Entry extracted from the book «From war to unification. History of León and Castile from 1037 to 1252».
Alfonso VII had risen to the throne in 1126, on the death of his mother, Doña Urraca. The first years of his reign were marked by struggles with his mother's former husband, the King of Aragon Alfonso I the Battler. Part of the dispute between the two monarchs involved the dispute over the title (honorary rather than royal) of Imperator Totius Hispaniae , which was intended to denote a symbolic condition of heir to the old Visigothic monarchy. The Aragonese used this title until his death in 1134 and the Leonese had himself crowned emperor in León on May 26, 1135.
Of the extensive territories governed by Alfonso VII, he reserved for himself the direct government of the kingdom of León, while he delegated that of the rest of his possessions without hindering those who represented him in them they held the title of king, as long as they paid vassalage to him. He did so with his cousin Alfonso Henriques in Portugal in 1143, with his natural daughter Urraca in Asturias in 1150 or with his sons and heirs Sancho and Fernando, who already in 1148 appear in Sahagún cited as kings, although without assigning territory. . All of them, yes, under the dependence and authority of Emperor Alfonso VII.
As of 1149 Sancho acts as king of Nájera and lands are granted to him in La Rioja, Soria, Castile, Valladolid, Carrión and Saldaña. His brother Fernando also appears at that time as king of Galicia. This shows that Alfonso VII had thought since then to divide his kingdom between his two sons. And this decision became effective when the emperor died on August 21, 1157. In the words of Lucas de Tuy "he gave warlike Castile to Sancho, and faithful León and Galicia to Ferdinand."
Sancho III's inheritance included all of Castile, with Ávila, Segovia, Trasierra, Tierra de Campos up to Sahagún, Asturias de Santillana and the kingdom of Toledo. That of Fernando, León, Galicia, Portugal, Toro and Zamora, as well as Asturias governed by his sister Urraca. The border between the two kingdoms, according to Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada "was formed by the Calzada de la Plata, which was also called Guinea".
The inclusion of Toledo in the inheritance of Sancho implied the recognition of the pre-eminence of the Castilian kingdom (very enlarged in its possessions with respect to the county of Castile of Fernán González, which was never independent of the Leonese kingdom while it was a county) against that of León, both politically and militarily (especially in the territorial expansion in the lands under Arab rule). And the division of both kingdoms meant the renunciation of the imperial dream that Alfonso VII had pursued for a good part of his life.
Almost a year after the death of his father, in 1158 Sancho III had made an approach to his brother Fernando II de León, which was reflected in the Sahagún treaty, by the that both mutually recognized each other as heirs in the event of dying without issue. They also agreed to return the rebellious kingdom of Portugal to the fold and divide it up and defined the respective areas of conquest of the Muslim domains.
But the strength of the new Castilian kingdom was seriously threatened when only a year after his father, on July 31, 1158, Sancho III died. His wife, Blanca de Navarra, had died in 1156, and only one son survived from the marriage, barely two and a half years old. The infant Alfonso VIII inherited the throne from his father, but the situation could not be more complex. On his deathbed, Sancho III appointed Mr. Gutierre Fernández de Castro as guardian of his son to be in charge of the regency of Castile and the education of the king until he came of age when he turned fifteen. . He also planned that until then the main lords of the kingdom would keep their possessions intact, thus trying to guarantee their support for the new king.
Shortly afterwards Don Gutierre, who belonged to the important Castilian family of the Castros, ceded the regency of the kingdom and custody of the king to the head of the very powerful house of the Lara, Don Manrique, in exchange for the promise that both would be returned to him if he requested it. Don Manrique personally exercised the regency and gave custody of the king to his stepbrother, Don García de Aza.
In 1160, faced with what he considered the Lara government to be abusive, Don Gutierre demanded that the custody of the boy king and the regency of Castile be returned to him, but the Lara refused and Don Manrique took direct custody of Alfonso VIII. This produced a confrontation between the Lara and Castro families and while the former consolidated their domination of Castile, the latter requested help from the King of León and the child's uncle, Fernando II.
In the year 1162 the city of Salamanca had revolted against Fernando II and the Salamancans found the support of the Ávila militias, which depended on Manrique de Lara. The Leonese king faced both forces and defeated them at the battle of Valmuza in June 1162. He then entered Castile together with two members of the Castro family (Fernando and Álvaro) and took various places, including Segovia and Toledo. Manrique de Lara retired to Soria with Alfonso VIII.
Manrique's political and economic situation had worsened considerably with the conquests of Fernando II and he had no choice but to give in to the pretensions of the Leonese king, who obtained the tutelage of Alfonso VIII until he came of age, although the child remained in Soria, still in the custody of Manrique de Lara. Fernando II traveled to the city of Soria demanding that the Castilian king swear allegiance to him, but the Laras organized the child's flight to San Esteban de Gormaz and from there to Atienza, where Nuño de Lara announced that he refused to hand over the king to Fernando II. and to comply with what was agreed with him. The Leonese accused him of perjury and challenged Manrique, but Manrique replied that his main duty was to ensure the independence of the King of Castile. Ferdinand II briefly returned to León, but he did not forget the Castilian problem and maintained control of it in part of the territory of Castile through Ferdinand de Castro.
Manrique de Lara set out to free Castile from the influence of the Leonese and went to attack the town of Huete first. But Fernando de Castro went there and his troops defeated those of Manrique, who met his death in battle. The direction of the house of Lara and the regency of Castile was assumed by his brother Nuño, who installed Alfonso VIII in Ávila. Nuño's regency was marked by various confrontations and reconciliations with the Castros, while Fernando II of León seemed to have disregarded Castile. After taking Toledo in 1166 in the company of Alfonso VIII, the power of Nuño de Lara was strengthened and the influence of Fernando de Castro declined.
In the following years, Nuño was able to gain the trust of his pupil Alfonso VIII, who at the beginning of the year 1169 came personally to free his tutor who had been imprisoned in Zurita. So much so, that when Alfonso VIII reached the age of fourteen indicated in the will of his father Sancho III to take charge of the government, he continued to keep Nuño de Lara at the head of the government until his death in 1178.
Alfonso VIII had survived the complicated situation in which he had inherited the crown and celebrated his coming of age and effectively took possession of the throne on November 11, 1169 in Burgos. Despite the adverse circumstances in which he had found himself since he was two years old, Alfonso VIII was the king who wore the crown of Castile for the longest (fifty-six), participated in decisive confrontations against the Muslims (with painful defeats such as Alarcos and great victories such as Navas de Tolosa), together with his wife Leonor Plantagenet, founded the Monastery of Las Huelgas and laid the foundations for the reunification of the crowns of Castile and León... but that's another story.
Image| Wikimedia commons
Fonts| Daniel Fernandez deLis. From war to unification.
Gonzalo Martínez Díez. Alfonso VIII, king of Castile and Toledo (1158-1214).