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| 3. Christian Spain, Castile and Leon |
| 718–37 |
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| Pelayo, with the Visigothic leaders who escaped Tarik, created the kingdom of Asturias in northwestern Spain, south of the Bay of Biscay. Pelayo's victory over the Moors at Covadonga (718?–725) marks, according to 13th-century clerical propagandists of royal and aristocratic elites, the start of the reconquista (reconquest), a sacred patriotic effort to wrest power from the Muslims and restore Christian rule in Spain. Asturias, a remote and barren land, did not interest the Muslims. | 1 |
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| 739–57 |
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| Alfonso I assigned to the Church a generous share of the lands conquered from the Muslims and used the clergy as a counterweight to the aristocracy. | 2 |
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| 791–842 |
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| Alfonso II reestablished Visigothic styles of administration in Asturias. | 3 |
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| 899 |
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| Miraculous discovery of the bones of St. James the Greater and erection of the first church of Santiago de Campostella, which became the center of the Spanish national cult and one of the most influential shrines in Europe. | 4 |
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| 910–14 |
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| Garcia, king of Leon, began a rapid expansion of his domain to the east (construction of numerous castles, hence the name Castile). | 5 |
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| c. 930–70 |
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| Count Fernán González, count of Burgos (later, Castile), marked the rise of the counts of Burgos. By intrigue and alliance with the Muslims, he expanded his domain at the expense of Leon, and made the country of Castile autonomous and hereditary. His progress was arrested by Sancho the Fat of Leon (d. 966), who was in alliance with Abd ar-Rahman III. | 6 |
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| 1001–35 |
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| Sancho the Great of Navarre effected a close union of Castile and Navarre and began the conquest of Leon. | 7 |
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| 1035–65 |
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| Ferdinand (Fernando) I, of Castile, completed the work by conquering Leon (1037) and assuming the title of king of Leon. (See The Iberian Peninsula) | 8 |
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