ALFON'SO I. OF CASTILE and VI. OF LEON, "the Valiant" (1030-1109). fie was the son of Ferdinand the Great, King of Castile and Leon. Leon was given to him by his father; Sancho, the eldest son, received Castile; Garcia, youngest of the three, a part of Galicia and Portugal. Al fonso came to the throne in 1065. War soon broke out between the brothers, and in 1068 Sancho defeated Alfonso in a bloody battle on the Pisu erga. Three years later Alfonso defeated Sancho on the Carrion; but Sancho, reenforced, it is said, by the renowned Cid, Roderigo Diaz de Bivar, nearly annihilated the Leonese army, took Alfonso prisoner, compelled him to abdi cate, and shut him up in a monastery. Alfonso escaped and sought shelter with theMoo•ish King of Toledo. Sancho took possession of Leon and immediately attacked Garcia, defeating and cap turing him at Santarem. In 1072 Sancho was assassinated by a Castilian knight, and Alfonso, upon solemnly declaring himself innocent of the murder, was reinstated in his kingdom of Leon, to which was added Castile. His brother Gar cia. who was preparing to recover the throne of Galicia, was treacherously invited to his court, made a prisoner, and died in confinement ten years later. Alfonso now ruled over nearly all
of his father's kingdom, and went to the assist ance of the Moorish King, who had befriended him and whose kingdom was being invaded by Cordovans. Alfonso's gratitude ended with the death of the old king; he did not scruple to at tack his son, and soon captured the city of To ledo, thin. adding New Castile to his dominions. Alfonso was monarch of most of Christian Spain, when a powerful Almoravide army from Africa, with the assistance of the King of Seville, in flicted upon him a terrible defeat, in 1086, near Zalaca. He gradually regained strength, but in 1108 the Moors destroyed his army and killed his only son. The next year Alfonso died and was succeeded by his daughter, LTrraest, who be came the wife of Alfonso I. of Aragon. His illegitimate daughter, Theresa, married Henry of Burgundy, and gave birth to the first King of Portugal.