THE CHRISTIAN REALMS 241
(970-994), who is known to have had a wife, Queen Urraca, and
whose brother Ramiro (d. 991) bore the title King ofViguera. (See
Table II.) This makes the manuscripts and their royal patron Navarrese,
not Leonese as is usually believed, a conclusion of some importance
not least for the history of the monastery of Albelda. But their evi-
dence for renewed royal interest in the legal heritage of the Visigoths
in both the civil and ecclesiastical spheres, as also attested to by the
act of confirmation by Vermudo II, is unequivocal.
The reign of the latter monarch in Leon was principally marked by
the destructive raids directed against the kingdom by Al-Man~ur which
resulted in the sacking of the city of Leon in 988 and of Santiago in
- The cathedral erected by Alfonso III was destroyed but the relics
of the Apostle were left undisturbed, a surprising decision on the part
of Al-Man~Ur if, as is usually believed, he was motivated by religious
fanaticism and sought the complete obliteration of the Christian states.
Vermudo II began the work of restoration and a new church was
consecrated in 1003, but by that time the king was dead, leaving a
three-year-old child as his successor.
The resulting minority, together with a growing threat from Navarre
now under the rule of its most forceful monarch, Sancho Garces III
'the Great' (1004-1035), limited the ability of the Leonese to take
advantage of the sudden decline and eventual collapse of the Umayyad
Caliphate that followed the ending of the ascendancy of the sons of
Al-Man~ur in 1008. Alfonso V (999-1027) showed considerable pol-
itical and military skill, but was killed beseiging Viseu in an attempt
to resume his kingdom's expansion in central Portugal. Ten years
later his son Vermudo III 0027-1037), the last of the direct line of
the heirs of Alfonso I, fell in battle with his brother-in-law Fernando
I, the creator of a new kingdom of Castille and Leon. (See Table II.)
Stark as the narrative history of the kingdom must be as a result of
its limited sources, some additional information can be gleaned from
the corpus of extant charters. In particular several of the kings emerge
as patrons of monasticism. Sahagun, which was to become the centre
of Cluniac observance in Spain from the late eleventh century on,
makes its first appearance in a charter of donation of Alfonso III in
904, and many of his successors, notably Ramiro II, followed with
further benefactions. Another royal foundation was Carracedo, estab-
lished by Vermudo II in 990. Some monasteries, as for example
Celanova and Samos in Galicia, attracted considerable royal interest
both in the form of gifts and also in confirmations by charter of the
