228 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINAlthough the families of Pelagius and Alfonso I managed to main-
tain a monopoly on the kingship, this was not due to a new accept-
ance of hereditary succession, for, as in the Visigothic kingdom, royal
inheritance depended more upon military capacity than upon primo-
geniture. Thus in 768 the infant son of Fruela and Munia was passed
over in favour of the late king's cousin Aurelius, son of Alfonso I's
brother (see Table I). That the dynastic line was maintained despite
such vicissitudes may reflect the more limited bases of power of the
nobility in the Asturian kingdom as opposed to the Visigothic. From
the scant references of the chronicles it looks as if king-making, in
the form of choosing between the various possible candidates from
the royal dynasty, was the prerogative of an Asturian Palatine nobility.
Their choice could be challenged by a claimant with sufficient back-
ing in Galicia or amongst the Basques, ever willing to confront the
central authority of the kingdom. Royal marriages and landholding
gave rival branches of the dynasty particular ties to and claims on the
leaders of these ready sources of manpower.
Aurelius ruled for six years (768-774), and during his reign and
those of his two successors the kingdom and the Amirate of Cordoba
appear to have been at peace, perhaps helped by some of the internal
disorders in the latter. During this reign a servile revolt is reported,
the causes and consequences of which are not recorded beyond the
fact that it was suppressed.^8 As in the Visigothic past there probably
existed a substantial' population of rural slaves tied to the land and
sold with it on most estates including even quite small ones.
Aurelius was succeeded by an Asturian noble called Silo, who had
married Adosinda, the daughter of Alfonso I, and who ruled for nine
years (774-783). At some point in his reign he successfully faced a
revolt in Galicia, and he moved the court from Cangas, where it had
been based since the time of Pelagius, to Pravia, where he built a
church dedicated to Santa Ines (Agnes). On the death of Silo his
widow and the officers of the court proclaimed Alfonso, the son of
Fruela I, but power was successfully seized instead by Mauregatus, an
illegitimate son of Alfonso I, and the young Alfonso was forced to flee
for refuge to his mother's Basque relatives in Alava (see Table I).
Whether it was these Basque connections or his military inexperience
that led to Alfonso's unpopularity is unknown, but he was passed over
again when Mauregatus died after a brief reign (783-788), and
Vermudo I (788-791), brother of Aurelius, was elected to succeed.
This monarch is known popularly as 'the Deacon', for he abdicated