, and Valencia was abandoned but Toledo remained part of an expanded realm that he passed to his daughter.
The son of Ferdinand I, King of León and Count of Castile and his wife, Queen Sancha, Alfonso was a "Leonese infante [prince] with Navarrese and Castilian blood". His paternal grandparents were Sancho Garcés III, king of Pamplona and his wife Muniadona of Castile, and his maternal grandparents were Alfonso V of León (after whom he was probably named) and his first wife Elvira Menéndez.
The year of Alfonso's birth is not recorded in the medieval documentation. According to one of the authors of the Anonymous Chronicle of Sahagún, who met the monarch and was present at his death, he died at age 62 after reigning 44 years. This indicates that he was born in the second half of 1047 or in the first half of 1048. Pelagius of Oviedo wrote that Alfonso was 79 when he died, but that would place his birth around 1030, before his parents' marriage.
According to the Historia silense, the eldest child of Ferdinand I and Sancha, a daughter called Urraca, was born when her parents were still Count and Countess of Castile, so her birth could be placed in 1033–34. The second child and eldest son, Sancho, must have been born in the second half of 1038 or in 1039. The third child and second daughter, Elvira, may have been born in 1039–40, followed by Alfonso in 1040–41, and finally the youngest of the siblings, García, sometime between 1041 and 24 April 1043, the date on which King Ferdinand I, in a donation to the Abbey of San Andrés de Espinareda, mentions his five children. All of them except Elvira signed a document in the monastery of San Juan Bautista de Corias on 26 April 1046.
All the children of King Ferdinand I, according to the Historia silense, were educated in the liberal arts, and the sons were also trained in arms, the "art of running horses in the Spanish usage", and hunting. The cleric Raimundo was in charge of Alfonso's early education. Once king, Alfonso appointed him Bishop of Palencia and referred to him as magistro nostro, viro nobile et Deum timenti ("our master, a noble man who fears God"). Alfonso probably spent long periods in Tierra de Campos, where, along with Pedro Ansúrez, the son of Ansur Díaz and nephew of Count Gómez Díaz de Saldaña (both members of the Banu Gómez lineage), he learned the art of war and what was expected of a knight.
As the second son of the king of León and count of Castile, Alfonso would not have been entitled to inherit the throne. At the end of 1063, probably on 22 December, taking advantage of the fact that numerous magnates had gathered in León, capital of the kingdom, for the consecration of the Basílica of San Isidoro, Ferdinand I summoned a Curia Regia to make known his testamentary dispositions, under which he decided to distribute his patrimony among his children, a distribution that would not become effective until the death of the monarch in order to prevent any disputes arising after his death:
The historian Alfonso Sánchez Candeira suggests that the reasons leading King Ferdinand I to divide the kingdom (with Alfonso VI inheriting the royal title) are unknown, but the distribution was probably made because the king considered it proper that each son should inherit the region where he had been educated and spent his early years.
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Alfonso VI of León and Castile
Alfonso VI (c. 1040/1041 – 1 July 1109), nicknamed the Brave (El Bravo) or the Valiant, was king of León (1065–1109), Galicia (1071–1109), and Castile (1072–1109).
After the conquest of Toledo in 1085, Alfonso proclaimed himself victoriosissimo rege in Toleto, et in Hispania et Gallecia (most victorious king of Toledo, and of Spain and Galicia). This conquest, along with El Cid's taking of Valencia would greatly expand the territory and influence of the Leonese/Castilian realm, but also provoked an Almoravid invasion that Alfonso would spend the remainder of his reign resisting. The Leonese and Castilian armies suffered decisive defeats in the battles of Sagrajas (1086), Consuegra (1097) and Uclés (1108), in the latter of which his only son and heir, Sancho Alfónsez, died, and Valencia was abandoned but Toledo remained part of an expanded realm that he passed to his daughter.
The son of Ferdinand I, King of León and Count of Castile and his wife, Queen Sancha, Alfonso was a "Leonese infante [prince] with Navarrese and Castilian blood". His paternal grandparents were Sancho Garcés III, king of Pamplona and his wife Muniadona of Castile, and his maternal grandparents were Alfonso V of León (after whom he was probably named) and his first wife Elvira Menéndez.
The year of Alfonso's birth is not recorded in the medieval documentation. According to one of the authors of the Anonymous Chronicle of Sahagún, who met the monarch and was present at his death, he died at age 62 after reigning 44 years. This indicates that he was born in the second half of 1047 or in the first half of 1048. Pelagius of Oviedo wrote that Alfonso was 79 when he died, but that would place his birth around 1030, before his parents' marriage.
According to the Historia silense, the eldest child of Ferdinand I and Sancha, a daughter called Urraca, was born when her parents were still Count and Countess of Castile, so her birth could be placed in 1033–34. The second child and eldest son, Sancho, must have been born in the second half of 1038 or in 1039. The third child and second daughter, Elvira, may have been born in 1039–40, followed by Alfonso in 1040–41, and finally the youngest of the siblings, García, sometime between 1041 and 24 April 1043, the date on which King Ferdinand I, in a donation to the Abbey of San Andrés de Espinareda, mentions his five children. All of them except Elvira signed a document in the monastery of San Juan Bautista de Corias on 26 April 1046.
All the children of King Ferdinand I, according to the Historia silense, were educated in the liberal arts, and the sons were also trained in arms, the "art of running horses in the Spanish usage", and hunting. The cleric Raimundo was in charge of Alfonso's early education. Once king, Alfonso appointed him Bishop of Palencia and referred to him as magistro nostro, viro nobile et Deum timenti ("our master, a noble man who fears God"). Alfonso probably spent long periods in Tierra de Campos, where, along with Pedro Ansúrez, the son of Ansur Díaz and nephew of Count Gómez Díaz de Saldaña (both members of the Banu Gómez lineage), he learned the art of war and what was expected of a knight.
As the second son of the king of León and count of Castile, Alfonso would not have been entitled to inherit the throne. At the end of 1063, probably on 22 December, taking advantage of the fact that numerous magnates had gathered in León, capital of the kingdom, for the consecration of the Basílica of San Isidoro, Ferdinand I summoned a Curia Regia to make known his testamentary dispositions, under which he decided to distribute his patrimony among his children, a distribution that would not become effective until the death of the monarch in order to prevent any disputes arising after his death:
The historian Alfonso Sánchez Candeira suggests that the reasons leading King Ferdinand I to divide the kingdom (with Alfonso VI inheriting the royal title) are unknown, but the distribution was probably made because the king considered it proper that each son should inherit the region where he had been educated and spent his early years.
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