ALFONSO VI, king of CASTIGLIA and LEÓN, called the BRAVE. - B. in 1030, d. in 1109, son of Ferdinando I, under whom the great conquests of the Christians in the Iberian Peninsula began. His father had divided the monarchy among his sons: A., to whom León fell; Sancio, who received Castiglia; and García, to whom Galizia went. But Sancio dispossessed his brothers, so that A. had to take refuge in Toledo with the Moorish king Almann; subsequently, however, when Sancio was treacherously killed (1072), A. was proclaimed king of Castiglia and León, and, after the defeat of García, also of Galizia. Arbiter in the internal struggles of the Arabs, he took advantage of them to conquer other lands, including Madrid, and above all Toledo (1085), which became
the centre of Christian strength against the Crescent and the great hearth of the Spanish Church. During A.'s reign, the «Cid Campeador», conqueror of Valenza, was famous. His time also saw the abolition of the Mozarabic liturgy and the adoption of the Roman rite, as had already been done in Aragona and Navarra. The arrival of the African Almoravids, who brought aid to their coreligionists, embittered the final years of A., who thus saw the Christian kingdoms of the Peninsula endangered. At its extreme western end, by concession of A., the county, later kingdom, of Portogallo began, separating from Castiglia.