Alfonso X was a
CastilianThe Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
monarch who ruled as the King of
CastileThe Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
,
LeónThe Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
and
GaliciaThe Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...
from 1252 until his death. He also was elected King of the Germans in 1257.
He established
CastilianCastilian Spanish is a term related to the Spanish language, but its exact meaning can vary even in that language. In English Castilian Spanish usually refers to the variety of European Spanish spoken in north and central Spain or as the language standard for radio and TV speakers...
as a language of higher learning and earned his nicknames "the Wise" or "the Learned" and "the Astrologer" through his own prolific writings, including
Galician poetryIn the Middle Ages, the Galician-Portuguese lyric, sometimes called trovadorismo in Portugal and trobadorismo in Galicia, was a lyric poetic school or movement. All told, there are around 1680 texts in the so-called "secular lyric" or lírica profana...
.
Life
Born in Toledo, Spain, Alfonso was the eldest son of
Ferdinand III of CastileSaint Ferdinand III, T.O.S.F., was the King of Castile from 1217 and León from 1230. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile. Through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. He finished the work done by his maternal grandfather Alfonso VIII and consolidated the...
and
Elisabeth of HohenstaufenBeatrice of Swabia was Queen of Castile and Leon as the wife of King Ferdinand III...
, known in Spain as Beatriz de Suabia, through whom he was a cousin of
Frederick II, Holy Roman EmperorFrederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
, to whom Alfonso is often compared. His maternal grandparents were
Philip of SwabiaPhilip of Swabia was king of Germany and duke of Swabia, the rival of the emperor Otto IV.-Biography:Philip was the fifth and youngest son of Emperor Frederick I and Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy, daughter of Renaud III, count of Burgundy, and brother of the emperor Henry VI...
and
Irene AngelinaIrene Angelina was the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos by his first wife, perhaps named Herina, possibly a member of the Tornikes family.- Marriage and issue :...
. Not much is known about his upbringing, but he was most likely raised in Toledo. He began his career as a soldier, under the command of his father, when he was only sixteen years old.
After the election of
Theobald ITheobald I , called the Troubadour, the Chansonnier, and the Posthumous, was Count of Champagne from birth and King of Navarre from 1234...
as king of
NavarreThe Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
, his father tried to arrange a marriage for Ferdinand with Theobald's daughter, Blanche of Navarre, but the move was unsuccessful. So, in 1240, he married Maior Guillen de Guzman, but the marriage was later annulled and their issue declared illegitimate. In the same period (1240–1250) he conquered several Muslim strongholds in
Al-AndalusAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
alongside his father, such as
Murcia-History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village...
,
AlicanteAlicante or Alacant is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of Alacantí, in the south of the Valencian Community. It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 334,418, estimated , ranking as the second-largest...
and
CadizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
.
In 1249, Alfonso X married
Violante of AragonViolant or Violante of Aragon, also known as Yolanda of Aragon , was Queen consort of Castile and León from 1252 to 1284 as the wife of King Alfonso X.- Life :...
, the daughter of King
James I of AragonJames I the Conqueror was the King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276...
and Yolande of Hungary, although betrothed already in 1246. At the same time he also had a romantic relationship with Sofia Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, who bore to him illegitimate daughter Beatrice.
He succeeded his father as King of Castile and León in 1252. The following year he invaded Portugal, capturing the region of the
Algarve. King
Afonso III of PortugalAfonso III , or Affonso , Alfonso or Alphonso or Alphonsus , the Bolognian , the fifth King of Portugal and the first to use the title King of Portugal and the Algarve, from 1249...
had to surrender, but he gained an agreement by which, after he consented to marry Alfonso X's daughter Beatrice of Castile, the land would be returned to their heirs. In 1263 Alfonso X returned Algarve to the King of Portugal.
In 1254 Alfonso X signed a treaty of alliance with the King of England and
Duke of AquitaineThe Duke of Aquitaine ruled the historical region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of Frankish, English and later French kings....
,
Henry IIIHenry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
, supporting him in the war against
Louis IX of FranceLouis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...
. In the same year Alfonso's sister,
Eleanor of CastileEleanor of Castile was the first queen consort of Edward I of England. She was also Countess of Ponthieu in her own right from 1279 until her death in 1290, succeeding her mother and ruling together with her husband.-Birth:...
, married Henry's heir to the throne,
EdwardEdward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
: with this act Alfonso renounced forever all claim to the Duchy of Gascony, to which Castile had been a pretender since the marriage of
Alfonso VIII of CastileAlfonso VIII , called the Noble or el de las Navas, was the King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. He is most remembered for his part in the Reconquista and the downfall of the Almohad Caliphate...
with Eleanor of England and Gascony.
In 1256, at the death of William II of Holland, Alfonso's descent from the Hohenstaufen through his mother, a daughter of the emperor Philip of Swabia, gave him a claim to represent the Swabian line. Alfonso's election as
King of the RomansKing of the Romans was the title used by the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire following his election to the office by the princes of the Kingdom of Germany...
by the imperial
prince-electorThe Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...
s misled him into complicate schemes that involved excessive expense but never took effect. His rival,
Richard of CornwallRichard of Cornwall was Count of Poitou , 1st Earl of Cornwall and German King...
, went to Germany and here was also crowned in 1257 at
AachenAachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
. Alfonso instead never moved to Germany, and his alliance with the Italian Ghibelline lord Ezzelino IV da Romano deprived him of the initial support of
Pope Alexander IVPope Alexander IV was Pope from 1254 until his death.Born as Rinaldo di Jenne, in Jenne , he was, on his mother's side, a member of the de' Conti di Segni family, the counts of Segni, like Pope Innocent III and Pope Gregory IX...
. In the end, after Richard's death, the German princes elected Rudolph I of Habsburg (1272), Alfonso being declared deposed by
Pope Gregory XPope Blessed Gregory X , born Tebaldo Visconti, was Pope from 1271 to 1276. He was elected by the papal election, 1268–1271, the longest papal election in the history of the Roman Catholic Church....
. In 1275 Alfonso tried to meet with his nominal imperial vicar in Italy, William VII of Montferrat (who had succeeded Ezzelino) and his Ghibelline allies in
PiedmontPiedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
and
LombardyLombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
to fight against the Guelph Charles I of Anjou; he was however stopped in Provence by the Pope who, after a long negotiation, obtained Alfonso's renunciation of the title of King of the Romans.
To obtain money, he debased the coinage and then endeavoured to prevent a rise in prices by an arbitrary
tariffA tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
. The little trade of his dominions was ruined, and the burghers and peasants were deeply offended. His nobles, whom he tried to cow by sporadic acts of violence, rebelled against him in 1272. Reconciliation was bought by Alfonso's son Ferdinand in 1273.
In 1273, he created the Mesta, an association of some 3,000 petty and great sheep holders in Castile, in reaction to less wool being exported from the traditional sites in England. This organization later became exceedingly powerful in the country (as wool became Castile's first major exportable commodity), and eventually its privileges were to prove a deadly wound in the Castilian economy. One side effect of the quickly expanding sheep herds was the decimation to the Castilian farmland through which the sheep grazed.
Throughout his reign, Alfonso contended with the nobles, particularly the families of Nuño González de Lara, Diego López de Haro and Esteban Fernández de Castro, all of whom were formidable soldiers and instrumental in maintaining Castile's military strength in frontier territories. According to some scholars, Alfonso lacked the singleness of purpose required by a ruler who would devote himself to organization, and also the combination of firmness with temper needed for dealing with his nobles. Others have argued that his efforts were too singularly focused on the diplomatic and financial arrangements surrounding his bid for the Holy Roman Emperor.
Alfonso's eldest son,
FerdinandDon Ferdinand de la Cerda was the Crown Prince of Castile, eldest son of King Alfonso X of Castile and Violant of Aragon. His nickname, de la Cerda, means "of the bristle" in Spanish, a reference to being born with a strand of thick hair running down his chest.In November 1268 he married Princess...
, died in 1275 at the battle of Écija against the Moroccan and Granadan invasion armies, leaving two infant sons. Alfonso's second son,
SanchoSancho IV the Brave was the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1284 to his death. He was the second son of Alfonso X and Yolanda, daughter of James I of Aragon.-Biography:...
, claimed to be the new heir, in preference to the children of Ferdinand de la Cerda, basing his claim on an old Castilian custom, that of
proximity of bloodProximity of blood, or closeness in degree of kinship, is one of the ways to determine hereditary succession based on genealogy. It was at loggerheads with primogeniture in numerous medieval succession disputes....
and
agnatic seniorityAgnatic seniority is a patrilineal principle of inheritance where the order of succession to the throne prefers the monarch's younger brother over the monarch's own sons. A monarch's children succeed only after the males of the elder generation have all been exhausted...
. Alfonso preferred to leave the throne to his grandsons, but Sancho had the support of the nobility. A bitter civil war broke out resulting in Alfonso's being forced in 1282 to accept Sancho as his heir instead of his young grandsons; only the cities of
SevilleSeville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
,
Murcia-History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village...
and
BadajozBadajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain, situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana, and the Madrid–Lisbon railway. The population in 2007 was 145,257....
remained faithful to him. Son and nobles alike supported the
MoorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
when he tried to unite the nation in a crusade; and when he allied himself with Abu Yusuf Yakub, the ruling
MarinidThe Marinid dynasty or Benemerine dynasty was a Zenata Berber dynasty of Morocco. The Marinid dynasty overtook the Almohads in controlling Morocco in 1244. They controlled most of the Maghreb from the mid-14th century to the 15th century and supported the Kingdom of Granada in Al-Andalus in the...
Sultan of Morocco, they denounced him as an enemy of the faith. A reaction in his favor was beginning in his later days, but he died defeated and deserted at Seville in 1284, leaving a will, by which he endeavored to exclude Sancho, and a heritage of civil war.
Legislative and intellectual activity
As a ruler, Alfonso showed legislative capacity, and a wish to provide the kingdoms expanded under his father with a code of laws and a consistent judicial system. The
Fuero Real was undoubtedly his work. He began medieval Europe's most comprehensive code of law, the
Siete PartidasThe Siete Partidas or simply Partidas was a Castilian statutory code first compiled during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile , with the intent of establishing a uniform body of normative rules for the kingdom. The codified and compiled text was originally called the Libro de las Leyes...
, which, however, thwarted by the nobility of Castile, was only promulgated by his great-grandson. Because of this, and because the
Partidas remain fundamental law in the American Southwest, he is one of the 23 lawmakers depicted in the House of Representatives chamber of the
United States CapitolThe United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
.
Alfonso "turned to the vernacular for the kind of intellectual commitments that formerly were inconceivable outside Latin." He was the first king who initiated the use of the Castilian language extensively, although his father, Ferdinand III, had begun to use it for some documents, instead of Latin, as the language used in courts, churches, and in books and official documents.
As an intellectual he gained considerable scientific fame based on his encouragement of
astronomyAstronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, which included
astrologyAstrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
at the time and the Ptolemaic
cosmologyCosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
as known to him through the
ArabArab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
s. He surrounded himself with mostly Jewish translators who rendered Arabic scientific texts into Castilian at Toledo. His fame extends to the preparation of the
Alfonsine tablesThe Alfonsine tables provided data for computing the position of the Sun, Moon and planets relative to the fixed stars....
, based on calculations of al-Zarqali, "Arzachel". Because of this, the lunar crater
AlphonsusAlphonsus is an ancient impact crater on the Moon that dates from the immediate post-Nectarian era. It is located on the lunar highlands on the eastern end of Mare Nubium, west of the Imbrian Highlands, and slightly overlaps the crater Ptolemaeus to the north. The surface is broken and irregular...
is named after him. One famous apocryphal quote attributed to him upon hearing an explanation of the extremely complicated mathematics required to demonstrate
PtolemyClaudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
's theory of astronomy was "If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking on creation thus, I should have recommended something simpler." The validity of this quotation is questioned by some historians. Alfonso also wrote one of the first western
chessChess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
treatises.
From the beginning of his reign, Alfonso employed Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars at his court, primarily for the purpose of translating books from Arabic and Hebrew into Latin and Castilian, although he always insisted in supervising personally the translations. This group of scholars, specialized in Hebrew, Arabic and Latin, formed his royal
scriptoriumScriptorium, literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes...
, known as the Escuela de Traductores de Toledo (
Toledo School of TranslatorsThe Toledo School of Translators is the name that commonly describes the group of scholars who worked together in the city of Toledo during the 12th and 13th centuries, to translate many of the philosophical and scientific works from classical Arabic, classical Greek, and ancient Hebrew.The School...
). Their final output promoted Castilian as a learning language both in science and literature, and established the foundations of the new
Spanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. This evolved version of the Castilian language also acquired significant relevance in the royal chancery, where it came to replace Latin, that until then was the language commonly used by the royal diplomacy in Castilla and León.
Most of the first translated texts at the time survive in only one manuscript. The first translation, commissioned by his brother, Fernando de la Cerda— who had extensive experience, both diplomatic and military, among the Muslims of southern Iberia and north Africa— was a Castilian version of the animal fable
Kalila wa-Dimna, a book that belongs to the genre of
wisdom literatureWisdom literature is the genre of literature common in the Ancient Near East. This genre is characterized by sayings of wisdom intended to teach about divinity and about virtue...
labeled Mirrors for Princes: stories and sayings meant to instruct the monarch in proper and effective governance.
The primary intellectual work of these scholars centered on astronomy and astrology. The early period of Alfonso's reign saw the translation of selected works of magic (
Lapidario,
PicatrixPicatrix is the name used today, and historically in Christian Europe, for a grimoire originally written in Arabic titled غاية الحكيم , which most scholars assume was written in the middle of the 11th century, though a supported argument for composition in the first half of the 10th century has...
,
Libro de las formas et las ymagenes) all translated by a Jewish scholar named Yehudah ben Moshe (Yhuda Mosca, in the Old Spanish source texts). These were all highly ornate manuscripts (only the
Lapidario survives in its entirety) containing what was believed to be secret knowledge on the magical properties of stones and
talismanAn amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
s. In addition to these books of astral magic, Alfonso ordered the translation of well-known Arabic astrological compendia, including the
Libro de las cruzes and
Libro conplido en los iudizios de las estrellas. The first of these was, ironically, translated from Latin (it was used among the Visigoths), into
ArabicArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, and then back into Castilian and Latin.
Alfonso also commissioned a compilation of
chronicleGenerally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...
s, the
Crónica general, completed in 1264. This work enjoyed renewed popularity starting in the sixteenth century, when there was a revival of interest in history; Florián de Ocampo published a new edition and
Lorenzo de SepúlvedaLorenzo de Sepúlveda was a Spanish writer best known as the author of romances in verse.- Life and Works :Little is known of Lorenzo de Sepúlveda's life...
used it as the chief source of his popular
romancesAs a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
. Sepúlveda wrote a number of romances having Alfonso X as their hero.
Games
Alfonso also had
Libro de ajedrez, dados, y tablas (
"Libro de los Juegos" (The Book of Games)The Libro de los Juegos, , or Libro de acedrex, dados e tablas, was commissioned by Alfonso X of Castile, Galicia and León and completed in his scriptorium in Toledo in 1283, is an exemplary piece of Alfonso’s medieval literary legacy.Consisting of ninety-seven leaves of parchment, many with color...
) translated into Castilian from Arabic and added illustrations with the goal of perfecting the work. It was completed in 1283.
Music
Alfonso X commissioned or co-authored numerous works of music during his reign. These works included
Cantigas d'escarnio e maldicer and the vast compilation
Cantigas de Santa MariaThe Cantigas de Santa Maria are 420 poems with musical notation, written in Galician-Portuguese during the reign of Alfonso X El Sabio and often attributed to him....
("Songs to the Virgin Mary"), which was written in
Galician-PortugueseGalician-Portuguese or Old Portuguese was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area bounded in the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Douro River in the south but it was later extended south...
and figures among the most important of his works. The
Cantigas form one of the largest collections of vernacular
monophonicIn music, monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of melody without accompanying harmony. This may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave . If the entire melody is sung by two voices or a choir with an interval between the notes or in...
songs to survive from the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. They consist of 420 poems with musical notation. The poems are for the most part on
miracleA miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s attributed to the Virgin Mary. One of the miracles Alfonso relates is his own healing in Puerto de Santa María.
Family
Violante was ten years old at the time of her marriage to Alfonso; she produced no children for several years and it was feared that she was barren. Alfonso almost had their marriage annulled, but they went on to have eleven children:
- Berengaria (1253 – after 1284). She was betrothed to Louis, the son and heir of King Louis IX of France
Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...
, but her fiance died prematurely in 1260. She entered the convent in Las Huelgas, where she was living in 1284.
- Beatrice
Beatrice of Castile was a daughter of Alfonso X of Castile and his wife Violant of Aragon. She was Marchioness of Montferrat by her marriage and was mother of Irene of Montferrat.- Family :...
(1254–1280). She married William VII, Marquess of MontferratWilliam VII , called the Great , was the twelfth Margrave of Montferrat from 1253 to his death. He was also the titular King of Thessalonica.-Youth:...
.
- Ferdinand de la Cerda, Infante of Castile (October 23, 1255 – July 25, 1275). He married Blanche, the daughter of King Louis IX of France, by whom he had two children. Because he predeceased his father, his younger brother Sancho inherited the throne.
- Eleanor (1257–1275)
- Sancho IV of Castile
Sancho IV the Brave was the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1284 to his death. He was the second son of Alfonso X and Yolanda, daughter of James I of Aragon.-Biography:...
(May 13, 1258–1295)
- Constance (1258 – August 22, 1280), a nun at Las Huelgas.
- Peter (June 1260 – October 10, 1283)
- John, Lord of Valencia (March or April 1262 – June 25, 1319).
- Isabella, died young.
- Violante of Castile (1265–1296). She married Diego López V de Haro, Lord of Biscay
- James (August 1266 – August 9, 1284), Lord of Cameros
Alfonso X also had several illegitimate children. His illegitimate daughter, Beatrice, married King
Afonso III of PortugalAfonso III , or Affonso , Alfonso or Alphonso or Alphonsus , the Bolognian , the fifth King of Portugal and the first to use the title King of Portugal and the Algarve, from 1249...
. An illegitimate son, Martin, was Abbot of Valladolid.
Further reading
(
PDF version) Cf. especially section on "The Alfonso X 'Book of Games'".
- Spanish Royal Academy of History, "Opusculos Legales del rey Don Alfonso el Sabio: Tomo I", Madrid, 1836. In Spanish. ("Legal Booklets of King Alfonso el Sabio")
- Spanish Royal Academy of History, "Opusculos Legales del rey Don Alfonso el Sabio: Tomo II", Madrid, 1836. In Spanish. ("Legal Booklets of King Alfonso el Sabio") (PDF version)
- Vazquez-Campos, Braulio (2010). "Alfonso X and Chess" (Spanish: "Alfonso X y el ajedrez"). Google Knol
Knol is a Google project that aims to include user-written articles on a range of topics. The project was led by Udi Manber of Google, announced December 13, 2007, and was opened in beta to the public on July 23, 2008 with a few hundred articles mostly in the health and medical field.Knol has no...
collection.
External links
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