King of Leon (1065-1109) and Castile (1072-1109).
Alfonso VI was the son of Ferdinand I, king of Leon. He inherited Leon on the death of his father and succeeded to Castile on the death of his elder brother, Sancho II. It was Alfonso’s foremost policy to spread the concept of Recon-quista (reconquest) in order to convert the struggle against Islam into an Iberian crusade. Alfonso VI established his rule upon this ideological basis, which was ratified by the church by means of both his alliance with the Cluniac Order and his imposition of the Roman rite in Castile and Leon instead of the traditional Spanish Mozarabic liturgy.
By 1077, Alfonso VI proclaimed himself “Emperor of all Spain” (Lat. imperator totiusHispaniae), and, following his expansionist policy, in 1085 he carried out the military occupation of the Islamic Taifa kingdom of Toledo. This victory broke the balance of power between Christians and
Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula. It also led to a reaction not only from the alfaquies (the most intransigent religious sections among Andalusians) but also from the rising Almoravid Empire, which inflicted defeats upon him at Sagrajas (1086) and Ucles (1108). He was succeeded in both kingdoms by his daughter Urraca.
-Carlos de Ayala
Bibliography
Estepa, Carlos, El reinado de Alfonso VI (Madrid: Spainfo Ings, 1985).
Gambra, Andres, Alfonso VI: Cancilleria, curia e imperio, 2 vols. (Leon: Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad, 1997).
Reify, Bernard F., The Kingdom of Leon-Castilla under King Alfonso VI, 1065-1109 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987).
World History
