The Kingdom of Castile was formed in 1065 with the death of Ferdinand I of León, who divided his kingdom amongst his three sons. Castile was granted to Sancho II, the Strong. He was a military leader who intended to reunite the territory his father had conquered and expand south to take more of the Iberian peninsula from the Moorish taifas.

Tributary States

During this period, the Spanish kingdoms received tribute from the taifas known as parias. The Kingdom of Castile currently receives tribute from the taifa Emirate of Zaragoza.

Diplomacy

Sancho sees himself as the leader of the nascent Spanish kingdoms and sees them as ripe for his own expansionist agenda. He also looks to reclaim territory given by his father to the Kingdom of Navarre. He also looks at his brother Garcia's kingdom in Galicia as a ripe target for conquest.

Sancho had stood to inherit all of his father's territory before 1063, when his father promulgated a new succession plan that divided the kingdom amongst the three brothers. Sancho, who felt that all three kingdoms should be his by right, has never accepted his brothers' thrones.

Notable People

One of Sancho's best military commanders is a minor noble by the name of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar. He had fought with Sancho's army in a previous defeat of the Kingdom of Navarre where King Ramiro I was killed by Castilian troops. Rodrigo was given the honorific "el Campeador" for his role in the victory. This was only the beginning of his story, and it is the actions after Sancho's death and Rodrigo's flight from Christian Spain into Moorish Spain that would immortalize him as El Cid.

Flag of the Kingdom of Castile