Ramiro II of Leon
Ramiro II of León, called the Great (c. 898-León, January 951), was a king of León between 931 and 951. His Muslim enemies they called him the Devil because of his ferocity and energy.
Son of Ordoño II, on the death of his father and after helping his brother Alfonso to reach the throne by deposing his cousin Alfonso Froilaz, son of his uncle Fruela II, he took control of northern Portugal (926), to which he added that of Galicia when his brother Sancho died in 929.
He actively fought against the Muslims. He defeated the hosts of the Umayyad Caliph Abderramán III in the battle of Simancas (939).
Biography
Youth
Third son of Ordoño II and Elvira Menéndez. As a child, his upbringing and education were entrusted to Diego Fernández and his wife Onega, a powerful couple residing in the Duero lands and later in those of the Mondego river valley —center of a repopulation nucleus grouped around the infante Bermudo Ordóñez, brother of Alfonso the Great, of whom Onega could have been a niece. In a few years Ramiro earned the enthusiastic admiration of the soldiers, creating around him the image of the intelligent and daring caudillo to whose spontaneous homage romances, couplets, legends and popular stories were added.
In 924 Ordoño II died and his brother Fruela II inherited the throne, displacing the sons of Ordoño II. However, Fruela died of leprosy after a year, causing a serious inheritance problem that pitted his own son, Alfonso, against the sons of Ordoño II. Alfonso Froilaz had the support of the Asturian nobles, while Sancho, Alfonso and Ramiro himself, the sons of Ordoño II, had the support of Galician and Portuguese magnates, as well as the support of the Pamplona king Sancho I Garcés.
The victory corresponded to the latter, dividing the kingdom:
- Leon, for Alfonso, the secondborn of King Ordoño, who would reign as Alfonso IV of León and enjoy the hierarchical primacy over his brothers.
- Galicia, to the Miño, to the elder, Sancho Ordóñez, with the title of king.
- The area between the rivers Miño and Mondego, in the north of the present Portugal, for Ramiro, also with regio title.
Bermudo Ordóñez and Diego Fernández died shortly before 928, but as early as 926 Prince Ramiro took charge of the province, whose southern border constantly advanced until it came within sight of the Tagus from its main centers of Viseo and Coimbra. This territory in the north of present-day Portugal, with the title of kingdom, was awarded to the young Ramiro at the end of the succession dispute between the Froilaz and the Ordóñez. The prince, who must have been 25 years old these days, was already married to Adosinda Gutiérrez, daughter of Count Gutierre Osorio and Aldonza Menéndez, sister of Count Osorio Gutiérrez.
Alfonso, the future monk, was solemnly crowned in León on February 12, 926. Eleven days later Ramiro, his brother, was already in Viseo, the capital of his small kingdom, where he wanted to give the first testimony of his royalty and the first public acknowledgment of his debt of gratitude and affection to his nurturing parents, Diego Fernández and Onega, now represented by their daughter Muniadona Díaz and Hermenegildo González, her husband, to whom he donated the town of Creximir near Guimarães, solemnizing the act with the presence and subscription of sixteen people who must have been the select group of his official entourage.
In 929 his brother Sancho died and Ramiro was crowned King of Galicia in Zamora, a city that he immediately made his capital.
In June 931, the death of Oneca, wife of Alfonso IV, plunged him into a great depression, for which reason he called his brother Ramiro to take over the Leonese throne, stating his intention to retire to the monastery of Sahagún to practice prayer.
Beginning of reign
Ramiro had himself crowned in León, according to the Nómina leonesa, on November 6, 931. In 932 the new king moved to Zamora in order to assemble a large army to help the city de Toledo who had asked him for help against Abderramán III. However, by then Alfonso IV had already regretted his resignation from the throne. In late 933 or early the following year, Alfonso seized León in the absence of his brother, with the collaboration of the nobles of Castile and the three sons of the late King Fruela. Ramiro II learned of such movements by message from Bishop Oveco, to whom he had entrusted the government in his absence, he marched on León with his troops and supporters and He had his brother arrested and locked up in a dungeon.
The situation was taken advantage of by his cousin Alfonso Froilaz and his brothers, the sons of King Fruela II the Leper, to try to gain power. However, Ramiro II had the help of the Count of Castilla, Fernán González. In a few days he dominated the situation and pursued his enemies to Oviedo, where he defeated them. After capturing them, he ordered them all to have their eyes gouged out, including his brother, and to confine them to the Ruiforco de Torío monastery.
Once entrenched on the throne, Ramiro continued the process of territorial conquest in the south of the kingdom. He began by conquering the Umayyad fortress of Margerit, present-day Madrid, in the middle of 932, in his idea of liberating Toledo. But already occupied by al-Nasir, some time before, the fortresses on the right bank of the Tagus, Ramiro could only dismantle the fortifications of Madrid and pillage its closest lands, from where he brought numerous people, while Abderramán entered Toledo triumphantly on the 2nd of August.
Military campaigns
At the beginning of the summer of the year 933, the caliph himself presented himself with his army in front of San Esteban de Gormaz or Castromoros, of which Ramiro received news by email sent to him by Fernán González. Having heard which, according to the chronicler Sampiro, the king set his army in motion and went out against them in a place called Osma, and invoking the name of the Lord, ordered his hosts to be ordered and arranged for all the men to prepare themselves. for combat. The Lord gave him a great victory, for killing a good part of them and taking many thousands of prisoners, he brought them with him and returned to his city with marked triumph.
In the summer of 934, another powerful Cordovan aceifa marched on Osma. Advancing through the heart of Castile, she reached Pamplona, where she obtained the submission of Queen Toda Aznárez of Pamplona. She then returned to Álava, Burgos and the Cardeña monastery —where she killed 200 monks—, beginning to retreat from Hacinas harassed by guerrillas and ambushes. Ramiro arrived at the Duero when the Cordovan army had already reached Burgos and Pamplona. He effortlessly took the fortress of Osma and there awaited the return of his enemy, who was marching down the same driveway. The Anales Castellanos Primeros, also previously called the Chronicle of San Isidoro, summarize the action that followed: «The second time the Moors came to Burgos, in the era 972 (year 934). But our king Ramiro met them at Osma and killed many thousands of them."
Three years later we will see the king of Leon acting in support of Abu Yahya or Aboyaia, king of Zaragoza, whom the caliph accused of being a traitor and the main culprit in the disaster in Osma. The chronicler Sampiro abbreviates the facts thus:
Ramiro assembled his army went to Zaragoza. Then the king of the Saracens, Abodia, submitted himself to the great king Ramiro and put all his land under the sovereignty of our king. By deceiving Abdarrahman, his ruler, he gave himself to the Catholic king with all his dominions. And our king, as he was strong and powerful, submitted the castles of Abodia, which were subdued to him, and gave them back to Lion with great triumph.
Sampiro omits that the Leonese monarch left Navarrese garrisons in these castles, since Ramiro had the support and alliance of the King of Pamplona.
The great Cordovan offensive
After the loss of the strategic Zaragoza, it is easy to understand the angry reaction of the conceited Abderramán III, humiliated and punished so many times by a Christian king as notable as he was scarce in resources. After encircling and conquering Calatayud, Abderramán seized one after another of all the castles in the area. Upon reaching the gates of Zaragoza, Abu Yahya capitulated, an action that the caliph took advantage of to use him in an offensive against Navarra that concluded in the capitulation of Queen Toda, who declared herself a vassal of the caliph. The caliph returned to Córdoba by Castilian lands, which he devastated without Ramiro, who together with the counts of Carrión came to the aid of count Fernán González, could prevent it.
In April 936, he signed a short truce with the Cordoba in which he promised not to collaborate with the rebel governor of Zaragoza, a Tuyib, and which he broke a few months later.
At the beginning of 939, he entered Andalusian territory, perhaps to help the rebel square of Santarém, which the Caliphate forces had taken on January 20, but his hosts were defeated by a caíd.
The Caliph Omeya then conceived a gigantic project to end once and for all the Leonian kingdom, to which he called gazat al-kudra or campaign of supreme power. The Omeya brought together more than one hundred thousand men encouraged by the jihad call. From the departure of Cordoba it was arranged that every day it was tuned in the greater mosque campaign prayer, not with a sense of precatory, but as anticipated gratitude of what could not be less of an incontrovertible success.
At the head of such an imposing military force, the caliph crossed the Central system, entering Leonese territory in the summer of 939. Ramiro II assembled a Navarrese, Leonese and Aragonese coalition that annihilated the caliph's armies in August 939 in the battle of Simancas, one of the most outstanding of the entire century X.
Abderramán III "escaped half alive" leaving in the hands of the Christians a precious copy of the Koran, from the East, with its valuable endpapers and its wonderful binding, and even its priceless chain mail, woven with gold threads, which the shock of the event did not leave him time to wear. From the Mohammedan camp "the Christians brought much wealth with which Galicia, Castilla and Álava thrived, as well as Pamplona and its king García Sánchez".
This victory allowed the Leonese border to advance from Duero to Tormes, repopulating places like Ledesma, Salamanca, Peñaranda de Bracamonte, Sepúlveda and Guadramiro. In the years 940 and 941, the Leonese signed two truces with the Cordoba, who had in turn reinforced the defenses of the Middle March. The pacts, however, did not completely end the clashes between the two States. 942 his forces came to collaborate with the king of Pamplona, recently defeated by the Tujib governor of Zaragoza —liberated the previous year by the Leonese after two years of captivity. The first clash favored the Christians, but the second, fought near of Tudela on April 3, was adverse to them. In August the Cordovan governor of Calatayud ran over Castilian lands.
The work of government
In addition to obtaining such significant victories and extending the borders of the kingdom from the Duero to the vicinity of the Tagus, Ramiro II stabilized and strengthened the administrative framework, completing the task of Mozarabic settlements and their organization, which, in some regions, such as the Cea basin, was directed personally by the king.
He enlarged the Court with the creation of the new royal palace, the restoration of the monastery of San Claudio and the new implantation of those of San Marcelo and San Salvador, adjacent to the royal palace, all under the patronage of the monarch. Likewise, many other monasteries were erected and conveniently endowed throughout the territory of the kingdom.
It normalized the development of administrative and jurisdictional functions, planning the personal cadres of the royal curia and other subordinate institutions. He even watched over the authenticity of the Christian life. To this end, in the first days of September 946, at the initiative of Bishop Salomón de Astorga and under the personal presidency of the king, the great assembly of Santa María de Monte Irago was held.
The conflict with Fernán González
In the last years of his reign, Ramiro II had to face the independence efforts of the county of Castilla. Fernán González, who until then had been the monarch's right hand, incurred the sovereign's wrath by violating the truce with the Umayyad caliphate and making a looting raid.
After entrusting the repopulation of Peñafiel and Cuéllar to Count Assur Fernández, distinguishing him with the grace of Count of Monzón, Fernán González felt aggrieved, because such a county blocked the expansion of his territory to the south. Together with Count Diego Muñoz de Saldaña, they declared themselves in open rebellion in 943.
According to Sampiro, "Fernán González and Diego Muñoz exercised tyranny against King Ramiro, and even prepared war. But the king, as he was strong and farsighted, seized them, and one in León and another in Gordón, imprisoned with irons, threw them into jail." Indeed, the following year Fernán González was already imprisoned. and in Castile he had been replaced by his rival, Assur Fernández, and by the king's second-born son, the infante Sancho, to whom Assur Fernández would serve as tutor and adviser. After this beheading, the waters returned to their course in Castile and the royal authority was imposed.
The prison of Diego Muñoz, Count of Saldaña, could have lasted only a few months, while that of the Count of Castilla, Fernán González, must have lasted some time longer, until Easter 945. Ramiro II released the traitor, not without first making him swear allegiance and forcing him to renounce his assets. To give solemnity to the agreement, shortly after the wedding was held between the count's daughter, Urraca Fernández, and his own son and heir, Ordoño.
However, once released, Fernán González continued to proclaim his title as a count, taking refuge in the eastern part of Castilla. These internal dissensions weakened the Leonese kingdom, which was taken advantage of by the Mohammedans to launch several aceifas of punishment destined for the Christian kingdom. The French Arabist Lévi-Provençal suspected that during these years Fernán González could establish some kind of friendship or alliance with the Caliph of Córdoba. The aceifas left Castilla alone and headed towards the western part of the kingdom. That of 940, led by Ahmed ben Yala, went towards the Leonese plain; that of 944, commanded by Ahmed Muhammad ibn Alyar, penetrated the heart of Galicia; that of 947 under the command of Kand, a client of the Caliph, took the same direction, although he did not manage to get past Zamora; and that of 948 penetrated as far as Ortigueira.
With so many expeditions against, so stubbornly directed towards the nucleus of the kingdom, Ramiro II had to concentrate on the West of his kingdom, neglecting the Castilian lands a lot, which was taken advantage of by Fernán González to recover everything lost. He so much recovered that relations had no choice but to "improve", even to the point of restoring his old honors with the title of count. The infant Sancho returned to León and Assur Fernández returned to his county of Monzón.
The King's Twilight
A few years of relative tranquility ensued, punctuated only by continuous Muslim warfare. In 950 the Leonese monarch left Zamora for his last adventure in Mohammedan lands, carrying out a looting expedition through the Tagus valley in which he once again defeated the Caliphal troops in Talavera de la Reina, killing twelve thousand Muslims according to Sampiro. and seizing another seven thousand, besides obtaining a rich booty.
The king of León, physically decayed, was replaced by his son, the future Ordoño III, who practically took charge of the affairs of the kingdom. Upon returning from a trip to Oviedo, he was afflicted with a serious illness from which he would not be able to recover.
The last public act of his life was his voluntary abdication in León, on the afternoon of January 5, 951, when the king must have been about 53 years old. Believing himself close to death, he had himself taken to the church of San Salvador de Palat del Rey, next to the palace. In the presence of all, he stripped off his garments and poured the ritual ash over his head, uniting in the same act the solemn resignation of the throne and the practice of public penance in extremis with the same formula as in His day pronounced San Isidoro de Sevilla.
He died that same month, while his son Ordoño III of León was already reigning.
Burial
He was buried in the church of San Salvador de Palat del Rey in the city of León, which was part of a monastery, now defunct, founded during the reign of Ramiro II by his daughter, the Infanta Elvira Ramírez, who wanted to be a nun The kings Ordoño III and Sancho I de León were later buried in the same temple.
The mortal remains of the three Leonese sovereigns buried in the church of San Salvador de Palat del Rey were later transferred to the basilica of San Isidoro de León and placed in a corner of one of the chapels on the Gospel side, where they the remains of other kings lay, such as Alfonso IV, and not in the pantheon of Kings of San Isidoro de León.
Marriages and offspring
Ramiro had first married his first cousin Adosinda Gutiérrez, daughter of Count Gutierre Osorio and Aldonza Menéndez, daughter of Count Hermenegildo Gutiérrez and sister of Elvira Menéndez, the mother of King Ramiro. Ramiro and Adosinda were parents from:
- Bermudo, killed in his childhood, shortly before January 941.
- Ordoño, who succeeded him on the throne as Ordoño III of León.
- Teresa Ramírez, the second wife of King García Sánchez I of Pamplona.
Repudiated Adosinda, surely by imposition of canon law, the king contracted a second marriage between 933 and 934 with Urraca Sánchez, daughter of Sancho Garcés and Toda Aznar from whom he had two other documented children:
- Sancho, who happened to his brother Ordoño III on the throne titling Sancho I de León.
- Elvira Ramírez, who professed early in the monastery of San Salvador de Palat del Rey. Died about 986.
Portrait of the monarch
The historical personality of this prince, one of the most outstanding and attractive figures of the Middle Ages, appears to us under the sign of an incessant task: the same trait -labori nescius cedere: & He did not know how to rest - which, according to the Historia silense, had characterized Ordoño II, his father.
Despite his temperamental character, Ramiro II was a man of profound religiosity, which in a document dated February 21, 1934, on the occasion of confirming to the Compostela see the privileges granted by his predecessors, expressed himself as follows: In what way the love of God and of his holy Apostle burns my chest, it is necessary to proclaim it in full voice before all the Catholic people.
| Predecessor: Alfonso IV | King of Lion 931-951 | Successor: Ordoño III |
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