Knight of the Order of St. Iago
Sancho resolved to conquer this city too, for fear it should become a centre and bulwark of rebellion; but was treacherously murdered under its walls by the lance of a traitor knight, Vellido Dolfo by name. His army speedily dispersed; only a band of brave Castilians loyally kept guard over the king’s body and bore it to the abbey of San Salvador at Oña, where it was solemnly committed to the earth. On receiving the tidings of his brother’s murder, Alfonso fled secretly from Toledo, where he had been hospitably entertained, and took possession of Sancho’s kingdom. Garcia, the younger brother, also came in haste, hoping to regain Galicia, the share his father had bequeathed him. But Alfonso, who was no less ambitious and unjust than the murdered Sancho, had his brother perfidiously seized on his arrival, and kept him in captivity, loaded with fetters, for the rest of his life.
[1072-1126 A.D.]
Alfonso VI was now master of the whole of his father’s kingdom of Castile, Leon, and Galicia; and when his royal cousin of Navarre, a few years later, fell a victim to conspirators, he joined the king of Aragon in the conquest and partition of the bereaved kingdom; and after its brief hour of glory it was long before Navarre was again counted among independent states.
Henceforward history follows the fortunes of the two kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, which rose upon its ruins. Side by side with them Catalonia flourished in the east, blest with culture and prosperity, but exercising no particular influence on the course of events; and towards the end of the century some knightly adventurers laid the foundation of the kingdom of Portugal in the west, the northern part of which Alfonso conferred first on his son-in-law, Raymond of Burgundy, and then on Count Henry, the husband of his natural daughter Theresa, as a fief of the kingdom of Castile.
All these kingdoms turned their arms against the disunited Mohammedan world in the centre and south of the peninsula. When once he had gained secure possession of his kingdom, Alfonso, guided by the judicious advice of his sister Urraca, who always retained great influence over the brother she loved so dearly, endeavoured by the excellence of his administration and legislation to efface the stains that had defiled his path to the throne. He took counsel with honourable and capable men on affairs of state, he delivered the communes from the oppressions of royal officers and judges, abolished the burdensome turnpike toll which had been levied on all pilgrims who visited the famous shrine of Santiago de Compostella and had given occasion for many exactions and abuses, and by the disuse of the Gothic liturgy established in Christian Spain the Roman and hierarchical system of church government, which had been striving to extend its sway over all the countries of Europe ever since the time of Gregory VI. By the zeal of the Benedictines of Sahagun and the French clergy whom he appointed to many important preferments in the Pyrenean peninsula, the Spanish church was soon brought at all points under the supremacy of Rome.
He then availed himself of dissensions which had arisen amongst Moslem rulers to carry his arms into the heart of the Moorish states. After the conquest of Toledo he was able to cherish the proud hope of extending Christian rule over the whole peninsula. The arrival of the Almoravids, however, put an end to his triumphant progress. After a long reign which succeeding generations have ever borne in mind as a period of glory, justice, and general prosperity, Alfonso VI died in 1109 of a broken heart at the defeat of Ucles and the loss of his only son. His daughter Urraca, queen of Leon and Castile, who governed the country during her son’s minority, espoused Alfonso I, king of Aragon, as her second husband. But instead of strengthening the unity and power of Christian Spain, this alliance led to furious civil wars which served to strengthen and prolong Moslem dominion.
ORIGIN AND EARLIEST HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF ARAGON
[714-1076 A.D.]