[MUSIC] With the collapse of the Deso Gothic kingdom at the hands of Islamic invaders in 711, Christians regrouped to the north. And there, a series of new, independent Christian kingdoms were founded. Let's investigate the Christian Kingdom of Castile and Leon in the origins of the reconquest. It was blending of Asturias, Leon, and Castile, these collections of people. Castile and the Castilians were born from ancient origins. And out of necessity to protect Northern Spain from the Islamic armed intrusions. According to the noteworthy historian Stanley Payne. Because of the depopulation and devastation that prevailed for a century in the Douro Valley. One of the few ways in which Muslim armies could strike correctly at the heartland of Austurias and Leon. Was by traveling up the Ebro Valley, along the old Roman road, northwest from Saragossa. To guard against invasion from this direction, the Asturian monarchy built a series of castles and fortified villages in the mountains above the upper Ebro, where the route could be sealed off. This territory, in the modern provinces of Santander, Burgos, and Álava, was known in ancient times as Bardulia. After the Hyborian tribe that inhabited the region. But at the time of the beginning of the 9th Century, it was beginning to be called the Land of Castles. In this manner, the kingdom of Castilla is a creation of two worlds. An independent-minded Asturian-Leonese community, based out of Leon. And an equally autonomous group, but heavily influenced one, centered around Burgos. What about the origins of the reconquest? Well, here should look to King Pelayo and Saint James the Apostle. The Asturians were shaped by the legendary King Pelayo, who ruled from 718 to 737 CE. Who is remembered as the first Christian nobleman to lead what would become known as the reconquest, or reconquista. The average where we take Liberia from Islamic civilization. At the battle of Covadonga, Pelayo is said to have won this spectacular battle. However, the historian, Thomas, clarifies that the historical accuracy of the reported clash may have been overstated. He offers the originally important account of the skirmish as it appears in the Chronicle of Alfonso III. Reports the death of 25,000 Muslim soldiers. Their ranks broken by divine intervention, which caused their missiles to fly back against them. The account given by Arabic chronicles is scarcely more accurate, describing Pelayo's band of 30 wild donkeys. But nevertheless, they did give him credit. And noted that Pelayo was an ancestor of the Banu Alfonso, Alfonso's tribe, the traditional enemies of al-Andalus. This Christian initiative, which had its mythic elements, was also closely associated with King Alfonso II, the Chaste. Who ruled during the latter parts of the 8th and beginning parts of the 9th century. And discovery of the sepulchre of Saint James the Apostle, Santiago de Compostela, in the vicinity of the Galician village of Iria Flavia. Here, the patron saint of Spain, Saint James the Apostle, be transformed into the mythical saint. Who will protect and lead armies to fight back Muslim aggression. He was no longer Saint James the Apostle in name, but he was also known as Saint James the Moor-slayer. By the 9th and 10th century, there were some initial consolidations of northern Christian kingdoms. And this was due in part to the role of Alfonso II, the Chaste. The challenge that the king encountered was one of culture and regional dynamics. The Castilians had increasingly become their own people, their own culture, with regional counts administered in local districts. However, back in Asturias-Leon, that culture had stayed itself. And it was identified more as a frontier society that was, as Stanley Payne notes. Ruder, more militant, more egalitarian, and more self-reliant. Thus, there really was a kind of marriage of convenience. Yes, they were all Christians, yes, they spoke a similar version of Spanish, but they were distinct communities. By 1035, another northern Christian kingdom was rising to prominence as well, the kingdom, Navarre. Its king, Sancho III, also known as The Great, successfully extended authority from Pamplona and into Castile. When he pushed the rival Leonese out of the region. The Cid, or Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, The Sanchez' most important military leader. The first king of an autonomous Castile was Kind Ferdinand I, who ruled from 1035 to 1065. Who temporarily unified Leon and Castile. Under this consolidated leadership, Castile and Leon became the largest of the Christian kingdoms. And it extended from Galicia to the west to across northern Spain to the Rioja. But just as there was conflict and political fragmentation in the Islamic world, northern Spain experienced similar trends. And there was, in a sense, an anti-reconquest. Christian kingdoms, and the royal noble families who controlled them, routinely fought each other for political control. And sometimes found Islamic kingdoms to be convenient allies. As Americo Castro highlights in The Spanish People. He states, historians miss the import of the so-called reconquest in failing to see it as simultaneously as an, quote, unquote, anti-reconquest. It's hardly proper to characterize as civil the quarrels among the Christians. These were wars between independent states, each interested in prospering at the expense of its neighbors. Thus, Sancho the Great of Navarre attacked Vermudo the III, the king of Leon, and left large portions of Galicia utterly desolate. Between 1029 and 1030, King Vermudo was forced to take refuge in the mountains of the north. Much as the Christians had done 300 years before in the face of Muslim onslaught. Castilians and Navarrese fought furiously at Atapuerca in 1054. Castilians and Leonese hated each other for centuries without respite. Rivalry between Castilians and Aragonese in the 14th and 15th centuries kept them from driving the Moors out of their last stronghold, the Kingdom of Granada. So, in this sense, not until the end of the 15th century did Spanish manage to unite fully around the persons of the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella. The Spanish medieval history can only hold itself together as a complex web of human relationships across religious boundaries. Among the most prominent splits among the Christians during the 11th century was that between King Sancho II and Prince Alfonso VI. Carla and William Phillips described the complexities of these Christian relations as follows. King Sancho II of Castile embarked on an aggressive policy, and seized Galicia and Leon from his brothers. But he died at the hands of an assassin while laying siege to his sister's town of Zamora. Alfonso of Leon, who had gone into exile in Muslim Toledo, then succeeded Sancho as Alfonso VI of Castile. The highlight of Alfonso VI's reign was the conquest of Toledo, where he had previously sought shelter. After a long siege, Alfonso's forces entered the city in 1085 and made it part of Castile. Again, what we see is this dynamic where Christian communities, and Christian kings and nobles, were fighting each other for control. As they simultaneously tried to fight the reconquest, thus, we do see a real anti-reconquest. At the end of this period, what we notice is the supremacy of the Castilians. And perhaps this is why we speak Castilian Spanish today more prominently than other versions of Spanish. At the end of the 11th century, the Castilians were supreme among all of the Christian communities, why? Because they had recaptured Toledo in 1085, and were pushing further south. The loss of Muslim Toledo was a crucial victory for Castile. Not only had they been effective in pushing Muslims further south, but the killer of Cordoba had collapsed. Now Spain was populated by both independent Christian kingdoms to the north. And a broad collection of party kingdoms, or Taifa's, to the south, which were Islamic. Bruised and battered, the Spanish Muslims appealed to North Africa for help. And it signaled an arrival of more fundamentalist and fearsome Islamic rulers. First, the Almoravids, who ruled from 1040 to 1147, and thereafter, the Almohads, who ruled from 1121 to 1269. During this crucial era, Spain would encounter some of its most difficult times in terms of positive coexistence. Two prominent battles that came to define the reconquest occurred at this time. The Victory of the Almohads over Castilian King Alfonso VIII at the Battle of Alarcos in 1195. And the subsequent victory of the combined Christian kingdoms at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. This was at the height of the reconquest. After 1212, the Islamic kingdoms to the south would never recover, and they would slowly begin to roll back further into southern Spain. Leaving us only with the Nasrids of Granada. [MUSIC]
