Leon (redirected from León (city))

Leon

Medieval kingdom, northwestern Spain. Leon proper included the cities of León, Salamanca, and Zamora—the adjacent areas of Vallodolid and Palencia being disputed with Castile, originally its eastern frontier. It began as a Christian kingdom in the early 10th century when García I established his court on a former Roman legion campsite. Its rulers lost ground to the Moors during the 10th century but reconquered much territory in the 11th century. From 1037 to 1157 it was united with the kingdom of Castile, but it then regained its independence and was ruled by its own kings. It was permanently reunited with Castile in 1230. The modern autonomous community of Castile-León covers roughly the same area.

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León 

a kingdom in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula from the tenth to the 13th century.

It was formed in 901–910 when the Kingdom of Asturias was divided between the sons of King Alfonso III into León, Galicia, and Asturias. In 914, Galicia became part of Leon, and in 924 the territories of León, Galicia, and Asturias were united as the Kingdom of León, with the city of León as the capital. In the 950’s, León suffered several severe defeats at the hands of the caliphate of Cordova, which forced it to pay tributes. Between 981 and 1002, León was again subjected to devastating raids by the Muslims, and in 988 al-Mansur sacked the city of León. With the death of al-Mansur in 1002 the Muslim raids stopped, and the danger of a Muslim conquest of León passed.

After the disintegration of the caliphate of Cordova in 1031, the kings of León went over to the counteroffensive, and during the Christian reconquest, León extended its territory to the Tajo River; the Portuguese lands annexed to León in that period became a separate county in 1095. (Portugal became an independent kingdom only in the 12th century.) In 1035, Castile, which had been a county since 923, split off from León to form an independent kingdom. León and Castile were united as the Kingdom of León and Castile from 1037 to 1065 and from 1072 to 1157; the final unification took place in 1230. The socioeconomic structure of León was close to that of Castile, but monastic and episcopal landholding played a more marked role in Leon.