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ALPHONSO V

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 735 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALPHONSO V ., " Africano," was See also:born in 1432, and succeeded his See also:father See also:Edward in 1438. During his minority he was placed under the regency, first of his See also:mother and latterly of his See also:uncle, Dom Pedro. In 1448 he assumed the reins of See also:government and at the same See also:time married See also:Isabella, Dom Pedro's daughter. In the following See also:year, being led by what he afterwards discovered to be false representations, he declared Dom Pedro a See also:rebel and defeated his See also:army in a See also:battle at Alfarrobeira, in which his uncle was slain. In 1458, and with more numerous forces in 1471, he invaded the territories of the See also:Moors in See also:Africa and by his successes there acquired his surname of " the See also:African." On his return to See also:Portugal in 1475 his ambition led him into See also:Castile, where two princesses were disputing his See also:succession to the See also:throne. Having been affianced to the Princess Juana, Alphonso caused himself to be proclaimed See also:king of Castile and See also:Leon; but in the following year he was defeated at See also:Toro by See also:Ferdinand, the See also:husband of Isabella of Castile. He went to See also:France to obtain the assistance of See also:Louis XI., but finding himself deceived by the See also:French monarch, he abdicated in favour of his son See also:John. When he returned to Portugal, however, he was compelled by his son to resume the See also:sceptre, which he continued to wield for two years longer. After that he See also:fell into a deep See also:melancholy and retired into a monastery at See also:Cintra, where he died in 1481. ALPHOxso VI., the second king of the See also:house of See also:Braganza, was born in 1643 and succeeded his father in 1656. In 1667 he was compelled by his wife and See also:brother to abdicate the throne and was banished to the See also:island of See also:Terceira. These acts, which the vices of Alphonso had rendered necessary, were sanctioned by the See also:Cortes in 1668.

He died at Cintra in 1675. See also:

Spanish See also:Kings.—From Alphonso I. (739–757) to Alphonso V. (999–1028) the See also:personal See also:history of the Spanish kings of this Kings of name is unknown and their very See also:dates are disputed. See also:medieval ALPxoNso I. is said to have married Ormesinda, and mod- daughter of Pelayo, who was raised on the See also:shield in ern See also:Spain. See also:Asturias as king of the Goths after the Arab See also:conquest. He is also said to have been the son of See also:Peter, See also:duke of Cantabria. It is not improbable that he was in fact an hereditary See also:chief of the See also:Basques, but no contemporary records exist. His See also:title of" the See also:Catholic " itself may very well have been the invention of later See also:chronicles. ALPxoNso II. (789–842), his reputed See also:grandson, bears the name of " the Chaste." The Arab writers who speak of the Spanish kings of the See also:north-See also:west as the Beni-Alfons, appear to recognize them as a royal stock derived from Alphonso I. The events of his reign are in reality unknown. Poets of a later See also:generation invented the See also:story of the See also:secret See also:marriage of his See also:sister Ximena with Sancho, See also:count of Saldana, and the feats of their son Bernardo del Carpio.

Bernardo is the See also:

hero of a cantar de gesta (chanson de geste) written to please the anarchical spirit of the nobles. The first faint glimmerings of medieval Spanish history begin with ALPxovso III. (866–914) surnamed " the See also:Great." Of him also nothing is really known except the See also:bare facts of his reign and of his See also:comparative success in consolidating the See also:kingdom known as " of See also:Galicia " or " of See also:Oviedo " during the weakness of the Omayyad princes of See also:Cordova. ALPHONSO IV. (924–931) has a faint See also:personality. He resigned the See also:crown to his brother Ramiro and went into a religious house. A certain instability of See also:character is revealed by the fact that he took up arms against Ramiro, having repented of his renunciation of the See also:world. He was defeated, blinded and sent back to See also:die in the See also:cloister of Sahagun. It fell to ALPHONSO V. (999–1028) to begin the See also:work of reorganizing the See also:Christian kingdom of the north-west after a most disastrous See also:period of See also:civil See also:war and Arab inroads. Enough is known of him to justify the belief that he had some of the qualities of a soldier and a statesman. His name, and that of his wife Geloria (See also:Elvira), are associated with the See also:grant of the first franchises of Leon.

He was killed by an arrow while besieging the See also:

town of Viseu in See also:northern Portugal, then held by the Mahommedans. (For all these kings see the See also:article SPAIN: History.) With ALPHONSO VI. (1065–1109) we come to a See also:sovereign of strong personal character. Much See also:romance has gathered See also:round his name. In the cantar de gesta of the See also:Cid he plays the See also:part attributed by medieval poets to the greatest kings, to See also:Charlemagne himself. He is alternately the oppressor and the victim of heroic and self-willed nobles—the idealized types of the patrons for whom the jongleurs and troubadours sang. (For the events of his reign see the article SPAIN: History.) He is the hero of a cantar de gesta which, like all but a very few of the See also:early Spanish songs, like the cantar of Bernardo del Carpio and the Inf antes of See also:Lara, exists now only in the fragments incorporated in thechronicle of Alphonso the See also:Wise or in ballad See also:form. His See also:flight from the monastery of Sahagun, where his brother Sancho endeavoured to imprison him, his chivalrous friendship for his See also:host Almamun of See also:Toledo, See also:caballero aunque mom, a See also:gentleman although a See also:Moor, the passionate See also:loyalty of his See also:vassal Peranzules and his brotherly love for his sister Urraca of See also:Zamora, may owe something to the poet who took him for hero. They are the See also:answer to the poet of the nobles who represented the king as having submitted to take a degrading See also:oath at the hands of Ruy See also:Diaz of Bivar (the Cid), in the See also:church of See also:Santa Gadea at See also:Burgos, and as having then persecuted the brave See also:man who defied him. When every See also:allowance is made, Alphonso VI. stands out as a strong man fighting for his own See also:hand, which in his See also:case was the hand of the king whose See also:interest was See also:law and See also:order and who was the See also:leader of the nation in the reconquest. On the See also:Arabs he impressed himself as an enemy very fierce and astute, but as a keeper of his word. A story of Mahoinmedan origin, which is probably no more See also:historical than the oath of Santa Gadea, tells of how he allowed himself to be tricked by See also:Ibn Ammar, the favourite of Al Motamid, the king of See also:Seville.

They played See also:

chess for an extremely beautiful table and set of men, belonging to Ibn Ammar. Table and men were to go to the king if he won. If Ibn Ammar gained he was to name the stake. The latter did win and demanded that the Christian king should spare Seville. Alphonso kept his word. Whatever truth may See also:lie behind the romantic tales of Christian and See also:Mahommedan, we know that Alphonso represented in a remarkable way the two great influences then shaping the character and See also:civilization of Spain. At the instigation, it is said, of his second wife, See also:Constance of See also:Burgundy, he brought the See also:Cistercians into Spain, established them in Sahagun, See also:chose a French Cistercian, See also:Bernard, as the first See also:archbishop of Toledo after the reconquest in ro85, married his daughters, legitimate and illegitimate, to French princes, and in every way forwarded the spread of French influence—then the greatest civilizing force in See also:Europe. He also See also:drew Spain nearer to the papacy, and it was his decision which established the See also:Roman See also:ritual in See also:place of the old See also:missal of See also:Saint Isidore—the so–called Mozarabic. On the other hand he was very open to Arabic See also:influence. He protected the Mahommedans among his subjects and struck coins with See also:inscriptions in Arabic letters. After the See also:death of Constance he perhaps married and he certainly lived with Zaida, said to have been a daughter of " Benabet " (Al Motamid), Mahommedan king of Seville. Zaida, who became a Christian under the name of Maria or See also:Isabel, See also:bore him the only son among his many See also:children, Sancho, whom Alphonso designed to be his successor, but who was slain at the battle of Ucles in iro8.

See also:

Women See also:play a great part in Alphonso's See also:life. [ALPHOxso I., king of See also:Aragon, " the Battler," who married Urraca, daughter of Alphonso VI. (1104–1134), is sometimes counted the VIIth in the See also:line of the kings of Leon and Castile. A passionate fighting-man (he fought twenty-nine battles against Christian or Moor), he was married to Urraca, widow of See also:Raymond of Burgundy, a very dissolute and passionate woman. The marriage had been arranged by Alphonso VI. in 1106 to unite the two chief Christian states against the See also:Almoravides, and to See also:supply them with a capable military leader. But Urraca was tenacious of her right as proprietary See also:queen and had not learnt chastity in the polygamous See also:household of her father. Husband and wife quarrelled with the brutality of the See also:age and came to open war. Alphonso had the support of one See also:section of the nobles who found their See also:account in the confusion. Being a much better soldier than any of his opponents he gained victories at Sepulveda and Fuente de la See also:Culebra, but his only trustworthy supporters were his Aragonese, who were not numerous enough to keep down Castile and Leon. The marriage of Alphonso and Urraca was declared null by the See also:pope, as they were third See also:cousins. The king quarrelled with the church, and particularly the Cistercians, almost as violently as with his wife. As he See also:beat her, so he drove Archbishop Bernard into See also:exile and expelled the monks of Sahagun.

He was finally compelled to give way in Castile and Leon to his stepson Alphonso, son of Urraca and her first husband. The intervention of Pope See also:

Calixtus II. brought about an arrangement between the old man and the See also:young. Alphonso the Battler won his great successes in the See also:middle See also:Ebro, where he expelled the Moors from See also:Saragossa; in the great See also:raid of 1125, when he carried away a large part of the subject-Christians from See also:Granada, and in the See also:south-west of France, where he had rights as king of See also:Navarre. Three years before his death he made a will leaving his kingdom to the See also:Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Knights of the See also:Sepulchre, which his subjects refused to carry out. He was a fierce, violent man, a soldier and nothing else, whose piety was wholly militant.

End of Article: ALPHONSO V

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