Don Pelayo

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For other uses, see Pelayo and other people with the same name.
Pelayo
Prince of the Astures
Don Pelayo, King of Asturias, work by Luis de Madrazo y Kuntz
Reign718–737
SuccessorFavila
BornUnknown
Died737
Cangas de Onís (Asturias)
Burial
Holy Cave of Covadonga
SpouseGaudiosa
IssueSee Marriage and issue
HouseAstur-Leonese
FatherDuke Favila ?
ReligionCatholic

Pelayo or Pelagius (in Latin, Pelagius; in Arabic, Belai al-Rumi),[lower-alpha 1] frequently referred to as Don Pelayo, is considered the first monarch of the Kingdom of Asturias, which he ruled for 19 years. His origin, which has been debated in recent decades by a number of researchers, may have been Visigothic, Astur or Hispano-Roman. International historiography leans toward a Visigothic origin,[1] although the most recent historiography considers him to be of Astur-Roman origin.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

The testament of Alfonso III, from the year 869,[12] in which the Great King donates to the priest Sisnando the church of Santa María de Tenciana (Tiñana, Siero), which his uncle Alfonso the Chaste had obtained from the properties belonging to his great-grandfather Pelayo, links Pelayo territorially with the central area of Asturias, although without providing any information about his place of origin.

He halted the northward expansion of the Muslims, began the Reconquista, and has traditionally been considered the founder of the Kingdom of Asturias, although recent archaeological research suggests that he may have done so on top of a previous local political organization.[13] [lower-alpha 2] For the Arabic sources, Pelayo's Hispano-Roman origin leaves no doubt, since he is named Belai al-Rumi: "Pelayo the Roman".

The Chronicles

Monument to Don Pelayo in Cangas de Onís, Asturias (Spain).

There are two main written sources of the Astur monarchy that refer to the existence of Pelayo. The more extensive of these chronicles is the so-called Albeldense, a text written around 880 at the court of Alfonso III. Contemporary with the former (in any case later than 887), and born in the same milieu, is the one commonly known as the Chronicle of Alfonso III, in its two versions, the Rotense or vulgar and the Sebastianense or learned. There is broad agreement among the historians who have studied them that the general purpose of these accounts was to establish an idea of continuity between the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo and the early Astur kingdom: the Chronicles declare that the Astur kings are successors of Leovigild and Recared,[15] and they also try to create an institutional continuity between the two political realities.[16] Modern historiography agrees that these declarations constitute a paradigm called Neo-Gothicism, probably fueled by Mozarabic influences, which, real or fictitious, served very well the political interests and the strengthening of the personal prestige of Alfonso III.[17]

  • In the Albeldense Chronicle (year 881), Pelayo, expelled from Toledo by Witiza, takes refuge in Asturias. When the Muslim invasion takes place, he is elected in concilium princeps of the Astures[citation needed] and puts an end to the Islamic garrisons of the region stationed in Gijón, where the wali Munuza governed, between 717 and 722, proceeding to administer the territory and collect tributes. "Then those of the hosts of the Saracens who had survived the sword were buried by the judgment of God when a mountain collapsed in Liébana".
  • In the Rotense Chronicle, Pelayo appears as a former spatharius of Witiza and Rodrigo who flees with his sister from Muslim domination. Despite his flight, Pelayo, once in Asturias, enters into close contact with Munuza, the Muslim governor of Gijón. The latter, in love with Pelayo's sister, sends the Gothic noble to Córdoba, from where Pelayo manages to escape in 717 and, after a dramatic return, succeeds in reaching safety among the Astures, whom a little later he manages to rouse to revolt after having himself named their prince.
  • In the Sebastianense Chronicle, the most Neo-Gothicist of them all, reworked from the Rotense by Bishop Sebastián, nephew of Alfonso III himself, the novelistic background is dispensed with, although for the first time noble origins are attributed to Pelayo by making him the son of a supposed duke named Fáfila or Favila.
Don Pelayo according to a medieval miniature preserved in the National Library of Spain.

The three texts agree in depicting a legendary figure who corresponds to the ideals of the members of the Mozarabic community who had taken refuge at the court of Alfonso III, namely: being Gothic (non-Muslim), having emigrated (non-collaborationist) and practicing an uncompromising Christianity (non-renegade). These descriptions, so apparently idealized and in keeping with the interests of the Asturian regime, would lead one to suspect that they are for the most part literary creations;[18] it would thus be the creation of a "Neo-Gothicist political archetype" that would contribute very little or nothing to the study of the historical figure.[19] In favor of this theory, that Pelayo's Gothic origins are an invention, there is also the fact that in the so-called Mozarabic Chronicle — written in 754 (and therefore very close in time to the events) and which purports to be a continuation of the History of the Goths (Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum) of Isidore of Seville — the figure of Pelayo is not even mentioned. It would be logical to see detailed in this Chronicle the events by which a Gothic noble, supposedly the son of a dux, was reestablishing in the north the Visigothic monarchy of Toledo, becoming the lineal successor of Rodrigo, which implies that for the author of the chronicle the formation of the new kingdom of the Astures and its Princeps Pelayo had very little or no relevance to the history of the Visigothic monarchy.[20]

The current state of the question

The Astur origin of Pelayo

The grotto of Covadonga, refuge of Don Pelayo

The thesis that Pelayo was of Astur origin is the option followed by a large part of modern historiography.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Don Pelayo at the Battle of Covadonga in an image from the 12th century, folio 23 recto of manuscript 2805 of the National Library of Spain. It is one of the copies of the Corpus pelagianum of Bishop Pelayo of Oviedo, made from a prototype (even in the miniatures) probably produced in the scriptorium of this Bishop Pelayo. The unusual crown corresponds to models from the end of the 11th century, of the type worn by the monarch in the center of the lunar tables of manuscript 17 of St. John's College, Oxford (c. 1080–1100), like those of the Liber testamentorum.[21]
  • The personal name Pelayo is not Germanic (as all the names of the Visigothic kings are), but derives from the Latin Pelagius, sailor, which points to a Hispano-Roman origin of the figure. Moreover, this name was used profusely by the inhabitants of northwestern Hispania.
Basilica of the Sanctuary of Covadonga.
  • The information provided by non-chronicle documentation speaks of a figure long linked to Asturias who owns landed estates in the region, which is very difficult to explain for a Gothic refugee recently arrived from Toledo. In the testament of Alfonso III, from the year 869,[22] the Great King donates to the priest Sisnando the church of Sancta María de Tenciana (Tiñana, Siero), which his uncle Alfonso II had obtained from his great-grandfather, which links Pelayo territorially with the Castiello de Fozana, considered one of the first fortresses built by the Astur elites in the 6th century,[23] after the Roman collapse. When the chronicle documentation refers to Pelayo's first moments, it does not do so as if he were a Gothic Prince restoring the lost kingdom of Toledo, but as the princeps of the Asturorum regnum, whereas the logical thing would have been to consider him rex of the Gothorum regnum Asturae. At the beginning of the 9th century (812) a text known as the Testament of Alfonso II (Testamentum Ecclesiae Sancti Salvatoris) expresses the same idea: Pelayo is king of the Christians and Astures.[24]
  • For their part, the Arabic chronicles, which had little or no interest in manipulating his ancestry, attribute Astur origins to Pelayo, and refer to him as Belay al-Rumi, that is, Pelayo the Roman, alluding to his non-Gothic origin. Al Maqqari (1578–1632) speaks of an infidel named Pelayo, a native of Asturias and adds that with him begins a new dynasty that reigns over a new people.[lower-alpha 3] Ibn Jaldún concludes that Ibn Hayyan says that they are descendants of the Goths, but such an opinion is mistaken.[lower-alpha 4]
  • The election of a military leader by the Astures rebelling against the new invading power in the concilium of Mount Auseva in 718 stamps the origins of the asturorum regnum with an indigenist and popular seal. This grassroots indigenist legitimism, which barely surfaces in the chronicle texts, displaced as it is by official Neo-Gothicism, has given rise to recent historical interpretations that make Pelayo a local Astur leader elected in an assembly of lineage chiefs to lead the insurrection, and which explain more plausibly the switch to the offensive of some Astures who were still rebelling against Visigothic rule in the time of Wamba (680), just as the Asturian chronicles themselves recalled (Astores et Uascones crebo reuelantes plures vices edomuit et suo imperio subiugauit).[25]
  • It is worth noting that the events of his life take place in places of pre-Roman worship. Such as his burial in the megalithic area of Abamia, which probably dates from the period c. 4000–2000 BC, or that of his son Favila in the dolmen of Santa Cruz.[26] These burials seem to follow ancestral ritual patterns of the Astur tribal chiefs and bear no relation whatsoever to Visigothic traditions. The refuge at Covadonga also shows a marked ritual character. Thus, the site shows remains of the cult of the deva (lit. goddess in Celtic), and that is the name of the river that springs from the cave, in a clear process of overlaying Christianization ("la Santina") on places of pagan worship.
  • Finally, one cannot fail to highlight the fact that the transmission of power within the Asturian monarchy was carried out following rules of Celtic origin,[27] remnants of an earlier matriarchal structure unimaginable in Germanic succession law: thus, the woman often transmitted hereditary rights to her husband, as happens in the cases of Kings Alfonso I and Silo, who came to power thanks to their wives Ermesinda and Adosinda, respectively, both of the family of Pelayo. Only at a later time, starting with the defeat of Nepociano at the hands of Ramiro I of Asturias, was succession through the patrilineal line definitively imposed.[28]

Pelayo as son of a supposed dux Asturiensis

Monument to Don Pelayo in Covadonga, Asturias (Spain).

This hypothesis, put forward in the early 1990s by professors Julia Montenegro (University of Valladolid) and Arcadio Del Castillo (University of Alicante), basically states that Pelayo was a Goth, son of the dux asturiensis Favila, and that, as a result of the alliances established by his father, this would have allowed him to be elected prince by the Astures at the Council of Mount Auseva.

The theory starts from a premise that is taken as proven: Pelayo was a Goth. Modern historiography almost unanimously accepts the idea that Don Pelayo was a Visigothic noble who took refuge in Asturias and managed to become the leader of the hitherto unredeemed northern tribes.[29]

To this end the authors start from the Arabic sources: Who could Don Pelayo be? Certainly a Visigoth (Ibn Hayyan as quoted by Ibn Jaldun). The reference is accurate: Ibn Hayyan says that they are descendants of the Goths… (Ibn Jaldun), but they do not take into account Ibn Jaldun's own opinion, "... but such an opinion is mistaken".

Now, if it is accepted that Pelayo was of Gothic origin, the question is how he could have taken over the government of Astur society. This is where the hypothesis is put forward, based on the creation — a process that occurred between the years 653 and 683 — of the new provincial district in Asturias,[30] under whose command a dux asturiensis would have been found, and on the literal reading of a single passage of the learned version of the Chronicle of Alfonso III, according to which Pelayo was the son of Fáfila or Favila, a duke of royal blood. As can be seen, the theory rests on unreliable foundations: if the duchy of Asturia existed and if Pelayo was the son of a duke, Pelayo would be the son of the duke of Asturia who would have died at the hands of Witiza in the time of King Égica. This hypothesis has been strongly criticized for falling into serious contradictions (Isla Frez, 1995): "The institutional continuity of the Kingdom of Asturias with respect to the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo is indisputable" (Montenegro and Del Castillo, 1992) / "for us it is evident that there was no continuity between the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo and that of Asturias" (Montenegro and Del Castillo, 1994)[31] and for ignoring archaeological results that show the absence of traces of Gothic settlement and the insufficiency of evidence of truly effective control of Asturias by the Toledan kingdom.[32]

The proposal of Pelayo as the son of the dux Asturiensis Favila had previously been made by Eloy Benito Ruano.[33]

Rebellion and reconquest of Gigia (present-day Gijón)

King Don Pelayo at Covadonga, by Luis de Madrazo. 1855. (Museo del Prado, Madrid).

After the arrival in the year 714 of Musa's expedition in Asturias, the Berber chief Mnuza or Munuza was put in charge of the troops and the administration of the northern half of the peninsula, establishing himself at the head of a Muslim garrison in Gijón,[citation needed] while others secured the territory and attacked the last remnants of resistance. The most important families of the Astur aristocracy, among them that of Pelayo, sent hostages to Córdoba to guarantee the capitulation. However, in the time of the wali Al-Hurr (717–718), Pelayo returned to the mountains of Asturias, where he was elected princeps or leader of the Astures according to one of the chronicles.[34] After some years of mutual harassment, during the governorship of Anbasa (722), Munuza sent a detachment of troops to Pelayo's refuge in Piloña. The Astur leader and his men took refuge on Mount Auseva, where they waited for the Muslim troops, while Munuza ordered reinforcements from the meseta to put an end to the resistance. There they ambushed the Muslim detachment, which was annihilated. This military action is known as the Battle of Covadonga. After this battle, Pelayo was crowned king with a crown made of oak branches in the so-called Campo de la Jura, near Cangas de Onís, by two of his captains, Suero Buyeres de Caso and his son-in-law Don Anean de Estrada.[35]

Don Pelayo on the coat of arms of Gijón

The chronicles relate that, after the defeat at Covadonga, Munuza fled with his forces, probably for fear that the people of Gijón would join the revolt or for fear that the Asturian troops who had defeated his own troops would catch up with him in the city. After abandoning the city, Munuza tried to leave Asturias through the Mesa pass, while the victorious troops of Covadonga made forced marches to cut off his escape toward the meseta, Munuza and his troops being defeated once again and Munuza killed at Olalíes, in the present-day municipality of Santo Adriano. Pelayo seized Gijón without much effort, once the Muslim troops and Munuza had tried to flee and had been annihilated in the attempt. When the news of the taking of Gijón spread through Muslim lands, many Christians joined Pelayo's army. The Kingdom of Asturias had Cangas de Onís as its first capital and Pravia as its second, with Oviedo becoming the capital under the reign of Alfonso II. As an indication of the importance of Munuza's death according to this version, it is worth noting that he was the general in command of the troops in the north of the Iberian Peninsula and that his death could be considered significant within the Muslim military organization.

However, other later chronicles state that Munuza managed to escape alive and place him, with considerable certainty, in charge of the Berber troops in the frontier zones of similar mountainous geography in the eastern Pyrenees. Treaties and a similar marriage alliance with the Aquitanian duke would lead him to marry the duke's daughter, after which, and with the duke's alliance as protection, he rose in rebellion against his Arab superiors in alliance with the Franks, perhaps seeking to carve out a niche of power at the strategic point of the Pyrenees. He was suppressed by the emir's troops in a punitive campaign intended to undo the danger that this position would have posed for the newly created al-Andalus.

It should be emphasized that the Muslims were more interested in expanding through France and advancing toward the center of Europe, where they were stopped by Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers (Tours), than in clearing their rearguard of small hostile kingdoms that remained isolated in the face of the Muslim advance.[citation needed]

Early territorial extent of the kingdom

However, the triumph of the revolt did not lead Pelayo to establish his court in Gijón, which was the most important city of Late Imperial Asturias, but rather he settled in Cangas de Onís, located in the foothills of the Picos de Europa: the insecurity of his situation made it advisable to take refuge in mountainous territory that was not very accessible to Muslim aceifas. But once the Kingdom was consolidated decades later, the royal seat was moved successively to Pravia by King Silo, husband of Adosinda, Pelayo's granddaughter, and later to Oviedo.

At first it seems that Pelayo's kingdom extended over the so-called nuclear Asturias, which comprised at least the central and eastern territories of present-day Asturias, according to the account of the Albeldense Chronicle, whose events take place between the civitate Gegione and Covadonga. It was his successors, such as Alfonso I of Asturias or Fruela I of Asturias, who, by absorbing smaller political entities (such as the counties of Trasmiera or Sopuerta), extended the domains of the Kingdom of Asturias as far as Galicia and Biscay.

Death and burial

Tomb of King Don Pelayo in the Holy Cave of Covadonga.

King Don Pelayo died in Cangas de Onís, where he held his court, in the year 737. After his death, his body was buried in the church of Santa Eulalia de Abamia, located in the Asturian locality of Abamia, in which his wife, Queen Gaudiosa, had previously been buried. On the Gospel side of that church the empty sepulcher that held the King's remains is preserved today and, opposite it, placed on the Epistle side, is the one that held the remains of Don Pelayo's wife. The chronicler Ambrosio de Morales recorded in his work that Alfonso X the Wise, King of Castile and of León, ordered the remains of King Don Pelayo and those of his wife to be moved to the Holy Cave of Covadonga.[36]

In a natural cavity of the Holy Cave of Covadonga, placed in a stone tumulus, rest today the remains of King Don Pelayo, those of his wife and those of Ermesinda, the King's sister. The following inscription is carved on the sepulcher:[37]

AQVI YACE EL S REY DON PELAIO ELLETO EL AÑO DE 716 QUE EN ESTA MILAGROSA CUEBA COMENZO LA RESTAVRACION DO ESPAÑA BENCIDOS LOS MOROS FALLECIO AÑO 737 Y ACOMPAÑA SS M/gEr Y ErMANA

Notwithstanding the above, numerous historians have questioned the authenticity of the transfer of the remains of King Don Pelayo and his wife to Covadonga.[36]

Marriage and issue

Don Pelayo married Gaudiosa, and two children were born of their marriage:

The Spanish writer José Ángel Mañas recreated the figure of Don Pelayo in the novel ¡Pelayo! (La Esfera de los Libros, 2021).[39]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Pelayo the Roman".
  2. ↑ "His possible local origin seems more logical when interpreted from the standpoint of his relationship with Asturias and, specifically, with the eastern area. What does not seem plausible is that the leading role was played by a Visigothic nobility settled in Asturias to an extent we do not know".[14]
  3. ↑ Al Maqqari: "Some historians relate that the first who gathered the Christian fugitives of Spain, after the Arabs had seized it, was an infidel named Pelayo, a native of Asturias in Galicia, whom the Arabs held as a hostage for the security of the people of that country and who fled from Córdoba in the time of Al-Hurr ibn Abd Al-Rahman Al-Thaqafi, second of the Arab emirs of Hispania, in the sixth year after the conquest, which was 98 of the Hegira [716–717]. He roused the Christians against Al-Hurr's lieutenant, they drove him away "and became masters of the country, in which they remained reigning, the number of their kings who reigned until the death of Abd Al-Rahman III amounting to twenty-two".
  4. ↑ Ibn Jaldún: "These kings are of a family of Gallaecia; it is true that Ibn Hayyan says that they are descendants of the Goths, but such an opinion is mistaken in my view, for this nation had already lost power and it rarely happens that a nation that has lost it manages to recover it. It was a new dynasty that reigned over a new people, but only God knows the truth".

References

  1. ↑ Collins 1989, p. 147; Reilly 1993, pp. 75–76; Deyermond 1985, p. 346; Hillgarth 2009, p. 66 n. 28
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Barbero, Abilio & Vigil, Marcelo. 1978, "La formación del feudalismo en la Península ibérica". Colección biblioteca histórica de España. RBA
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Menéndez Bueyes, L. Ramón. 1995-96, "Algunas notas sobre el posible origen Astur-Romano de la nobleza en el Asturorum Regnum", in Studia historica. Historia antigua no. 13-14 (pp. 437-455). His possible local origin seems more logical when interpreted from the standpoint of his relationship with Asturias and, specifically, with the eastern area.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Fernández Conde F. Javier & Benito Ruano, Eloy. 1979, "Historia de Asturias IV. La alta edad media". Ed. Ayalga
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Jiménez García, Ana M. 1991, "La cultura visigoda en Asturias", in Historia de Asturias I (p. 266). Oviedo
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Collins, Roger. 1991, "La conquista árabe (710-191)". Ed. Crítica.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Rodríguez Muñóz, J. M. 1990, "Los primeros siglos medievales: El Reino de Asturias". Enciclopedia Temática de Asturias. Vol. 11 (p. 112). Gijón
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Torrente Fernández, Mª Isabel. 1990, "La Monarquía asturiana. Su realidad y los relatos históricos". In Historia de Asturias Vol. III (pp. 309-324). Oviedo
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Mínguez Fernández, José Mª. 1991, "Poder político, monarquía y sociedad en el reino astur-leonés en el período de su configuración". In Estructuras y formas del poder en la historia (pp. 73-88). Universidad de Salamanca
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Dacosta Martínez, Arsenio F. 1992, "Notas sobre las crónicas ovetenses del siglo IX: Pelayo y el sistema sucesorio en el caudillaje asturiano". Studia historica. Historia medieval No. 10, (pp. 9-46). Universidad de Salamanca
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Isla Frez, Amancio. 1995, "Consideraciones sobre la monarquía Astur". In Hispania: Revista española de historia Vol. 55, No. 189 (pp. 151-168). Ed. CESIC
  12. ↑ Risco, Fr. Manuel, España Sagrada, tomo XXX-VII, Madrid, 1789
  13. ↑ Noticia en La Voz de Avilés
  14. ↑ Menéndez Buyes, L. Ramón (1995–1996). "Algunas notas sobre el posible origen Astur-Romano de la nobleza en el Asturorum Regnum" (PDF). Studia historica. Historia Antigua (in español) (13–14): 437–455. ISSN 0213-2052.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  15. ↑ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón. 1962, "Los reinos de la Reconquista I. El reino de Asturias", in Historia de España. The intention of the chronicles is to regard the Asturian kings as the immediate continuators of the kings of Toledo.
  16. ↑ Barbero, Abilio & Vigil, Marcelo. 1978, "La formación del feudalismo en la Península Ibérica". Colección biblioteca histórica de España. RBA. p. 233. The fundamental idea was that the Astur kingdom was a continuation of the Visigothic kingdom.
  17. ↑ Menéndez Bueyes, L. Ramón. 1995, "Transformaciones y evolución en la Asturias transmontana. De la romanización al reino de Asturias". In Férvedes No. 2 (pp. 176-179). Museo De Prehistoria e Arqueoloxía de Villalba. Lugo. When analyzing the character of the Astur monarchy we must not let ourselves be deceived by the scant but self-interested (Neo-Gothicist) information of the Asturian Chronicles, which seek to exalt the royal figure.
  18. ↑ Dacosta Martínez, Arsenio F. 1997, «¡Pelayo vive! un arquetipo político en el horizonte ideológico del reino astur-leonés». Espacio, tiempo y forma. Serie III, Historia medieval No. 10 (89-136). UNED
  19. ↑ Dacosta Martínez, Arsenio F. 2004, "Relato y discurso en los orígenes del reino asturleonés". Studia historica. Historia medieval No. 22 (pp. 153-168). Universidad de Salamanca: It is possible to conclude that the construction of the figure of Pelayo (in the Cronicae) is carried out both through his explicit description and through the definition of settings (geography, words) and of opposites (the Others).
  20. ↑ Mariezcurrena Ponce, Salvador I. 2000, "El mito gótico en las primeras crónicas altomedievales". In Revista La Graja No. 3 (pp. 26-32). No reference in the chronicle allows Toledan legitimacy to be linked with the Asturian nucleus of resistance; there is not even any reference to it.
  21. ↑ Raquel Alonso Álvarez, «El obispo Pelayo de Oviedo (1101-1153): historiador y promotor de códices iluminados», Semata. Ciencias Sociais e Humanidades, 2010, vol. 22, pp. 334-335. ISSN 1137-9669
  22. ↑ Risco, Fr. Manuel, España Sagrada, tomo XXX-VII, Madrid, 1789
  23. ↑ http://www.elcomercio.es/asturias/201604/26/primera-fortaleza-reino-astur-20160426002958-v.html
  24. ↑ Floriano Cumbreño, Antonio. 1949, "Diplomática española del período astur" no. 1 doc. 24 (p. 118). Ed. IDEA, Oviedo
  25. ↑ Coronas González, Santos M. 2000, "El orden constitutivo del reino de Asturias (718-910)". In Anuario de historia del derecho español No. 70 (pp. 9-36). Ed. M.J.: These same Astures, gathering in a traditional concilium, do not seem to be incorporated into the military structure of any "Asturicensian duchy" (which, in any case, would have been created at the end of the 7th century to put down their continual rebellions), but rather, according to the official chronicles themselves, appear as the protagonists of a singular act, constitutive of the new chieftainship monarchy, by electing Pelayo as prince in line with their persistent indigenism.
  26. ↑ Jordá Cerdá, Francisco. 1962, "Notas sobre la Cultura Dolménica en Asturias", in Archivum Vol 12. Universidad de Oviedo
  27. ↑ García Quintela, Marco V. 2002, "La organización socio-política de los Populi del Noroeste de la Península Ibérica". In TAPA: traballos de arqueoloxía e patrimonio No. 28 (pp. 16-122): in Hispania we would be dealing with variants of a succession system that could be described as Celtic.
  28. ↑ Rubio Hernansáez, Luis. 1997, "Los astures y los inicios de la Monarquía Astur (Una aproximación)". In Antigüedad y cristianismo: Monografías históricas sobre la Antigüedad tardía, No. 14 (pp. 299-322). Universidad de Murcia: Nepociano becomes king following the same rule used by Alfonso I and Silo. This explains why Ramiro had to go to Galicia to raise an army and could expect nothing from the Astures against the one who was rightfully their king. Ramiro I represents the triumph of the Gothic element over the indigenous tradition.
  29. ↑ Montenegro, Julia y Del Castillo, Arcadio. 1992, "Don Pelayo y los orígenes de la reconquista: un nuevo punto de vista". In Hispania. Revista española de historia vol. 52 (pp. 5-32)
  30. ↑ It would derive from the existence of an ancient province "Asturiensis", which is accepted by some historians who have carried out research on the Visigothic kingdom (García Moreno, Luis A. 1989, "Historia de la España Visigoda", Madrid); for its part, and as a result of certain important data: Saint Valerius of Bierzo wrote his autobiography in the second half of the 7th century, the Ordo querimonie, and says that he was a native of the province "Asturiensis", a place of "very dense thickets, rough and rugged" (Fernández Pérez, Adolfo y Friera, Florencio. 2005, "Historia de Asturias" (p. 165)). The Anonymous of Ravenna, an anonymous work of the 7th century, names "Asturia" as one of the eight (previously there were only six) provinces of Hispania. The acts of the Thirteenth Council of Toledo record the presence of eight duces provinciae, two more than in other periods. The Chronicle of Alfonso III, in its Rotense version, says that the Arabs placed governors at the head of all the provinces: «Per omnes prouincias Spanie prefectos posuerunt». Munuza was the prefect placed at the head of the "Asturiensis" (although the capital of the Province would have been Astorga and not Gijón).
  31. ↑ Montenegro, Julia y Del Castillo, Arcadio. 1994, "Análisis crítico sobre algunos aspectos de la historiografía del reino de Asturias". In Hispania. Revista española de historia vol. 54 (pp. 397-420)
  32. ↑ Gutiérrez González, J. Avelino. 2007, "La formación del territorio de Asturias en el período de la monarquía asturiana". In Enciclopedia del Prerrománico en Asturias vol I (pp. 17-56). Fundación Sta. Mª la Real – CER. Aguilar de Campoo: the acceptance of the duchies of Asturia and Cantabria c. 653-683, with respective capitals at Astorica and Amaia, each headed by a dux (GARCÍA MORENO, 1974), in relation to the domination of the northern territories by the Toledan monarchy, is problematic. We lack literary or archaeological testimonies that confirm the effective domination of Asturias. The very imprecision of the boundaries of such duchies as well as the absence of traces of Gothic settlement argue for nil or scant integration. We observe that in large areas of the northwest, including Asturias, the absence of any imprint of Visigothic rule is total. The silence – or absence – of sources emanating from the central power (both written and archaeological: founding of churches, monasteries, burials, etc.) suggests to us that the population and the local powerful enjoyed relative autonomy. In the absence of the state apparatus it would have been the seniores who directed the organizational processes of production and taxation at the local level.
  33. ↑ Benito Ruano, E. 1979, "Historia de Asturias", vol. IV, Salinas
  34. ↑ Crónica Rotense, 8. Fernández Conde, F.J., Las raíces de la Reconquista. Covadonga. — Historia de Asturias. (La Nueva España) and Barrau-Dihigo, L. (1921): Recherches sur l'historie politique du royaume asturien (718–910).
  35. ↑ Rodríguez, Fabián (1873). "Galería de Asturianos Ilustres" (in español). Tomo II: 1002. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 Arco y Garay 1954, pp. 128–130.
  37. ↑ Valle Poo 2000, p. 168.
  38. ↑ García Villada (1918), p. 115
  39. ↑ Sergio Fanjul (October 26, 2021). "Vuelve Pelayo, el mito que reivindica la extrema derecha y al que mira de reojo la ficción". El País (in español). Retrieved June 25, 2022.

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