Alfonso VI (León)

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Alfonso VI or Alfonso the Brave ( Spanish Alfonso el Bravo ; * 1037 ; † July 1, 1109 in Toledo ) from the House of Jiménez was King of León from 1065 to 1109 and from 1072 also King of Castile and Galicia for a few years . By conquering the areas south of the Duero and above all the old Visigoth capital Toledo in 1085, he set an important milestone in the history of the Spanish Reconquista and underpinned the claim of the Leonese-Castilian royal family to the primacy among the Spanish kings of the Iberian peninsula . In the Cantar de Mio Cid , one of the main works of literary folklore in Spain , Alfonso VI. one of the main characters.

King Alfonso VI (ADEFONS REX PATER PATRIE) depicted in a miniature from the 12th century.

Life

family

Alfonso VI was one of five children of King Ferdinand I of León and the Sancha of León ; his siblings were:

Fratricidal struggle

Although the second of three, Alfonso was his father's favorite son, which is why he bequeathed the core area of ​​his realm with the capital León to him in the 1065 division of the estate with the Kingdom of León , while the older Sancho II received only the relatively small Castile as a kingdom had previously been a county. The youngest brother García received Galicia , which for generations had assumed the status of a sub-kingdom in relation to León. The father Ferdinand I had already laid the foundation stone for León's supremacy over the Christian and Muslim powers of Spain, including the Basque Navarre , the home of his dynasty, and the Taifa kingdoms of Al-Andalus (Toledo, Saragossa, Badajoz, Seville) into the vassalage that had emerged from the collapse of the Caliphate of Cordoba in the early 11th century .

The first years of Alfonso VI's reign were largely uneventful, which was probably due to his mother, who acted as the unifying authority of the family. On June 26, 1066, all family members made a joint donation to the Church of Santiago de Compostela . After the death of Queen Sancha in November 1067, the open power struggle for the paternal inheritance was finally opened. In 1068 Alfons carried out two attacks on Taifa Badajoz, which was a tributary vassal of his brother García. In the same year he was attacked by Sancho II himself, whom he was able to drive out of León for the time being after a victory in the Battle of Llantadilla on July 19. Apparently the two allied against García, because in June 1071 Sancho was able to march through León to Galicia and expel the youngest brother from his kingdom. At the same time Alfons made several donations to Galician prelates, which made his participation in this coup obvious. The alliance with Sancho only lasted for a short time. In the first days of January 1072 he again invaded León with an army and was able to defeat Alfons in the battle of Golpejera and take him prisoner. Alfons was defeated and allowed to go into exile with the Moorish king of Toledo, while the apparently victorious Sancho was crowned king in León on January 12th. Only the eldest sister Urraca still resisted Sancho in her city of Zamora , who was completely unexpectedly killed during the siege of Zamora on October 7, 1072 under unclear circumstances. Alfons could immediately take possession of his kingdom, now united with Castile and Galicia. According to literary tradition, he had to win the approval of the Castilian nobility, led by the alférez Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar , by taking an oath of purification, swearing that he was not responsible for his brother's death. But when García also returned from his exile in 1073, Alfons had him captured immediately and imprisoned for the rest of his life in order to finally secure sole rule.

Expansion and church politics

The following years were relatively calm for Alfons; he used this time mainly to consolidate his empire and its church hierarchy. On May 29, 1073 he handed over the Abbey of San Isidro von Dueñas in Burgos to the monastery system of Cluny, thus opening the gates for the Cluniac reform movement in Spain. At the turn of the year from 1073 to 1074, he got his first marriage to Agnes (Inés), a daughter of Duke Wilhelm VIII of Aquitaine , to whom he had already got engaged in 1069. According to a Norman chronicler, this was preceded in the same year by an engagement with a daughter of Wilhelm the Conqueror , who, however, died on the trip to Spain. The Aquitaine ducal house had a close ideological relationship to the Abbey of Cluny and Queen Agnes was supposed to play an important mediating role in the reform movement in Spain that originated from this abbey. Alfons also concluded the Aquitaine marriage for political reasons, as he won such a strong ally in the north of the Pyrenees against his eastern neighbor and cousin, King Sancho Ramírez of Aragón . This had started an offensive expansion policy against the Muslim Taifa of Saragossa (conquest of Barbastro 1064), which in turn was a vassal of León-Castile. However, thanks to his submission to the Holy See in 1068, the Aragonese had the backing of Pope Gregory VII , who had a crusade army recruited especially for him in France to support him in 1073. The king of Saragossa sought an alliance against this threat with King Sancho IV of Navarre , also a cousin of the Jiménez dynasty, who threw himself into a conflict with Aragón. The French crusade army under Ebles II von Roucy was then immediately used by Sancho Ramírez for the war against Navarre. On June 4, 1076, Sancho IV was murdered after a court intrigue, which the King of Aragón immediately took advantage of to annex Navarre with its capital Pamplona . Alfonso, surprised by these events, wanted to benefit from it and moved into Nájera on June 25, 1076 , demonstrating that his kingdom had taken possession of the old Basque landscape of La Rioja . With Álava , Vizcaya and part of Guipúzcoa , he secured even more Basque areas, so that from now on the upper reaches of the Ebro marked the border between León-Castile and Aragón. For the Basque Navarre, its division marked a significant turning point in its history; had it under Sancho III. the great , the grandfather of Alfonso VI. and Sancho Ramírez, still in the position of hegemon among the Christian empires, had now sunk to the status of a subordinate province to its neighbors. From then on it was forever excluded from further territorial expansion against Al-Andalus.

The geopolitical map of Spain in the late 11th century. The kingdom of Alfonso VI. included the kingdoms of León, Castile, and Galicia.
Christian Spain and the Muslim Taifa kingdoms of Al-Andalus around 1080.

In 1076, Alfons made diplomatic contact with Pope Gregory VII to ask him to establish the Roman rite in the Spanish Church, which should replace the old Visigoth-Mozarabic rite. This political rapprochement with Rome should make the Pope weighed in the conflict with Aragón for the interests of León. However, this request drew ambivalent reactions among the people and unexpected consequences. According to a later legend full of legends, a judicial duel took place at the royal court in Burgos on Palm Sunday , April 9, 1077, in which a knight who had defended the old Visigothic rite was victorious over a royal knight who defended the new Roman rite had occurred. Subsequently, a trial by fire was arranged in that an ordinary professor of both rites threw himself into a fire. When the Mozarabic professor jumped back from the flames, Alfons personally pushed him back into them. What Alfons had apparently not intended, apart from the turmoil among his own subjects, was a secular, i.e. H. political subordination to the Holy See , which, however, was demanded by the reform pope Gregory VII. against the secular powers of the Christian ecumenical movement, in particular by the Roman-German Emperor Heinrich IV. (see Investiture Controversy ). And it is precisely this subordination that he demanded from all "kings and counts of Spain" in a letter of June 28, 1077, in which he proclaimed papal supremacy over the entire Iberian peninsula. Alfonso did not accept this claim without resistance by making his own claim to hegemony by accepting the title of " Emperor of all Spain " (imperator totius hispaniae) . In the original, this title is dated for the first time in official use for April 7, 1079 and in private use for January 29, 1078. In a later copy, however, it is dated October 17, 1077, just a few months after the papal letter was announced. This claim was not new to the Asturian-Leonese royal family. Some of Alfons' ancestors on his mother's side, from whom he attached great importance to descending, had already held the title of imperator and thus expressed their claim to leadership among Christians in the fight against Muslim invaders in the ideal continuation of the Visigothic heritage.

In 1078 at the latest, Alfons separated from his first wife Agnes of Aquitaine, who had not borne him any children, which also invalidated the alliance with their father, who in turn was dynastically linked to Aragón. At the turn of the year from 1079 to 1080 Alfons immediately concluded his second marriage with Constanze of Burgundy , whose nephew, Duke Hugo I of Burgundy , had been involved in the battle of the Moors in Spain the previous year. The new bride was also a niece of Abbot Hugo von Cluny , to whom Alfons handed over the monastery of Santa María in Nájera on September 3, 1079, probably in the course of his engagement, and thus further strengthened his relationship with Cluny. Shortly thereafter, the management of the royal abbey of Santos Facundo y Primitivo of Sahagún was entrusted to a Cluniac abbot, who apparently was appointed by Alfonso himself. This was the occasion for the Pope to demonstrate his authority. In June 1080 he instructed Hugo von Cluny to fill the post of chief of Sahagún, whereupon the abbot appointed by Alfons was ordered back to Cluny and replaced by Bernard de Sedirac from the south of France . Regardless of the circumstances of his calling, he was to become a lifelong confidante of the king and his successor Urraca , whom Konstanze had given him as his first child in late 1080.

Conquest of Toledo

Already in August 1076, immediately after the annexation of the Rioja, Alfons made a first advance across the Duero into the south to Al-Andalus, which he broke off at Sepúlveda . At that time the balance of power had eroded under the Moors, triggered by the death of the king of Toledo, al-Mamun . The King of Seville, al-Mutamid , had taken advantage of the situation and annexed Dénia , Cordoba and Murcia one after the other, growing into a threatening power. Meanwhile, the new king of Toledo, al-Qadir , had lost control of his anarchic kingdom, which in turn was exploited by the king of Badajoz, al-Mutawakkil , to invade Toledo. In order to defend his empire against a new outbreak of the Moors, Alfons had several villages along the Duero fortified and repopulated, such as Salamanca , Medina de Campo , Olmedo , Segovia or Cuéllar . In April 1079 Alfons crossed the Duero again and pulled up to a few kilometers from Toledo. Then he marched westward, took Coria and thus gained a base against Badajoz, against which he continued to form an alliance with the King of Seville. He then returned to Castile to marry Constance of Burgundy there. In the summer of 1080 al-Mutawakkil had to withdraw from Toledo, to which al-Qadir could now return. Alfons did not think of returning Coria to the King of Badajoz. As thanks for his support, he also received the castles of Zorita and Canturias from al-Qadir, thereby consolidating his presence in the Transduero region.

Equestrian statue of Alfonso VI. in Toledo.

In this situation around the turn of the year 1080 to 1081 at the court of León, the following happened: Alfons banished the Castilian nobleman Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, better known as " El Cid ", from his kingdom. This was once a close confidante of Sancho II. With the exception of the Historia Roderici, there are no other records about the background of the banishment . According to this singular source, an attack by Moorish troops on the Castilian castle of San Esteban de Gormaz on the upper reaches of the Duero had taken place, whereupon El Cid undertook a retaliatory campaign into the Kingdom of Toledo on his own initiative. In order not to endanger relations between León and Toledo, Alfons did not see himself compelled to do anything other than banish El Cid from his kingdom. Independently of this narrative, Alfonso apparently came to the realization at that time that his vassal al-Qadir could no longer rule Toledo effectively and that a direct takeover of this kingdom was inevitable to stabilize the border with al-Andalus. As a result, he had several places in the vicinity of Toledo occupied and populated with Christian settlers, which took place without major battles. These included castles and cities such as Almodóvar del Campo , Guadalajara , Hita , Madrid , Olmos and Uclés . In 1082 a new source of unrest opened up for Alfons on his eastern border when his vassal al-Muqtadir of Saragossa died and his kingdom fell into a succession battle between his sons. With an army troop he advanced as far as Rueda Castle on the Jalón , whose Moorish castellan signaled to him that he was ready to surrender. The castellan, however, switched to al-Mutamin's side shortly before the handover and on January 6, 1083 committed a massacre of the negotiators sent by Alfons to Rueda. Alfons still had the castles of Agüero, Ayerbe and Grau occupied, but for the time being refrained from making a direct move against Saragossa, since at the same time al-Mutamid of Seville terminated the alliance with him and through property claims on Almodóvar del Campo and the murder of a Jewish one Envoy Alfons additionally provoked. Alfonso plundered the Kingdom of Seville with two army groups until the winter of 1083. In the summer of 1084 he finally marched back into the Kingdom of Toledo and set up a fortified camp south of the city, from where the final steps towards its possession should take place. After more than a year of siege, which went without noticeable fighting and the constant presence of Alfons, al-Qadir surrendered on May 6, 1085, so that Alfons was able to enter Toledo personally on May 25.

As unspectacular as the conquest of Toledo was, it was mentioned rather casually in Christian chronicles. For Alfons himself it had an enormous symbolic as well as propaganda significance; he saw his claim to priority as heir to the Visigothic kings confirmed by taking possession of their former capital. This claim was no longer limited to the Christian world of Hispania , but was extended to its entire geographic area including its population, regardless of their religious denomination. This was made clear in the title of the king, which was expanded after the capture of Toledo, as “the imperator appointed by God over all the nations of Spain” (Deo constitutus imperator super omnes Spanie nationes) , or more precisely as “King Alfonso ruling in Toledo, who over the Christians and pagans of all kingdoms of Spain rule ” (regnante rex domno Adefonso in Toleto et imperante christianorum quam et paganorum omnia Hispanie regna) . After he moved into the city, Alfonso guaranteed all residents full freedom of religion, especially the Mozarabic Christians, who made up almost a quarter of the population. The Muslims were allowed to keep their large main mosque, but now had to pay an annual poll tax, as they had previously claimed from the Christians. The same applied to the large Jewish community, which was also allowed to keep its synagogues and quarters. At a church council convened in Burgos in late 1085, Toledo was determined as the new seat of the primacy of the Church of Spain in accordance with its importance.

Invasion of the Almoravids

The conquest of Toledo brought about considerable changes in the balance of power in Hispania, because León-Castile now assumed a clear hegemonic position through the territorial gain. Both the Muslim and the Christian powers suggested this threatening development for resistance. King Sancho Ramírez of Aragón took it as an opportunity to conquer the Saragossa typhoon, which he expected to strengthen his position vis-à-vis León-Castile. In order to forestall the Aragonese, Alfonsus decided to conquer Zaragoza, whose divided ruling family, like those in Toledo before, was apparently no longer in a position to govern the country sensibly. First, in the spring of 1086, he had the ex-king of Toledo, al-Qadir, installed as his vassal in Valencia by his general Álvar Fáñez , thus gaining a position on the eastern border of Zaragoza. He then took up the siege of Zaragoza himself at the same time.

However, Alfons had to refrain from taking Zaragoza when a significant change in the situation occurred in the south of al-Andalus. The king al-Mutamid of Seville, who was troubled by the overwhelming power of León, appealed to the rulers of North Africa, the Almoravids , for assistance. These had already been on a steady triumphant advance, which within a very short time had expanded their rule from their country of origin, Mauritania , to Morocco . Gratefully accepting the call for help from their fellow believers, they seized the opportunity to extend their rule over al-Andalus. On July 30, 1086, the Emir of the Almoravids, Yusuf ibn Tashfin , went ashore with a large army near Algeciras , 375 years after a Muslim invasion force had crossed the same route from Africa to Europe for the first time. Alfons marched against the new enemy in forced marches and fought him on October 23 at the Battle of al-Zallaqa near today's Sagrajas near Badajoz . After several hours of fighting, the Christian army suffered a crushing defeat; Alfons himself suffered several leg wounds. Moving over Coira, he fled to Toledo in order to put the city in readiness for defense. The attack of the Almoravids did not take place, however, as Yusuf ibn Tashfin preferred to return to Marrakech, presumably considering the advanced season of the year. Nonetheless, the defeat of al-Zallaqa marked a turning point in the military conflict on the Iberian Peninsula as the Christians were deprived of their offensive power and placed on the defensive. For Alfons VI. the defensive struggle, especially for Toledo, was to dominate the last twenty-three years of his life.

The greatest expansion of the Almoravid Empire around 1110.

In Toledo, after the attack had not materialized, Alfons convened a council of the clergy and nobility of his kingdom to deliberate. Here his confidante, Abbot Bernard of Sahagún , was consecrated as Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of the Spanish Church. At the same time, however, a departure from the policy of tolerance issued after 1085 was initiated, because the Cluniac hardliner Bernard gradually banned the Mozarabic rite and had the main mosque consecrated into a Christian cathedral. At this council, the king reconciled himself again with Rodrigo Díaz "El Cid" de Vivar, who had been in the service of the King of Saragossa for the past few years and who now received the castles of San Esteban de Gormaz and Dueñas again. Subsequently, Alfons now in turn sent a request for help to the princes of France for support in the fight against the Moors. As early as the spring of 1087, his nephew by marriage, Duke Odo I of Burgundy , moved across the Pyrenees, with whom Alfons immediately took up the siege of Tudela , which was held by the still renegade vassal king of Saragossa. It ended in failure in April. Alfons used the presence of the French for diplomatic deals. Apparently here he arranged the engagement of his six-year-old daughter Urraca to Raimund of Burgundy , a brother-in-law of the Duke of Burgundy. The marriage of his illegitimate daughter Elvira to Count Raimund IV of Toulouse is also likely to have been initiated on this occasion. Furthermore, before Tudela, Sancho Ramírez of Aragón and his eldest son Peter paid homage to the Navarre they held as their overlord. The engagement between the young and prospective heir to the throne Urraca to the Burgundy, which was officially announced in León , apparently did not meet with unanimous approval. In 1087 an uprising against the king broke out in Galicia, headed by the Bishop of Santiago de Compostela, Diego Peláez . The exact motives for this uprising are not adequately known, but apparently the rebels campaigned for the inheritance rights of their former king, the captured García, and probably also relied on the support of the Anglo-Norman King William the Conqueror , who once had one of his daughters had betrothed him. The Norman king died that same year, after which the revolt quickly collapsed. In the spring of 1088 Alfonso moved into Santiago and put the bishop in chains as a high traitor. By a quickly convened church council he had him removed from his office and replaced by the abbot of Cardeñas, Pedro. With this act, Alfons got another conflict with the Holy See. Like Gregory VII, who died in 1085, the new Pope Urban II also reserved the sole right to invest in religious offices. Although he confirmed the appointment of Bernard as Archbishop of Toledo, at the same time occupied the diocese of Santiago with the interdict , which was to last until Diego Peláez was returned to his office. Alfons had to give in to the papal will, but he did not withdraw his charges against the bishop.

In June 1088, Yusuf ibn Tashfin again went ashore with a large army at Algeciras and marched eastward along the coast to besiege the Castilian castle Aledo . The defenders were able to hold out long enough until Alfonso came up with a relief army and the Almoravids then retreated. This approach characterized the strategic defensive concept with which Alfons intended to counter all further attacks by the enemy. Around the same time he also achieved a diplomatic success when King al-Mustain of Saragossa became vassal of Castile again after mediation of the cid and paid the regular tribute payments (pariah) . This was due to the king's need for protection, who was increasingly exposed to pressure from Aragon. Also in the south, in Andalusia , Alfons tried to integrate the local Taifa kings into his parias system in order to be able to act as their protector against the Almoravids. Only the king of Granada was prepared to do so, while that of Seville continued to maintain his alliance with the Almoravids. In March 1090, under the leadership of the Cardinal Legate Reiner (who later became Pope Paschal II ), a church council met in León , at which the decision regarding the diocese dispute in Santiago de Compostela was passed to present it to the Pope in Rome, whereupon both Diego Peláez and Pedro de Cardeñas also set out there. Shortly afterwards, Yusuf ibn Tashufin landed a third time at Algeciras and marched directly towards Toledo via Córdoba. Immediately Alfons met him with an army, supported by King Sancho Ramírez of Aragón. Since the Almoravid was not supported by the Taifas this time, he had to withdraw from Toledo towards the end of August, which was another defensive success for Alfons. However, Yusuf immediately turned against Granada, conquered this city and thus began the permanent conquest of the Almoravids in al-Andalus. Alfons could not save his vassal, which shattered confidence in his guarantees of protection under the Taifas. In November Yusuf returned to Africa, leaving his cousin Sir ibn Abi Bakr as governor, who was entrusted with the further implementation of the Almoravid expansion.

As early as December 1090, Sir ibn Abi Bakr began his campaign and turned against Seville, whose king al-Mutamid had once asked the Almoravids for help. First, on March 15, 1091, Córdoba fell with the king's son. After a brief advance into the Toledo area, Sir took up the siege of Almodóvar del Río , which controlled the road to Seville. In this situation, al-Mutamid sent a cry for help to Alfons, to which he had consistently refused to submit. Alfons nevertheless sent an army under his general Álvar Fáñez . But again the Almoravids were superior in open battle near Almodóvar, whereupon Seville surrendered on November 9, 1091. Jaén , Almería , Dénia and Murcia then fell in quick succession , leaving all of Moorish Andalusia with the exception of Badajoz in the hands of the Almoravids. In the spring of 1092, order in the Spanish Levant threatened to collapse when the vassal king al-Qadir was killed in a popular uprising in Valencia . The Almoravids took advantage of the situation and were able to occupy the city. Alfons immediately moved against Valencia to drive them away from there, but after a brief siege he gave up this project and returned to León.

Expansion of the Almoravids

Already in March 1090 the captured ex-king of Galicia, García, died in prison. He was the last male member of the Leonese royal family next to Alfons, for whom the question of a succession arose. In the same year he appointed his son-in-law Raymond of Burgundy as Count of Galicia, that is, as administrator of the former part of his deceased brother's kingdom. Around the same time, his marriage was formalized with the almost ten-year-old Urraca, who was first documented on February 27, 1091 as Raimund's wife. Obviously Alfons built his son-in-law, who increasingly appeared as a member of the Privy Council, as his successor on the throne. The young Infanta was raised under the care of his closest personal confidante and friend, Pedro Ansúrez . Probably shortly after his confrontation with El Cid in Valencia in late 1092, Alfonso began a concubination with the Moorish princess Zaida, the daughter of a king "Abenabet", whose identity is unclear, and a widow of the son of al-Mutamid, who died in Córdoba in 1091 from Seville was. Apparently as an exile, she had come to the Leonese court and in 1093 gave birth to the king a late son, Sancho Alfónsez . The birth of the illegitimate son apparently went hand in hand with the death of Queen Konstanze, who died between July and October 1093. In the following year, Alfons married a certain Berta, who came from Tuscia , Italy , probably in the hope of having a legitimate son. At about the same time he married his second illegitimate daughter Theresa to Heinrich von Burgund , a nephew of his wife who had recently died. The spouses were inadvertently supposed to become the first parents of a Portugal independent of León-Castile .

Equestrian statue of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called El Cid, in Burgos.

The year 1094 was otherwise eventful. With Badajoz, the last Andalusian Taifa kingdom fell into the hands of the Almoravids; shortly before his death, the last king al-Mutawakkil had handed over the cities of Lisbon , Santarém and Sintra to Alfons, who in turn handed them over to his son-in-law Raimund as Count of Entrusted to Galicia. In the east, King Sancho Ramírez of Aragón fell during the siege of Huesca . This was followed by his son Peter I , who was no less determined to conquer Zaragoza. Around the same time, Rodrigo Díaz "El Cid" de Vivar, with whom Alfons had fallen out again, succeeded in liberating Valencia from the Almoravids and establishing his own rule there. He then defeated an Almoravid relief army in the battle of Cuart de Poblet on October 21, 1094. This was accompanied by the loss of Lisbon in the west of the peninsula in November of that year, which Raimund, as soon as it had been won, was not against an attack by the Sir ibn Abi Bakr could defend. Shortly afterwards Alfons took up the affairs of the controversial diocese of Santiago again. Diego Peláez had not returned from his trip to Rome and had taken voluntary exile in Aragón, which Alfons saw as an official task. In consensus with his son-in-law, the clergy and the population of Santiago, he ran the election of Dalamcio as the new bishop. He was a Cluniac and consequently received the support of Archbishop Bernard of Toledo, who advocated his official consecration with the Pope, for which both traveled to Rome especially. In November 1094 the new bishop was recognized by the Pope. In 1095, Raimund handed over the county of Portugal, which belongs to Galicia, to his cousin and brother-in-law Heinrich, and in return received support from him in the line of succession. Apparently Raimund saw this endangered by the new marriage of his father-in-law. After the death of Bishop Dalmacio on March 16, 1096, Alfons had to deal again with the occupation of the bishopric of Santiago de Compostela. This time, however, he did not anticipate an election, but initially set up an administrator, Diego Gelmírez , who was to administer the diocese until the Pope made a decision. As a native of Santiago, Gelmírez had the support of the local population and, as the notary of Raymond of Burgundy, he also had the trust of the royal court. By Easter 1098 at the latest, he was formally elected as the new bishop and generally recognized by the Spanish clergy, which marked the beginning of one of the dazzling church careers of the Spanish Middle Ages.

At the same time, military conflicts increasingly demanded Alfons' full attention. In the east, his vassal Ahmad II. Al-Musta'in of Saragossa against Peter I of Aragon was in dire straits. To support him, Alfons sent an army under the Counts García Ordóñez de Nájera and Gonzalo Núñez de Lara , who were however badly defeated on November 18, 1096 in the Battle of Alcoraz by the Aragonese. As a result, Huesca was lost to Taifa Saragossa, whereupon Alfons prepared the winter with an army to recapture it. However, he had to drop this plan and hurry to Toledo with his troops when, in April 1097, Yusuf ibn Tashufin made a fourth trip to Spain. Alfons even received reinforcements for the upcoming fight from the Cid from Valencia, led by his son Diego Rodríguez. On August 15, 1097, Alfonso suffered another heavy defeat in the battle of Consuegra ; El Cid's son was killed. With his remaining troops he was able to flee into the city and successfully defend it against a siege lasting several days, but his general Álvar Fáñez was also defeated by a second Almoravid column near Cuenca at about the same time . Despite their victories, the Almoravids refrained from attacking Toledo this time as well and withdrew to Africa again, so that the Kingdom of León-Castile was again almost harmed. Serious consequences happened to Alfons in the east, where El Cid, probably also in bitterness about the loss of his son, married his eldest daughter to the son of Peter I of Aragón and thus an inheritance of Valencia to Aragón was prepared. In the following years the area around Toledo was subjected to regular raids by the Almoravids, against which Álvar Fáñez tried to fight as royal governor. However, he could not prevent the loss of Consuegra in June 1099. Shortly afterwards El Cid died on July 10th and his widow Jimena Díaz took control of Valencia.

In the first days of 1100 Alfons' third wife Berta von Tuszien passed away childless and on May 14th of the same year he was married again to a fourth woman named Elisabeth, whose family origin is unknown, but who can possibly be identified with his concubine Zaida . On that day he visited Valencia with her to find out about the situation of the Christians there. Around the same time, Yahya ibn Yusuf , a son of the Almoravid emir, crossed to Spain and besieged Toledo. The city was able to repel the attack, but some castles in the surrounding area fell. In the east, with the conquest of Barbastro in October 1100, the Taifa Zaragoza continued to be troubled by Peter I of Aragón . In the spring of 1101 Alfons received a reliquary of the “true cross of Christ” for the Abbey of Sahagún , which the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos had sent him as a gift. It had been given to one of the few Spanish knights on the First Crusade . In August 1101 an Almoravid general moved up the Mediterranean coast of Spain before Valencia and besieged the city. Alfons did not set out too late until February 1102 with an army to relieve the city, which had to surrender at the beginning of May when he was still on the march. The loss of Valencia resulted in that of the entire Spanish Levant for León-Castile. Al-Mustain of Saragossa, the last Taifa king, who was under great pressure, had no choice but to renounce his vassalage to Alfons and switch to that of the Almoravids. They immediately displayed their new power in the east when they repulsed an offensive against Saragossa by Peter I of Aragon. In June 1103 Alfons dared an offensive against the Almoravids and besieged the border castle Medinaceli . A relief army was defeated at Talavera de la Reina and the governor of Granada was killed, which marked the first victory of the Christians over the Almoravids in open field battle.

Last years

From 1104 onwards, the Almoravid military pressure eased; Emir Yusuf ibn Tashfin († September 2, 1106) was dying and his son Ali had to consolidate his successor. At the same time, Alfons, now almost seventy, took up his own succession plan again. Apparently at this time Alfons was increasingly moving his illegitimate son Sancho into the position of his heir to the throne, at least since 1103 he appeared increasingly as the first documentary witness. Undoubtedly, this preference had a negative impact on the general climate within the royal family, where Raimund, as the husband of the eldest legitimately born king's daughter Urraca, was increasingly deprived of his chances. The personal break between Alfons and his childhood friend Pedro Ansúrez , who was also the trusted guardian of Infanta and who voluntarily went into exile in Urgell after their postponement, is probably due to this. To create a fait accompli, Alfons had married Sancho's mother, who was none other than his Moorish concubine Zaida. On the occasion of her marriage she converted under the name "Elisabeth" (Spanish: Isabel) to the Christian faith, which fully legitimized the legal status of her son. When the wedding took place is controversial. Zaida is probably identical with Alfons' fourth wife married in 1100, who was also called Elisabeth and had given birth to two daughters; however, equating it with Zaida is not entirely certain. At the latest , Queen Elisabeth, named on March 19, 1106 in a donation to the Church of Oviedo , must be Zaida, as the Infant Sancho is shown standing next to her for the first time. In the first days of May 1107, Alfons officially designated his son as his successor at a large council in León in the presence of the entire royal family, as he was first named in a document of May 14, 1107. The last remaining doubts about the validity of this regulation became irrelevant due to the surprising death of Raimund after a rapidly developing illness on September 20, 1107.

The geopolitical map of Spain in the 12th century after the reign of Alfonso VI.

Meanwhile, Alfons' hopes for a smooth transfer of his throne were dashed in the following year. First he married his sixth wife in the winter of 1108 with the unknown Beatrix; Zaida / Isabel had died shortly before. In May 1108 the Almoravids finally became active again under the governor Tamim ibn Yusuf and made another campaign near Toledo. In doing so, they conquered the city of Uclés , which offered access to the Tajo Valley in a strategically favorable location . However, the Christian defenders were able to entrench themselves in the heavily developed city castle (alcázar) and hold out until they were relieved. The old King Alfons entrusted the approximately fifteen year old Sancho with the management of the relief, which was to be given the opportunity to prove his leadership ability. The proven warrior Álvar Fáñez was placed at the side of the young heir to the throne . Like twenty-two years earlier at Zallaqua, the battle of Uclés on May 29, 1108 turned into a complete disaster for the Christian armed forces, which were massacred by the Moors. Among the many favors was Infant Sancho, the castle of Uclés had to surrender.

The death of the heir to the throne unexpectedly brought the widowed Infanta Urraca back to the center of the question of succession. In the autumn of 1108, the old Alfons, who was probably already suffering from health problems, had no other alternative than to appoint his eldest daughter as heir to the throne. After all, in Alfonso Raimúndez , who was just a few years old, she already had a son who was able to guarantee the continuation of the dynasty beyond the next generation. But although Urraca was already thirty years old, Alfons thought it appropriate to arrange their remarriage. Presumably he had come to the conclusion that Urraca could pursue an assertive policy alone with an energetic man at her side, also with regard to the fighting with the Almoravids. As the most suitable marriage partner, he made King Alfonso I of Aragón , who had the reputation of a great Moorish fighter ("el Batallador"). The connection with him also opened up the opportunity for the permanent union of the two most important Christian powers in Spain. The result of these considerations, however, turned out to be the opposite of what Alfons had hoped for. Aragonese marriage met with widespread opposition among the nobility and clergy of León and Castile, although the clergy were able to use the argument that they were too closely related. Even between the spouses themselves, the willingness to marry should turn out to be a fallacy, which for the Urraca government in particular was the cause of ongoing struggles within their own families.

In May 1109, Alfonso von Sahagún moved to Toledo in order to plan a retaliatory strike against the Almoravids. Above all, however, the capital of his Visigothic predecessors and the scene of his greatest victory was the right place for him to officially proclaim Urraca, who moved with him, as his heir to the throne towards the end of June. This was also his last act. Alfons died in Toledo on July 1, 1109 at the age of 72; He was buried on July 21st in the royal abbey of Santos Facundo y Primitivo (later San Benito) in Sahagún.

Familiar

ancestors

García II of Navarre
(964–1000)
 
 Jimena Fernández
 
 Sancho García of Castile
(? -1028)
 
 Urraca
 
 Bermudo II of León
(956–999)
 
 Elvira of Castile
(? -1017)
 
 Menendo González
(? –1008)
 
 Toda
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sancho III. of Navarre
(990-1035)
 
 
 
 
 
 Munia Mayor of Castile
(990-1066)
 
 
 
 
 
 Alfonso V of León
(994-1028)
 
 
 
 
 
 Elvira Menéndez
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ferdinand I of León-Castile
(1018-1065)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sancha of León
(1013-1067)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alfonso VI
(1040–1109)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Marriages and children

Alfonso VI was married at least five, maybe six times, and had four legitimate and two illegitimate children:

  • Engagement: 1069 to Agatha, a daughter of the Anglo-Norman King William the Conqueror . She died on her trip to Spain.
  • First marriage: 1069 with Agnes, a daughter of Duke Wilhelm VIII of Aquitaine . The marriage remained childless and was annulled.
  • Second marriage: in autumn 1079 with Konstanze († 1093), a daughter of Duke Robert I of Burgundy , with whom he had a daughter:
  • Third marriage: 1094 with Bertha († 1098/99), who came from Tuscany . The marriage remained childless.
  • Fourth marriage: 1100 with Elisabeth (Isabel), whose family origin is unclear. Maybe she was identical to Zaida. With her he had two daughters:
  • (Fifth marriage): no later than 1106 with Zaida, called "Elisabeth" after her conversion to Christianity. From this marriage comes:
  • Fifth marriage: 1108 with Beatrix, whose family origin is unclear. She survived Alfonso and returned to her homeland after his death. The marriage remained childless.
  • Two illegitimate children arose from a cohabitation with the noblewoman Jimena Muñoz:

literature

  • Emilio Sáez: Alfons VI . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , column 398 f.
  • Andrés Gambra: Alfonso VI: Cancillería, curia e imperio. Colección diplomática II. In: Fuentes y Estudios de Historia Leonesa. Vol. 63. León 1998.
  • Elías Gago, Juan Eloy Díaz-Jiménez: Los restos mortales de Alfonso VI y de sus cuatro mujeres: Inés, Constanza, Zayda y Berta. In: Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia. Vol. 58 (1911), pp. 40-55.
  • Angus MacKay, Muhammad Benaboud: The Authenticity of Alfonso VI's Letter to Yusuf ibn Tashufin. In: Al-Andalus. Vol. 43 (1978), pp. 233-237.
  • Angus MacKay, Muhammad Benaboud: Alfonso VI of León and Castile, 'al-Imbratur-dhu-l-Millatayn'. In: Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. Vol. 56 (1979), pp. 95-102.
  • Angus MacKay, Muhammad Benaboud: Yet Again Alfonso VI, 'The Emperor, Lord of (the Abherents of) the Two Faiths, the Most Excellent Ruler': A Rejoinder to Norman Roth. In: Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. Vol. 61 (1984), pp. 165-181.
  • Ramón Menéndez Pidal : La España del Cid. 2 volumes. Madrid 1929.
  • Bernard F. Reilly: The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VI 1065-1109. Princeton University Press, 1988 ( online ).
  • John E. Slaughter: De nuevo sobre la batalla de Uclés. In: Anuario de estudios medievales. Vol. 9 (1974/79), pp. 393-404.

Web links

Commons : Alfonso VI. (León)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Bishop Pelayo of Oviedo gave the age of Alfonso VI in his chronicle (Chronicon regum Legionensium) . when he died in 1109 at the age of 79, which is obviously wrong, since the king's parents had only just married in the implied year of birth 1030 and Alfonso was at least the third, if not the fourth of their children. See Crónica del Obispo Don Pelayo, ed. by Benito Sánchez Alonso (1924), p. 87. The Chronicle of Anonymus von Sahagún indicates the age as 72 years, which means that the year of birth is 1037. See Las crónicas anónimas de Sahagún, ed. by Julio Puyol y Alonso, in: Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia. Vol. 76 (1920), § 15, p. 121. Cf. Reilly (1988), § 2, p. 20. For the anniversary of the death of Alfonso VI. three different dates have come down to us. This article follows those of the two eyewitnesses present in Toledo, the aforementioned Bishop Pelayo and Anonymous of Sahagún. The Historia Compostelana as well as the Chronicon Compostellanum name June 29, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 20 (1765), p. 96 and 611. The Anales Toledanos I indicate June 30, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 23 (1767), p. 386. See Reilly (1988), § 17, p. 363, note 62.
  2. ↑ Crónica del Obispo Don Pelayo, ed. by Benito Sánchez Alonso (1924), p. 73. Historia Silense , ed. by Simon Barton and Richard Fletcher, in: The World of El Cid: Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest. Manchester University Press, 2000, § 8, p. 30 and § 81, p. 45.
  3. ↑ Archivo de la Catedral de Santiago, Tumbo A, fol. 33r.
  4. ↑ Crónica del Obispo Don Pelayo, ed. by Benito Sánchez Alonso (1924), p. 78.
  5. ↑ Annales Compostellani, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 23 (1765), p. 319. Historia Silense, ed. by Simon Barton and Richard Fletcher, in: The World of El Cid: Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest. Manchester University Press, 2000, § 10, pp. 31-32.
  6. ↑ Recueil des chartes de l'Abbaye de Cluny, Vol. 4, ed. by Alexandre Bruel (1888), no. 3452, pp. 560-562.
  7. ↑ Crónica Najerense, ed. by Antonio Ubieto Arteta (1966), p. 116.
  8. ^ The Register of Gregory VII., Ed. by Erich Caspar (1955), pp. 343-347.
  9. ↑ The Chancery of Alfonso VI of León-Castile, 1065-1109, ed. by Bernard F. Reilly in: Santiago, St.-Denis, and Saint Peter (1985), pp. 4-10.
  10. ↑ Recueil des chartes de l'Abbaye de Cluny, Vol. 4, ed. by Alexandre Bruel (1888), No. 3540, pp. 665-668.
  11. ↑ Crónica del Obispo Don Pelayo, ed. by Benito Sánchez Alonso (1924), p. 81.
  12. ↑ The murdered negotiators were Ramiro Garcés, son of King García III. of Navarre, and Gonzalo Salvadórez, father of Gómez González . Historia Roderici didaci campidocti, ed. by Manuel Risco in: La Castilla: y el mas famoso castellano. Discurso sobre el sitio, nombre, extension, gobierno, y condado de la antigua Castilla. Historia del célebre castellano Rodrigo Diaz, llamado vulgarmente el Cid Campeador. (1792), Apendices VI, p. XXII. Crónica Najerense, ed. by Antonio Ubieto Arteta (1966), p. 117. Indice de los documentos del monasterio de Sahagún, ed. by Vincente Vignau y Ballester (1874), p. 270. See Reilly (1988), § 9, p. 165.
  13. ↑ See Gambra (1998), pp. 236-237, and Menéndez Pidal (1939), Vol. 2, pp. 730-731. In two letters addressed to the Moorish ruler of Seville in 1085 and the emir of the Almoravids in 1086, the authenticity of which is disputed, Alfonso VI dubbed himself. as "Emperor of the Two Religions" "(al-Imbraţūr dhī-l-Millatayn)". See literature by MacKay & Benaboud.
  14. ↑ Historia Compostelana, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 20 (1765), p. 122. Crónica Najerense, ed. by Antonio Ubieto Arteta (1966), p. 110.
  15. ↑ Homenaje de Aragón a Castilla por el Condado de Navarra, ed. by Antonio Ubieto Arteta, in: Estudios de edad media de la Corona de Aragón. Vol. 3 (1947/48), pp. 7-28.
  16. ↑ Crónica Najerense, ed. by Antonio Ubieto Arteta (1966), p. 117.
  17. ↑ Historia Compostelana, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 20 (1765), pp. 17-18. El destierro del obispo compostelano Diego Peláez en Aragón, ed. by Antonio Ubieto Arteta, in: Cuadernos de estudios gallegos, Vol. 6 (1951), pp. 43-52.
  18. ↑ Chronicon Compostellanum, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 20 (1765), p. 611.
  19. ↑ Crónica del Obispo Don Pelayo, ed. by Benito Sánchez Alonso (1924), p. 87. Here Zaida is wrongly mentioned as the daughter and not the daughter-in-law of al-Mutamid of Seville.
  20. ↑ Historia Compostelana, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 20 (1765), p. 360.
  21. ↑ Historia Compostelana, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 20 (1765), p. 20.
  22. ↑ Historia Compostelana, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 20 (1765), pp. 25-26. Diego Gelmírez was officially consecrated as bishop by Pope Paschal II on December 29, 1099.
  23. ↑ Las crónicas anónimas de Sahagún, ed. by Julio Puyol y Alonso, in: Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia. Vol. 76 (1920), § 14, pp. 116-117.
  24. ↑ See Reilly (1988), § 14, pp. 296-297. The mysterious fourth wife Elisabeth, who was married in 1100, is said to have had her own grave in the royal pantheon of San Isidoro of León. However, this grave is only known from the copy of its epitaph from the 13th century, the authenticity of which is controversial, as it is the daughter of King Ludwig VI. is mentioned by France , which is impossible for chronological reasons. Louis VI. himself was born in 1081 and also had no known daughter named Elisabeth / Isabella.
  25. ↑ Colección de documentos de la catedral de Oviedo, ed. by Santos García Larragueta (1962), pp. 336-337.
  26. ^ Antonio López Ferreiro: Historia de la Santa AM Iglesia de Santiago de Compostela. Vol. 3 (1900), Appendix No. 23, p. 70.
  27. ↑ Sobre la fecha de la muerte del Conde Raimundo de Galicia, ed. by John E. Slaughter, in: Anuario de estudios medievales, Vol. 13 (1983), pp. 93-106.
  28. ↑ Historia Compostelana, ed. by Enríque Flórez in: España Sagrada. Vol. 20 (1765), p. 67. Crónica Najerense, ed. by Antonio Ubieto Arteta (1966), p. 118.
  29. ↑ Las crónicas anónimas de Sahagún, ed. by Julio Puyol y Alonso, in: Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia. Vol. 76 (1920), § 14, p. 120.
predecessor Office successor
Ferdinand I. King of León
1065-1072 		Sancho II.
García King of Galicia
(together with Sancho II)
1072 		Sancho II.
Sancho II. King of León
King of Castile
King of Galicia
1072–1109 		Urraca
personal data
SURNAME Alfonso VI
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alfonso el Bravo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of León, Castile and Galicia
DATE OF BIRTH 1037
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1109
Place of death Toledo