The :Moorish conquests in Spain continued to be governed by a lieutenant of the Caliph of Damascus until the deposition and destruction of the Ommiades in Arabia, when Abdalrahman, a royal youth, who alone had escaped the massacre of his house, fled into Spain, where he was hailed with joy by the party at tached to his family. After a short and successful struggle with the lieutenant and forces of the rival family of the Abbassides, he established the throne of Cordova, and became the first Caliph of the west. The dynasty of the Ommiades continued to reign in this country with great splendour for nearly two cen turies and a half, when the Spanish Caliphate expired. Their dominions were split into several petty states by the rebellion of the Moorish governors, who usurp ed the sovereignty of the provinces over which they presided, and assumed the royal style in Cordova, Seville, Valentia, and Granada. This dismemberment occasioned constant wars, which were sometimes prosecuted with all the rancour of hereditary feuds; and during which the monarchs, as well as the boun daries of the different kingdoms, were continually changing. .Their limits were also greatly circum scribed by the conquests of the Christians, who were gradually extending their territories, and threatened the complete recovery of their native possessions.
The Goths, who had retired with Pelagius to the mountains of Asturias, had chosen that prince as their monarch; and his territories were at first confined to the small province of Liebana with the hamlet of Cangas for its capital. This district was so fortified by nature, that, with a few defenders, it was capable or resisting almost any number of invaders. Here Pelagius laid the foundation of the kingdom of Leon, and of the Spanish monarchy; and defied the whole power of the Moors, who twice attempted with nu merous armies to dislodge his little band of patriots; but were as often overthrown with dreadful slaughter. By these victories he became master of all the Astu rias, and soon after extended his dominion over the best part of Biscay. his little territory afforded an asylum to the oppressed Christians, who, retiring privately from the Moorish provinces, repaired in great numbers to his standard, and by thus recruiting his forces, enabled him and his immediate successors, to descend with more confidence into the lower and more fertile parts of the country, and to push their conquests, on the one hand, as far as Castile; and, on the other, to the confines of Portugal. The kingdom of Leon increased rapidly in extent and resources during the reigns of Alphonso III, who subdued Galicia, and spread his dominion as far as Coimbra, and of Ilarnirus ll, who penetrated to Madrid, which lie took by storm, and even threatened Toledo, at that time one of the strongest cities in the hands of the Moors. Encouraged by the successes of the Christians in Leon, other provinces began to establish themselves as independent states, and by similar means, rose to power and distinction. The independence of Navarre
commenced about the middle of the ninth century; that of Castile thirty years later; and Aragon was erected into a kingdom in the beginning of the eleventh century. The wars and events which led to the for mation of these kingdoms, were signalized by many heroic achievements; and no history records a suc cession of kings so remarkable as those who shone in those different states. Several of the name of Al phonso were distinguished and able princes, one of whom invented the Alphonsine tables, and superin tended the digesting of a code of laws, which like wise bears his name. By the establishment of these states the Moors were driven from the finest provinces of the Peninsula, and confined within the kingdom of Granada. In a series of years, however, by the usual events of intermarriages, or succession, or conquest, all these were united under Ferdinand and Isabella, the former the hereditary monarch of Aragon, and the latter, the heiress of Castile and Leon.
As our limits will not admit of any detail of these transactions, we shall content ourselves with present ing here a chronological table of the different king doms, with the periods of their formation, and the sovereigns by whom they were governed.
The first care of Ferdinand and Isabella, after hav ing wisely settled the interior affairs of their domin ions, was the recovery of Granada. An opportunity was soon found for breaking the peace with the Moors; and after a protracted and bloody war, this wealthy kingdom, which hacl occupied a large proportion of the south or the Peninsula, having under its jurisdic tion thirty-two cities and ninety-seven walled towns, was reduced within the small compass of the city of Granada. Being now invested by the Spaniards, and all communication with the surrounding country cut off, the inhabitants were reduced to the utmost ex tremity. The Moors, however, made a gallant de fence: and received an honourable capitulation, in which it was stipulated that the inhabitants should retain the undisturbed possession of their property, the use oJ' their laws, and the free exercise of their religion. Thus this last strong-hold of the Arabs in Spain submitted to the Christian arms, after an almost uninterrupted war of eight centuries, and during which, according to the Spanish historians, three thousand seven hundred battles were fought. Shortly after the battle of Xeres in 712, the Moors had overrun the whole Peninsula, except a small district in the mountains of the Asturias; but the tide of victory was not long in setting in from an opposite direction; and they were gradually driven by the arms of the Christians from all their possessions in Spain: from the Asturias in 716; from Salvarba in 750; from Catalonia in 820; from Leon in 923; from Castile in 1073; from Aragon 1113; from Cordova and Jaen in 1236; from Seville in 1248; from Valentia in 1261; from Murcia 1265; and from Granada in 1492.