the missing map

In the map collections of the Middle Ages, we usually find a map from the year 800 (the beginnings of the Kingdom of Asturias) followed by another from the year 1000 (the beginnings of Castilian expansion) followed by another from the 13th century (the unification of Castile and León and the conquest of Andalusia) and ending with another from the 15th century (unification of Castile and Aragon and conquest of Granada). All these maps tell a story and the missing maps are discarded because they don't fit into it.

The map of the year 900, which is the main damage, shows a kingdom of Gallaecia with a capital in Leon that is too similar to the kingdom of Gallaecia of the Suebian period for the taste of Spanish historiography. This map tells a story that does not fit the project of Castile and that could have fit even less.

This territory began as a no-man's land, outside the domain of Córdoba and ended up becoming the kingdom of
Gallaecia, from Afonso III onwards, for a series of processes of which the chronicles only tell us a part and sometimes hide information from us. The most obvious case is how it went from a kingdom centered on Asturias, in the reign of Pelaio, to another that included the entirety of present-day Galicia, in the reign of Afonso II.

to british connection

The first period from Pelaio to Alfonso II was the conquest of supremacy in Gallaecia by the Asturian dynasty. External relations would be mainly with the Islands, mainly with what was left of Roman Britain. Documents that could inform us are missing, but the archeology of Britannia indicates as a normal thing that there will continue to be imports from the Mediterranean area until the end.

Around the year 840, the kingdom of Dumnonia destroyed with the participation of the Vikings. The British will be cornered in Cornwall. Six years later, in 844, the first of the Viking attacks would arrive on the coast of Galicia. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms will not be important allies and it will not be until the conquest of England by the Normans that a power appears in the Islands with which to count, already outside the period of this work.

An element that we do not understand well, is the role of women in dynastic changes; very important in the period between Fruela and Afonso II, another the reoccupation of the forts and castles of the valley.

Carolingian sponsorship

The second period goes from Afonso II to Afonso III and his successors who had moved the capital to León. In the interior, it was the period of dominance of the expanded Gallaecia, or the territory of the time of the Suevi kings. Abroad the main relations are with the Carolingian Empire.

The shift to a primary relationship with the Carolingian Empire and its successor states is underlined by the discovery of the tomb of Santiago, conventionally dated to 813, the last year of Charlemagne's life, and two years after the bishopric of Oviedo was established. It is so important that the find did not happen that year, the important thing is that Charlemagne appears as the sponsor of the pilgrimage to Compostela, even to the point of making it himself. Indeed, no one believes this legend today; but it was believed at the time. One of the first propaganda campaigns for the Camino de Santiago.

The Carolinxies lost power until they disappeared as a dynasty, and
to be replaced by the Capetians in France in the 10th century. This kingdom will have much less military capacity than the Carolingians had until the 13th century. What will mean that the kingdom of Galicia will have to face the Caliphate alone, without help from Europe.

To caliphal interruption

The third period finds the kingdom confronted with the Caliphate of Córdoba and without important allies abroad.

The expanding kingdom of the previous period becomes a besieged kingdom from the appearance of the Caliphate of Córdoba; which relegates the Galician monarchy to a subordinate role based on constant attacks. From the opposite side will arrive the second wave of Viking attacks. The cumulative impact of one and the other will make the kingdom crack, first with the separation of Castile and then with the aceifa of Al-Mansur. The kingdom returns to the border of the Douro. The kingdom did not have a chance to recover from this and the dynasty will not survive the Caliphate for more than a few years.