Alfonso X

SP3011 Lecture Three
Alfonso X el Sabio and the Castilian language

Introduction
The 13th century was crucial to the history of Castile, the history of the Iberian Peninsula as well as the history of what has become the national language of Spain – Castilian. The bulk of the century was dominated by monarchs: Fernando III and Alfonso X.

Fernando III (1217-1252)
The century can becharacterized as that of great expansion-reduction: expansion of Castile and reduction of Al-Andalus. Al-Andalus was the collective name for the Islamic territories in the Peninsula, and it is important to bear in mind that it was much more extensive that modern Andalusia as we know it today.

In fact, by the beginning of the 13th century, it covered the Balearic Islands, Algarve (in present-dayPortugal), the greater part of present-day Extremadura, La Mancha, Valencia, Murcia and Mallorca. But within a single generation, all that was reduced to just a handful of enclaves, such as Niebla, Jerez and mainly Granada, all in vassalage and tribute paying relationships with Castilian monarchs.

The decisive event was the triumph of Alfonso VIII of Castile (with the help of the kings of Navarre andAragon) over the combined forces of Almohades and Andalusians, in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. That defeat was quickly followed by a dynastic crisis in the Almohades Caliphate from 1224. The obvious consequence was fragmentation of Al-Andalus into a series of rival principalities. It was in this context of political crisis and military weakness that was begun the reign of FernandoIII, king of Castile and, at the death of his father, Alfonso IX in 1230, also king of Leon.

So, Fernando III seized the opportunity to conquer everything that was to be conquered. But that spectacular military achievement, in the context of the Reconquista, wouldn’t have come to much good to Castilians without the policies resettling the reconqured territories and of internal pacification thatwent with it. He also provided civil codes (Fuero Juzgo) to the territories.

Conquest and territorial expansion spread Castilian-Romance from the early days of the Reconquista, through resettlements of conquered lands, a process especially accentuated, and consummated, in the 11th to 13th centuries. The results are neatly summarized by Eberenz (1991: 94) in these words: “Desde el final de estafase expansiva (1050-1250), la lengua presenta un grado de homogeneidad que otros idiomas no alcanzarán sino mucho más tarde”.

Garrido Medina (1994: 326-327), for his part, observes:
El castellano, efectivamente, no es el romance del pueblo koinético […], sino la variedad románica que se impone principalmente por conquista: recuérdese el Cid castellano enfrentado a su rey leonés. […] No setrata, entonces, de una lengua del pueblo elevada a lengua del estado, sino de un estado que impone su lengua. En este sentido transcurre la historia: primero se diferencia el castellano como variedad románica, luego se difunde hasta llegar a ser “el idioma general de la nación”.


A key issue to be borne in mind, however, is that, rather than being imposed per se, the emerging language imposeditself; we have no evidence whatsoever that the warriors who spearheaded the Reconquista ever imposed their speech on the people of the reclaimed lands; it simply unfolded, with no active agent(s) involved. That was because the Reconquista enterprise was so infused with a vital socio-cultural conviction – religion – that it created a powerful sentimental solidarity that stifled nationalisticpotentials. In effect, it was a crusade (as declared by Pope Alexander II in 1063) before the Crusade, which pitched Christendom against the infidels. The Moorish invasion galvanized peoples into action, attracting sympathizers and volunteer fighters even from beyond the Peninsula. It is not surprising that, according to the Cantar de Mio Cid, Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid), upon recapturing...