Alfonso VI (1 July 1109), nicknamed the Brave (El Bravo) or the Valiant, was king of León (10651109), Galicia (10711109), and Castile (10721109).

After the conquest of Toledo in 1085, Alfonso proclaimed himself (most victorious king of Toledo, and of Spain and Galicia). This conquest, along with El Cid's taking of Valencia would greatly expand the territory and influence of the Leonese/Castilian realm, but also provoked an Almoravid invasion that Alfonso would spend the remainder of his reign resisting. The Leonese and Castilian armies suffered decisive defeats in the battles of Sagrajas (1086), Consuegra (1097) and Uclés (1108), in the latter of which his only son and heir, Sancho Alfónsez, died, and Valencia was abandoned but Toledo remained part of an expanded realm that he passed to his daughter.

Life

Birth and early years

The son of Ferdinand I, King of León and Count of Castile and his wife, Queen Sancha, Alfonso was a "Leonese infante [prince] with Navarrese and Castilian blood". His paternal grandparents were Sancho Garcés III, king of Pamplona and his wife Muniadona of Castile, and his maternal grandparents were Alfonso V of León (after whom he was probably named) and his first wife Elvira Menéndez.

The year of Alfonso's birth is not recorded in the medieval documentation. According to one of the authors of the Anonymous Chronicle of Sahagún, who met the monarch and was present at his death, he died at age 62 after reigning 44 years. This indicates that he was born in the second half of 1047 or in the first half of 1048. Pelagius of Oviedo wrote that Alfonso was 79 when he died, but that would place his birth around 1030, before his parents' marriage.

According to the Historia silense, the eldest child of Ferdinand I and Sancha, a daughter called Urraca, was born when her parents were still Count and Countess of Castile, so her birth could be placed in 1033–34. The second child and eldest son, Sancho, must have been born in the second half of 1038 or in 1039. The third child and second daughter, Elvira, may have been born in 1039–40, followed by Alfonso in 1040–41, and finally the youngest of the siblings, García, sometime between 1041 and 24 April 1043, the date on which King Ferdinand I, in a donation to the Abbey of San Andrés de Espinareda, mentions his five children. All of them except Elvira signed a document in the monastery of San Juan Bautista de Corias on 26 April 1046.

All the children of King Ferdinand I, according to the Historia silense, were educated in the liberal arts, and the sons were also trained in arms, the "art of running horses in the Spanish usage", and hunting. The cleric Raimundo was in charge of Alfonso's early education. Once king, Alfonso appointed him Bishop of Palencia and referred to him as magistro nostro, viro nobile et Deum timenti ("our master, a noble man who fears God"). Alfonso probably spent long periods in Tierra de Campos, where, along with Pedro Ansúrez, the son of Ansur Díaz and nephew of Count Gómez Díaz de Saldaña (both members of the Banu Gómez lineage), he learned the art of war and what was expected of a knight.

Ascension to the throne

As the second son of the king of León and count of Castile, Alfonso would not have been entitled to inherit the throne. At the end of 1063, probably on 22 December, taking advantage of the fact that numerous magnates had gathered in León, capital of the kingdom, for the consecration of the Basílica of San Isidoro, Ferdinand I summoned a Curia Regia to make known his testamentary dispositions, under which he decided to distribute his patrimony among his children, a distribution that would not become effective until the death of the monarch in order to prevent any disputes arising after his death:

thumb|left|Political situation in the Northern [[Iberian Peninsula around 1065:

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  • Alfonso inherited the Kingdom of León, "the most extensive, valuable and emblematic part: the one that contained the cities of Oviedo and León, cradles of the Asturian-Leonese monarchy", which included Asturias, León, Astorga, El Bierzo, Zamora with Tierra de Campos as well as the parias of the Taifa of Toledo.
  • His elder brother, Sancho, was given the Kingdom of Castile, created by his father for him, and the parias of the Taifa of Zaragoza.
  • His younger brother, García, received the entire region of Galicia, "elevated to the rank of kingdom" that extended south to the Mondego River in Portugal with the parias of the Taifa of Badajoz and Seville.
  • Their sisters, Urraca and Elvira, both received the Infantazgo, that is, "the patronage and income of all the monasteries belonging to the royal patrimony" on the condition that they remained unmarried.

The historian Alfonso Sánchez Candeira suggests that the reasons leading King Ferdinand I to divide the kingdom (with Alfonso VI inheriting the royal title) are unknown, but the distribution was probably made because the king considered it proper that each son should inherit the region where he had been educated and spent his early years.

Reign

Consolidation of the throne (10651072)

After his coronation in the city of León in January 1066, Alfonso VI had to confront the expansionist desires (although Alfonso would prove himself as having the same or more so) of his brother Sancho II, who, as the eldest son, considered himself the sole legitimate heir of all the kingdoms of their father. The conflicts began after the death of their mother Queen Sancha on 7 November 1067, leading to seven years of war among the three brothers. The first skirmish was the Battle of Llantada, a trial by ordeal in which both brothers agreed that the one who was victorious would obtain the kingdom of the defeated brother. Although Sancho II was the winner, Alfonso VI did not comply with the agreement; even so, relations between them remained cordial as evidenced by the fact that Alfonso was present at the wedding of Sancho II to an English noblewoman named Alberta on 26 May 1069. This was the same event where both decided to join forces to divide between themselves the Kingdom of Galicia that had been assigned to their younger brother García II. In the wake of the fratricidal war waged between the successors of al-Muzaffar, ruler of the taifa of Badajoz, upon the latter's death in 1068, Alfonso managed to exploit the situation in order to extract economic profit, even though the taifa nominally fell under García's sphere of influence.

With the complicity of Alfonso VI, Sancho II invaded Galicia in 1071, defeating their brother García II who was arrested in Santarém and imprisoned in Burgos until he was exiled to the Taifa of Seville, then under the rule of Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad. After eliminating their brother, Alfonso VI and Sancho II titled themselves kings of Galicia and signed a truce.

The truce was broken with the Battle of Golpejera on 12 January 1072. Although Sancho II's troops were victorious, he decided not to persecute his brother Alfonso, who was imprisoned in Burgos and later transferred to the monastery of Sahagún, where his head was shaved and he was forced to wear a chasuble. Thanks to the intercession of their sister Urraca, Sancho and Alfonso reached an agreement under which Alfonso VI was able to take refuge in the Taifa of Toledo under the protection of his vassal Al-Mamun, accompanied by his childhood friend, the faithful Pedro Ansúrez and his two brothers Gonzalo and Fernando.

Alfonso VI, from his exile in Toledo, obtained the support of the Leonese nobility and his sister Urraca, who remained strong in the city of Zamora, a lordship that Ferdinand I had granted her previously. When Urraca refused to exchange Zamora for other cities that Sancho had offered her in an effort to control the fortress of Zamora, "key to the future expansion south of the Duero", Sancho besieged the city. However, during the siege, Sancho II was murdered. According to tradition, during the siege a nobleman named Vellido Dolfos appeared before the king, claiming to have changed his loyalty from Urraca to Sancho. Under the pretense of showing him the weak parts of the city's walls, Dolfos separated the king from his guard and killed him with a spear. Although there is no clear evidence that Sancho II's death was due to treason rather than deceit, since Dolfos was Sancho II's enemy, his murder occurred in a warlike attack during the siege, not near the city walls, but rather in a nearby forest where Dolfos lured the Castilian king away from his armed protection. The violent death of Sancho II, who had no descendants, allowed Alfonso VI to reclaim his throne as well as Sancho's and Garcia's original inheritances of Castile and Galicia, respectively.

Although Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid), the standard-bearer and confidant of King Sancho II, was present at the siege of Zamora, the role he played in this event is not known. Neither can Sancho II's death be blamed on Alfonso VI, who, when his brother was killed, was in exile far from the events. However, this did nothing to prevent speculation that Alfonso was somehow involved in Sancho's murder; despite a paucity of evidence, "minstrels and ballads filled this void with beautiful literary creations devoid of any historical reality".

The lingering suspicion over this event would later become part of the Leyenda de Cardeña, a set of legendary narrative materials concerning El Cid which began to develop in the 13th century.

According to legend, Alfonso VI was forced by El Cid to take an oath denying that he had been involved in his brother's death, thus giving rise to mutual distrust between the two men, despite Alfonso VI's efforts at rapprochement by offering his kinswoman Jimena Díaz to El Cid in marriage as well as the immunity of his patrimony. These events and their consequences would eventually come to be considered historical by many later chroniclers and historians; however, most modern historians deny that such an event ever took place.

Thanks to Sancho II's death, García II could regain his own throne of Galicia; however, the following year, on 13 February 1073, Alfonso summoned García to a meeting, whereupon he imprisoned his younger brother. Garcia was held at the castle of Luna for seventeen years, where he eventually died on 22 March 1090. With his two brothers out of the way, Alfonso VI was able to secure the loyalty of both the high clergy and the nobility of his territories with ease; to confirm this, he spent the next two years visiting them.

Territorial expansion (10721086)

Now established on the Leonese throne, and with the title of "Emperor", a relic of the Gothic tradition, Alfonso VI spent the following fourteen years of his reign expanding his territories through conquests such as that of Uclés and the lands of the Banu Di-l-Nun family. In 1072 he entitled himself rex Spanie.

thumb|left|Alfonso in the [[Libro de las Estampas]]

In 1074, in alliance with Al-Mamun, ruler of the Taifa of Toledo, Alfonso waged an offensive against the Zirid ruler of the Taifa of Granada, Abd Allâh, taking the strategic fortress of Alcalá la Real.

Following the assassination of Sancho IV of Navarre in 1076, leaving only minor sons, the local Navarrese nobility divided over the succession to the Navareese crown. Alfonso VI had immediately taken possession of Calahorra and Najera, and also received the support of the nobility of Vizcaya-Álava and La Rioja, while the eastern nobility supported Sancho Ramírez of Aragon, who moved into the remainder of the kingdom. After the two kings reached an accord, Sancho Ramírez was recognized as king of Navarre and Alfonso VI annexed the territories of Álava, Vizcaya, part of Guipúzcoa and La Bureba, adopting in 1077 the title of Imperator totius Hispaniae ("Emperor of all Spain").

His great territorial expansion came at the expense of the Taifa Muslim kingdoms. Alfonso VI continued their economic exploitation by means of the system of parias, and succeeded in subduing most of the Taifa kingdoms as his tributaries, enforced by the threat of military intervention. In 1074, he probably recovered payment of the parias of Toledo, and the same year, helped by troops of that city, he cut down trees on the lands of the Taifa of Granada, which consequently also began to pay him taxes. In 1076, the Emir of Zaragoza, who wished to seize Valencia without being disturbed by Alfonso VI, agreed to resume payment of the parias. In 1079, he conquered Coria.

One of the initiatives of these years, known as the "Treason of Rueda", ended in failure. It took place in 1083 in the castle of Rueda de Jalón, when Alfonso VI received news that the governor of that stronghold, which belonged to the Taifa of Zaragoza, intended to surrender it to the Leonese king. The king's troops were ambushed when they entered the castle and several of the most important magnates of the kingdom were killed.

In 1074, Alfonso VI's vassal and friend Al-Mamun, king of the Taifa of Toledo died of poisoning in Córdoba, and was succeeded by his grandson Al-Qádir, who asked for help from the Leonese monarch to end an uprising against him. Alfonso VI took advantage of this request to besiege Toledo, which finally fell on 25 May 1085. After losing his throne, Al-Qádir was sent by Alfonso VI as king of the Taifa of Valencia under the protection of Álvar Fáñez. To facilitate this operation and to recover payment of the parias owed by the city, which had failed to pay him since the previous year, Alfonso VI besieged Zaragoza in the spring of 1086. In early March, Valencia accepted the rule of Al-Qádir; Xàtiva resisted requesting the aid of the rulers of Tortosa and Lérida until he was forced to do so. Their raid of the region failed, and they withdrew under harassment by the troops of Fáñez.

After this important conquest, Alfonso VI was entitled al-Imbraţūr dhī-l-Millatayn ("Emperor of the Two Religions") and as a gesture to the important Muslim population of the city, he promised them, in addition to respecting their properties, the right to use the main mosque. This decision was later revoked by the newly appointed archbishop of Toledo, Bernard of Sédirac, who took advantage of the king's absence from Toledo and with the support of Queen Constance.

The occupation of Toledo—which allowed Alfonso VI to incorporate the title of King of Toledo with those he already used (