Alfonso X

King of Castile and León (r. 1252-1284)

• Born: November 23, 1221
• Birthplace: Probably Burgos, Castile (now in Spain)
• Died: April 4, 1284
• Place of death: Seville, Andalusia (now in Spain)

Alfonso's wide-ranging interests earned for him the title El Sabio, or “the Wise.” In literature, law, historiography, and the arts, this king of Castile and León sponsored numerous advances of lasting consequence for Spanish culture.

Early Life

Alfonso X was born the eldest of fourteen children. His father was the revered Ferdinand III, who took advantage of rapidly moving events and expanded his double kingdom of Castile and León into the rich and densely populated regions of southern Spain. Alfonso's grandfather Alfonso VIII had won a most decisive battle in the centuries-long war between Christians and Moors for control of the Iberian Peninsula. This victory by Christians at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 made it possible for Ferdinand III to capture the major cities of Córdoba (1236), Jaén (1246), and Seville (1248). Thus, the heart of Islamic al-Andalus (Andalusia) was incorporated into the kingdom of Castile and León.

Prince Alfonso spent his early childhood in Galicia, under the care of surrogate parents. His education was of a high order, and his military training was not neglected.

Although his first thirty years were spent in the shadow of his father, Alfonso did demonstrate military prowess in the field as well as political initiative. When barely twenty years of age, Alfonso negotiated and applied military pressure to force the Muslim kingdom of Murcia to pay tribute to Castile, thus giving the central power a window on the Mediterranean. In 1248, Alfonso was involved in the successful siege of Seville.

Alfonso was betrothed to Violante of Aragon in 1242; their family eventually numbered five sons and five daughters. Unfaithful after the fashion of powerful men of his era, Alfonso fathered at least one illegitimate child, Beatriz, who eventually became queen of Portugal.

Life's Work

From the moment Alfonso crowned himself in 1252, he entertained grandiose ambitions of becoming emperor of all Spain. His father had died while planning to invade Africa to ensure the safety of his conquests on the peninsula. These schemes to take the war to the infidels’ homeland, however, were not successful. On another international front, Alfonso sought to become Holy Roman Emperor through claims that he had inherited through his German mother. After paying enormous bribes, he was indeed elected in 1257. The next fifteen years, however, were marked by obsessive but fruitless efforts to validate his title from afar. His competitor, Richard of Cornwall, was able to go to Germany and press his claim in person. After Richard died in 1272, Alfonso was finally able to travel over the Pyrenees Mountains to appeal to Pope Gregory X, who persuaded him to renounce his claim.

Throughout his reign, Alfonso was beset by revolts; in 1252, there was a Muslim uprising, and a group of Christian nobles followed suit in 1254. In 1264, Moroccan forces crossed the Mediterranean to support Granada and Murcia in a revolt against Christian Andalusia. Alfonso was able to put down this threat and annex Murcia to his kingdom. Granada was thus left as the only Muslim state on the peninsula; it paid tribute to Alfonso from 1266 onward.

In 1275, North African armies again invaded Christian Spain. Alfonso's eldest son, Ferdinand (Fernando de la Cerda), was killed in the fighting, and his second son, Sancho, became a hero by defeating the invaders. This seeming success laid the foundation for Alfonso's final and greatest political debacle.

Son Sancho, the hero, proceeded to claim the position of heir apparent. According to Alfonso's recently proclaimed laws, however, the slain Ferdinand's son was next in line. The issue of succession was complicated by the fact that Ferdinand's male children were also nephews of the king of France. Alfonso vacillated; in 1281, he seemed to bend to French demands. Taking advantage of accumulated grievances against his father, Sancho then declared himself regent and led a rebellion of nobles against Alfonso. Sancho gained the backing of the Valladolid Cortes (the parliament of Castile) as well as that of Aragon, Portugal, and Islamic Granada. Alfonso was forced to flee to his beloved Seville, where he died.

It is clear, then, that Alfonso did not earn the title El Sabio on the strength of his political acumen. A review of his economic policies reveals a similarly mixed legacy. On the positive side, Alfonso promoted the establishment of town fairs to enhance trade in his domains. He ordered the incorporation of the Mesta, the guild of the sheep and wool industry, which was to become a vital element in central Castile's economy during the late Middle Ages. On the other hand, Alfonso spent prodigiously on his many political and cultural projects; his pursuit of the Holy Roman emperorship, for example, was extremely expensive. The results of this extravagance were increased taxation, the consequent alienation of his subjects, and inflation, which led to the devaluation of Castile's currency.

It is on the cultural front that Alfonso's achievements are most laudable. His patronage of and personal involvement in scholarship and the arts resulted in an outpouring of creative works from his court. Alfonso's name is associated with major translations, law codes, works of fiction and poetry, astronomy, advances in education, chronicles, and even games.

A year before his coronation, he oversaw the publication of Calila e Digna (1251; Kalila and Dimna: Or, The Fables of Bidpai, 1819), a translation of the Arabic tales of the Kalila wa-Dimna. The Alfonsine astronomical tables, with their suggested astrological impact, were published during the first decade of his reign . His compilation of Roman law, the Espéculo (speculum), appeared in 1260. A most original and impressive work, and the project that most clearly reveals his direct involvement, is the Cántigas de Santa María (c. 1279; songs to Saint Mary; English translation, 1889). This complex masterpiece, twenty-five years in the making, represented a fusion of poetry, music, and dance. The Cántigas de Santa María appeared in Galician, the language then considered proper for lyric poetry. Alfonso is well known, however, for his use and promotion of Castilian, which became the foundation of modern Spanish. Indeed, some have called him the father of Castilian prose.

Most scholars probably would point to Alfonso's monumental law code, Las Siete Partidas , as his most important single work. Based on Roman law, it contained discourses on manners and morals and developed a theory of the king and his people as a corporation. It moved beyond feudal conceptions of monarchy in representing the monarch as the agent not only of God but also of his subjects. In 1348, long after Alfonso's death, Las Siete Partidas was proclaimed the law of all Castile and León. It continues to influence jurisprudence in Spain and abroad. In fact, in the month of the seventh centennial of Alfonso's death, April, 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court cited Las Siete Partidas in a decision concerning lands in California.

Alfonso can be said to have founded Spanish historiography. He was responsible for the Crónica general, a history of Spain that was completed by his son Sancho, as well as for a more general history that began with an account of the Creation. Here, as in his other works, Alfonso's desire to synthesize knowledge from diverse sources classical, Hebrew, Christian, and Islamic is evident.

One of Alfonso's most popular works, and yet another demonstration of his wide-ranging interests and accessibility to readers throughout the ages, is his celebrated book on chess. It appeared in 1283, not long before his tragic death.

Significance

After reviewing the career of Alfonso X, one might conclude that it is more appropriate to translate his sobriquet, El Sabio, as “the Learned” or “the Erudite” rather than “the Wise.” The sixteenth century Jesuit historian Juan de Mariana summarized Alfonso's reign by suggesting that he turned his back on practical political life in order to pursue scholarship and that thus, “meditating on the stars, he lost the earth.”

Of incalculable importance was Alfonso's decision that almost all of his publications and royal decrees should be issued in Castilian rather than medieval Europe's usual Latin. In this way Alfonso, almost single-handedly, elevated Castilian into a flexible, sophisticated vernacular tongue. Eventually, his language of choice came to dominate most of the Iberian Peninsula, and he may be considered the father of the language now called Spanish and spoken by millions around the world.

While Alfonso's end was tragic, his achievements on all levels were impressive. He was directly involved, as prince and king, in some of the most spectacular triumphs of the Spanish Reconquest. He restructured the administration of his expanded realms, promoted a legal and cultural renaissance, and supported commercial and technological breakthroughs. Additionally, Alfonso presided over a period of wide-ranging cultural exchanges among Christian, Islamic, and Jewish cultures, a cross-fertilization that affected the evolution of Western civilization on many levels. More than seven hundred years after his death, Alfonso el Sabio is considered by historically conscious Spaniards to be one of their nation's greatest monarchs.

Kings of Castile, 1035-1516

Reign

• Ruler

1035-1065

• Ferdinand I

1065-1072

• Sancho II

1072-1109

• Alfonso VI

1086

• Reconquista begins

1109-1126

• Urraca I (wife of Alfonso I of Aragon)

1126-1157

• Alfonso VII (king of León)

1147

• Almohad incursions

1157

• Castile restored as separate principality

1157-1158

• Sancho III

1158-1214

• Alfonso VIII

1212

• Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: Christians defeat Muslims

1214-1217

• Henry I

1217-1252

• Saint Ferdinand III

1236-1248

• Ferdinand captures Córdoba (1236), Jaén (1246), and Seville (1248)

1252

• Castile subsumes León, dominates central Spain

1252-1284

• Alfonso X (emperor)

1264

• Moroccan forces cross into Spain

1284-1295

• Sancho IV

1295-1312

• Ferdinand IV

1312-1350

• Alfonso XI

1350-1369

• Peter the Cruel

1369-1379

• Henry II

1379-1390

• John I

1390-1406

• Henry III

1406-1454

• John II

1454-1474

• Henry IV

1474-1504

• Isabella I

1492

• Fall of Granada completes the Reconquista

1504-1516

• Juana the Mad (d. 1506) & Philip I of Habsburg

1516

• Formation of Kingdom of Spain

Bibliography

Alfonso X. Las Siete Partidas. 5 vols. Translated by Samuel Parsons Scott. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. An excellent translation of the seminal legal code of Alfonso.

Burns, Robert I., ed. Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and His Thirteenth-Century Renaissance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990. A study of the intellectual and cultural life of Spain under Alfonso. Includes a bibliography and index.

Burns, Robert I. The Worlds of Alfonso the Learned and James the Conqueror: Intellect and Force in the Middle Ages. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985. Seven scholars present papers on the theme of “intellect and force in the Middle Ages” of Spain. The editor’s introduction and epilogue contain excellent summaries of the achievements of Alfonso.

Fraker, Charles F. The Scope of History: Studies in the Historiography of Alfonso el Sabio. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. Discusses, among other topics relevant to Alfonso’s historiography, the Crónica general.

Hillgarth, J. N. The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250-1516. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976-1978. This synthesis of the late medieval era begins with the reigns of Ferdinand III and Alfonso X. The latter, through the chronicles he sponsored, is a primary source for the historian of his age. The bibliography in this volume is a good place to start a search for Alfonso’s creative works, many of which have been translated into English.

Keller, John Esten, and Annette Grant Cash. Daily Life Depicted in the Cantigas de Santa Maria. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1998. A study of the representation of everyday life and manners and customs in Alfonso’s Cantigas. Includes bibliography and index.

O’Callaghan, Joseph. Alfonso X, the Cortes, and Government in Medieval Spain. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1998. Discusses Alfonso’s parliamentary and political roles. Includes bibliography and index.

O’Callaghan, Joseph. A History of Medieval Spain. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1983. This massive survey of the history of the Iberian Peninsula from 415 to 1479 places the career of Alfonso within the context of the Reconquest and the Spanish medieval renaissance.

Payne, Stanley G. A History of Spain and Portugal. 2 vols. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973. The chapter on Castile-León in the era of the Reconquest provides an excellent survey of the exploits of Alfonso VIII, Ferdinand III, and Alfonso X. The author places the story of this text within an Iberian-wide context.

Reilly, Bernard F. The Kingdom of León-Castilla Under King Alfonso VII, 1126-1157. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Covers the “political organization of Christian Iberia,” “Crusade, Reconquista, and Dynasty,” the church and towns of Alfonso’s realm, and a guide to documents of Alfonso and his reign.

Thought: A Review of Culture and Ideas 60 (December, 1985). In this special issue devoted to an examination of “the emperor of culture,” eight scholars focus on the polymath’s cultural achievements. The essays develop aspects of Alfonso’s successes.