Alfonso III Of Asturias
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Alfonso III (20 December 910), called the Great ( es, el Magno), was the king of León, Galicia and
Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...
from 866 until his death. He was the son and successor of Ordoño I. In later sources he is the earliest to be called "
Emperor of Spain is a Latin title meaning "Emperor of All Spain". In Spain in the Middle Ages, the title "emperor" (from Latin '' imperator'') was used under a variety of circumstances from the ninth century onwards, but its usage peaked, as a formal and pract ...
." He was also titled "Prince of all Galicia" (''Princeps totius Galletiae'').


Life

Alfonso's reign was notable for his comparative success in consolidating the kingdom during the weakness of the
Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
princes of Córdoba. He fought against and gained numerous victories over the Muslims of al-Andalus. During the first year of his reign, he had to contend with a usurper, Count Fruela of Galicia. He was forced to flee to Castile, but after a few months Fruela was assassinated and Alfonso returned to
Oviedo Oviedo (; ast, Uviéu ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city. Oviedo is located ap ...
. He defeated a
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
rebellion in 867 and, much later, a Galician one as well. He conquered
Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...
and
Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...
in 868 and 878 respectively. In about 869, he formed an alliance with the
Kingdom of Pamplona The Kingdom of Navarre (; , , , ), originally the Kingdom of Pamplona (), was a Basque kingdom that occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, alongside the Atlantic Ocean between present-day Spain and France. The medieval state took ...
, and solidified this link by marrying Jimena, who is thought to have been daughter of king García Íñiguez, or less likely, a member of the
Jiménez dynasty The Jiménez dynasty, alternatively called the Jimena, the Sancha, the Banu Sancho, the Abarca or the Banu Abarca,Alberto Cañada Juste, "¿Quién fue Sancho Abarca?, ''Príncipe de Viana'', 73: 79-132. was a medieval ruling family from the 9th c ...
, and also married his sister Leodegundia to a prince of Pamplona.


In the Reconquista

The following year, 867, Alfonso had to attend to an uprising in the eastern part of the kingdom, in Alava, according to the Chronicle of Albeda. According to the Chronicle of Sampiro, the revolt was led by Count Eylo. Sampiro describes these events as follows: His father, Ordoño, had begun the resettlement of the border territories and Alfonso continued with it. His first successes were in Portuguese lands, where King Alfonso's troops succeeded in locating the southwestern frontier on the Mondego river. Count Vimara Perez in 868 conquered Porto and resettled the district. In 878, the army of King Alfonso III, with Count Hermenegildo Gutiérrez in command, faced the Muslim forces led by the emir of Cordoba, Mohammad I, who had started an attack against Porto. After defeating the emir's forces and expelling the Muslim inhabitants of Coimbra and Oporto, Gutiérrez' Christian troops occupied and repopulated other cities, such as Braga, Viseo and Lamego, with men taken from Galicia. Coimbra, Lamego and Viseo were conquered again in 987 by Almanzor and it was not until 1064 when they were finally reconquered by King Ferdinand I of León. Alfonso III had to face the offensive of the Umayyad prince al-Mundir, son of Mohamed I. Fighting occurred almost constantly between 875 and 883. The first Umayyad raids were aimed at León and El Bierzo, but failed. The Christian counteroffensive ended with the taking of Deza and Atienza. Abd al-Rahman ibn Marwan, the Galician, Lord of Mérida and rebel against the Emir of Córdoba, sent him to ingratiate himself with him to the Minister of this, Hashim ibn Abd al-Aziz. Accordingly, in 878, Al-Mundir directed his armies back to Leon and Astorga, while Salid ben Ganim reached the Órbigo. Alfonso, hoping to prevent the union of both armies, went out to meet the second, which he defeated in the battle of Polvoraria, at the confluence of the Órbigo and Esla rivers. Al-Mundir then withdrew, but Alfonso III intercepted him in the valley of Valdemora, where he defeated him. Mohamed was forced to pay ransom and sign a three-year truce, the first time that Córdoba had asked for peace. Both kings considered the truce as a pause while preparing for the next assault: Mohamed raised a fleet to attack Galicia, but it was destroyed by a storm. Alfonso and Ibn Marwan descended through the Tagus Valley and defeated the Cordovan army on Mount Oxifer, next to the Guadiana River. As revenge, Mohamed attacked the kingdom of Zaragoza in 882, where Alfonso had sent his son Ordoño to be educated with the Banu Qasi, sons of Musa, advancing through the ancient Roman road to Leon. There was an exchange of prisoners and the Cordovans withdrew. They repeated the campaign in 883 with the same result. In 884 Mohamed I and Alfonso III signed a peace, since both began to have serious internal problems. The great king was met with a rising led by his brothers Fruela, Odoario and Bermudo, who became strong in Astorga, supported by several counts, but were quickly defeated and executed. In 901 the Umayyad rebel Ibn al-Qitt proclaimed Mahdi, preached holy war and attacked Zamora - "rebuilt and repopulated by Mozarabic Toledo ..the most important advanced square of the Asturian kingdom" - which he was able to resist. The messianic leader, abandoned by his own, was defeated and killed in battle on what is known as the Day of Zamora. In those years, the emirate of Cordoba, wracked by civil disorder, stopped disturbing the kingdom of Asturias. Alonso faced off against his former allies in Mérida and the Ebro valley: allied with the Count of Pallars, he instigated a coup that managed to defeat the Banu Qasi and install a Navarrese, Sancho Garcés I, on the throne of Pamplona. He ordered the writing of three chronicles which held the theory that the kingdom of Asturias was the rightful successor of the old
Visigothic The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...
kingdom. Alfonso was also a patron of the arts, like his grandfather before him. He built the church of Santo Adriano. According to a letter of disputed authenticity dated to 906, the ''
Epistola Adefonsi Hispaniae regis The ''Epistola Adefonsi Hispaniae regis anno 906'' (“letter of Alfonso, king of Spain in the year 906”) is a letter purportedly written by Alfonso III of Asturias to the clergy of the cathedral of Saint Martin's at Tours in 906. The letter is ...
'', Alfonso arranged to purchase an "imperial crown" from the
cathedral of Tours , native_name_lang = , image = Tours Cathedral Saint-Gatian.jpg , imagesize = , caption = Tours Cathedral , country = , osgridref = , osgraw ...
. R. A. Fletcher, ''Saint James's Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Compostela'' (Oxford, 1984), 317–23. In 909, Alfonso moved the seat of his government to Oviedo. According to Sampiro, his sons ( García, Ordoño, Gonzalo, Fruela and Ramiro) conspired against him, under the influence of García's father-in-law. Alfonso had García imprisoned but the conspirators were able to free him and he fled to Boiges. However, Alfonso later convinced García to join him in a campaign against the Moors. Alfonso died in Zamora of natural causes in 910, having reigned for 44 years.
Ibn Hayyan Abū Marwān Ḥayyān ibn Khalaf ibn Ḥusayn ibn Ḥayyān al-Qurṭubī () (987–1075), usually known as Ibn Hayyan, was a Muslim historian from Al-Andalus. Born at Córdoba, his father was an important official at the court of the Andalusi ...
likewise tells of an uprising, but says that Alfonso himself was imprisoned. Following his death, the kingdom was divided among his sons: his eldest son, García, became king of León; the second son, Ordoño, reigned in Galicia; and Fruela received
Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...
with Oviedo as his capital. These lands would be reunited when García died childless and León passed to Ordoño, while on Ordoño's death the lands were reunited under Fruela. However, Fruela's death the next year started a series of internal struggles that led to unstable succession for over a century.


Culture

# He convened the second Oviedo Council in 893. # He ordered the elaboration of the Cross of Victory, which is included in the current flag of Asturias, which has become a symbol of the Principality. The Cross was made by goldsmiths from the Frankish kingdom. It ordered its elaboration at the beginning of the tenth century, as a donation to the Cathedral of San Salvador. Today it is kept in the Holy Chamber of the Cathedral of Oviedo and a copy hangs on the bridge of Cangas de Onís. # The discovery of the sepulcher of Santiago made Compostela the second apostolic seat after Rome, with authority over clerics from other Christian counties. Santiago became a destination for pilgrims, true transmitters of culture. # With respect to the Asturian art, Alfonso's reign saw the post-Tramuntana stage of Asturian pre-Romanesque architecture, such as San Salvador de Valdediós, Santo Adriano de Tuñón and the basilica of Santiago de Compostela. # He ordered the writing of three chronicles in which he remakes history, presenting the kingdom of Asturias as the heir of the Visigothic kingdom: ::* The Albeldense Chronicle (c. 881). ::* The prophetic Chronicle (c. 883). ::* The Chronicle of the Visigoth Kings or Chronicle of Alfonso III (c. 911).


References


Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alfonso 03 of Asturias 840s births 910 deaths Year of birth uncertain 10th-century Leonese monarchs 10th-century Asturian monarchs Beni Alfons 10th-century Galician monarchs 9th-century Asturian monarchs