Alfonso VI of Castile
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Alfonso VI (before June 1040 - July 1, 1109), nicknamed the Brave, was king of León from 1065 to 1109 and king of Castile since 1072 after his brother's death. Much romance has gathered round his name.
In the cantar de gesta of the Cid, he plays the part attributed by medieval poets to the greatest kings, and to Charlemagne himself. He is alternately the oppressor and the victim of heroic and self-willed nobles — the idealized types of the patrons for whom the jongleurs and troubadours sang. He is the hero of a cantar de gesta which, like all but a very few of the early Spanish songs, like the cantar of Bernardo del Carpio and the Infantes of Lara, exists now only in the fragments incorporated in the chronicle of Alfonso the Wise or in ballad form.
His flight from the monastery of Sahagun, where his brother Sancho endeavoured to imprison him, his chivalrous friendship for his host Almamun of Toledo, caballero aunque moro, "a knight although a Moor", the passionate loyalty of his vassal Peranzules, and his brotherly love for his sister Urraca of Zamora, may owe something to the poet who took him as a hero.
They are the answer to the poet of the nobles who represented the king as having submitted to taking a degrading oath at the hands of Ruy Diaz de Vivar (El Cid), in the church of Santa Gadea at Burgos, and as having then persecuted the brave man who defied him.
When every allowance is made, Alfonso VI stands out as a strong man fighting as a king whose interest was law and order, and who was the leader of the nation in the reconquest. He impressed himself on the arabs as a very fierce and astute enemy, but as a keeper of his word. A story of Muslim origin, which is probably no more historical than the oath of Santa Gadea, tells of how he allowed himself to be tricked by Ibn Ammar, the favourite of Al Mutamid, the king of Seville. They played chess for an extremely beautiful table and set of men, belonging to Ibn Ammar. Table and men were to go to the king if he won. If Ibn Ammar gained he was to name the stake. The latter did win and demanded that the Christian king should spare Seville. Alfonso kept his word.
Whatever truth may lie behind the romantic tales of Christian and Muslim, we know that Alfonso represented in a remarkable way the two great influences then shaping the character and civilization of Spain.
Alfonso married at least five times, had two mistresses, and one fiancee. His first wife was Agnes, daughter of William VII of Aquitaine. They had no children and were divorced due to consanguity. The second wife was Constance of Burgundy; their daughter was Urraca of Castile. Prior to this he was betrothed to Agatha, one of the daughters of William I of England. Two later wives, Beatrice and Bertha, are of unknown origin. By his mistress Jimena Muñoz, daughter of the Count of Asturias, he had two illegitimate daughters: Teresa of Leon and Elvira of Castile.
At the instigation, it is said, of his wife Constance, he brought the Cistercian Order into Spain, established them in Sahagun, chose a French Cistercian, Bernard, as the first archbishop of Toledo after the reconquest on May 25, 1085, married his daughters, Urraca of Castile, the legitimate and Teresa of Leon, the illegitimate, to French princes, and in every way forwarded the spread of French influence — then the greatest civilizing force in Europe. He also drew Spain nearer to the Papacy, and it was his decision which established the Roman ritual in place of the old missal of Saint Isidore — the Mozarabic rite.
On the other hand he was very open to Arabic influence. He protected the Muslims among his subjects and struck coins with inscriptions in Arabic letters. After the death of Constance he perhaps married and he certainly lived with Zaida, said to have been a daughter-in-law of Al Mutamid, Muslim king of Seville. Alfonso's wife Isabel, who bore him the only son, Sancho, among his many children, may have been this Zaida, who became a Christian under the name of Maria or Isabel. Isabel also bore him two daughters, Elvira Alfonso (who married Roger II of Sicily) and Sancha (wife of Rodrigo Gonzalez de Lara).
Sancho, Alfonso's designated successor, was slain at the battle of Ucles in 1108.
References
- This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
- The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VI, 1065-1109, by Bernard F. Reilly (Princeton University Press, 1988), a comprehensively documented work. Full text is online at LIBRO (http://libro.uca.edu/alfonso6/alfonso.htm).
- Portugal, A Country Study, by Louis R. Mortimer, ed. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1993.
| Preceded by: Sancho II | King of Castile | Succeeded by: Urraca |
| Ferdinand I | King of Leon |
de:Alfons VI. (Kastilien) es:Alfonso VI de Castilla fr:Alphonse VI de Castille pt:Afonso VI de Castela