Kingdom of Asturias
The kingdom of Asturias or kingdom of the Astures (in Latin, Asturum Regnum) was the first Christian political entity established on the peninsula Iberian after the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo after the disappearance of King Rodrigo in the battle of Guadalete and the subsequent Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula. In its first decades, the territorial extension of the kingdom was limited to the territories of the Cantabrian coast and its adjacent regions. Subsequently, the Asturian kings began a vigorous expansion that at the beginning of the X century reached the River Duero.
It is considered that the history of the kingdom began in the year 718, the probable date of the election of Don Pelayo as princeps or leader of the rebels. The end is usually established in the year 925, when Fruela II of Asturias succeeded his brother Ordoño II, who governed the kingdom of León, founded by his other brother García I. The Kingdom of Asturias is the historical precedent of the kingdom of León, of the that later the kingdoms of Castile and Portugal would emerge.
Indigenous substratum of the kingdom of Asturias
There lived two very powerful villages, cantabris and astures, which were not subject to our empire.Lucio Anneo Floro
The Asturian kingdom had as its site the western and central territories of the Cantabrian Mountains, particularly the Picos de Europa and the central area of present-day Asturias, areas where the main political-military events took place during the first decades of the existence of the kingdom. According to the descriptions of Strabo, Cassius Dio and other Greco-Roman geographers, these areas were inhabited at the dawn of the Christian era by different peoples, including the following: Vadinians, who inhabited the Picos de Europe and whose settlement area slowly moved south during the first centuries of our era, as witnessed by numerous stelae; the organomescos, who lived on the eastern coast of Asturias; the selinos, who, as their name indicates, were distributed throughout the valley of the river Sella (Salia); the lugones, whose territory stretched between the Sella and Nalón rivers and whose capital was located in Lucus Asturum (Lugo de Llanera); the astures proper who inhabited the interior area of Asturias located between the current councils of Piloña and Cangas del Narcea, the current province of León (except the northeast area where the Vadinienses), part of Zamora and northeastern Portugal, the galaicos were from the Navia River to the Finisterre of the Costa de la Muerte, that is, more or less the territory of Galicia, and the pésicos, who lived in the coastal area of western Asturias, between the mouth of the Navia and the current city of Gijón.
In any case, the conquest of the north of the peninsula was finished by César Augusto Octavio after the conquest of the Gauls, who had as allies the Basques who cut through the Aquitanian territory from where the provisions for the legions came and whose transit was vital to your supply.
The information that classical geographers give us about the ethnic affiliation of these towns is confusing: Ptolemy points out that the astures inhabited the central area of present-day Asturias, the area that stretches between the rivers Navia and Sella, situated to the east of this river the border with the territory of the Cantabrians. However, already in the 4th century the Cosmographia of Julio Honorio places the source of the Ebro in the territory of the Asturians (sub asturibus). In any case, and leaving aside the details related to the borders between the different Cantabrian ethnic groups, Strabón himself pointed out in his Geographia that during Roman times, all the peoples of northern Spain, from the Galicians to the Basques, had a similar culture and ways of life.
On the other hand, there are testimonies that show that neither the lugons nor the psicos were originally identified with the astures: thus, in the Suevo Parish is distinguished between astures and psicos, as if they were two different tribes, and in a tombstone found in the council of Piloña –the stone of the Ungones– marks the border between the lugones and the astures. All of them being Romanized Celts.
This situation took hold in the Lower Empire and in times of the Germanic invasions: the fight first against the Romans and then against the Asdingo vandals and the Visigoths gradually forged a common identity among the peoples of the future Asturias. In this regard, various archaeological excavations have found remains of fortifications in the surroundings of the Roman Camp of La Carisa (Lena council). The experts consider that this defensive line, strategically located in the upper basin of the Lena River (Asturias) –a natural entrance route to Asturias from the Meseta–, proves the existence of an organized resistance within which all the inhabitants of central Asturias. In this sense, these specialists have discovered two different archaeological levels in La Carisa, one of which corresponds to the Cantabrian wars and the second to the period 675-725, in which the expedition of the Visigothic king Wamba against the Astures and the conquest of Asturias by Muza.
The Asturian identity that was progressively being forged would crystallize definitively after the coronation of Pelayo, the victory in Covadonga and the subsequent consolidation of the Kingdom of Asturias. In this sense, the Crónica Albeldense, when patriotically narrating the events in Covadonga, affirms that after that battle Asturum Regnum divina providentia exoritur, «by divine providence the Kingdom of the Astures».
Historical evolution
Muslim conquest and Asturian revolt
Isa ben Ahmad Al-Razi says that in the time of Anbasa ben Suhaim Al-Qalbi, a barbarian ('ily = علج) called Pelayo was raised in Galician lands.Al Maqqari Chronicle
During the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the main cities and administrative centers of the Peninsula fell into the hands of the troops of the Emirate of Córdoba. Control of the central and southern regions, such as the Guadalquivir or Ebro valleys, presented very few problems for the newcomers, who took advantage of the existing Visigothic administrative structures of Roman origin. However, in the northern mountains, urban centers were practically non-existent (such as Gigia) and the submission of the Iberian Peninsula had to be carried out valley by valley. Muslims often resorted to taking hostages to ensure the pacification of newly conquered terrain.
After Tariq's first incursion that reached Toledo in 711, the Yemeni viceroy of Ifriqiya, Musa ibn Nusair, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar the following year and carried out a massive conquest operation that would lead him to capture, among others, the cities of Mérida, Toledo, Zaragoza and Lérida. In the last phase of his military campaign, he reached the northwest of the Peninsula where he managed to seize the towns of Lugo and Gijón. In this last city he placed a small Berber detachment under the command of a governor, Munuza, whose mission was to consolidate Muslim rule over Asturias. As a guarantee of the submission of the region, some nobles, including some theories suggest that Pelayo (although his origin is unknown), were taken as hostages from Asturias to Córdoba.
But, according to both the Crónica Rotense (chronicle of Alfonso III where Pelayo is considered the successor of the kings of Toledo, with clear aims of seeking political legitimacy) and that of Al- Maqqari (16th century lowercase Moroccan historian who died in Cairo, Egypt, and who may have taken his sources from the earlier version, and rewrite it eight centuries later, with no use as a historical document), Pelayo managed to escape from that city during the government of the Valí Al Hurr (717–718) and on his return to Asturias he instigated a revolt against the Muslim authorities of Gijón (the identity of don Pelayo, it is still an open topic, this being only one of the theories). The leader of the Astures —whose origin is disputed by historians— then had his residence in Bres (Piloña council) and Munuza sent troops to that place under the command of General Al Qama. After receiving news of the arrival of the Muslims, Pelayo and his companions hastily crossed the Piloña River and headed for Mount Auseva, in one of whose caves, Covadonga, they took refuge. There they managed to ambush the Saracen detachment, which was annihilated. The victory —relatively small, since only a few hundred, or dozens, of Berber soldiers took part in it— gave Pelayo great prestige and provoked a massive insurrection of the Astures. Munuza, seeing himself then isolated in an increasingly hostile region, decided to leave Gijón and go to the Meseta through the Camino de la Mesa. However, always according to the aforementioned chronicle, he was intercepted and killed by the Astures in an undetermined place that the Olalíes chronicle lists. The Crónica Mozárabe, the only almost contemporary chronicle and probably with less vested interest in the facts, ignores any mention of the incident.
Recently, in the Picu L'Homón de Faro —next to the port of La Mesa— and the Roman camp of La Carisa (located about 15 kilometers further east, in the council of Lena, dominating the valleys of the Huerna and Pajares), excavations have been carried out by a team of archaeologists, who have found fortifications whose dating, according to the data provided by Carbon 14, is between the end of the century VII and early VIII: Watchtowers and ditches of almost two meters, in whose construction and surveillance thousands of soldiers had to participate, which required a high degree of organization and firm leadership, probably that of Pelayo himself. For this reason, specialists consider that it is very It is probable that the construction of said defensive line was aimed at preventing the entry of the s Muslims in Asturias through the ports of La Mesa and Pajares.
After the victory of Don Pelayo in the battle of Covadonga (722) over the Muslims, a small territorial entity was established in the Asturian mountains that would later give rise to the Kingdom of Asturias. Pelayo's leadership was not comparable to that of the Visigothic kings: in fact the first kings of Asturias alternatively called themselves princeps 'prince' and rex 'king' and it was not until the time of Alfonso II when this last title was definitively consolidated. In this sense, the title of princeps had a great tradition among the indigenous peoples of northern Spain and its use is confirmed in Galician and Cantabrian epigraphy, in which expressions such as princeps albionum (in an inscription found in the council of Coaña) and princeps Cantabrorum (on a Vadiniense tombstone in the municipality of Cistierna, in León). In reality, the kingdom of Asturias arose as a leadership over the towns of the Cantabrian Coast that had resisted both the Romans and the Visigoths and were not willing to submit to the dictates of the Umayyad Empire. The influence of immigrants from the south, who fled from al-Andalus, gradually impregnated the Asturian kingdom with gothicism. However, still at the beginning of the 9th century in Alfonso II's testament he reneged on the Visigoths, blaming them for the loss of Hispania. The chronicles on which knowledge of the period is based, all written in the time of Alfonso III when the Gothic ideological influence was already important, are Sebastianense, Albeldense and Rotense.
During the first decades, Asturian control over the different regions of the kingdom was still quite lax, and for this reason it had to be continuously strengthened through matrimonial alliances with other powerful families in the north of the Iberian Peninsula: Thus, Ermesinda, Pelayo's daughter, married Alfonso, son of Pedro de Cantabria. And Alfonso's children, Fruela and Adosinda did the same respectively with Munia, a Basque from Álava, and Silo, a local Pesician chief from the Flavionavia (Pravia) area.
After Pelayo's death in 737, his son Favila or Fáfila is elected monarch. Fáfila, according to the chronicles, is killed by a bear in one of the tests of courage normally required of the nobility of the time.
Initial Expansion
Favila is succeeded by Alfonso I, who inherited the throne of Asturias thanks to his marriage to Pelayo's daughter, Ermesinda. The Albeldense chronicle narrates how Alfonso arrived in the kingdom at some point after the battle of Covadonga to marry Ermesinda. Favila's death enabled his accession to the throne as well as his rise to power of what would become one of the most powerful families in the Kingdom of Asturias: The House of Cantabria. Although at first only Alfonso went to the court of Cangas, the truth is that, after the progressive depopulation of the Meseta and the Middle Valley of the Ebro, where the main strongholds of the Duchy of Cantabria were located, such as Amaya, Tricio or the City of Cantabria, the descendants of Duke Pedro de Cantabria withdrew from La Rioja lands towards the Cantabrian area and eventually arrived there to take over the destinies of the Kingdom of Asturias.
It will be Alfonso who begins the territorial expansion of the small Christian kingdom from his first site in the Picos de Europa advancing west to Galicia and south with continuous incursions into the Duero Valley taking cities and towns and taking his inhabitants to the safer areas of the north. This will cause the strategic depopulation of the plateau, creating the Duero Desert as protection against future Muslim attacks.
This depopulation, defended by Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz, is questioned today, at least in terms of its magnitude. The main ideas to refute it are, on the one hand, the conservation of the minor toponymy in multiple regions as well as the fact that even today there are great differences, both from the point of view of biological and cultural anthropology, between the inhabitants of the Cantabrian zone and those of the Central Plateau. What is certain is that in the first half of the VIII century, a process of ruralization took place in the Duero Valley that It brought with it the abandonment of urban life and the organization of the population into small communities of shepherds. The following can be cited as causes of this process: The final bankruptcy of the slave production system existing since the time of the Lower Empire, the continued propagation of large epidemics in the area, and finally the abandonment of Al Ándalus by the Berber garrisons after the revolt of the years 740 and 741. All of this made possible the emergence of a sparsely populated and unorganized space that isolated the Asturian kingdom from the Muslim attacks and allowed it to gradually establish itself.
As for the rest, the campaigns of kings Alfonso I and Fruela in the Duero Valley could not have been very different from the raids that the Astures carried out in the same area in pre-Roman times. Initially, Asturian expansion was carried out mainly through the Cantabrian territory (from Galicia to Vizcaya) and it will be necessary to wait until the reigns of Ordoño I and Alfonso III for the Kingdom of Asturias to take effective possession of the territories located to the south of the Mountain range.
Fruela I, son of Alfonso I, consolidates and expands his father's domains. He is assassinated by members of the nobility linked to the house of Cantabria.
Social and political transformations
The written sources are very concise regarding the reigns of Aurelio, Silo, Mauregato and Bermudo I. Generally, this period, lasting twenty-three years (768–791), has been considered a long period of darkness and withdrawal of the kingdom of Asturias. This view held by some historians, who even called this phase of the history of the Asturian kingdom as that of the Idle Kings, was due to the fact that at that time it seems that there were no major war actions against Al Andalus. However, these same written sources allow us to say that relevant and decisive transformations took place during those years in relation to the internal issues of the Asturian kingdom. All of them prepared and provided a base, in all orders and aspects, for the subsequent consolidation and expansion of Asturias.
In the first place, it was in those years when the first internal Asturian rebellion led by Mauregato himself, who expelled Alfonso II of Asturias from the throne, was confirmed. With it, a series of rebellions began in Asturias led by ascending groups of aristocratic palaces and large landowners who, based on the growing economic development of the area, tried to displace the reigning family of Don Pelayo from power. The important rebellions of Nepociano, Aldroito and Piniolo, during the later reign of Ramiro I, are part of this process of economic, social, political and cultural transformation of the Asturian kingdom, which took place between the 8th and 9th centuries.
Secondly, at that time the peripheral uprisings of Galicians and Basques failed, which were aborted by the Asturian kings. These revolts, in turn, took advantage of the internal rebellions in the central and eastern area of Asturias; and on certain occasions, they gave their help to one or the other contenders of the Asturian aristocracy: refuge of Alfonso II in Alava lands, after his flight; the support for the uprising of Nepociano in some Asturian areas or the union of the Galicians to the cause of Ramiro I.
Finally, other data speaks of important internal transformations of the Asturian kingdom at that time. They are the uprisings of the freedmen (serbi, servilis orico and libertini, according to the Chronicles) that occurred during the reign of Aurelio. The property relations between owner and slave gradually broke down. This fact, together with the progressive role of the individual and the restricted family to the detriment of the role that the extended family had played until then, is one more indication that a new society was emerging in Asturias at the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 20th century. 9th century.
Fruela I is succeeded by Aurelio de Asturias, grandson of Pedro de Cantabria, who will install the court on land that is currently the council of San Martín del Rey Aurelio, formerly belonging to Langreo, between the years 768 and 774. When he died, Silo succeeded him, who transferred the court to Pravia. Silo was married to Adosinda, a daughter of Alfonso I (and therefore Pelayo's granddaughter).
When King Silo died, the young Alfonso II was elected king (who later, in 791, would regain the throne), but Mauregato, King Alfonso I's bastard son, organized a strong opposition and got the new king retires to Álava lands (the mother of Alfonso II, Munia was a Basque) awarding himself the Asturian throne. This king, despite the bad reputation that history gives him, maintained good relations with Beato de Liébana, perhaps the most important cultural figure in the kingdom, and supported him in his fight against adoptionism. The legend says that this king was the bastard son of Alfonso I with a Moorish woman, and attributes the tribute of the hundred maidens to him. He is succeeded by Bermudo I, Aurelio's brother. He is called the deacon, although he probably only received minor vows. Bermudo abdicates after a military defeat, ending his life in a monastery.
Consolidation and expansion
After the abdication of Bermudo I, Alfonso II the Chaste returned to Asturias and proclaimed himself king, ending the period of relative peace with the Muslims of previous periods. During his reign he carried out punitive expeditions to the south, reaching as far as Lisbon in 798, and in 825 he also defeated the Muslims at Nalón. He sets the capital of the kingdom in Oviedo and repopulates Galicia and northern parts of Castilla y León. It was a reign exposed to continuous attacks from Muslims. Even so, it expanded, and the Asturian pre-Romanesque appeared, giving rise to jewels of European medieval architecture. Alfonso II establishes the Jacobean cult, and is the first figure on the Camino de Santiago, which links Asturias with Europe (especially with the kingdom of Charlemagne), having as a common enemy a South of oriental culture. Alfonso II's mother, Munia, was from Álava, with which we can already see the vocation of attracting the Basque neighbors to the Asturian kingdom. In the battle of Lutos (llodos in Asturian, ciénagas in Spanish), a heavy defeat was inflicted on the Arabs and Berbers who wanted to put an end to the growing threat posed by the already kingdom. In 808, he orders the Cross of the Angels to be forged. This king entrusted the architect Tioda with the construction of various buildings of a royal and religious nature to beautify Oviedo, of which unfortunately few have survived, as they were built on top of it in later reigns.
The following kings, Ramiro I (son of Bermudo who proclaimed himself king after a civil war) and Ordoño I, lived in a period of continuous war against the Muslims. In the times of Ramiro I, Ramirense art developed, the heyday of the Asturian pre-Romanesque. This king wages the battle of Clavijo, in which, according to legend, the Apostle Santiago on the back of a white horse helps the Asturian army against the Islamic troops. In the year 844, a Norman fleet appeared off the coast of Gijón. It is not known with certainty if they disembarked there, but they were not detained as they continued to the place that the chronicles called Brigantio Lighthouse (La Coruña), where they were rejected, continuing the incursion according to the chronicles towards Spain. (The Asturian chronicles called al-Andalus Spain).
Ordoño repopulates Astorga, León, Tuy and Amaya. He establishes close relations with the Kingdom of Pamplona, possibly helping to free King García Íñiguez kidnapped by the Normans. Within the process of linking with the Ebro valley, he establishes alliances with the Banu Qasi of Zaragoza, whom he also fights on occasions in successive variations of alliances. Ordoño also unsuccessfully tries to help the Toledo Mozarabs in rebellion against the Cordovan emir. Upon his death, his son Alfonso III succeeds him.
Apogee and end
Alfonso III marks the peak of power of the kingdom of Asturias. He establishes very close relations with the Kingdom of Pamplona, repeatedly fights and allies himself with the Banu Qasi of Zaragoza and fights alongside the Mozarabs of Toledo in their fight against the emiral power.
In the year 908, a century after Alfonso II made it with the Cross of the Angels, he had the Cross of Victory forged, since then a symbol of Asturias. Alfonso marries Jimena, a Navarrese noblewoman, possibly the daughter of García Iñíguez. With the support of Galician nobles, such as Hermenegildo Gutiérrez, he conquered the north of present-day Portugal. He also advanced through the Duero, conquering Zamora and Burgos. At its peak, the Asturian kingdom occupies the entire northwest of the peninsula, from Porto to Álava.
García I, son of Alfonso III the Great, after his fight against his father and his brothers Ordoño II and Fruela II, moved the capital of the kingdom to León, thus creating a new kingdom that would unite the Asturian kingdom, the Kingdom of Leon.
Territorial articulation of the Kingdom of Asturias
Nuclear zone of the kingdom: Asturias and Liébana
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The two Asturias (Asturias de Oviedo and Asturias de Santillana) and the Cantabrian region of Liébana were the site where the first Christian state of the Reconquest was forged. In Asturian territory are located the four capitals that the kingdom successively had (Cangas de Onís, Pravia, San Martín del Rey Aurelio and Oviedo) as well as the main samples of Asturian pre-Romanesque art.
The Crónica Rotense, when mentioning the campaigns of Alfonso I, says that "at this time Asturias, Primorias, Liébana, Trasmiera, Sopuerta, Carranza, Bardulia, which are now called Castilla, and the maritime part of Galicia" were populated. The different regional and regional entities existing in Cantabrian territory are described in this quote.
In principle, the original kingdom of Pelayo comprised, at least, the territories of present-day central and eastern Asturias, as can be seen from the narrations of the Albeldense chronicle, and the Rotense Chronicle, which situate the story of the origins of the kingdom between the ciuitate Gegione and Covadonga, with Brece, in Piloña, in between. This territorial area is known as patria Asturiensium in the Sebastianense Chronicle.
However, Pelayo's successors gradually extended their domains, engulfing territories such as Trasmiera or El Bierzo which, however, retained their autonomy in the form of duchies or counties governed by comtes linked to the local aristocracy, such as Rodrigo de Castilla or Gatón del Bierzo.
To the east of the Miera river were the regions of Trasmiera, Sopuerta and Carranza. These last two territories were annexed to Vizcaya (1285) and later to the Basque Country (1979), but even today they continue to preserve a good part of their original mountain culture: The traditional speech of Encartaciones presents Asturian-leonese features and the traditional mythology included includes references to creatures like the Ojáncanu or the Trenti that are so familiar in the folklore of La Montaña de Cantabria.
Duero desert, the city of León and the old Asturian Duchy
After the Islamic conquest of Spain, the territory of the northern sub-plateau began to experience a process of depopulation that was exacerbated by the Berber rebellion of the years 740 and 741 and by the drought that affected said area during the central decades VIII century. The result is that the Duero Basin became a no man's territory.
There has been some discussion in Spanish historiography about the nature and intensity of the depopulation of the Duero Valley. Some authors, such as Sánchez Albornoz, affirmed that said depopulation was total, and even more, it was sought by the Asturian kings in order to strategically isolate themselves from the emirate of Córdoba and make it difficult for Muslim warfare to enter Asturias. Other authors, such as Abilio Barbero and Marcelo Vigil, considered that, rather than depopulation, what occurred was a political and economic disorganization of the territory that, far from having begun in the VIII, has its roots in the crisis of late Roman latifundia and the slave system. In addition, ethnologists such as Julio Caro Baroja have called attention to the fact that there are enormous differences between the Cantabrian cultures (Galician, Asturian...) and those of the Meseta (such as the Leonese or the Castilian).
The western area of the North Sub-plateau, that which corresponds to the Esla, Órbigo and Sil valleys, was populated in pre-Roman times by Celtic-speaking tribes such as the astures or the vacceos. With the Roman conquest, these territories were incorporated into the Conventus Asturiensis, which after the provincial division of Caracalla was awarded to the province of Gallaecia. In the Visigothic period, the area became part of the Duchy of Asturia (or Asturian Duchy), whose main cities were Astorga (Asturica Augusta, capital of the Cismontano Astures) and León (Legio VII, founded by the Romans after the Cantabrian wars).
Since the second half of the VIII century these regions became progressively absorbed by the Kingdom of Asturias. However, this absorption was carried out in different ways, depending on the territory. Thus, on the one hand, it seems that the regions of the Leonese mountain, Bierzo and Maragatería never became completely depopulated and retained all their ethnic personality: Thus, it is very likely that the territories of Valdeón, Laciana and Babia belonged to to the Asturian monarchy since the time of Pelayo. Likewise, the existence of a county of El Bierzo has been verified since the time of King Alfonso II, and it is very likely that it is well before the reign of this monarch. On the other hand, the ethnographic studies that have been carried out on the Maragato people reveal a possible Asturian origin, which was expressed in a rather poetic way by the Asturian folklorist Constantino Cabal. In all these regions, modalities have been preserved until today. Asturian linguistics and cultural traits that are very close to Asturians. On the contrary, the colonization of the Páramo Leonés, Coyanza and Tierra de Campos had a strong Mozarabic component: All these regions abound in toponymic forms corresponding to that language, in which the suffixes -el and -iel, instead of the Asturian -iellu.
In any case, the truth is that the city of León became the main Asturian bastion in the Central Plateau, becoming, already during the lifetime of Alfonso III, the royal headquarters. Another milestone in the Christian advance towards the South was the fortification and repopulation of Zamora, the true guardian of the Duero River and which, due to its importance, came to be described by some Arab historians as the capital of the Galicians The Leonese expansion would be articulated during the following centuries around the old Roman road that linked Asturica with Emerita Augusta, which would later give rise to the Vía de la Plata.
Western Marches: Galicia and the County of Portugal
The link between the north of Galicia and Asturias can already be seen in the Parroquial Suevo, a document from the VI century where He speaks of the bishop's seat of Britonia, which extended through territories of the province of Lugo and Asturias.
During the Muslim conquest, the Muslims conquered Tuy, and established a lordship there based on the lower valley of the Miño River. The Berber rebellion of the years 740 and 741 resulted in the abandonment by the Berber garrisons of all their positions north of the Sierra de Gredos. In this way, southern Galicia was freed from Muslim rule, although it suffered a process of depopulation similar to that of the Duero Valley that led to the abandonment of all kinds of urban life.[citation required ]
On the contrary, the north of Galicia was incorporated into the nascent Asturian kingdom by King Alfonso I, who installed Bishop Odoario in the city of Lugo. The weak Asturian position had to be consolidated by his successor, Fruela I, who crushed an insurrection by the Galicians and defeated in Pontuvia a punitive expedition sent by the Emir of Córdoba Abderramán I. Decades later, another Galician insurrection was defeated by King Silo in the battle of Montecubeiro, near Castroverde.
In any case, the discovery in the times of King Alfonso II of the tomb of the Apostle Santiago and the emergence of the Camino that bears his name ensured the spiritual integration of Galicia into the Kingdom of Asturias and later into those of León and Castilla.
The expansion towards the South was initiated by Ordoño I, who repopulated Tuy. In later decades, Vímara Pérez, a vassal of Alfonso III, reached Porto (taken in 868) laying the foundations of the Portucalense County that would later give rise to Portugal.
Eastern border: Duchy of Cantabria, County of Castilla and the upper Ebro valley
The easternmost areas of the northern sub-plateau were populated at the end of the 8th century by small rural communities of highly diverse ethnic origins. The indigenous population was a descendant of the different tribes that populated the place in pre-Roman times, such as the Várdulos, Vacceos, Turmogos and Celtiberians, and was mainly dedicated to herding work. A migratory wave from the Cantabrian-Pyrenean area began to settle on this original population, which was mainly made up of clans belonging to two different peoples: the Cantabrians and the Vascones.
The earliest expansion is that of the Cantabrians. The Cantabria described by the Roman geographers extended almost exclusively through territories of the Cordillera, but nevertheless already from the 2nd century and probably as a result of the sedentarization of this town, its expansion began through lands of the Meseta, archaeologically testified by infinity of Vadinian tombstones that record an intense migratory movement of the inhabitants of the Picos de Europa area towards the Cistierna area (León). However, the most intense colonization was carried out in the upper-medium valley of the Ebro river, in the current provinces of Burgos and La Rioja.
In this way, from the reading of the Chronicle of the Biclarense (VI century), where the campaigns are described of the Visigothic king in Cantabrian lands, it can be deduced that Visigothic Cantabria did not coincide with that described by Roman geographers, but rather extended through the lands of La Rioja and Ribera Navarra. It is described as a region located next to the territory of the Basques, and whose capital was a city that bore the same name, the City of Cantabria, located one kilometer north of the current city of Logroño and whose ruins are still visible. Said city received the admonitions of San Millán, who exhorted its inhabitants to conversion, otherwise they wanted to be annihilated by the forces of evil. A warning that was not heeded by the locals, who would see their homes destroyed the following year by the troops of the Arian king Leovigildo. Later, this place was the seat of the Duchy of Cantabria, created by Ervigio at the end of the century VI and which had the objective of pacifying the Cantabrians and containing the Basque expansion. The name of one of its dukes, Pedro, who was the father of the Asturian king Alfonso I, is known, as well as some of its institutions, such as the Senate of Cantabria, which had its headquarters in the city of the same name and which is quoted by San Braulio in his work Life of San Millán.
Still in the 11th century the Bishop of Astorga, Sampiro, calls Sancho III the Major of Pamplona Rex Cantabriensis, and already in the reign of García Sánchez III, to a Navarrese nobleman, Fortún Ochoa, appears in the documentation as Lord of Cameros, of the Val de Arnero and 'of Cantabria for exercising tenure of these places under the mandate of the king.
Basque expansion took place at the beginning of the Reconquest. Toponymy shows that the Basque language was spoken in a good part of La Rioja and Burgos and in the Emilian Glosses some phrases in Basque are preserved that were probably annotated by native-speaking monks of this language. In fact, the Spanish language has inherited from the Basque its phonological system and a good part of its anthroponymy (García, Sancho, Jimeno) and even in the poem of Mio Cid and in the works of Gonzalo de Berceo some of its characters use expressions basques
In any case, the area began to fall under the orbit of the kings of Asturias starting with Ordoño I and Alfonso III, who with the help of their vassals Rodrigo and later his son Diego Rodríguez Porcelos repopulated the Peña de Amaya and founded the city of Burgos.
The first significant advances from the Cantabrian Mountains to the Meseta were carried out by the foramontanos, a name given to the settlers who left the mountainous territories of the North and headed south to colonize the plain: Sometimes the colonization was carried out at the initiative of the small nobility and the monasteries, and on other occasions it was large groups of relatives who migrated to the Plateau, in a movement not very different from the one that the Vadinienses carried out in the first centuries of our era. During the reign of Alfonso II, the area of Campoo, the territory of the sources of the Ebro, as well as the northernmost areas of the Duero Basin were occupied. This was a difficult territory to colonize, since the eastern flank of the kingdom was by far the most unprotected: the aceifas that went to Galicia and León had to cross the Duero Desert, a place that was not very conducive to supplying troops, and for this reason their bases were located in Toledo, Coria, Talamanca and Coimbra, towns that were located more than 400 kilometers from their objectives. However, the area of La Rioja was relatively populated, was in the hands of a powerful family of local lords, the Banu Qasi, and was crossed by a Roman road that passed through Amaya and reached Astorga. This same road had been used by Leovigildo during his campaigns against the Cantabrians in the year 574 and by Muza, during his extensive conquest operation carried out in the years 712-714.
King Ramiro I made an attempt to colonize and fortify the city of León, although this attempt was thwarted by a Muslim aceifa. However, his successor, Ordoño, took advantage of the growing Asturian military power as well as the internal problems of the Emirate to establish and fortify strategic places in the Duero Basin. Rodrigo, first Count of Castile through Ordoño I repopulated the Peña de Amaya, thereby ensuring the Asturian presence on the right bank of the Ebro River.
His successor, Diego Rodríguez Porcelos, already in the time of Alfonso III proceeded with an even more expansive policy: the eastern border of the county was established at the Arlanzón river and the Montes de Oca. Burgos was founded and the Muslims some of its border fortresses, such as Pancorbo, which served as a base for the aceifas with which the emirs of Córdoba devastated these regions. To protect the eastern border of the Kingdom of Asturias, a multitude of castles had to be built that would soon give the region its name: Castilla.
In the decades following the death of Diego Porcelos, other nobles such as Vela Jiménez, Count of Álava, or Munio Núñez, Count of Castilla, continued the Asturian advance towards the South, reaching the Duero Valley at the beginning of the century X. The occupation of the city of Osma and the penetration towards the Sepúlveda area will proceed. All these lands, belonging to the high valley of the Duero river, were inhabited by the Celtiberians and the Arevaci, and in them were nestled populations of ancestry such as Numantia (destroyed by the troops of Scipio), and Uxama (Osma), which according to all indications continued to be populated even after the Islamic conquest. Beato's letter to Eterio, Bishop of Osma, shows that at the end of the VIII century, said city even kept its episcopal seat. The Spanish philologist Rafael Lapesa, exposes in his work Las lenguas circunvecinas del castellano, his thesis that the Castilian spoken in Soria as well as in the Montes de Oca area, had a Mozarabic substratum, which would seem provide arguments to those who affirm that there was a demographic and cultural continuity in certain areas of the Duero Basin.
Territories of the Basques
At the beginning of the Christian era, the territories of the Basque depression were mainly populated by three different peoples: the Várdulos, the Caristios and the Autrigones. Some authors, such as the linguist Koldo Mitxelena, consider that these peoples spoke a language that was the ancestor of today's Basque.
In any case, the truth is that the Basque language never exceeded the limit of the Nervión River at the time of the Asturian Monarchy. At that time, the Basques from the westernmost territories fell into the Asturian orbit during the reigns of Kings Alfonso I and King Fruela. The second married an Álava woman, Munia, who would give him a son, the future King Alfonso II. During the reign of Mauregato, the young prince Alfonso had to take refuge with his maternal relatives in the Álava area until finally, after the death of Bermudo I, he was able to definitively accede to the Asturian throne. The constitution of the County of Álava dates back to the rebellion of Count Eglyón against King Alfonso III. After putting down the rebellion, the monarch entrusted the government of Álava to a nobleman loyal to his cause, Rodrigo de Castilla, although he never called himself Count of Álava and his government was ephemeral since in 882 Vela Jiménez appears in the documentation as Count of Álava. This magnate was of fundamental importance in the repopulation and fortification of Castile, especially in the defense of Cellorigo in the year 882 against the troops of Al-Mundir de Córdoba. The County of Álava extended through part of the current provinces of Álava and Vizcaya, reaching the Deva river in Guipúzcoa.
The Biscayan chronicler Lope García de Salazar locates in his works Crónicas de Vizcaya (from the year 1454) and Bienandanzas e fortunas (1471) the birth of the lordship of Vizcaya in this era. They mention the existence of a founding hero, Jaun Zuria, with white complexion and blond hair who created the lordship after his victory over the Asturian troops in the legendary Battle of Arrigorriaga (year 840). However, the lack of documentation in this regard means that all these questions remain in a speculative field: The only thing that contemporary chronicles confirm is that Alfonso III successfully faced a rebellion by the Basques.
Culture and society
The kingdom had a purely agricultural and livestock subsistence economy, eminently rural, with Oviedo as the only urban center in present-day Asturias. However, there were a number of important cities in the other parts of the kingdom, such as Braga, Lugo, Astorga, León, Zamora. The society, of an egalitarian type at first, became progressively feudalized, especially with the arrival of the Mozarabic population of Visigothic culture. Paradoxically, this population Christianized the kingdom, which initially settled in an area with many pagan cultural elements (the church of Santa Cruz, in Cangas de Onís, the first architectural vestige, is built on a dolmen).
Although traditionally it was considered that cultural activity was very scarce, the work of Beato, the acrostic dedicated to Silo, the pre-Romanesque constructions, etc., mean that this point of view is changing.
The territorial organization was linked to comtes, who were in command of the most remote parts, the initial Asturian nucleus being under the direct mandate of the king. The structure of the court, the palatal office, was much simpler than that of the Visigoths.
The kingdom of Asturias used the representation of the Victory Cross as a protective symbol in churches and public foundations and also in military constructions, such as the fortress of Alfonso III in Oviedo, thus becoming an emblem of the kingdom.
But what we must underline here is the frequency of the representations of the cross with obvious emblematic value, identical to how a shield of arms would later have been arranged. Alfonso III the magno made her record on a tombstone on the door of his palace in Oviedo in 875. [..] The processional cross also fulfills the function of teaching or script of the royal army. The libera ordinum describes the departure to the war of the king of Asturias at the forehead of his troops: the deacon takes from the altar the golden cross that encloses the Lignum crucisgive it to the bishop, and this one to the king, who gives it to the priest who will take it before him.
Asturian art
The monuments of pre-Romanesque art in Asturias are exponents of the small civilization that was being forged in the Cantabrian area. In this sense, Asturian art is, along with Catalan, one of the two main exponents of pre-Romanesque in Spain. Although in the latter the Lombard influences are evident, in Asturian pre-Romanesque art the Carolingian influence is felt above all.
However, despite the fact that the links between the Asturian and Visigothic styles have traditionally been underlined, some authors do not fail to point out the fact that a good part of its characteristics probably derive from Roman and early Christian art from which they exist some exponents in Asturian territory. There are also certain autochthonous influences, purely astures, and in this sense in some pre-Romanesque monuments, such as San Miguel de Lillo, medallions can be seen in which pagan motifs are engraved such as the hexapétala or the solar spiral, which is still used today to decorate Asturian granaries.
Asturian pre-Romanesque art can be structured into the following periods: Prerramirense (mid-8th century–842), in which both the churches built by King Silo in Pravia and the monuments that Alfonso II built around his court in Oviedo, among which the pre-Romanesque cathedral of San Salvador stood out, which was replaced by the current Gothic one (built in the XIV), the Royal Palace, which was also demolished later and of which only the palatine chapel (current Holy Chamber) and some chests that today are integrated into the church of San Tirso remain.; Ramirense, which receives its name from King Ramiro I, under whose reign the main monuments belonging to Asturian art were built, such as Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo; Postrramirense, which includes all those constructions carried out during the reigns of Ordoño II and Alfonso III the Great, such as San Salvador de Valdediós.
Along with all these architectural achievements, a refined goldsmithing was developed in the Kingdom of Asturias whose most renowned exponents are the Cruz de los Ángeles, the Cruz de la Victoria and the Caja de las Agatas.
Religiosity and spirituality in the Kingdom of Asturias
Remnants of Celtic and Megalithic Paganism
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Although the first Christian testimonies of Asturias date back to the V century, the true progression of Christianity in Asturias only took place from the middle of the VI century, when a whole series of hermits, such as Santo Toribio de Liébana and other monks belonging to the order of San Fructuoso de Braga, they gradually settled in territories of the Cantabrian mountain range and began to preach Christian doctrine among the locals.
The Christianization of Asturias progressed very slowly and it can be said that it never meant forgetting the ancient divinities. As in many other places (although perhaps here to a greater extent), they survived in popular beliefs coexisting syncretically with the new religion. In this sense, in his work De correctione rusticorum, San Martín de Braga reprimanded the peasants of Gallaecia for their attachment to pagan cults: «Many demons of those expelled from heaven preside in heaven. sea, in the rivers, in the fountains or in the jungles and are made to be worshiped by the ignorant as gods. To them they make sacrifices: in the sea they invoke Neptune; in the rivers, to the Lamias; in the sources, to the Nymphs; in the jungles, to the Dianas».
The Asturian folklorist Constantino Cabal was the one who first supported the existence of etymological kinship, today generally accepted by philologists, between the Latin word diana, which mentions the quote from San Martín de Braga, and the Asturian xana, which designates the well-known creature of Asturian mythology: this could indicate the existence of a certain continuity between the ancient Asturian religion and the mythical beliefs currently present in rural areas of Asturias. It is not for nothing that the stream that flows from the Covadonga sanctuary still bears the name of the ancient Celtic goddess Deva, to whose cult the place was consecrated before her Christianization. According to other authors, deva is a Celtic and Indo-European word that simply means goddess, so it would be possible that other female divinities such as Navia or Briga were hiding behind this name. In any case, Deva was a dedication that, according to the opinion of renowned historians, ethnologists and philologists, enjoyed great prestige in pre-Christian times, as attested by place names such as La Isla de Deva (in Castrillón) or the well of Güeyu la Deva (Gijón). From the first it is still said today that the girls who are born in the territory of said council come. Del Güeyu la Deva, whose red waters are nothing more than the blood of the Moors defeated in the battle of Covadonga.
In the middle valley of the Sella, the area where Cangas de Onís sits, there was a dolmen area dating from the megalithic period, probably from the period 4000–2000 BC. C. In it, particularly in the dolmen of Santa Cruz, the ritual burials of the tribal chiefs of the region were carried out. This practice survived after the Roman and Visigothic conquests, and did so to such an extent that even in the VIII century King Favila was buried there, in the same place where the remains of ancestral warlords rested. Although the Asturian monarchy itself sponsored the Christianization of the place (ordering the construction of a church), the truth is that even today there are paganizing traditions that affirm that the dolmen of Santa Cruz is inhabited by xanas and that the Earth that is extracted from its soil has healing properties.
According to the tombstone found in the tomb of Favila, the church was consecrated in the year 738 by a character named Asterio, who is described as vate, a Latin word that means ' soothsayer, prophet', and which has cognates in Celtic languages, such as the Irish Gaelic oaith, which designated those bards who performed prophecies and divination (for example, the wizard Suibhne, Irish equivalent of Marline). This terminology contrasts with that found in the most common Christian texts, where priests are often designated by the term presbyterus (from the Greek Πρεσβυτερος, 'older brother').
In this sense, it is worth remembering that the Christianization of Asturias was carried out in not too orthodox ways: the Suevo Parish attributed to the headquarters of the Bretons the existing parishes in the Asturian territory, so it is probable that the primitive forms of Christianity usual in Asturias did not differ too much from those existing among the Celtic churches of the British Isles, including the tonsure of its monks, which was condemned by the IV Council of Toledo due to its pagan reminiscences. Today in Galicia numerous pious legends related to religious who traveled by sea to the shores of Paradise, such as San Amaro, Trezenzonio or Ero de Armenteira: legends that keep enormous parallels with the stories of San Brandán the Navigator, San Maclovio de Gales or the Irish imramma. On the other hand, the truth is that paganism even influenced the practices of the Catholic Church in Asturias: it was not uncommon for priests to participate in spells to prevent the arrival of the Ñuberu in a certain parish, and in the figure of the freros the last vestiges of mythological poetry are preserved in traditional Asturias.
The Christianization process was fostered by the kings of Asturias, who unlike the monarchs of pagan England (such as Penda of Mercia), Gaelic Ireland (Conn of the Hundred Battles) or Saxony of the VIII (the Witikindo duke), did not cement their power over indigenous religious traditions but took their founding myths from the texts of the Holy Christian Scriptures (particularly the Apocalypse, and the prophetic books of Ezekiel and Daniel) and the texts of the Church Fathers, as we will see in the next section.
Christian religiosity: millenarianism and Jacobean worship
And there shall be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth, distress of the nations, perplexed by the noise of the sea and of the waves... and then you shall see the Son of Man coming into a cloud with great power and glory.Lc, 21:25-27
During the reigns of Silo and Mauregato the foundations of the culture of the Kingdom of Asturias and Christian Spain of the High Middle Ages were laid. In this seemingly nondescript period, in which the kings of Asturias submitted to the dictates of the Cordovan emirs, lived Beato de Liébana, who is probably the greatest intellectual figure in the Kingdom of Asturias, and whose work left an enduring mark on culture. Christian of the Reconquista.
Beato found himself directly involved in the adoptionist dispute, within which he strongly fought Elipando, Bishop of Toledo. Adoptionists argued that Jesus Christ was born a man and that only after his death and resurrection was he adopted by the Father and acquired divine quality. Adoptionism had roots in Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ, and in Greco-Roman paganism, where there were some examples of heroes like Hercules who reached apotheosis after his death. Likewise, Muslim influences in the rise of adoptionism should not be ruled out, since Elipando was imposed in his position by the Muslim authorities, whose religion denied the divinity of Jesus, who was considered a prophet but not the Son of God. However, the adoptionist heresy was fought by Beato from his monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana, at the same time that he defended the independence of the Asturian church against the Toledo church and strengthened ties with Rome and the Carolingian Empire: In this sense, Beato was supported in his fight against the Toledo church for the Pope as well as for Alcuin of York, an Anglo-Saxon scholar living in Aachen with whom he cultivated a great friendship.
The most important work created by Beato was his Commentaries on the Apocalypse, which were copied in manuscripts in subsequent centuries (usually called Beatus) and from which the Italian writer Umberto Eco has come to know to say: "Their lavish images have given rise to the greatest iconographic event in the history of humanity". and all this accompanied by masterful illustrations.
In the Commentaries a new interpretation is given to the symbols of the Apocalypse: Babylon no longer represents the city of Rome, but Córdoba, seat of the emirs of Al Ándalus; The Beast, an ancient symbol of the Roman Empire, now embodies the Islamic invader who threatened to destroy Western Christianity and who at that time troubled the territories of the Kingdom of Asturias with his frequent raids.
In the prologue to the second book of this work is one of the best-known World Maps of early medieval European culture. The objective of this map is not the geographical representation of the world but to serve as an illustration of the evangelizing diaspora of the Apostles during the first decades of Christianity. Beato was based to make it on the data provided by San Isidoro de Sevilla, Ptolemy and the Holy Scriptures. The world is represented as a disk of land surrounded by the Ocean and divided into three parts: Asia (upper semicircle), Europe (lower left quadrant) and Africa (lower right quadrant). The Mediterranean Sea (Europe–Africa), the Nile River (Africa–Asia) and the Aegean Sea and the Bosporus (Europe–Asia) separated the landmasses. The Mapa Mundi by Beato de Liébana is the first cartographic work that shows the existence of Terra Australis. Despite the fact that this hypothetical land had already been mentioned in the works of Claudio Ptolemy or Saint Augustine of Hippo, the truth is that the map contained in the Commentaries on the Apocalypse is the first that reflects the existence of this southern continent, which from this moment on will appear repeatedly on many maps and will lead to innumerable expeditions in search of it, such as those of Fernández de Quirós and Abel Tasman, which will culminate in the discovery of Australia. Beato was convinced of the imminent arrival of the End Times, which would be preceded by the reign of the Antichrist, whose empire would last 1,290 years. Based on the scheme exposed by Saint Augustine in his work The City of God, the creator of the Commentaries considered that the history of the world was structured in six ages: The first five extended between the creation of Adam and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, while the sixth, after Christ and contemporary with us, should culminate in the unleashing of the events prophesied by the Apocalypse.
Movements of a millennial character were common in Europe at that time: In the period 760–780, a whole series of astral phenomena occurred in Gaul that caused panic among the population; a visionary monk, John, predicts the arrival of the End of the World in the reign of Charlemagne. The Apocalypse of Daniel appears on these same dates, a text written in Syriac during the reign of Empress Irene in Byzantium in which a whole series of wars between Arabs, Byzantines and peoples of the North were prophesied that would end with the arrival of the Antichrist..
For Beato, the events that were taking place in Hispania (the Islamic rule, the adoptionist heresy, the progressive assimilation of the Mozarabs...) were signs that indicated the proximity of the apocalyptic eon. According to Elipando in his Letter from the bishops of Spania to their brothers in Gaul, the abbot of Santo Toribio came to announce to his countrymen in Liébana the arrival of the End of the World for Easter of the year 800: the day before that day, hundreds of villagers gathered around the Monastery of Santo Toribio, waiting —terrified— for the prodigy. For almost a day and a half they remained in that place without eating until one of them, named Ordoño, exclaimed: "Let's eat and drink, so that if the end of the world comes we will be fed up!"
The prophetic and millenarian visions of Beato de Liébana had a lasting imprint on the development of the Kingdom of Asturias: The Prophetic Chronicle, which was written around the year 880, predicts the final fall of the Emirate of Córdoba and the conquest and redemption of all Spain by King Alfonso III. Likewise, the icon of the Victory Cross, which ended up becoming the emblem of the Kingdom of Asturias, has its origin in a passage from the Apocalypse in which Saint John has the following vision of the Parousia: He sees Jesus Christ seated in majesty accompanied by clouds and affirming «I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the one that Was, the one that Is and the one that will be. The Almighty". The use of the labarum dates back to the times of Constantine the Great, who used it during the famous battle of the Milvian Bridge. But in Asturias, the use of the Victoria Cross acquired overtones of veneration. This icon appears engraved in almost all pre-Romanesque churches, often accompanied by the expression "Hoc signo tuetur pius, in hoc signo vincitur inimicus", which became the motto of the Asturian monarchs..
Another of the spiritual legacies of the Kingdom of Asturias is the emergence of one of the most fascinating ways of cultural transmission in Europe: The Camino de Santiago. The first text that refers to the preaching of Saint James the Greater is the Breviary of the Apostles, a text from the century. VI which cites a place called Aca Marmárica as its final resting place. Saint Isidore of Seville insisted on this idea in his treatise De ortu et obitu patrium. A century and a half later, in the time of King Mauregato, the hymn O Dei Verbum was composed in which the apostle is described as the "golden head of Spain, our protector and national patron", and reference is made to to his preaching in the Peninsula during the first decades of Christianity. Some attribute said hymn to Beato, although this is disputed by historians.
But it was not until the reign of Alfonso II that news of a prodigious event arrived from Galicia: In the diocese of Iria Flavia, a hermit named Pelayo had observed mysterious glows over the forest of Libredón for several successive nights. Songs of angels accompanied the dance of luminaries. Impressed by this phenomenon, Pelayo appeared before the bishop of Iria Flavia, Teodomiro, who went to the place with his entourage. In the thickness of the forest a stone sepulcher was found with three bodies, which were identified with those of the Apostle Santiago the Greater and his two disciples, Theodore and Athanasius. According to legend, King Alfonso was the first pilgrim to go to see the Apostle: During the nights that the journey lasted, he was guided by the course of the Milky Way, which from then on would take the popular name of Camino from Santiago.
The discovery of the tomb of Santiago was a major political success for the Kingdom of Asturias: Hispania could claim for itself the honor of housing the remains of one of the apostles of Jesus Christ, an award only shared with Asia (specifically Ephesus) where the body of Saint John rested, and with Rome, where the remains of Saint Peter and Saint Paul were buried. From this moment on, Santiago de Compostela would become, together with Rome and Jerusalem, one of the three holy cities of Christianity. Sheltered from the Camino de Santiago, a multitude of influences from Central Europe penetrated the Iberian Peninsula during the following centuries, from Gothic and Romanesque styles to Provençal trova.
However, the story of the discovery of the remains of the Apostle presents certain enigmatic traits. The tomb was found in a place that had been used as a necropolis since the Late Empire, so it is possible that it was the remains of a notable in the area: British historian Henry Chadwick launched the hypothesis that he identified the sarcophagus found in Compostela with the relics of Prisciliano. Other authors, such as Constantino Cabal, highlight that many places in Galicia such as Pico Sacro, Pedra da Barca (Mugía) or San Andrés de Teixido were the target of pilgrimages for faithful pagans, who considered that those places, identified with the End of the World, were gateways to the Other World. With the discovery of the tomb of Santiago, the progressive Christianization of these pilgrimage routes began.
Myths and legends
Since the Chronicles of the Kingdom of Asturias were written a century and a half after the battle of Covadonga, there are many facets of the first kings of Asturias that have remained in the shadows, abandoned to the nebulous territory of myth and legend.
Although the historicity of Pelayo is beyond any doubt, a multitude of traditions and stories have been woven around his figure. One of them affirms that before the Islamic invasion of Spain he went as a pilgrim to Jerusalem, the holy city of Christianity.
It is also stated that the Victoria Cross was formed by lightning that struck an oak tree and carved said figure into its trunk. Two elements of fundamental importance in the Asturian tradition are intertwined in this myth: On the one hand, the ray, which was the symbol of the ancient Asturian god Taranis and which in Asturian mythology is forged by Ñuberu, lord of clouds, rain and winds. On the other hand, the oak is the symbol of Asturian royalty, as witnessed by stone engravings such as those of the Church of Abamia, in which leaves of said tree species are reproduced.
In addition, the Covadonga area has been prodigal in astonishing stories, such as the one that affirms that on the place now occupied by the lakes of Enol and La Ercina there was a village of shepherds that was visited in its day by the Virgin, which, disguised as a pilgrim, asked for food and room in the houses of the town. In all of them she was abruptly rejected, and only found welcome in the humble shelter of a shepherd, who affectionately shared with her everything he possessed. As punishment for the inhospitality of the local residents, the next day a flood of divine origin devastated the town, which was forever flooded, with the exception of the shepherd's hut. Before him, the mysterious guest began to cry, and her tears falling to the ground turned into delicious little flowers. Then the pastor realized that the divine pilgrim was the Virgin.
This is a Pan-Celtic myth that is represented in numerous stories from other countries of the Atlantic Arc, such as the one that affirms that under the Antela lagoon (Galicia) are the traces of the ancient city of Antioquia, erased in its day off the map by a nocturnal deluge in punishment for the sinful lives of its inhabitants. Even today it is possible to hear during the Night of San Juan the tolling of the church of the city as well as the crowing of the roosters. On the other side of the Bay of Biscay, in Brittany, there are traditions relating to the city of Ker-Ys, which was located in territories of the Bay of Douarnenez reclaimed from the sea and protected by a powerful dike. The daughter of the city's king, Dahud, gave the keys to the dam to a demon who had disguised himself as a handsome prince, an action that resulted in the city being flooded.
But there are also myths surrounding the Asturian Monarchy that are linked to the purest Jewish and Christian tradition: the Sebastianense Chronicle narrates that when King Alfonso I died, an extraordinary event took place in Cangas de Onís. While the notables watched over his corpse in court, heavenly songs of angels were heard. They intoned the following text from Isaiah, which was otherwise used by the Hispanic liturgy during the Vigil of Glory Saturday:
I said, In the midst of my days I will go to the gates of the tomb: I am deprived of the rest of my years.
I said, I will not see the lord in the land of those who live: I will no longer see a man with the inhabitants of the world.
My abode has been moved and pierced from me, as a shepherd's tent. As the weaver cut off my life; he will cut me with the disease; you will consume me between day and night.
I counted until morning. As a lion grinded all my bones: You shall end me in the morning at night.
As the crane and as the swallow complained unto me, Gemiah as the dove: I lifted up my eyes on the top: the LORD, violence I suffer; make me trust.Is. 38.10-14
This is the song that the king of Judah Hezekiah sang after he was cured of a deadly disease by Yahweh, thanks to the intercession of Isaiah: In this song, the king, seeing himself before the gates of death, laments his departure with anguish towards sheol, the Jewish underworld, a dark and gloomy place where he will no longer see God or men.
In Asturias there are also exponents of the myth of the Sleeping King: According to legend, it is still possible today to see King Fruela wandering through the Garden of the Caudillo Kings of the Oviedo Cathedral and it is said that his grandson, the renowned gentleman Bernardo del Carpio also sleeps in a cave in the Asturian mountains. Tradition tells that on one occasion a farmer lost one of his cows, and when he went into a cave to look for it, he heard a voice claiming to be Bernardo del Carpio, victor over the Franks at Roncesvalles. After telling him that he had lived alone for centuries In that cave he told the farmer: "Give me your hand, I want to know what men are like today." The shepherd, frightened, gave him the horn of a cow, which, when grabbed by the giant, instantly fell apart. The shepherd left in terror, but not before hearing Bernardo say: "The men of today are not like those who helped me kill Frenchmen in Roncesvalles."
The parallels between these legends and those surrounding the figures of other European medieval heroes such as Barbarossa or King Arthur are evident. Of the first it is stated that he did not die, but withdrew into Mount Kyffhäuser, from where he will return to re-establish Germany's former glory when the ravens cease to fly. Of the second it is affirmed that he lives together with his knights in a multitude of caves and hills on the island of Great Britain. His most famous home is the one attributed to him by Sir Walter Scott: the hills of Eildon, in Scotland, where Arthur took refuge after his last battle, and where he will sleep until fate grants him the rule of Britain again..
Chronicles of the Kingdom of Asturias
Christian Chronicles
Chronicles written in Andalusian territory:
- Byzantine-Arabic Chronicle of 741
- Chronic mozárabe (754) (also called Continuatio Hispana)
Chronicles written during the reign of Alfonso III:
- Albeldense Chronicle
- Chronic Rotense
- Chronicle Sebastianense
- The Prophetic Chronicle
Chronicles of the XI century:
- Sampiro Chronicle
Chronicles of the XII century:
- Silense Chronicle or the anonymous monk of Santo Domingo de Silos
- Chronicle of Pelayo, Bishop of Oviedo
- Chronicle of Emperor Alfonso VII
- Napoleonic
Chronicles written during the reign of Fernando III del Santo:
- Chronicon mundiof Luke, Bishop of Tuy
- Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castileof John, bishop of Osma
- De rebus Hispaniaeof Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada
Chronicles written during the reign of Alfonso X the Wise:
- Estoria de EspañaAlso called General Chronicle of Spainthe first written in Spanish.
Muslim Chronicles
- Al-Maqqari Chronicle
Legacy
At the foot of this gigantic natural fortress of the Picos de Europa, which rises a few kilometres from the Cantabrian, they fought astures and cantabris against Rome, already the lady of the world. In one of the entrances of such a fortress, Pelayo (718–722) resisted the Muslims who already dominated from India to the Atlantic. Spain was therefore born under his protection.C. Sánchez Albornoz
Sant Yagüe (Santiago) will be enthroned anti-Mahoma and its sanctuary will become the anti-Caaba. This mutation gives the legend its definitive character. Compostela becomes the point of convergence of militant Christianity in opposition to La Meca, and the popular romeria of the Camino de Santiago, the Franciscan and Galaico-leoness replica to the haÿÿ (the holy Muslim pilgrimage). Providence will henceforth grant victory to the rider in "nice and impetuous" horse not only on the Moors of the Peninsula, but also on an extraordinary transoceanic flight, on the Aztecs, inclining the faithful of the scale, in full battle, in favor of Hernan Cortes and his.Juan Goytisolo
The Kingdom of Asturias is traditionally seen as the origin of the Reconquest. Although in the first moments it was only an indigenous fight against foreign peoples (as the Astures and Cantabrians had already done against the Romans and Visigoths), the spectacular subsequent expansion and the fact of having contained the germ of the so-called Crown of Castile (union of the kingdoms of Castilla y León) implied a historical relevance that at the time could not be glimpsed.
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From the kingdom of Asturias the counties of Castile and Portugal were created, which in the time of the Kingdom of León would gain their independence and would become kingdoms: after the transfer of the court to León by Fruela II, the center of gravity of the Kingdom moved to the South, and from that moment is when the Kingdom of León began to be talked about, whose monarchs considered themselves heirs of the Asturian Monarchy. Although in its first decades of existence, the authority of the kings of Asturias was quite strong, from the middle of the century X, divisive tendencies arose, particularly in Castile and Portugal.
The Castilian counties came together in the middle of the IX century around the count dynasty founded by Fernán González. Although in its beginnings the County of Castilla never formally became independent from the Kingdom of León, it soon entered the orbit of King Sancho Garcés III of Pamplona, el Mayor who definitively ended its legal dependence on of the kings of Leon. His son, Fernando I, inherited the county of Castile and after defeating Bermudo III of León, annexed his kingdom. After the death of Alfonso VII, the kingdoms of León and Castilla separated again for seventy years, until they were definitively unified by Fernando el Santo. The memory of the Asturian monarchy survived in the courts of the kings of Castile and Spain. Alfonso X the Wise, in his Estoria de España, considered the Kingdom of Asturias as the place where the reconquest and re-Christianization of Spain began. Centuries later, the first national park in Spain, that of the Montaña de Covadonga (today, Picos de Europa National Park) , was founded by Alfonso XIII in 1918 to commemorate the 1200th anniversary of Pelayo's coronation, and the battle of Covadonga. In Ultramar, the pious legend affirms that Santiago Matamoros, the protector of the Asturian kingdom, appeared in the battle of Otumba, unbalancing the combat in favor of the Spanish. Many American cities, such as Santiago de Cuba or Santiago de Chile, bear the name of that apostle whose corpse was found in the time of Alfonso II, in a place located in the confines of the Asturian monarchy.
As regards Portugal, it was Alfonso III of Asturias who ordered one of his vassals, the Galician count Vimara Pérez, in 868 to take and repopulate the city of Porto and the Portuguese territories between the Miño and the Duero (He was the founder of the city of Guimarães. In this way, at the same time that the County of Castilla was born in the Hispanic center as a vassal of the Asturian and Navarrese kings, the County of Portucalense arose on the southwestern border of Asturias, which also remained a vassal of the kings of Asturias and León during the 9th to 12th centuries. Simultaneously, the county of Aragon was born in the southeastern tip of the peninsula, initially a vassal of the Frankish kings. During the XI the counties of Castile and Aragon were elevated to kingdoms, the same happened in the XII century with the County of Portugal Since its foundation by the noble Vimara Pérez and the repopulation of it by Galicians in the IX century, Portocale County had been an autonomous territory within of the Kingdom of Galicia. In 1071 the Count of Portucale Nuño Méndez (who had rebelled) was defeated in the battle of Pedroso by King García of Galicia, who took the title of King of Galicia and Portugal, ephemerally uniting all the Galician-Portuguese. But a few months later García I of Galicia and Portugal, son of Fernando I of León, remained a prisoner until the end of his days after being defeated by his two brothers, Sancho II of Castilla and Alfonso VI of León. Although on the death of Sancho de Castilla García recovered his throne in 1072, being called to talks by Alfonso de León (already King of Castile also due to Sancho's death in 1073), he was betrayed by him and taken prisoner definitively, in the castle. de Luna, until his death in 1090.
Alfonso VI of León, Castilla and now also Galicia and Portugal, reunited with the four crowns of his four grandparents, separated from his two brothers from power, is then entitled Imperator totius Hispaniae, being the greatest Christian political power in Hispania. Shortly after he separated Galicia and Portugal again by handing over their government to his two sons-in-law of his, Raymond of Burgundy, and Henry of Burgundy. The latter ruled as regent of Portugal until his death, due to the minority of the countess who owned Portugal, Teresa de León, who began to govern for herself only when she became a widow. Teresa was a paternal descendant of the old portucalenses counts, since her great-grandmother Elvira Menéndez was countess of Portugal and wife of Alfonso V of León. Both Count Enrique and later Queen Teresa will lead the County of Portugal to a new process of gradual independence that would culminate in the self-proclamation of their son the infante Alfonso I of Portugal as king after the battle of Ourique in 1139, in which legendarily— by the way—the cross, the blood, and the face of Jesus Christ appeared to him in heaven, accompanied by the words in gold «in hoc signo vinces». This legend is documented only from the XIV century, the time of the founding of the Order of Christ, which took for itself these words around his red, cruciform shield.
On a strictly Asturian level, the Kingdom of Asturias is the birthplace of Asturian, Bable or Astur-Leonese, a language also spoken in the Kingdom of León. Already in texts as early as Carrio's Pizarra, features can be distinguished that are shaping an Asturian Proto-Romance dialect, such as the diphthongization of the brief Latin e (vostras -> vuestras) or the palatalization of the group c'l (ovecula -> oveya). Although the documents from the time of the Kingdom of Asturias are written almost entirely in Latin, there is no doubt that an original form of Asturian was used as the habitual language at court. In this sense, the first official documents written in Astur-Leonese began to appear in the XI century and among them stand out the Forum Iudicium (Fueru Xulgu) and different municipal rights. In the first parliament in the history of Europe, the Cortes de León in 1188, the language used by both the king and the attorneys was Asturian-Leonese. This language enjoyed enormous prestige at that time, derived from its use by the kings of León, successors of Pelayo. It is worth highlighting the fact that in Portugal the title El-Rei was usually used to designate its own monarchs, which as can be seen is not Galician-Portuguese (in which case it would correspond to an O type form). -Rei) but from Asturias.
Centuries after the reign of the last Asturian monarchs, in 1388, the Principality of Asturias was created and the title of Prince of Asturias would be held since then by the heir to the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile and, later, of that of Spain.
The territory of the Principality was made up of Asturias de Oviedo. Las Asturias de Santillana, which had that name since the 12th century, became the so-called merindad from the 15th century Montaña de Burgos and since 1778 Province of Cantabria. After the passage of Ribadedeva, Peñamellera Alta and Peñamellera Baja in 1833 to the new province of Oviedo, this was called the province of Santander and since 1982 it constitutes the autonomous community of Cantabria.
After the principality remained a territorial entity throughout the Old Regime, the territorial division of 1833 formed the Province of Oviedo, which included the councils of the former Asturias of Oviedo, to which were added Ribadedeva, Peñamellera Alta and Peñamellera Baja de the old Asturias of Santillana. In 1983, the province of Oviedo changed its name to the province of Asturias, being the only province of the autonomous community of the Principality of Asturias.
The flag and shield of the current Principality of Asturias include the image of the Victoria Cross.