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 (910–914) who moved the capital of the kingdom of Astures to León. His successor was
Ordoño II of León (914–924). Ordoño II was also a military leader who brought expeditions from León south to
Seville,
Córdoba, and
Guadalajara, in the heart of the Muslim territory. After a few years of civil wars during the reigns of
Fruela II,
Alfonso Fróilaz and
Alfonso IV,
Ramiro II (931–951) assumed the throne and brought stability to the kingdom. A brave military commander 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 Christian kingdoms in the north of Iberia from the Muslim states in the south. Ramiro II was nicknamed "The Devil" by Muslims because of his great military skill. As the Leonese troops advanced they were followed by a process of
repoblación, which consisted of repopulating the
Meseta high plains, with people coming from
Galicia and especially from Asturias and León. This migration of Asturian and Leonese peoples greatly influenced the
Leonese language. During the
repoblación period, there arose a distinct form of art known as
Mozarabic art. Mozarabic art is a mixing of Visigoth, Islamic, and
Byzantine elements. Notable examples of the Mozarabic style are the Leonese churches of
San Miguel de Escalada and
Santiago de Peñalba. During the early 10th century, León expanded to the south and east, securing territory that became 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 Count 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 Córdoba, until 966, when he was defeated by
Sancho I of León.
Viking raids Sancho I died towards the end of 966 and five year old
Ramiro III (966–982) ascended to the throne of León. In the second year of his reign, 968, a Viking fleet of 100 ships landed in Galicia led by king
Gunrod. The
Vikings defeated the Galician forces, and killed
Sisnando, the bishop of Compostela. The defeat in the
Battle of Fornelos left Galicia without an authority capable of facing the Vikings, who for three years camped comfortably, looting different Galician regions. In 971, Gunrod and his Vikings were surprised and defeated by Count
Gonzalo Sánchez upon return towards Ría de Ferrol (where they had their stranded ships). The Galician troops captured Gunrod and many of his warriors, executing them all. Sporadic Viking assaults continued in the north of Spain even into the 11th century. In 1008, Galicia and the
Douro region were attacked, and in 1014 or 1015 a major raid was launched against the city of
Tui at the mouth of the
Minho River. The Vikings managed to successfully capture the bishop and many of the town's inhabitants. The
Knýtlinga saga and describe another big raid after this one, in the year 1028. It was led by
Ulv Galiciefarer, who tried to go to the
Riá de Arousa area and then became a mercenary for Rodrigo Romániz, but was defeated by the bishop of Compostela. The last recorded raids occurred during the period 1047–1066 when
Cresconius, the bishop of Compostela, fought and won several battles against the Vikings. Early in its existence, León lay directly to the north of the powerful Caliphate of Córdoba. When internal dissensions divided
Al-Andalus' loyalties in the 11th century, leading to the age of smaller
Taifa successor states of the Caliphate, the 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 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 Alfonso emerged the victor in the classic fratricidal strife common to feudal successions.
León and Castile at the times of King Alfonso VII (1105–1157) of
Alfonso IX displayed in the
Tumbo A manuscript of 12th century. displayed in
the Tumbo A.The
1085 taking of Toledo by
Alfonso VI of León was seen as an epochal event in medieval Iberia, as Toledo was the first major Andalusi city conquered by Christians. Modern historians see the fall of Toledo as marking a basic change in relations with the Moorish south, turning from the simple extortion of annual tribute to outright territorial expansion. Alfonso VI was drawn into local politics by strife within Toledo and inherited the political alliances of the city-state. He found himself faced with problems unfamiliar to him, such as appointing and dealing with a Catholic
bishop in Toledo and the settling of garrisons in the small Muslim strongholds, the
taifas, which were dependent on Toledo and which often bought the king's favour with gold from their trade with Al-Andalus and the
Maghreb. Alfonso VI thus found his role as a Catholic king redefined as he governed large cities with sophisticated urban, Muslim subjects and growing Christian populations. The two kingdoms of León and Castile were split in 1157, when a major defeat for
Alfonso VII of Castile weakened the authority of Castile. The last two kings of an independent Kingdom of León (1157–1230) were
Ferdinand II and
Alfonso IX. Fernando II led León's conquest of
Mérida, a city dating from Roman times.
Alfonso IX, besides conquering the whole of
Extremadura (including the cities of
Cáceres and
Badajoz), was the most modern king of his time, founding the
University of Salamanca in 1212 and summoning in 1188 the first
parliament with representation of the citizenry ever seen in Europe, the
Cortes of León. Alfonso IX did not want his kingdom to disappear upon his death and designated his heirs as Sancha and Dulce, the daughters of his first wife. In order to maintain the independence of the Kingdom of León, Afonso IX applied in his testament the
Galician right of inheritance, which granted men and women equality in succession, thus leaving his daughters to be the future queens of León. However, when Alfonso IX died in 1230, his son by
Berenguela of Castile,
Ferdinand III of Castile, invaded León and assumed the crown. He thus became the first joint sovereign of both kingdoms since the death of Alfonso VII in 1157. The isolated Atlantic province, the
County of Portugal, had won independence in 1139 to become the
Kingdom of Portugal. The union between León and Castile was not accepted by the Leonese people. King Ferdinand III needed two years to suppress the secessionist revolts in the Kingdom of León, so his son
Alfonso X restored the independence of the Kingdom of León. However, this was not respected by his son and successor,
Sancho IV, whose brother
John waited until 1296, following Sancho's death the previous year, to be crowned as John I, King of León, Galicia and Seville. In 1301, he abdicated, and the king of Castile assumed the Crown of León, reuniting the two kingdoms. with
crest (after the union with Castile) Though the kings of Castile and León initially 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
Leonese language's replacement by Castilian. The Kingdom of León and the
Kingdom of Castile kept different Parliaments, different flags, different coin and different laws until the Modern Era, when Spain, like other European states, centralized governmental power. == Modern era ==