Ordoño II of León

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Ordoño II (c. 873 – June 924,

Born around 873, he was the second son of King Alfonso III the Great, king of Asturias, and his wife, Queen Jimena.

Upon Alfonso's death in 910, the kingdom was divided among his three sons: León went to García, Galicia to Ordoño, and Asturias to Fruela. Asturian primacy was nevertheless recognised, though Ordoño was of a harder temperament than his brothers. Upon García's death in Zamora in 914, Ordoño succeeded him to the throne of the León.

Life

Youth

His father sent him to Zaragoza to be educated in the court of the Banu Qasi. During his father's lifetime he served the government of Galicia. He personally directed, before the year 910, a military expedition against the Muslims in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, which reached the city of Seville. The expedition destroyed and looted the neighborhood of Regel, "considered one of the strongest and most opulent," as it is referred to by Historia silense, but this neighborhood has not been identified with certainty by historians^{[citation needed]}.

For unknown reasons, the children of Alfonso III the Great rebelled against their father in 909. Although the infant Garcia, brother of Ordoño, was arrested and imprisoned in Gauzón castle, the following year Alfonso III was obliged to abdicate by his children and divide his kingdom amongst them. The kingdom of León devolved to the firstborn son, Garcia, while the kingdom of Asturias went to Fruela and Galicia to Ordoño.^[1] Alfonso III died in the city of Zamora on December 20, 910.

Garcia I kept distant and combative relations with his brother Ordoño. When Alfonso III died, Garcia prevented the bishop Gennadius of Astorga from taking five hundred metcales, donated by Alfonso III to the shrine of the Apostle, to the city of Santiago de Compostela with him.^[2]

Accession to the throne of León

At the death of his brother Garcia, which occurred in the city of Zamora in 914, Ordoño II inherited the kingdom of León since, even though his brother had married, he died childless.

Reign

Ordoño continued thereafter the expansion of the Christian polity of his forefathers on two fronts. In his south-western territories, he sacked

In his eastern territories, he united with

Ordoño married three times. His first wife, and the mother of his children, was Elvira Menéndez, daughter of count Hermenegildo Gutiérrez and aunt of San Rosendo.

He then married Aragonta González, daughter of count Gonzalo Betótez. He set her aside because "she was not pleasing to him". When he formed a political alliance with Sancho I of Pamplona, he was married to that king's daughter, Sancha. He died in 924 leaving young children, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving brother,

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