A History of Spain / founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael Altamira

by Charles E. Chapman; Rafael Altamira

Covadonga.

It has usually been held, although the matter is in dispute, that the Visigoths resisted the invaders continuously at only one point in Spain,—in Asturias. In the mountains of Asturias there gathered various nobles of the centre and south of Spain, a number of bishops, and the remains of the defeated Christian armies, and, aided perhaps by the natives of that land, they prepared to make a stand against the Moslems. On the news of the death of Roderic they elected a certain Pelayo as his successor, and it is this king who is customarily regarded as the founder of the Spanish monarchy. Pelayo fixed his capital at Cangas de Onís, and is believed to have maintained amicable relations with the Moslems for a while, perhaps paying them tribute, and possibly even making a visit to Cordova. Hostilities broke out again, however, and in the year 718 Pelayo and his partisans won a victory in the valley of Covadonga. Coming as it did after several years of defeats this achievement attained to a renown which was far greater than the merits of the actual battle, and in later years legendary accounts made the combat itself assume extraordinary proportions. It has usually been taken as marking the beginning of the Christian reconquests, and it is said that Pelayo became king in consequence of the battle, when in fact he was elected several years before. The battle of Covadonga did secure eastern Asturias to the Christians, which was its immediate result. Aside from that tiny kingdom there is no proof that there were any independent Christian states in Spain, although it is probable that there were several in the other mountainous parts of the north.

The advance of the Asturian frontier.

Since the invaders respected the religion and customs of the conquered, the war of the Christian kingdom of Asturias against them did not at first have a religious or even a racial character. It was a war of the nobles and clergy for the reconquest of their landed estates and of the king for the restoration of his royal authority over the peninsula. The little Asturian kingdom was like the old Visigothic state in miniature; for example, there were the struggles between the nobility and the crown for precisely the same objects as formerly. For a century the history of Asturias reduced itself primarily to these quarrels. Nevertheless, the Moslem frontier tended to withdraw from the far northwest, not that the Moslems were forced out by the Christians, but possibly because their own civil wars drew them together in the centre and south, or because their numbers were not great enough to make them seek the less desirable lands in the northwest. The frontier became fixed south of the Douro along a line running through Coimbra, Coria, Talavera, Toledo, Guadalajara, and Pamplona, although the last-named place was not long retained. It cannot be said that the Christians took a conscious offensive until the eleventh century. In this period, despite the internal dissension of the Moslem state, the Christian frontier did not pass the Guadarrama Mountains even at the most favorable moments, leaving Aragon and central and southern Spain in the enemy’s hands. The line of the Douro was far from being held consistently,—as witness the conquests of Abd-er-Rahman III and Almansor.

Alfonso I and Alfonso II.

Santiago de Compostela.

The only notable kings of Asturias in the century following the death of Pelayo (737) were Alfonso I “the Catholic” (739-757) and Alfonso II “the Chaste” (791-842). Both made successful campaigns against the Moslems, although their principal importance was that they brought back many Mozárabes from the temporarily conquered regions, and these helped to populate the north. To assure his power Alfonso II sought an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, and with his son, Louis the Pious. It is this which gave rise to the legend of Bernardo del Carpio, who is said to have compelled the king to forbear making treaties with foreign rulers which lowered the dignity of the Spanish people. Some writers have found in this supposed incident (for the figure of Bernardo is a later invention) an awakening sense of nationalism, but it seems rather to reflect the traditional attitude of the nobility lest the king become too strong for them, for real patriotism did not exist. The two Alfonsos did much to reorganize their kingdom internally, and Alfonso the Chaste moved the capital to Oviedo. In his reign, too, there occurred a religious event of great importance,—the finding of what was believed to be the tomb and body of the apostle Santiago (Saint James) in northwestern Galicia. The site was made the seat of a bishopric, and a village grew up there, named Santiago de Compostela. Compostela became a leading political and industrial factor in the Christian northwest, but was far more important as a holy place of the first grade, ranking with Jerusalem, Rome, and Loreto. Thenceforth, bands of pilgrims not only from Spain but also from all parts of the Christian world came to visit the site, and, through them, important outside influences began to filter into Spain. More noteworthy still was the use of the story of the miraculous discovery to fire the Christian warriors with enthusiasm in their battles against the Moslems, especially at a later period, when the war entered upon more of a crusading phase.

Beginnings of Navarre and Aragon.

The people of the mountains of Navarre were of Basque race, and seem to have maintained a more or less unorganized freedom from political subjection for many years before a definite state was formed. They opposed both the Frankish kings and the Moslem emirs, and for a long time the former were their principal enemy. At length they established their independence of both. In these wars the kingdom of Navarre almost certainly had its origin, but at an uncertain date. Tradition makes Iñigo Arista one of the early kings, or chiefs, but the first name definitely to appear is that of Sancho García in the tenth century (905-925). The founding of an independent state in Aragon was due to the same causes; indeed, Aragon and Navarre were assigned a common origin in the legends of the period. Aragon was absorbed by Navarre, however, possibly toward the end of the tenth century.

Origin of the Catalan counties.