Brief biography of Alfonso x el Sabio

One of the most influential personalities in history in the cultural development of Spain was Alfonso X of Castile, monarch who received the nickname "El Sabio" for the extensive knowledge of him in different cultural and artistic fields. In addition to this, he was a great promoter of the creation in the Castilian language, managing to displace the use of Latin and placing the Romance language as the official language of the kingdom of Castile. In addition to his political work fighting against the Muslim invasion, Alfonso de Castilla created three cultural centers and he collaborated in the poetic creation in Castilian with a lyrical work that has gone down in history as an authentic work of art: the Cantigas de Santa María.

In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to offer you a brief biography of Alfonso X the Wise so that you know the cultural work of this monarch who managed to unify Castilian and nurture the kingdom with a rich artistic and cultural body of his own.

We started this

brief biography of Alfonso x el Sabio to meet one of the most important figures for the development of culture, history and the Castilian language. The real name of this monarch was Alfonso X of Castile and he was king of said crown during 1252 and 1284.

Like his father's, Alfonso X continued his fight against the Muslims, occupying territories that had been invaded by the Arabs, such as Cádiz or Jerez. He was, therefore, one of the essential figures in the Spanish reconquest but his work did not focus solely on political issues but, in fact, he went down in history with the nickname of "El Sabio" precisely because he was an arduous promoter of culture and of the Castilian language.

Political work of Alfonso X the Wise

But let's continue with the most relevant data of this summarized biography of Alfonso X the Wise: born on November 23, 1221 in the city of Toledo and, from a very young age, he already excelled in military tasks such as the conquest of the Kingdom of Murcia occupied by the Muslims. This Christian work continued during his reign and ended up being one of the essential figures of the Reconquest, recovering areas of Al-Andalus.

His mother was Beatrice of Swabia and, due to her mother's German origin, tried to invade Germany. But the Pope of Rome ended up opposing this invasive policy and, in the end, the King of Castile had to renounce his conquest. This period is known by the name of "date of the Empire" and, while it lasted, it brought with it a great economic expense for part of Castile as well as the armed collaboration of many Spanish citizens who lost their lives in the guerrillas. At the end of this invasive attempt, Castile was very economically damaged and, therefore, the currency law had to be reduced and new taxes had to be created.

Due to the king's prolonged absences, the Arab Benimerines landed on the Peninsula in 1272 ending with the assassination of Fernando de la Cerda who would be the heir to the throne. This meant that, during the last years of his reign, there were certain conflicts in relation to the occupation of the throne After the death of him and Alfonso he was forced to face his two sons to stay as the future king of Castile. The monarch ended up dying on April 4, 1284 in Castile.

Cultural work of Alfonso X the Wise

However, the facts for which this monarch is most remembered was for his cultural work. He organized three cultural centers in cities as important as Murcia, Seville or Toledo itself and, in the latter, he founded the School of Translators which was in charge of translating and collecting materials from all over the world. world. He promoted poetic creation and he himself wrote compositions to offer, thus, a model to the rest of authors who would like to follow him and imitate his style.

This made that, in addition to being monarch, Alfonso X the Wise was also an important author of the time with a great artistic creation among which highlights its Cantigas de Santa María. Next we are going to focus on this creative facet of the king to discover his influence on the cultural and linguistic development of the country.

One of the reasons why the monarch promoted cultural and artistic creation was to consolidate the Spanish language but, nevertheless, at that time the language used in the Alphonsi works was very varied: there are varieties with influences Leonese, others with oriental dyes although, in general, the most used Castilian was the one spoken in Toledo, the birthplace King. But in the lyric, Alfonso used Galician-Portuguese, the language with which the Cantigas is written.

The cultural work of Alfonso X the Wise was one of the most prolific of the history of Spain and, to carry it out, the monarch collaborated with intellectuals from other parts of the world such as Latinos, Hebrews or Muslims. The focus of this cultural creation was the Toledo School of Translators, which was working to create an important literary work in the Spanish language.

Among the works of Alfonso X el Sabio that have most influenced the cultural life of the country is, without a doubt, the Cantigas de Santa María, the most outstanding poetic production of the monarch and that served as a model to follow for many poets of the time who began to create lyrical productions with new and renewed airs.

Las Cantigas was the only literary work created by Alfonso X of Castile that was not written in Castilian but was made with Galician-Portuguese. It is a work inspired by the Virgin Mary and that has a lyrical character; Most of them were personally written by the king himself and are constituted as hymns that praise the holy figure of the Virgin.

This work is composed by 427 poems that move between narrative and lyrical and where very different metrics abound although, for the most part, the structure of the creations is inspired by the song and they have a chorus. The subject on which these cantigas speak is allegorical and legendary character where some miraculous event that is attributed to some saint is narrated. 10% of the production are songs that praise the Virgin and these songs of praise are accompanied by a musical score.

We continue with this brief biography of Alfonso x el Sabio to emphasize the works written by the monarch himself because, in addition to the already mentioned Cantigas, the king also participated in the production of other artistic and cultural productions. Such is the point that it is considered the founder of Castilian prose Furthermore, it was during his time that Spanish became the official language of the kingdom, thus leaving the Latin that had prevailed until then in the background.

This king was known as "The Wise One" not only because he actively participated in the creation of a cultural work in Spanish but, above all, because he was skilled in many sciences and knowledge. He had studies of astronomy, history and legal sciences, among many other areas; For this reason, he decided to found the three great cultural centers distributed in Murcia, Toledo and Seville. In these centers, as well as in the aforementioned School of Translators, cultural works were produced and disseminated that can be grouped as follows:

1) Legal works

Among the works of Alfonso X the Wise, we highlight the legal ones, that is, those productions that wanted to unify the Hispanic territory so that the whole country could have the same essence and not be so cracked. This is how projects such as "Code of the seven games"(1256) that he undertook to recover Roman traditions and unite them with the traditions of Castile. Thanks to this work, the laws of Roman law and common law that had so expanded throughout Europe were incorporated into the territory.

2) Scientific or recreational works

Among these works stand out the "Astronomy lore books", a compendium that brings together the monarch's knowledge of astronomy and also includes astronomical tables (also known as Alfonsi tables) that aim to gather all the knowledge that existed at the time about the astronomy.

In this category of works by Alfonso X the Wise we also highlight the "Lapidario" (1276) which is of a treatise on precious stones and metals, as well as the "Books of chess, dice and boards".

3) Historical works

Among the great works of this category are the "Chronicle general "and" La grande e general estoria ", two texts that aimed to unify the territory and relate the country to universal history.

4) Poetic works

In addition to the Cantigas de Alfonso X el Sabio, the monarch also wrote other pieces of a poetic nature. In fact, he composed 453 poems where we find a parodic and ironic language that make him the first lyrical author of the Castilian language. However, as we have already pointed out, his religious production was the most outstanding.