Entry extracted from the book «From war to unification. History of León and Castile from 1037 to 1252». The Almohad empire, which had penetrated the Peninsula in the mid-twelfth century and by 1172 had taken over all the domains that had belonged to their Almoravid predecessors, suffered a severe c
Few figures have aroused more interest in the history of the medieval peninsular kingdoms than that of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Cid Campeador. At this point it is difficult to separate the historical character from the legendary and this requires, first of all, to carry out an analysis of the hist
We finished the first entry of this series on the first exile of the Cid in the moment before the imposition of said penalty by King Alfonso VI. In the year 1081 the monarch launched a campaign against the Taifa of Toledo in support of his ally al-Qadir, dispossessed and evicted from the capital by
Entry taken from the book From Covadonga to Tamarón . On December 20, 910, one of the most important kings of the medieval peninsular kingdoms died:Alfonso III the Great. His rise to the throne was not easy. When the King of Asturias Ordoño I died, his eldest son, Alfonso, was eighteen years old a
Entry taken from the book From Covadonga to Tamarón . The first entry in the series dedicated to Alfonso III the Great ended, indicating that his last years of reign and his succession were not exactly peaceful. In the year 907 or 908, on the way back from an expedition to Toledo, Alfonso III
The first entry of this series on the Caliphate of Córdoba ended with the defeat of Abderramán III against Ramiro II de León and his allies in the battle of Simancas, or more exactly in the Alhándega ravine, since the battle itself had no clear winner. . One of the first consequences of what happen
Entry taken from the book «From Covadonga to Tamarón». With the name of jueces de Castilla two figures are known, Laín Calvo and Nuño Rasura, who were presumably chosen by the Castilians to defend their rights and confront the pretensions and excesses of the kings of León. However, after long dis
Entry taken from the book From Covadonga to Tamarón. On many occasions and by many authors it has been considered that the county of Castile obtained its independence from the kingdom of León under the mandate of Count Fernán González, who held the position between the years 932 and 970 and who is
I continue this article where I left off in the previous entry:the myth of the independence of the county of Castile (I) 2.- Appropriation of the myth by the historiography of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th The supposed Castilian independence served as a great loudspeaker and the
This new entry represents a very important symbolic milestone, as it reaches the number of three hundred articles written on the blog. That is why I have chosen a theme that is also symbolic:the battle of Tamarón, which took place in the year 1037 and which constitutes the final episode of my second
According to William Thorne, chronicler of the abbey of Saint Augustine in Canterbury, after the English prince Richard of Bordeaux came to the world in that city on January 6, 1367, A few days later the baptism of the newborn was celebrated, attended by three characters representing the Magi (the c
Fernando VII earned the title felon king for his dalliances with the French and his betrayal of the liberal cause after the triennium that began with his famous «lets all march together , and I the first, by the constitutional path». But we are not here to talk about Ferdinand VII. If there is a kin
Year 859. Queen in Asturias for nine years Ordoño I, son of Ramiro I. With these two monarchs, the Cantabrian line of succession of Fruela Pérez has been definitively imposed on the throne of Oviedo against the extinct lineage of the first Asturian king Don Pelayo. Ordoño I is trying to impose the s
Entry extracted from the book From Covadonga to Tamarón. The history of the Arab conquest and domination of the Iberian Peninsula and the process of birth and growth of the different Christian kingdoms and counties that ended up expelling the Muslims spans almost eight centuries and, therefore, it
The name of the Aragonese king Jaime I is associated with the peak period of the conquest of peninsular territories from Muslim domination by the Christian kingdoms. His long reign (1213-1276) coincided with that of another great monarch, Fernando III el Santo (who dynastically unified the kingdoms
The name of the de la Cerda family frequently resonated in accounts of the struggle for power in late medieval Castile and continued to play a prominent role in Spanish politics well into the Modern Age; The famous princess of Éboli was called Ana de Mendoza de la Cerda y de Silva y Álvarez de Toled
When the then princes of Asturias, Felipe and Letizia, announced that they were expecting a daughter, there was much expectation in relation to the name they would choose for the one who, if nothing changes, will be the first Spanish queen in her own right since Elizabeth II. As is known, the chosen
Few cases are as indicative of the sometimes difficult role of the non-firstborn sons of a medieval king as that of Henry the Senator, Infante of Castile, son of Ferdinand III the Saint and of Beatriz de Suabia and younger brother of Alfonso X el Sabio. Born in 1230, his father Ferdinand III soon di
Entry extracted from the book The Plantagenets It could be thought that the leading role of Eleanor of Aquitaine after the death of her husband Henry II, with which the second entry dedicated to her ended, had ended with her accession to the throne of his son Richard. But neither the character of t
In the blog entry dedicated to the succession of Alfonso VII I explained how after his death in 1157 the kingdom of Castile passed into the hands of his son Sancho III, while León and Galicia were for Fernando II. He also discussed in that entry how Sancho III died in 1158 and the problems that his
The security battalions began to be formed in 1943, when the occupying government of I. Ralli realized that ELAS was trying to bring the country under its control, sidelining or even eliminating the other resistance organizations. Much has been said about these controversial sections indeed. The bat
Just as Japan has the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period, there are several period divisions in British history. This time I would like to summarize the history of the Norman dynasty in England, which lasted from 1066 to 1154. Norman Conquest The beginning of the Norman dynasty begins
Hephaestus was the god of metallurgy to the Greeks. He was a skilled craftsman, had a hideous appearance, and was lame in one leg. Hephaestus he was present in the religiosity of the ancient Greeks as the god of metallurgy, artisans, fire, volcanoes, among others. He was seen as a very skilled god
The Beagle , under the command of Captain Robert Fitz-Roy, left Davenport (England) on December 27, 1831 with a team of botanists, naturalists, physicists... (among whom was Charles Darwin ). The British Crown sponsored this scientific and geographical exploration expedition. They skirted the Cana