Alfonso X "El Sabio" King of Galicia, Castile and León ¹

   Another name for Alfonso was Alfonso X of Castile King of Galicia, Castile and León.

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From Wikipedia - Alfonso X of Castile :

Alfonso X (Toledo, Spain , November 23, 1221 - April 4, 1284 in Seville, Spain ) was a Castilian monarch who ruled as the King of Castile , León and Galicia from 1252 until his death. He also was elected King of the Germans (formally King of the Romans ) in 1257, though the Papacy prevented his confirmation.

He established Castilian as a language of higher learning, founded universities such as the University of Toledo ) and earned his nicknames (Spanish : 'el Sabio', Galician : 'O Sabio') ("the Wise" or "the Learned") and (Spanish : 'el Astrólogo', Galician : 'O Astrólogo') ("the Astronomer") through his own prolific writings, including Galician-Portuguese poetry .

Life

Alfonso was the eldest son of Ferdinand III of Castile and Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen , through whom he was a cousin of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor , to whom Alfonso is often compared. His maternal grandparents were Philip of Swabia and Irene Angelina .

Ruler
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 Partidas , 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 Capitol .

Alfonso "turned to the vernacular for the kind of intellectual commitments that formerly were inconceivable outside Latin ."[2] He was the first king who initiated the use of the Castilian language extensively, although his father, Fernando 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.

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.[3] Others have argued that his efforts were too singularly focused on the diplomatic and financial arrangements surrounding his bid for Holy Roman Emperor .

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 by the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire in 1257 misled him into wild schemes that involved excessive expense but never took effect. To obtain money, he debased the coinage and then endeavoured to prevent a rise in prices by an arbitrary tariff . 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.

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 Maria ("Songs to the Virgin Mary"), which was written in Galician-Portuguese and figures among the most important of his works. The Cantigas form one of the largest collections of vernacular monophonic songs to survive from the Middle Ages . They consist of 420 poems with musical notation. The poems are for the most part on miracles attributed to the Virgin Mary . One of the miracles Alfonso relates is his own healing in Puerto de Santa María .

Lineage
Alfonso's eldest son, Ferdinand de la Cerda, Infante of Castile , died in 1275 when Morocco and Granada invaded Castile, leaving two infant sons. Alfonso's second son, Sancho , 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 blood and agnatic seniority . 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. Son and nobles alike supported the Moors when he tried to unite the nation in a crusade; and when he allied himself with Abu Yusuf Yakub , the ruling Marinid 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 , leaving a will, by which he endeavored to exclude Sancho, and a heritage of civil war.

Family
In 1246, Alfonso X married Violante of Aragon , the daughter of King James I of Aragon and Yolande of Hungary in 1249, although betrothed already in 1246. Because of her young age (Violante was only 10 years old at the time of the marriage), 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 ten children:
Fernando, died in infancy, and buried in Las Huelgas in Burgos .
Berengaria of Castile (1253 - after 1284). She was betrothed to Louis, the son and heir of King Louis IX of France , but her fiance died prematurely in 1260. She entered the convent in Las Huelgas, where she was living in 1284.
Beatriz of Castile (1254-1280). She married William VII, Marquess of Montferrat .
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.
Leonor of Castile (1257-1275)
Urraca of Castile (1256-?). She married Pedro Nunez de Guzman y Manzanedo .
Sancho IV of Castile (May 13, 1258 - 1295)
Constanza of Castile (1258 - August 22, 1280), a nun at Las Huelgas.
Pedro of Castile (June 1260 - October 10, 1283)
Juan of Castile, Lord of Valencia (March or April, 1262 - June 25, 1319).
Isabella, died young.
Violante of Castile (1265-1296). She married Diego Lopez de Haro
Jaime of Castile (August 1266 - August 9, 1284)

Alfonso X also had several illegitimate children. His illegitimate daughter, Beatriz de Castilla , married King Afonso III of Portugal . An illegitimate son, Martin, was Abbot of Valladolid.

Alfonso had a relationship with Mayor Guillén de Guzmán.

Alfonso next married Yolanda of Aragon, daughter of James I of Aragon and Violant of Hungary, on 26 Dec 1246 in Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain. (Yolanda of Aragon was born in 1236 in Zaragoza, Aragon (Zaragoza), (Spain) and died in 1301 in Roncevalles.)