The Christian Kingdoms of the North



In 711 Arab commander TARIQ (after him, Gibraltar is named) crossed into Spain and defeated the Visigoth King RODERIC and laid the foundation for the Arab conquest of Spain. Most of the peninsula came under Umayyad rule, but pockets of Visigothic resistance held out in TODMIR (around Cartagena, until 756) and in ASTURIAS, poor mountain country in the North, where Visigothic nobleman PELAYO in 718 defeated a (small) Umayyad force and established the petty Kingdom of Asturias, which was to hold it's own. CANGAS DE ONIS was the capital. Under Pelayo's successors, the little kingdom annexed GALICIA (around 750) and Leon, which was Asturian in the latter half of the 9th century. To secure the liberated areas, the Asturian kings founded cities, most notably LEON (after 850) and BURGOS (882). The Kingdom in the northeast of the peninsula had a religious center in SANTIAGO DE LA COMPOSTELA, christian Europe's foremost holy site, attracting pilgrims from as far as Germany and England.
CHARLEMAGNE in the 770es invaded the peninsula several times, establishing the SPANISH MARCH to the north of the Ebro river. In 778, a Frankish contingent retreating from northern Spain was ambushed by native Basques at RONCEVALLES, an event the CHANSON DE ROLAND erroneously attributes to Spain's Muslims. Frankish control over the Spanish March soon collapsed, the Frankish COUNTY OF BARCELONA (Catalonia) factually becoming an independent state. VIFREDO THE HAIRY founded Catalonia by merging the county of Barcelona with Gerona and other neighbouring regions. The religious center of Barcelona was the monastery of MONTSERRAT.
Between Catalonia and Asturias were located the statelets of ARAGON and NAVARRA, the early history of which is poorly documented.

Asturias was a Kingdom of the Germanic type, it's main institution the king himself. The capital was frequently moved, in the 10th century at Leon. When the king had several sons, Asturias was divided - into the Kingdoms of Leon, Castille, the county of Braga (which was to develop into the Kingdom of Portugal).



List of Kings of Asturias, 718-909
718-737
737-739
739-757
757-768
768-774
774-783
783-788
788-791
791-842
842-850
850-866
866-909 		Pelayo
Favila
Alfonso I.
Fruela I.
Aurelio
Silo
Mauregato
Bermudo I.
Alfonso II. the Chaste
Ramiro I.
Ordono I.
Alfonso III.





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This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 9th 2004

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