The Christian Kingdoms and the Reconquista to 1212

The Battle of Covadonga, traditionally dated to 722 or 718, is conventionally considered the symbolic beginning of Christian resistance to Muslim rule; the Visigothic noble Don Pelayo led a small band of fighters in the mountains of Asturias and was proclaimed king, founding the dynasty that became the Kingdom of Asturias. Alfonso II moved the court to Oviedo and, around 813-814, became the first king to visit the tomb attributed to the apostle Saint James, giving rise to the cult of Santiago, while Alfonso III the Great drove notable territorial expansion toward the Duero valley in the ninth century, in a kingdom whose neo-Gothic ideology presented itself as the legitimate heir of the destroyed Visigothic monarchy.