Alfonso III, called the Great, was the king of León, Galicia and Asturias 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." He was also titled "Prince of all Galicia".
Ferdinand I, called the Great, was the count of Castile from his uncle's death in 1029 and the king of León after defeating his brother-in-law in 1037. According to tradition, he was the first to have himself crowned Emperor of Spain (1056), and his heirs carried on the tradition. He was a younger son of Sancho III of Navarre and Muniadona of Castile, and by his father's will recognised the supremacy of his eldest brother, García Sánchez III of Navarre. While Ferdinand inaugurated the rule of the Navarrese Jiménez dynasty over western Spain, his rise to preeminence among the Christian rulers of the peninsula shifted the focus of power and culture westward after more than a century of Leonese decline. Nevertheless, "[t]he internal consolidation of the realm of León–Castilla under Fernando el Magno and [his queen] Sancha (1037–1065) is a history that remains to be researched and written."
Ramiro I was king of Asturias from 842 until his death in 850. Son of King Bermudo I, he became king following a succession struggle after his predecessor, Alfonso II, died without children. During his turbulent reign, he fended off attacks from both Vikings and the forces of al-Andalus. Architecturally, his recreational palace Santa María del Naranco and other buildings used the ramirense style that prefigured Romanesque architecture. He was a contemporary of Abd ar-Rahman II, Umayyad Emir of Córdoba.
Abu ʿĀmir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Abi ʿĀmir al-Maʿafiri, nicknamed al-Manṣūr, which is often Latinized as Almanzor in Spanish, Almansor in Catalan and Almançor in Portuguese, was a Muslim Arab Andalusi military leader and statesman. As the chancellor of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba and hajib (chamberlain) for Caliph Hisham II, Almanzor was effectively ruler of Islamic Iberia.
Sancho Garcés II, also known as Sancho II, was King of Pamplona and Count of Aragon from 970 until his death in 994. He was the eldest son of García Sánchez I of Pamplona and Andregoto Galíndez. He recognised the Kingdom of Viguera during his reign.
García Sánchez I, was the king of Pamplona from 925 until his death in 970. He was the second king of the Jiménez dynasty, succeeding his father when he was merely six years old.
García Sánchez II, was King of Pamplona and Count of Aragon from 994 until his death c. 1000. He was the eldest son of Sancho II of Pamplona and Urraca Fernández and the second Pamplonese monarch to also hold the title of count of Aragon. Modern historians refer to him as the Tremulous, though this appellation likely originally applied to his grandfather, García Sánchez I of Pamplona.
This is a timeline of notable events during the period of Muslim presence in Iberia, starting with the Umayyad conquest in the 8th century.
García Sánchez III, nicknamed García from Nájera was King of Pamplona from 1034 until his death. He was also Count of Álava and had under his personal control part of the County of Castile. As the eldest son of Sancho III he inherited the dynastic rights over the crown of Pamplona, becoming feudal overlord over two of his brothers: Ramiro, who was given lands that would serve as the basis for the Kingdom of Aragón; and Gonzalo, who received the counties of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza. Likewise, he had some claim to suzerainty over his brother Ferdinand, who under their father had served as Count of Castile, nominally subject to the Kingdom of León but brought under the personal control of Sancho III.
The Battle of Simancas was a military battle that started on 19 July 939 in the Iberian Peninsula between the troops of the King of León Ramiro II and Cordovan caliph Abd al-Rahman III near the walls of the city of Simancas.
Alfonso Fróilaz, called the Hunchback, was briefly the king of the unified kingdom of Asturias, Galicia and León in 925. He succeeded his father, King Fruela II, in July 925 but was driven from the throne within the year by his cousins Sancho, Alfonso IV and Ramiro II, the sons of his uncle, Ordoño II. He was restored to a royal position in part of the kingdom after Alfonso IV took power in 926, but was violently deposed and forced into a monastery in 932.
García Fernández, called of the White Hands, was the count of Castile and Alava from 970 to 995. In May 995, he was captured by a raiding party while out hunting. Wounded in the encounter, he was sent to Cordoba as a trophy, but died at Medinaceli in June 995.
Ruderick, better known by his Spanish name Rodrigo, was an influential noble of the Kingdom of Asturias, and was probably the first Count of Castile (850/862–873) and Álava (867/868–870). He was an active participant in the Reconquista and a faithful vassal of Ordoño I and Alfonso the Great, kings of Asturias. By conquering land from the Moors, Rodrigo began the southern expansion of the County of Castile.
The Battle of Calatañazor was a legendary battle of the Reconquista that supposedly took place in July 1002 in Calatañazor, in the Province of Soria, between an army of invading Moors under Almanzor and a force of Christian allies led by Alfonso V of León, Sancho III of Navarre, and Sancho García of Castile. Almanzor, who historically died the night of 10–11 August, is said to have died of wounds received in the battle. The battle has been branded as unreal since the 18th century because of the non-existence of any evidence in the chronicles of the time. Its ahistoricity was first demonstrated by Reinhart Dozy in 1881. The French Arabist Évariste Lévi-Provençal attributed the destruction of San Millán de la Cogolla by the Saracens to the campaign in Calatañazor.
Elvira García was Queen of León by marriage to King Bermudo II, and regent of Leon jointly with Count Menendo González during the minority of her son Alfonso V from 999 until 1008.
The Battle of Cervera took place near Espinosa de Cervera on 29 July 1000 between the Christian troops of counts Sancho García of Castile and García Gómez of Saldaña and the Muslim Caliphate of Córdoba under the hajib Almanzor. The battle, "tremendous and difficult to describe", was a victory for Almanzor. The battle is listed as the fifty-second of Almanzor's career in the Dikr bilad al-Andalus.
Gonzalo Menéndez was a Count of Portugal in the Kingdom of León. He regularly carries the title count (comes), the highest in the kingdom, in surviving documents. He may have used the title magnus dux portucalensium. His name in contemporary records is usually spelled Gundisaluus Menendiz.
The Battle of Torrevicente was fought on Saturday, 9 July 981 between a force loyal to the Caliphate of Córdoba under the command of Ibn Abi ‘Amir and a rebel force under Galib ibn Abd al-Rahman and his Christian allies, King Ramiro Garcés of Viguera and Count García Fernández of Castile. It was Galib's intention to continue the policy of previous caliphs, Abd ar-Rahman III and al-Hakam II, which was to maintain supremacy over the Christian principalities in peace. Ibn Abi ‘Amir was pursuing a new policy of jihad, signalled by his seven aggressive actions against the Christians in the previous three years. Both Ramiro and Galib died during the battle and Ibn Abi ‘Amir was victorious. It was the twelfth of Ibn Abi ‘Amir's military campaigns, and was called in Muslim sources the "Campaign of the Victory".
The County of Monzón was a marcher county of the Kingdom of León in the tenth and eleventh centuries, during a period of renewed external threat and disintegration of royal authority. The county was created by Ramiro II for Ansur Fernández in 943 and was ruled by his descendants, the Banu Ansur or Ansúrez, for decades. The seat of the county was initially at the castle of Curiel and later at Monteson; to its east the river Pisuerga served as a border with the County of Castile. The County of Monzón straddled both banks of the Duero: south of the river its territories comprised Peñafiel or Sacramenia, north of the river it extended to the Cantabrian Mountains and included the populations of Redondos, Mudá, Rueda de Pisuerga, and Salinas de Pisuerga.
Álvaro Herraméliz, was a Spanish noble and the count of Lantarón and of Álava in the region that today would be considered the Basque Country in northern Spain.
