ALPHONSO V. succeeded his father King Bermudo in 999, being then but five years of age. Gonzalez earl of Galicia, and his wife, were appointed by the late king to be the guardians of his minority; and, on arriving at manhood, he espoused their daughter Donna Elvira. Alonzo made war on the Moors, and lost his life at the siege of Visco, A.D. 1028. He rebuilt, at his own cost, the city of Leon, which had been ruined by the Moors. During this reign the Moorish kingdom was subdivided into several small principalities. Alonzo was succeeded by his only son, Don Bermudo.
ALPHONSO VI., surnamed the Valiant, was the son of Fernando the Great, king of Castile and Leon. On the death of his father in 1065, the kingdom was divided among his three sons. Sancho, the eldest, received as his portion Castile; to Alonzo was given the kingdom of Leon, the territory of Campos, part of Asturias, and some towns in Galicia; and Garcia, the youngest brother, received a part of Galicia and of Portugal. Peace was not long maintained between the three brothers. Sancho made war on Alonzo, and defeated him in a bloody battle at Piantaca. Alonzo recruited his army, and defeated Sancho on the banks of the river Carrion; but an attack being made on his camp during the night, Alonzo was taken captive, and compelled to abdicate, A.D. 1071. Escaping from the monastery where he was confined, he found refuge with Almenon the Moorish king of Toledo, who lodged him in a superb palace, gave him a retinue of Christians, and assigned him a pension. Sancho took possession of Leon, and advanced into Galicia against Garcia, whose kingdom was in an uproar. The two brothers met at Santarem, where the Galicians were defeated with great slaughter, and Garcia himself captured and thrown into prison. Sancho being assassinated in 1073, Alonzo was re-instated in his dominions, after he had made a solemn declaration that he was guiltless of his brother's death. This
Alphonso. solemn oath was administered to him by the famous Roderigo Díaz de Bivar, commonly called the Cid, whose exploits have rendered his name illustrious in the annals of chivalry. Don García, on receiving his freedom, was making efforts to re-instate himself on his throne; when Alonzo, under the pretext of assisting him, obtained possession of his person, and immured him in a dungeon, where he died ten years after. He then turned his arms against the Moors, and committed great ravages in their territories, taking much spoil. No less treacherous than he had proved himself unnatural, Alonzo, after feigning some scruples of conscience, devastated the territories of Hiaya Aldirbil king of Toledo, whose father had befriended him in his adversity; and, assisted by many strangers, he invested his capital, which, after a siege of five years, A.D. 1085, was taken from the Saracens, in whose possession it had been for about 370 years. Alonzo prosecuted the war against the Moors, taking many of their towns; and being sovereign of a great part of Spain, and king of Aragon, he now assumed the imperial title. This prince was married six times. His third wife was Zayda, the daughter of Ben-Abed the Moorish king of Seville. Alonzo having invited the Almoravides from Africa to assist his father-in-law in his project of reducing all Mahometan Spain under his sway, the Almoravide king sent over a large force under the command of Hali Ben-Axa; but that chief soon finding occasion of quarrel with the Moorish king, a battle ensued in which Ben-Abed perished, and Hali took possession of his kingdom, A.D. 1091. The other Moorish princes were quickly subdued or submitted to him; and Alonzo had the mortification to see such of them as were tributary to himself throw off their allegiance, at the same time that he lost those towns which he had received as the portion of Zayda. The army he sent to oppose the victorious Moors was routed near Rhoda; and another mighty force which he gathered for that purpose was defeated at Caçalla near Badajoz with great slaughter. Many strangers now flocked to his assistance from all parts, especially from France under Raymond of Bourgogne and Raymond of Toulouse, upon which the Moors prudently retired without coming to an engagement.
In the year 1093 appeared Peter the Hermit preaching the first crusade for the recovery of Jerusalem from the Saracens. About this time the king married his three daughters; of whom Teresa, illegitimate, was given to Henry of Lorraine, with the title of Earl of Portugal, which he held as a fief of the crown of Castile. This was the origin of the kingdom of Portugal, which title was afterwards assumed, and continued in the line of this prince above 400 years. Alonzo died at Toledo in 1109, after a reign of 43 years, aged seventy-nine. It is worthy of notice, that in 1077, when Gregory VII. declared in a bull that Spain had anciently been tributary to the Holy See, Alonzo consented to pay a tribute, which was abolished by his successors.