THE CHRISTIAN REALMS 237have been the transfer of the capital from Oviedo, perhaps at first to
Zamora, but within a decade to Leon. The new king, Garcia (910-
913/14) had previously been identified with this frontier region, having
been associated with his father in the repopulation of the Duero, and
governing it from Zamora and Toro in Alfonso's later years. Little is
known of his short reign beyond the success of a great raid that he
led into Extremadura, and on his death the succession passed to his
brother Ordono II (914-924), previously in rebellion against Garcia.
This reign saw a further expansion of the kingdom, principally east-
wards from Castille into the Rioja in alliance with King Garcia Sanchez
of Pamplona (905-925), until checked by the defeat of the two kings
by 'Abd al-Raqman III in 920. Ordono was the effective founder of
the medieval city of Le6n, and was the first of the kings to be buried
there, in the Church of St Mary, formerly a Roman bath-house and
later royal palace which he had had transformed into the episcopal
seat.^22
Both Ordono II and his short-lived brother and successor Fruela II
(924-925) encountered problems in their dealings with their marcher
aristocracies, particularly in Castille. With the growth of the power of
the kings of Pam pIon a in the Rioja from the 920s onwards, the counts
in Castille, notably Fernan Gonzalez (931-970), were able to playoff
the ambitions of that expansionary kingdom against the authority of
their own nominal overlords in Le6n. In this they were assisted by the
existence of a series of disputed successions in the later kingdom,
some of which, through a network of marriage alliances, also led to
the involvement of the rulers of Pamplona.
The succession in turn of three sons of Alfonso III created serious
problems of royal inheritance, for both Ordono II and Fruela II, who
died of leprosy, left male heirs. The eldest son of the former suc-
ceeded in Le6n as Alfonso IV (925-931) while his brother Sancho
Ordonez (925-929) seems to have established an independent king-
dom in Galicia. According to Sampiro, Alfonso IV would much rather
have been a monk than a king and he eventually resigned his throne
to his brother Ramiro II (931-951).23 This story may conceal the
reality of a bloodless coup, for no sooner had the new king left Leon
for Zamora to take command of a raiding expedition, than Alfonso
returned to his former capital and resumed his throne. Ramiro, how-
ever, speedily retook the city and had his brother blinded, together
with three sons of Fruela II, in order to render them incapable of rul-
ing. Forceful if ruthless, Ramiro II was probably the most outstanding,