Kingdom of Galicia - Early and High Middle Ages - Interludes of Independence: 10th and 11th Centuries

Interludes of Independence: 10th and 11th Centuries

When Alfonso III of León was forced by his sons to abdicate in 910, his lands were partitioned, bringing about the first episode of a short-lived distinct kingdom of Galicia. García I obtained the Terra de Fora or León, consisting of the southeastern portion of their father's realm, while Ordoño II held the western lands, that is Galicia (including the recently acquired lands of Coimbra) where he had already been serving as governor, and was now recognized as king in an assembly of magnates held in Lugo. The youngest brother, Fruela II, received the Asturian heartland in the northeast, with Oviedo as its capital.

From Galicia, Ordoño launched several successful raids on the Islamic south, returning with riches and Muslim serfs, and confirming himself as an able commander. At the death of García in 914, Ordoño also acquired León, and on his death in 924 his younger brother, Fruela, reunited Alfonso's realm. Fruela's death a year later initiated a period of chaos, with several claimants to the crown. Fruela's son, Alfonso Fróilaz, received support from Asturias, but was captured and blinded by Sancho, Alfonso IV, and Ramiro II, sons of Ordoño, with the aid of the Basque troops of Jimeno Garcés of Pamplona. Vague and conflicting historical records make it uncertain whether Alfonso Fróilaz reigned briefly as king of the entire kingdom, or simply held a remote part of Asturias. In Galicia, Sancho succeeded, being crowned in Santiago de Compostela and marrying a Galician noblewoman. After reigning for just three years he died childless. Alfonso IV then took control of an again-reunited Kingdom of León in 929, however was forced into a monastery by their youngest brother, Ramiro, two years later.

Ramiro II had ties with the Galician nobility through kinship, marriage and patronage, and he and his son, Ordoño III, whose mother was Galician, reigned with their support. This was not the case when Ordoño was succeeded by his half-brother Sancho I of León in 956. Sancho proved unpopular and ineffectual and the Galician nobles grew fractious, forming a coalition with Fernán González of Castile to overthrow Sancho in favor of Ordoño IV, who was enthroned in Santiago de Compostela in 958. However Sancho reclaimed the crown in 960 with support from his mother's Kingdom of Pamplona, the Leonese nobility, and Muslim assistance. His son, Ramiro III, grew increasingly absolutist, alienating the Galician nobility who also resented the lack of Leonese help when the Normans raided Galicia from 968 through 970.

The Galician nobility again rose in rebellion, in 982 crowning and anointing Bermudo, son of Ordoño III, as king in Santiago de Compostela. With their support, he first repelled the army of Ramiro in the battle of Portela de Areas and eventually made himself undisputed ruler of the Leonese kingdom. Once in control, Bermudo lost many of his Galician and Portugueses supporters by repudiating his Galician wife in favor of a new marriage alliance with Castile. His later reign was marked by the ascension of a strong military leader, Almanzor, who led a brief resurgence of the Cordoban Caliphate, reconquering Coimbra or Viseu, and even raiding Santiago de Compostela.

In the 1030s, Galicia became the sole holdout to the Leonese conquests of Sancho III of Pamplona. When the Count of Castile—nominally a Leonese vassal, but de facto independent—was assassinated in León in 1029, Sancho claimed the right to name the successor, giving it to his own son Ferdinand. Taking advantage of the youth of Leonese king Bermudo III, Sancho seized disputed border regions, formalizing the arrangement by including the lands in the dowry of Bermudo's sister, who was married to Ferdinand in 1032. Two years later, in 1034, Sancho took Bermudo's capital, becoming de facto ruler of most of the kingdom, whilst leaving Bermudo to rule from his refuge in Galicia. Sancho's death the next year allowed Bermudo to regain not only the entire kingdom, but to briefly become overlord of Ferdinand's Castile. However, in 1037, the Castilian count killed Bermudo in battle, and Galicia passed with the Kingdom of León into the hands of Ferdinand, who then had himself crowned king.

Ferdinand's death in 1065 led to another short-lived Galician state. In 1063 he had opted to partition his realm, giving the eastern Kingdom of Castile to his eldest son, Sancho II, along with the right to the paria (tribute) from the Taifa of Zaragoza. His second son Alfonso VI was given the Kingdom of León, representing the central portion of the old realm, with the paria from Toledo. His youngest son, García II, who had been educated in Galicia under the tutelage of bishop Cresconius of Compostela, received the western half of Bermudo's old kingdom as King of Galicia, along with the right to parias from the Taifas of Badajoz and Seville.

As king, Garcia aimed to restore the old episcopal sees of Tui, Lamego, and Braga, which had been dissolved due to Arab and Viking assaults. The death of two of his most notable supporters, bishops Cresconius of Compostela and Uistrarius of Lugo, left the young king in a weaker position, and in 1071 the Count of Portugal, Nuno Mendes, rose in rebellion. García defeated and killed him in the same year at the Battle of Pedroso, and in recognition of his solidified control adopted the title King of Galicia and Portugal. However his brothers, Alfonso and Sancho, immediately turned on the victor, forcing García to flee, first to central Portugal and later—after defeating him near Santarém—into exile in Seville in 1072. García's realm was divided, with Alfonso joining the county of Portugal to his Kingdom of León, while Sancho held the north.

This situation was inherently unstable, with Sancho's lands separated by Alfonso's León, and the two soon fought a war in which Sancho proved victorious, forcing Alfonso into exile and reuniting all of Ferdinand's kingdom except the autonomous city of Zamora, held by his sister Urraca. While besieging this town in 1072, Sancho was assassinated, inducing Alfonso to return and claim the entire realm. García also returned in 1073 from his exile, either with the hope of re-establishing himself in Galicia, or simply having been misled by promises of safety from Alfonso, however he was imprisoned by Alfonso for the rest of his life, dying in 1091. As an aftermath to these events, before 1088 Alfonso deposed the bishop of Compostela, Diego Pelaez, who was charged "on trying to deliver the Kingdom of Galicia to the king of the English and of the Normans, while taking it away from the kings of the Spaniards". This reunion with the Kingdom of León would prove permanent, although both kingdoms maintained their separate personality.