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Kingdom of Asturias (Latin: Regnum Asturorum) was the first Christian political entity established in Iberian península after the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom of Hispania when the king Rodrigo dissapeared in the Battle of Guadalete and the following Arab conquest of Iberian península. In its first decades, territorial expansion of Asturias was limited to the Cantabrian coast and its nearby areas. Later, Asturian kings started a strong expansion which at 10th century reached the Douro river.
It’s assumed that this kingdom starts at 718, when Don Pelayo is elected as princeps (leader) of Astures. Its the historical precedent of Castilla and Portugal.
Expansion:
Celtic backround:
The Asturian kingdom originated in the western and central territory of the Cantabrian Mountains, part of the Gallaecia, particularly the Picos de Europa and the central area of Asturias. According to the descriptions of Strabo, Dio Cassius and other Graeco-Roman geographers, several peoples inhabited the lands of Asturias at the beginning of the Christian era, most notably the Cantabrians and Astures.
They were an array of different clans and tribes of Celtic or Arcaic proto-Celtic (Hallstatt) culture, and after the Cantabrian Wars were progressively Latinized, though due their isolated and remote location they were able to keep their ethnic identity, were Christianized later and resisted the assimilation to the Roman culture.
Their fight, firstly against Roman and later against Vandals, Swabians and Visigoths, was creating a common identity between those peoples. Several archaeological digs in the castro of La Carisa (municipality of Lena) have found remnants of a defensive line whose main purpose was to protect the valleys of central Asturias first from the Visigoths and later from Moors who came from the Meseta through the Pajares pass: the construction of these fortifications reveals a high degree of organization and cooperation between the several Asturian communities, in order to defend themselves from the southern invaders. Carbon-14 tests have found that the wall dates from the period 675-725 AD, when two armed expeditions against the Asturians took place: one of them headed by Visigothic king Wamba (reigned 672-680); the other by Muslim governor Musa bin Nusair, during the Islamic conquest of Iberia who settled garrisons over its territory.
Bridge of Cangas de Onis, first capital of the Asturian kingdom:
Moorish occupation:
In the progress of the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the main cities and administrative centers fell in the hands of Muslim troops. Control of the central and southern regions presented few problems for the newcomers, who used the existing Visigothic administrative structures, ultimately of Roman origin. However, in the northern mountains, urban centers (such as Gijon) were practically nonexistent and the submission of the country had to be achieved valley by valley. Muslim troops often resorted to the taking of hostages to ensure the pacification of the newly conquered territory.
After the first incursion of Tarik, who reached Toledo in 711, the Yemeni viceroy of Ifriqiya, Musa ibn Nusair, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar the following year and carried out a massive operation of conquest. During the last phase of his military campaign, he reached the northwest of the Peninsula, where he gained control of the localities of Lugo and Gijon. In the latter city he placed a small Berber detachment under a governor, Munuza, whose mission was to consolidate Muslim control over Asturias.
Asturian revolt against Islam:
Astur leaders, who gathered in Cangas de Onís on 718 leaded by Don Pelayo, decided to rebel rejecting to pay the imposed taxes, the Jaray and Yizzia. After some attacks done by local Muslim troops, Munuza asked for a military intervention with troops from Cordoba. Though they didn't give importance about what was happening there, the vali Ambasa sent an army commanded by Al Qamma, estímated at 800 up to 1400 soldiers (187.000 according the Chronicle of Albelda).
About the troops of Don Pelayo the recent historiography estimate they were about 300. Together with them, waited the Moors in a strategic point, the narrow valley of Cangas of Picos de Europa mountains, where a organized attackers don’t have space enough to handle and lose the efectiveness that number of troops and organization could give them. There, on 722, happened the clash, whose dimension is unknow and could have been a battle or a simple skirmish. The point is that Saracen troops were decimated, forcing Munuza to escape from Gijon, where he was at this moment. The Muslim governor didn’t manage to escape because he and his troops were killed. About one hundred, commanded by Pelagius, had ocuppied the famous cave of Covadonga, attacking from there against the confused Moorish troops. Al Qama died there, while his forces had great loses in their disrupted escape due to the fall of a hillside, probably induced, near Cosgaya in Cantabria.
Cave of Covadonga, where the battle took place:
Battle of Covadonga meant the first victory of a rebel sector against the Muslim armies and allowed that the kingdom was not attacked anymore. The victory resulted in great prestige for Pelayo and provoked a massive insurrection by other nobles in Galicia and Asturias who immediately rallied around Pelayo, electing him Princeps (this tittle had a great tradition and was widely extended among the Celtic indigenous peoples from North of Spain). Pelayo continued attacking those Berbers who remained north of the Asturian-Galician Mountains until they withdrew.
Celtic and indigenous character of Asturias:
Kingdom of Asturias emerged from the union of the Celtic indigenous peoples which had resisted both Roman and Visigoths and were unwilling to accept to accept Islam and be conquered by Ummayad Empire.
Don Pelayo, the Asturian leader, holding the cross as a sign of victory over Islam:
Don Pelayo was buried in a dolmen area dating from Megalithic period, probably from 4000-2000 BC (Abamía), and his son Favila, killed by a bear, was buried on the dolmen of Santa Cruz. These burials seems to follow ancestral ritual patterns of the Astur tribal leaders. Also, the refuge in Covadonga shows a pronounced ritual meaning. So, this was a place of worship of the Deva (goddess in Celtic), what gives name to the river which flows from the cave, in a clear process of Christianization over places of Pagan worship.
Monarchical succession in the Asturian monarchy was done under laws of Celtic origin, remainders of a prior matriarchal structure: so, wife often transmitted hereditary rights to husband, as happened in the cases of kings Alfonso I and Silo, who reached power due to their wifes Ermesinda and Adosinda, both relatives of Pelayo. Only in a later period, after Ramiro I of Asturias, is imposed definetely the succession by patrilineal line.
Asturian kingdom as a precedent of Castilla and Portugal:
With its expansion towards south reaching the city of Leon, the capital was moved there, being born then the kingdom of Leon, which in turn will be the direct forerunner of the kingdoms of Portugal and Castile. Asturias has been traditionally considered the “embryo” of Spain.
"With this sign thou shalt defend the pious, with this sign thou shalt defeat the enemy"
Coat of arms of the first capital of the kingdom. Cross defeats the crescent, oak left (the sacred tree for Celts).
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