Estoria de España
Encyclopedia
The Estoria de España, also known in the 1906 edition of Ramón Menéndez Pidal
as the Primera Crónica General, is a history book written on the initiative of Alfonso X of Castile
"El Sabio" ("the Wise"), who was actively involved in the editing. It is believed to be the first extended history of Spain in Old Spanish
, a West Iberian Romance language
that forms part of the lineage from Vulgar Latin
to modern Spanish. Many prior works were consulted in constructing this history.
The book narrates a history beginning in Biblical
and legend
ary origins and continues
through the history of Castile
under Fernando III of Castile. In the style of chronicles of its time, it begins by retelling the stories of remote origins found in the Bible. From the time of Moses
onward, the mix begins to include Greek
sources on ancient history. However, as the story continues, the details become increasingly detailed, especially from the Germanic invasions to the time of Alfonso's father Fernando III
.
The work is divided into four large parts. The first includes a history of Ancient Rome
: the medieval European monarchs considered themselves heirs to the Roman Empire
. The second tells the history of the barbarian and Gothic kings, treated as antecedents within the Iberian Peninsula
. The third is a history of the Kingdom of Asturias
from which the Reconquista
(the Christian reconquest of Iberia from Muslim rule) began. The fourth and final part is a history of the Kingdoms of León
and Castile
.
The Estoria is divided into four large parts; the chapter numbers are from Menéndez Pidal's edition:
As early as 1271 Alfonso authorized a version, known as the "Royal" or "Primitive" version, which carried the history only down to the reign of Fernando I of Castile (reigned 1033–1065), with some rough drafts down to the time of Alfonso VII of León and Castile (reigned 1135–1157). A serious political crisis in 1272 —a rebellion by nobility hostile to Alfonso's imperial ambitions—postponed work for several months. The team of scholars continued working with less supervision from the king, producing the "Concise" or "Vulgar" version in 1274. These editions completed in the 1270s, already had the four-part structure.
Unfortunately for Alfonso X, the following years were hardly more peaceful: Maghreb
i invasions, rebellions, the premature death of his designated heir Fernando de la Cerda. Furthermore, Alfonso undertook another monumental literary project: the compilation of a universal history entitled General estoria or Grande e general estoria. This interrupted work on the Estoria de España, but, given the focus back to Biblical times, the subject matter overlapped significantly. Work was not resumed until 1282, when Alfonso established his court in Seville. In the light of recent and difficult times, Alfonso disowned the original version of 1271, and proposed a new edition reflecting the experience of facing a rebellious forces including even his own son Sancho
. This "Critical" version was not completed in Alfonso's lifetime.
Sancho, succeeding Alfonso as Sancho IV of Castile, continued the work, producing the "Amplified" version of 1289.
In its various versions, the Estoria de España spread, expanded, and served as historical canon well into the modern era. A definitive edition was approved by Alfonso X up to chapter 616. The contradictions identified in the latter chapters of Menéndez Pidal's edition, the Primera Crónica General, can be attributed not to the will of Alfonso, but to Menéndez Pidal making use of late and unsatisfactory manuscripts of the Estoria.
Ramón Menéndez Pidal
published the texts of two manuscripts (the second continuing the story of the first), which concludes with the Muslim conquest
of Spain) conserved at the library of El Escorial
, which he believed to be originals from the time of Alfonso X. He entitled the collection the Primera Crónica General de España - Estoria de España que mandó componer Alfonso el Sabio y se continuaba bajo Sancho IV en 1289 ("First general chronicle of Spain: History of Spain ordered to be composed by Alfonso the wise and continued under Sancho IV in 1289"). Later critics—especially Diego Catalán
—demonstrated that only the first manuscript and the earlier parts of the second came from the royal ateliers. The rest was an assemblage of manuscripts of various origins, dating from the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th. These were undoubtedly brought together by chancellor Fernán Sánchez de Valladolid towards the end of the reign of Alphonse XI
.
written a century earlier by John of Salisbury
and then in vogue in political circles of the Christian West: the kingdom is a body, the king its head and heart, the people the limbs. Recognizing the difficulty of putting into practice the precepts inspired by these ideas, the king proposed to develop a panoply of scientific, literary, artistic, and historical works intended to convey his political ideas through the several juridical collections he drafted, notably the Espéculo and the Siete Partidas
.
The Estoria played a role in elaborating a common past for the nation (in the medieval sense of that word), to build an identity, and for the individual to find his place in this group. National history is recounted in such a way as to inspire in the readers behaviors sought by the monarchy. The Estoria elaborates a moral basis for the king and his designs by furnishing positive and negative examples to his subjects—at least those who had access to books. Though that was a relatively small proportion of the populace, it was a relatively large proportion of the often rebellious nobility
. For example, the narration of the fall of the Visigoths provides an occasion to denounce the evil of internal wars. This history of Spain written in Castilian court served also to support the Neogothic ideology the kingdoms of León and Castile were the repositories of the authority of kings Visigoths who fled the Muslim conquest
. In claiming the legacy of the Goths, who had secured the political and religious unity of the entire peninsula, the Castilians soughy to impose their hegemony on various peninsular kingdoms: Aragon
, Navarre
, Portugal and of course the Muslim territories.
, bishop
of Tuy
, known as el Tudense, and De rebus Hispaniae
(1243) by Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada, bishop of Toledo
, known as el Toledano. Besides these sources, Alfonso and his collaborators drew on other medieval Latin chronicles, the Bible, classical Latin historiography, ecclesiastical legends, chansons de geste
, and Arab historians.
The existence of written epic
s in languages descended from Vulgar Latin was not unprecedented, but there had never before been such detailed and expansive chroniclers' prose
versions of these poems, tho the point where one can reliably reconstruct lost chansons de geste, such as the Condesa traidora ("Traitor Countess"), the Romanz del Infant García ("Romance of Prince García") and the Cantar de Sancho II ("Song of Sancho II"), as well as large fragments of the Siete Infantes de Lara ("Seven Princes of Lara"), the Cantar de Fernán González ("Song of Fernán González) and the Gesta de las Mocedades de Rodrigo ("Deeds of the Young Rodrigo").
Arabic influences can be seen in Alfonso's style, with the use of comparisons and simile
s not habitual in the Western prose of the time. They can also be seen in an historic perspective and a notable equilibrium in episodes to which Andalusian
sources brought a different focus. Arab historiography can also be credited for the awareness in the Estoria de España of economic and social aspects of history.
This adoption of Castilian as the language for the work led to a true process of literary creation. Under Alfonso X, in this and other works, Castilian becomes a literary language.
Alfonso's nephew Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, author of Tales of Count Lucanor ("Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio") was greatly inspired by the Estoria.
Ramón Menéndez Pidal
Ramón Menéndez Pidal was a Spanish philologist and historian. He worked extensively on the history of the Spanish language and Spanish folklore and folk poetry. One of his main topics was the history and legend of The Cid....
as the Primera Crónica General, is a history book written on the initiative of Alfonso X of Castile
Alfonso X of Castile
Alfonso X was a Castilian monarch who ruled as the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1252 until his death...
"El Sabio" ("the Wise"), who was actively involved in the editing. It is believed to be the first extended history of Spain in Old Spanish
Old Spanish language
Old Spanish, also known as Old Castilian or Mediaeval Spanish , is an early form of the Spanish language that was spoken on the Iberian Peninsula from the tenth century until roughly the beginning of the fifteenth century, before a consonantic readjustment gave rise to the evolution of modern...
, a West Iberian Romance language
West Iberian languages
West Iberian is a branch of the Romance languages which includes Castilian, Ladino, the Astur-Leonese group , and the modern descendants of Galician-Portuguese...
that forms part of the lineage from Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
to modern Spanish. Many prior works were consulted in constructing this history.
The book narrates a history beginning in Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
ary origins and continues
through the history of Castile
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
under Fernando III of Castile. In the style of chronicles of its time, it begins by retelling the stories of remote origins found in the Bible. From the time of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
onward, the mix begins to include Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
sources on ancient history. However, as the story continues, the details become increasingly detailed, especially from the Germanic invasions to the time of Alfonso's father Fernando III
Ferdinand III of Castile
Saint Ferdinand III, T.O.S.F., was the King of Castile from 1217 and León from 1230. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile. Through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. He finished the work done by his maternal grandfather Alfonso VIII and consolidated the...
.
The work is divided into four large parts. The first includes a history of Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
: the medieval European monarchs considered themselves heirs to the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. The second tells the history of the barbarian and Gothic kings, treated as antecedents within the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
. The third is a history of the Kingdom of Asturias
Kingdom of Asturias
The Kingdom of Asturias was a Kingdom in the Iberian peninsula founded in 718 by Visigothic nobles under the leadership of Pelagius of Asturias. It was the first Christian political entity established following the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom after Islamic conquest of Hispania...
from which the Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
(the Christian reconquest of Iberia from Muslim rule) began. The fourth and final part is a history of the Kingdoms 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...
and Castile
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
.
Structure
As discussed below, not all of the Estoria de España was completed during the reign of Alfonso X. The edition of Ramón Menéndez Pidal does not show all of the work actually completed during that reign and endorsed by Alfonso, but has the advantage of providing a linear narrative that offers the reader a comprehensive narrative history of Spain from its origins to the death of Fernando III, as intended by Alfonso.The Estoria is divided into four large parts; the chapter numbers are from Menéndez Pidal's edition:
- Prologue by Alfonso X, written in the first person
- First part : Primitive and Roman history (chapters 1–364):
- History of primitive Spain and history of Spain in the era of the Roman consulRoman consulA consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
s (1–116) - Eara of Julius CaesarJulius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
(117–121) - Era of the Roman EmpireRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
(122–364)- Second part : Visigothic history (chapters 365–565):
- Barbarian kings and the first Visigothic kings until EuricEuricEuric, also known as Evaric, Erwig, or Eurico in Spanish and Portuguese , Son of Theodoric I and the younger brother of Theodoric II and ruled as king of the Visigoths, with his capital at Toulouse, from 466 until his death in 484.He inherited a large portion of the Visigothic possessions in the...
(365–429) - Later Visigothic kings (430–565)
- Third part : Asturian-Leonese history (chapters 566–801):
- Asturian-Leonese kings (566–677)
- Leonese kings (678–801)
- Fourth part : Castilian-Leonese history (chapters 802–1135)
Editions
There were two major periods of work on the book. The first was occurred between circa 1260 and 1274. The second, producing the version known as the "critical version", was written between 1282 and 1284, the date of Alfonso's death.As early as 1271 Alfonso authorized a version, known as the "Royal" or "Primitive" version, which carried the history only down to the reign of Fernando I of Castile (reigned 1033–1065), with some rough drafts down to the time of Alfonso VII of León and Castile (reigned 1135–1157). A serious political crisis in 1272 —a rebellion by nobility hostile to Alfonso's imperial ambitions—postponed work for several months. The team of scholars continued working with less supervision from the king, producing the "Concise" or "Vulgar" version in 1274. These editions completed in the 1270s, already had the four-part structure.
Unfortunately for Alfonso X, the following years were hardly more peaceful: Maghreb
Maghreb
The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...
i invasions, rebellions, the premature death of his designated heir Fernando de la Cerda. Furthermore, Alfonso undertook another monumental literary project: the compilation of a universal history entitled General estoria or Grande e general estoria. This interrupted work on the Estoria de España, but, given the focus back to Biblical times, the subject matter overlapped significantly. Work was not resumed until 1282, when Alfonso established his court in Seville. In the light of recent and difficult times, Alfonso disowned the original version of 1271, and proposed a new edition reflecting the experience of facing a rebellious forces including even his own son Sancho
Sancho IV of Castile
Sancho IV the Brave was the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1284 to his death. He was the second son of Alfonso X and Yolanda, daughter of James I of Aragon.-Biography:...
. This "Critical" version was not completed in Alfonso's lifetime.
Sancho, succeeding Alfonso as Sancho IV of Castile, continued the work, producing the "Amplified" version of 1289.
In its various versions, the Estoria de España spread, expanded, and served as historical canon well into the modern era. A definitive edition was approved by Alfonso X up to chapter 616. The contradictions identified in the latter chapters of Menéndez Pidal's edition, the Primera Crónica General, can be attributed not to the will of Alfonso, but to Menéndez Pidal making use of late and unsatisfactory manuscripts of the Estoria.
The Primera Crónica General de España (1906)
In 1906, philologistPhilology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
Ramón Menéndez Pidal
Ramón Menéndez Pidal
Ramón Menéndez Pidal was a Spanish philologist and historian. He worked extensively on the history of the Spanish language and Spanish folklore and folk poetry. One of his main topics was the history and legend of The Cid....
published the texts of two manuscripts (the second continuing the story of the first), which concludes with the Muslim conquest
Umayyad conquest of Hispania
The Umayyad conquest of Hispania is the initial Islamic Ummayad Caliphate's conquest, between 711 and 718, of the Christian Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania, centered in the Iberian Peninsula, which was known to them under the Arabic name al-Andalus....
of Spain) conserved at the library of El Escorial
El Escorial
The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a historical residence of the king of Spain, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about 45 kilometres northwest of the capital, Madrid, in Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and...
, which he believed to be originals from the time of Alfonso X. He entitled the collection the Primera Crónica General de España - Estoria de España que mandó componer Alfonso el Sabio y se continuaba bajo Sancho IV en 1289 ("First general chronicle of Spain: History of Spain ordered to be composed by Alfonso the wise and continued under Sancho IV in 1289"). Later critics—especially Diego Catalán
Diego Catalán
Diego Catalán was a Spanish philologist. He was the grandson of famed philologist, Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Catalán died of heart disease on April 9, 2008, at the age of 83.- References :...
—demonstrated that only the first manuscript and the earlier parts of the second came from the royal ateliers. The rest was an assemblage of manuscripts of various origins, dating from the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th. These were undoubtedly brought together by chancellor Fernán Sánchez de Valladolid towards the end of the reign of Alphonse XI
Alfonso XI of Castile
Alfonso XI was the king of Castile, León and Galicia.He was the son of Ferdinand IV of Castile and his wife Constance of Portugal. Upon his father's death in 1312, several disputes ensued over who would hold regency, which were resolved in 1313...
.
Worldview
The Estoria puts forth a worldview heavily influenced by the PolicraticusPolicraticus
Policraticus is a book of ethical and political philosophy written by John of Salisbury around 1159. Although addressing a wide variety of ethical questions, it is most famous for attempting to define the responsibilities of kings and their relationship to their subjects...
written a century earlier by John of Salisbury
John of Salisbury
John of Salisbury , who described himself as Johannes Parvus , was an English author, educationalist, diplomat and bishop of Chartres, and was born at Salisbury.-Early life and education:...
and then in vogue in political circles of the Christian West: the kingdom is a body, the king its head and heart, the people the limbs. Recognizing the difficulty of putting into practice the precepts inspired by these ideas, the king proposed to develop a panoply of scientific, literary, artistic, and historical works intended to convey his political ideas through the several juridical collections he drafted, notably the Espéculo and the Siete Partidas
Siete Partidas
The Siete Partidas or simply Partidas was a Castilian statutory code first compiled during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile , with the intent of establishing a uniform body of normative rules for the kingdom. The codified and compiled text was originally called the Libro de las Leyes...
.
The Estoria played a role in elaborating a common past for the nation (in the medieval sense of that word), to build an identity, and for the individual to find his place in this group. National history is recounted in such a way as to inspire in the readers behaviors sought by the monarchy. The Estoria elaborates a moral basis for the king and his designs by furnishing positive and negative examples to his subjects—at least those who had access to books. Though that was a relatively small proportion of the populace, it was a relatively large proportion of the often rebellious nobility
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
. For example, the narration of the fall of the Visigoths provides an occasion to denounce the evil of internal wars. This history of Spain written in Castilian court served also to support the Neogothic ideology the kingdoms of León and Castile were the repositories of the authority of kings Visigoths who fled the Muslim conquest
Umayyad conquest of Hispania
The Umayyad conquest of Hispania is the initial Islamic Ummayad Caliphate's conquest, between 711 and 718, of the Christian Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania, centered in the Iberian Peninsula, which was known to them under the Arabic name al-Andalus....
. In claiming the legacy of the Goths, who had secured the political and religious unity of the entire peninsula, the Castilians soughy to impose their hegemony on various peninsular kingdoms: Aragon
Kingdom of Aragon
The Kingdom of Aragon was a medieval and early modern kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain...
, Navarre
Kingdom of Navarre
The Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
, Portugal and of course the Muslim territories.
Sources
The sources upon which the work draws most heavily for details were the lengthy Latin chronicles that, at that time, constituted the most complete account of the history of Spain: the Chronicon mundi (1236) by Lucas de TuyLucas de Tuy
Lucas de Tuy was a Leonese cleric and intellectual, remembered best as a historian. He was Bishop of Tuy from 1239 until his death....
, bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of Tuy
Tuy
Tuy may refer to:Places:*Ocumare del Tuy, a city in the Miranda State in northern Venezuela* The Tuy river in Venezuela*Santa Teresa del Tuy, a city in the state of Miranda, Venezuela...
, known as el Tudense, and De rebus Hispaniae
De rebus Hispaniae
De rebus Hispaniae or Historia gothica is a history of the Iberian peninsula written in Latin by Archbiship of Toledo Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada en the first half of the thirteenth century on behalf of King Ferdinand III of Castile....
(1243) by Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada, bishop of Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
, known as el Toledano. Besides these sources, Alfonso and his collaborators drew on other medieval Latin chronicles, the Bible, classical Latin historiography, ecclesiastical legends, chansons de geste
Chanson de geste
The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds", are the epic poems that appear at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known examples date from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, nearly a hundred years before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the trouvères and...
, and Arab historians.
The existence of written epic
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
s in languages descended from Vulgar Latin was not unprecedented, but there had never before been such detailed and expansive chroniclers' prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
versions of these poems, tho the point where one can reliably reconstruct lost chansons de geste, such as the Condesa traidora ("Traitor Countess"), the Romanz del Infant García ("Romance of Prince García") and the Cantar de Sancho II ("Song of Sancho II"), as well as large fragments of the Siete Infantes de Lara ("Seven Princes of Lara"), the Cantar de Fernán González ("Song of Fernán González) and the Gesta de las Mocedades de Rodrigo ("Deeds of the Young Rodrigo").
Arabic influences can be seen in Alfonso's style, with the use of comparisons and simile
Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things, usually by employing the words "like", "as". Even though both similes and metaphors are forms of comparison, similes indirectly compare the two ideas and allow them to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas...
s not habitual in the Western prose of the time. They can also be seen in an historic perspective and a notable equilibrium in episodes to which Andalusian
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
sources brought a different focus. Arab historiography can also be credited for the awareness in the Estoria de España of economic and social aspects of history.
Significance for language
The great originality of the Estoria de España was to write such a work in the Castilian language of its time, rather than Latin. Since the time of Alfonso's father Fernando III, this had become a language of court. A translation of the Libro Juzgo, a compendium of Visigothic law, had been translated during Fernando's reign. Still, systematic use of what would now be called Old Spanish begins in the time of Alfonso X, in particular because of the ever wider circulation of manuscripts of the Estoria and other works in the court, to the nobility, and to the monasteries and cathedrals. This began the cultural hegemony that led Castilian to become the dominant language of Spain and, later, its empire.This adoption of Castilian as the language for the work led to a true process of literary creation. Under Alfonso X, in this and other works, Castilian becomes a literary language.
Alfonso's nephew Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, author of Tales of Count Lucanor ("Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio") was greatly inspired by the Estoria.