Alfonso IV called the Monk, was King of León

Kingdom of León

The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...

 from 925 (or 926) and King of Galicia

Kingdom of Galicia

The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...

 from 929, until he abdicated

Abdication

Abdication occurs when a monarch, such as a king or emperor, renounces his office.-Terminology:The word abdication comes derives from the Latin abdicatio. meaning to disown or renounce...

 in 931.

When Ordoño II

Ordoño II of León

Ordoño II was king of Galicia from 910, and king of Galicia and León from 914 until his death. He was the second son of King Alfonso III the Great and his wife, Jimena of Pamplona....

 died in 924 it was not one of his sons who ascended to the throne of León but rather his brother Fruela II of Asturias

Fruela II of León

Fruela II was the King of Asturias from the death of his father, Alfonso III of Asturias, in 910 to his own death. When his father died, the kingdom was divided, with the third son, Fruela, taking the original portion ; the second, Ordoño, taking Galicia; and the eldest, García, taking León...

. The exact circumstances of the succession upon Fruela's death one year later are unclear, but apparently it was the son of Fruela, Alfonso Fróilaz

Alfonso Froilaz

Alfonso Fróilaz, called the Hunchback or, in Spanish, el Jorobado, was the king of Galicia for a short time, from 925 to 926. He seems to have claimed Asturias and León as well, as the inheritor of Fruela II, but was driven from the realm by his cousins Sancho, Alfonso, and Ramiro, the sons of...

, who became king. Sancho Ordóñez

Sancho I Ordóñez

Sancho I Ordóñez was king of Galicia from 926 and until his death, in 929. He was the eldest son of king Ordoño II, and as his father did before him, he acquired the rights to Galicia when he and his brothers divided the kingdom among themselves....

, Alfonso, and Ramiro

Ramiro II of León

Ramiro II , son of Ordoño II, was King of León from 931 until his death. Initially titular king only of a lesser part of Asturias, he gained the crown of León after his brother Alfonso IV abdicated in 931...

, the sons of Ordoño II, claimed to be the rightful heirs and rebelled against their cousin. With the support of king Jimeno Garcés of Pamplona, they drove Alfonso Fróilaz to the eastern marches

Marches

A march or mark refers to a border region similar to a frontier, such as the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales. During the Frankish Carolingian Dynasty, the word spread throughout Europe....

 of Asturias, dividing the kingdom among themselves, Alfonso receiving the crown of León and his elder brother Sancho being acclaimed king in Galicia.

Alfonso IV resigned the crown to his brother Ramiro in 931 and went into a religious house. One year later he took up arms with Fruela's sons Ordoño and Ramiro against his own brother Ramiro, having repented of his renunciation of the world. He was defeated, blinded, and sent back to die in the cloister

Cloister

A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...

 of Sahagún

Sahagún

Sahagún can refer to:*Sahagún, Spain, a town and monastery in Léon, Spain. Cradle of the Mudéjar architecture*Sahagún, Córdoba, the second town in population in Córdoba Department, Colombia, also called "The Cultural City of Cordoba"People...

. By his wife Oneca, daughter of Sancho I of Pamplona

Sancho I of Pamplona

Sancho I Garcés was king of Pamplona from 905 to 925. He was a son of García Jiménez, who was king of "another part of the kingdom" of Pamplona and Dadildis de Pallars, his second wife...

, he had two children: Ordoño IV of León

Ordoño IV of León

Ordoño IV, called the Wicked or the Bad , son of Alfonso IV of León and nephew of Ramiro II, was the king of León from 958 until 960, interrupting the reign of Sancho the Fat for a two year period...

, and another son, Fruela, who was involved in a land dispute during the reign of Ramiro III of León

Ramiro III of León

Ramiro III , king of León , was the son of Sancho the Fat and his successor at the age of only five. During his minority, the regency was in the hands of two nuns: his aunt Elvira Ramírez of León, who took the title of queen during the minority, and his mother Teresa Ansúrez, who was put in a...

.

External links

• Genealogy trees are here and here.
• Spanish language
  Spanish language
  Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
  
   articles are here and here.
• List of Kings of León.

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