Early and High Middle Ages
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"Alfonso king of Galicia and of Asturias, after having ravaged Lisbon, the last city of Spain, sent during the winter the insignias of his victory, breastplates, mules, and Moor prisoners, through his legates Froia and Basiliscus." Annales regni Francorum, c 798. |
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"And so, as I've been told, when Adefonsus departed of this world, as Nepotianus usurped the kingdom of Ramiro, Ramiro went to the city of Lugo in Galicia, and there he reunited the army of the whole province. After a while he burst into Asturias. He was met by Nepotianus, who has reunited a group of Asturians and Basques, at the bridge over the river Narcea. Nepotianus was immediately left stranded by his own people, being captured when fleeing by two counts, Sonna and Scipio." Chronicle of Alfonso III, ad Sebastianum, 21. |
For several centuries after the defeat of the Goths, Galicia was united with other neighboring regions under the same monarchs, with only brief periods of separation under different kings. Along with the rest of the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it was free of Arab presence from the mid-8th century, being gradually incorporated into a growing Christian state. This is usually called the Kingdom of Asturias in modern sources, although the precise historical details of the these events have been obscured by the national myths of the Iberian nations..
The 9th century saw this state expand southward, with Castilian and Asturian noblemen acquiring most of the northern Meseta, while in Galicia, a similar impulse led to the conquest and re-population of the regions of Astorga, southern Galicia, and northern Portugal down to Coimbra, by noblemen mostly proceeding from northern Galicia. Also significant was the discovery of the tomb of Saint James the Great at what would become Santiago de Compostela; the shrine constructed there became the religious center of the nation, as well as being the destination of a major international pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James. This increased the political and military relevance of Galicia, and its noble families aspired to positions of power within the kingdom through either military force or by matrimonial alliance with the royal family. To the east, this southern expansion led the capital of the Christian kingdom to be moved to the city of León, from which time the state is usually called the Kingdom of León. This same kingdom was frequently known as either Gallaecia or Galicia (Yillīqiya and Galīsiya) in Al-Andalus Muslim sources up to the 14th century, as well as by many European Christian contemporaries.
Read more about this topic: Kingdom Of Galicia
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