, Alfonso Vi Of León And Castile

Alfonso VI (before June, 1040 – June 29/July 1, 1109), nicknamed theBrave (El Bravo) or the Valiant, was King of León from 1065, King ofCastile and de facto King of Galicia from 1072.[1] After the conquest ofToledo in 1085 he was also the self-proclaimed victoriosissimo rege inToleto, et in Hispania et Gallecia (most victorious king of Toledo, andof Spain and Galicia).[2]

Alfonso was the second son of Ferdinand the Great and Sancha of León, thedaughter of Alfonso the Noble and sister to Bermudo III of León.Following his defeat and killing of Bermudo in battle, Ferdinand wascrowned King of León and Castile and called himself Emperor of Spain.When the kingdom was divided following his father''s death, Alfonso wasallotted León. Castile was given to his older brother Sancho and Galiciato his younger brother García.

As the middle of three sons of King Ferdinand I of León and Sancha ofLeón, Alfonso was allotted León when the kingdom was divided followinghis father''s death, while Castile was given to his elder brother Sancho,Galicia to younger brother García, and sisters Urraca and Elvira giventhe cities of Zamora and Toro respectively. Each of the brothers was alsoassigned a sphere of influence among the Taifa states. Alfonso appears tohave taken the first step in violating this division. In 1068 he invadedthe Galician client Taifa of Badajoz and extorted tribute. In response,Sancho attacked and defeated Alfonso at Llantada but three years later,in 1071, they joined forces against García. Sancho marched acrossAlfonso''s León to conquer García''s northern lands at the time thatAlfonso in the southern part of the Galician realm issuing charters.García fled to the taifa of Seville, and the remaining brothers thenturned on each other. This conflict culminated in the Battle of Golpejerain early January 1072. Sancho proved victorious and Alfonso was forced toflee to his client Taifa of Toledo. Later that year as Sancho was moppingup the last of the resistance, besieging his sister Urraca at Zamora inOctober, he was assassinated. This opened the way for Alfonso to returnto claim Sancho''s crown. García, induced to return from exile, wasimprisoned by Alfonso for life, leaving Alfonso in uncontested control ofthe reunited territories of their father. In recognition of this and hisrole as the preeminent Christian monarch on the peninsula, in 1077Alfonso proclaimed himself "Emperor of all Spain".

In the cantar de gesta The Lay of the Cid, he plays the part attributedby medieval poets to the greatest kings, and to Charlemagne himself. Heis alternately the oppressor and the victim of heroic and self-willednobles—the idealized types of the patrons for whom the jongleurs andtroubadours sang. He is the hero of a cantar de gesta which, like all buta very few of the early Spanish songs, such as the cantar of Bernardo delCarpio and the Infantes of Lara, exists now only in the fragmentsincorporated in the chronicle of Alfonso the Wise or in ballad form.

His flight from the monastery of Sahagún (Safagún in Leonese language),where his brother Sancho endeavoured to imprison him, his chivalrousfriendship with his host Almamun of Toledo, caballero aunque moro, "aknight although a Moor", the passionate loyalty of his vassal, Pero(Pedro) Ansúrez, and his brotherly love for his sister Urraca of Zamora,may owe something to the poet who regarded him as a hero.

They are the answer to the poet of the nobles who represented the king ashaving submitted to taking a degrading oath at the hands of Rodrigo Díazde Vivar (El Cid) to deny intervention in his brother''s death in thechurch of Santa Gadea at Burgos, and as having then persecuted the braveman who defied him.[clarification needed]

Alfonso VI stands out as a strong king whose interest was in law andorder. He was a leader of his state during the Reconquista who wasregarded by the Arabs as a very fierce and astute enemy, but also as aman who kept his word. A story of Muslim origin tells of how he respondedto a challenge during a game of chess made by Ibn Ammar, the favourite ofAl Mutamid, the King of Seville. They played chess on a very beautifultable and with a set of chess pieces belonging to Ibn Ammar. The tableand the chess pieces were to go to Alfonso if he won. If Ibn Ammar won,then he could name the stake. The latter did win and demanded that theChristians should spare Seville. Alfonso kept his word.

Whatever truth may lie behind the romantic tales of the relationships andinteractions between the Christians and the Muslims during theReconquista, Alfonso personified the influences that were then shapingthe character and civilisation of the Iberian peninsula.

Alfonso showed a greater degree of interest than his predecessors inincreasing the links between Iberia and the rest of Christian Europe. Thepast marital practices of the Iberian royalty had been to limit thechoice of partners to the peninsula and Gascony, but Alfonso had Frenchand Italian consorts, and arranged to marry his daughters to Frenchprinces and an Italian king. His second marriage was arranged, in part,through the influence of the French Cluniac Order, and Alfonso is said tohave introduced them into Iberia, established them in Sahagun andchoosing a French Cluniac, Bernard, as the first Archbishop of Toledoafter its 1085 conquest. He also drew his kingdom nearer to the Papacy, amove which encouraged French crusaders to aid him in the reconquest ofthe peninsula from Muslim control, and it was Alfonso''s decision whichestablished the Roman ritual in place of the old missal of SaintIsidore—the Mozarabic rite.

On the other hand he was tolerant towards the Arabs living in Iberia. Heprotected the Muslims among his subjects and struck coins withinscriptions in Arabic letters. He also
admitted to his court and to his bed the refugee Muslim princess Zaida ofSeville.[3]

Alfonso married at least five times and had two mistresses.[4][5][6][7]He is also thought to have been betrothed to a daughter of King William Iof England, but her name is uncertain.[8]

In 1069, Alfonso married Agnes of Aquitaine, daughter of William VIII ofAquitaine and his second wife Mateoda. They last appear together in May1077, and then Alfonso appears alone. This suggests that she had died,although Orderic Vitalis reports that in 1109 Alfonso''s ''relict'' Agnesremarried to Elias I of Maine, leading some to speculate that Alfonso andAgnes had divorced due to consanguinity. It seems more likely thatOrderic gave the wrong name to Alfonso''s widow, Beatrice. Agnes andAlfonso had no children.

Apparently between his first and second marriages he formed a liaisonwith Jimena Muñoz, a "most noble" (nobilissima) concubine "derived fromroyalty" (real generacion). She appears to have been put aside, givenland in Ulver, at the time of Alfonso''s remarriage. By her Alfonso hadtwo illegitimate daughters, Elvira and Teresa.

His second wife, who he married by May 1080, was Constance of Burgundy,daughter of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy. This marriage initially facedpapal opposition, apparently due to her kinship with Agnes. Her tenure asqueen consort brought significant Cluniac influences into the kingdom.She died in September or October, 1093, the mother of Alfonso''s eldestlegitimate daughter Urraca,[9] and of five other children who died ininfancy.

Either before or shortly after Constance''s death, Alfonso formed aliaison with a second mistress, Zaida of Seville, said by Iberian Muslimsources to be daughter-in-law of Al Mutamid, the Muslim King of Seville.She fled the fall of Seville for Alfonso''s kingdom in 1091, and soonbecame his lover, having by him Alfonso''s only son, Sancho, who, thoughillegitimate, was apparently not born of an adulterous relationship, andhence born after the death of Constance. He would be named his father''sheir. Several modern sources have suggested that Zaida, baptised underthe name of Isabel, is identical with Alfonso''s later wife, Queen Isabel(or that she was a second queen named Isabel whom he married insuccession to the first). Zaida/Isabel died in childbirth, but the dateis unknown, and it is unclear whether the child being delivered wasSancho, an additional illegitimate child, otherwise unknown, orlegitimate daughter Elvira (if Zaida was identical to Queen Isabel).

By April 1095, Alfonso married Bertha. Chroniclers report her as beingfrom Tuscany, Lombardy, or alternatively, say she was French. Severaltheories have been put forward regarding her origin. Based on politicalconsiderations, proposals make her daughter of William I, Count ofBurgundy or of Amadeus II of Savoy. She had no children and died in late1099 (Alfonso first appears without her in mid-January 1100).

Within months, by May 1100, Alfonso again remarried, to Isabel, having byher two daughters, Sancha, (wife of Rodrigo González de Lara), andElvira, (who married Roger II of Sicily). A non-contemporary tombinscription says she was daughter of a "king Louis of France", but thisis chronologically impossible. It has been speculated that she was ofBurgundian origin, but others conclude that Alfonso married his formermistress, Zaida, who had been baptized as Isabel. (In a novel twist,Reilly suggested that there were two successive queens named Isabel:first the French (Burgundian) Isabel, mother of Sancha and Elvira, withAlfonso only later marrying his mistress Zaida (Isabel), after the deathof or divorce from the first Isabel.) Alfonso was again widowed inmid-1107.

By May 1108, Alfonso married his last wife, Beatrice. She, as widow ofAlfonso, is said to have returned home to France, but nothing else isknown of her origin unless she is the woman Orderic named as "Agnes,daughter of William, Duke of Poitou", who as relict of Alfonso, (Agnetem,filiam Guillelmi, Pictavorum ducis, relictam Hildefonsi senioris,Galliciae regis), remarried to Elias of Maine. If this is the case, sheis likely daughter of William IX of Aquitaine and niece of Alfonso''sfirst wife. Beatrice had no children by Alfonso.
One other woman was reported by later sources to have been Alfonso''slover. The historian Abu Bakr Ibn al Sayraff, writing before 1161, statedthat Alfonso abandoned Christianity for Zoroastrianism and had carnalrelations with his sister Urraca, but then repented and was absolved,making pilgrimages to holy sites as penance. This has been followed bysome later historians but others dismiss it as propaganda ormisunderstanding.

Alfonso was defeated on 23 October 1086, at the battle of Sagrajas, atthe hands of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, and Abbad III al-Mu''tamid, and wasseverely wounded in the leg. However, he recovered to continue as king ofLeon and Castile.[10]

Alfonso''s designated successor, his son Sancho, was slain after beingrouted at the Battle of Uclés in 1108, making Alfonso''s eldest legitimatedaughter, the widowed Urraca as his heir.[11] In order to strengthen herposition as his successor, Alfonso began negotiations for her to marryher second cousin, Alfonso I of Aragon and Navarre, but died before themarriage could take place.