Alfonso VIII of Castile
Alfonso VIII | |
---|---|
Toledo | |
Reign | 31 August 1158 – 5 October 1214 |
Predecessor | Sancho III |
Successor | Henry I |
Born | 11 November 1155 Soria |
Died | 5 October 1214 Gutierre-Muñoz | (aged 58)
Burial | |
Spouse | |
Issue among others... | |
Blanche of Navarre |
Alfonso VIII (11 November 1155
His reign saw the domination of Castile over León and, by his alliance with Aragon, he drew those two spheres of Christian Iberia into close connection.
Regency and civil war
Alfonso was born to
His early life resembled that of other medieval kings. His father died in 1158. Though proclaimed king when only two years of age,
Alfonso was put in the custody of the loyal village
Marriage and foreign relations
During the regency, his uncle Sancho VI of Navarre took advantage of the chaos and the king's minority to seize lands along the border, including much of La Rioja. In 1170, Alfonso sent an embassy to Bordeaux to Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine to seek the hand of their daughter Eleanor.[10] The marriage treaty helped provide Alfonso with a powerful ally against his uncle. In 1176, Alfonso asked his father-in-law to arbitrate the disputed border territories. While Alfonso received back much that had been taken from him, he had to pay significant monetary compensation.[10]
In 1186, he recuperated part of
In 1187, Alfonso negotiated with
The relationship between the cousins Alfonso continued to be filled with conflict. In 1194, the papal legate negotiated a treaty between them to temporarily end the conflict. However, after Castile was defeated at the Battle of Alarcos, the younger Alfonso seized the opportunity to again attack his cousin. Castille defended itself with papal support. A more lasting peace was achieved finally by the older Alfonso's daughter Berengaria marrying the younger Alfonso in 1197.[12] The annulment of this marriage by the pope drove the younger Alfonso to again attack his cousin in 1204, but treaties made in 1205, 1207, and 1209 each forced him to concede further territories and rights.[13][14] The treaty in 1207 is the first existing public document in the Castilian dialect.[15]
Around 1200 when his brother in law John was on the English throne, Alfonso began to claim that Gascony was part of Eleanor's dowry, though there was nothing in the marriage treaty to indicate this. In 1205, he invaded, hoping to make good on his claim. By 1208, he gave up on the venture, though his heirs would come back to this claim generations later.[16]
Reconquista
In 1174, he ceded
Alfonso took the initiative to ally all Christian kingdoms of the peninsula—
After founding
In 1195, after the treaty with the Almohads was broken, he came to the defence of
Finally, in 1212, through the mediation of
Cultural legacy
Alfonso was the founder of the first Spanish university, a studium generale at Palencia, which, however, did not survive him.[9] His court also served as an important instrument for Spanish cultural achievement. Alfonso and his wife Eleanor of England were the first to make the Alcázar of Segovia as their residence when this fortress was still at its early stages.
Alfonso died at Gutierre-Muñoz[18] and was succeeded by his surviving son, Henry I.
Alfonso was the subject for Lion Feuchtwanger's novel Die Jüdin von Toledo (The Jewess of Toledo), in which is narrated an affair with a Jewish subject in medieval Toledo in a time when Spain was known to be the land of tolerance and learning for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The titular Jewish woman of the novel is based on Alfonso's paramour, Rahel la Fermosa.[19] Scholars continue to debate the historical truth of this relationship.[20] The 1919 film The Jewess of Toledo by Franz Höbling is also based on this relationship.[21]
Children
With
Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Berengaria | Burgos, 1 January/ June 1180 |
Las Huelgas near Burgos,8 November 1246 |
Married firstly in Seligenstadt on 23 April 1188 with Duke Conrad II of Swabia, but the union (only by contract and never solemnized) was later annulled. Married in Valladolid between 1/16 December 1197 with King Alfonso IX of León as his second wife.[24] After their marriage was dissolved on grounds of consanguinity in 1204, she returned to her homeland and became regent of her minor brother King Henry I. Queen of Castile in her own right after the death of Henry I in 1217, quickly abdicated in favor of her son Ferdinand III of Castile who would re-unite the kingdoms of Castile and León. |
Sancho | Burgos, 5 April 1181 |
26 July 1181 | Heir of the throne since his birth, died aged three months. |
Sancha | 20/28 March 1182 | 3 February 1184/ 16 October 1185 |
Died in infancy. |
Henry | 1184 | 1184? | Heir of the throne since his birth, died either shortly after being born or in infancy. His existence is disputed among sources. |
Urraca | 1186/ 28 May 1187 |
Coimbra, 3 November 1220 |
Queen of Afonso II of Portugal |
Blanche | Palencia, 4 March 1188 |
Paris, 27 November 1252 |
Married to Louis VIII of France |
Ferdinand | Cuenca, 29 September 1189 |
Madrid, 14 October 1211 |
Heir of the throne since his birth. On whose behalf Diego of Acebo and the future Saint Dominic travelled to Denmark in 1203 to secure a bride.[25] Ferdinand was returning through the San Vicente mountains from a campaign against the Muslims when he contracted a fever and died.[26]
|
Mafalda |
Plasencia, 1191 |
Salamanca, 1204 |
Betrothed in 1204 to Infante Ferdinand of Leon, eldest son of Alfonso IX and stepson of her oldest sister. |
Eleanor | 1200[27] | Las Huelgas, 1244 |
Married in Ágreda on 6 February 1221 with James I of Aragon. |
Constance | c. 1202[27] | Las Huelgas, 1243 |
A nun at the Cistercian monastery of Santa María la Real at Las Huelgas in 1217, she became known as the Lady of Las Huelgas, a title shared with later royal family members who joined the community.[27]
|
Henry | Valladolid, 14 April 1204 |
Palencia, 6 June 1217 |
Only surviving son, he succeeded his father in 1214 aged ten under the regency firstly of his mother and later his oldest sister. He was killed when he was struck by a tile falling from a roof. |
Through his daughters, Berengaria and Blanche, he was the grandfather of two monarchs who became
Notes
- ^ Pérez Monzón 2002, pp. 23–24, 27.
- ^ Anales Toledanos
- ^ Roth 1994, p. 128.
- ^ Titles of the European kings
- ^ Vann 2003, p. 62.
- ^ a b c Rogers 2010, p. 28.
- ^ Vann 2003, p. 61.
- ^ Shadis 2010, p. xix.
- ^ a b c public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Alphonso s.v.". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 735. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ a b Shadis 2010, pp. 25–31.
- ^ Shadis 2010, pp. 52–56.
- ^ Shadis 2010, pp. 61–62.
- ^ Shadis 2010, pp. 78–84.
- ^ Túy 2003, p. 324, 4.84.
- ^ Wright 2000.
- ^ Shadis 2010, p. 31.
- ^ Linehan 2011, p. 34.
- ^ Ricardo del Arco y Garay, Sepulcros de la Casa Real de Castilla
- ^ Marrache 2009.
- ^ Shadis 2010, pp. 48–50.
- ^ "Die Jüdin von Toledo (1919)". IMDb.
- ^ Crónica Latina
- ^ Vann 2003, p. 63.
- ^ New International Encyclopedia, Vol. 13, (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1915), 782.
- ^ Vicaire, pp. 89–98.
- ^ Osma 1997, pp. 55–56, vol. 20.
- ^ a b c Shadis 2010, p. 4.
References
- Linehan, Peter (2011). Spain, 1157–1300: A Partible Inheritance. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
- Gómez, Miguel; Lincoln, Kyle C.; Smith, Damian (2018). King Alfonso VIII of Castile. Government, Family, and War. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0823284146.
- Marrache, Abraham S. (2009). La Historia de Fermosa, la amante de Alfonso VIII. Madrid: Hebraica Ediciones.
- Osma, Juan (1997). "Chronica latina regum Castellae". In Brea, Luis Charlo (ed.). Chronica Hispana Saeculi XIII. Turnhout: Brepols.
- Pérez Monzón, Olga (2002). "Iconografía y poder real en Castilla: las imágenes de Alfonso VIII". Anuario del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte (in Spanish). XIV. ISSN 1130-5517.
- Rogers, Clifford J. (2010). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology: Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195334036.
- Roth, Norman (1994). Muslims in Medieval Spain: Cooperation and Conflict. Brill.
- Shadis, Miriam (2010). Berenguela of Castile (1180–1246) and Political Women in the High Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-23473-7.
- Túy, Lucas (2003). Rey, Emma Falque (ed.). Chronicon mundi. Turnhout: Brepols.
- Vann, Theresa M. (2003). "Alfonso VIII, King of Castile". In Gerli, E. Michael (ed.). Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia. Routledge.
- Vicaire, M.-H. (1938). "Une ambassade dans les Marches". In Mandonnet, Pierre (ed.). Saint Dominique: l'idée, l'homme et l'oeuvre Vol. 1. Paris: Desclée De Brouwer.
- Wright, Roger (2000). El tratado de Cabreros (1206): estudio sociofilológico de una reforma ortográfica. London: Queen Mary and Westfield College.
- Costa, Ricardo da. "Love and Crime, Chastisement and Redemption in Glory in the Crusade of Reconquest: Alfonso VIII of Castile in the battles of Alarcos (1195) and Las Navas de Tolosa (1212)". In: Oliveria, Marco A. M. de (org.). Guerras e Imigrações. Campo Grande: Editora da UFMS, 2004, pp. 73–94 ISBN 85-7613-023-8.