Alfonso IV of León

Alfonso IV (c. 890s – 933), called the Monk (Spanish: el Monje), was King of León from 925 (or 926) and King of Galicia from 929, until he abdicated in 931.

Alfonso IV
King Alfonso in a 15th-century manuscript of the Semblanzas de reyes
King of León
Reign925–931
PredecessorFruela II
SuccessorRamiro II
Bornc. 890s
DiedAugust 933
Monastery of Ruiforco
Burial
Basilica of San Isidoro
ConsortOnneca Sánchez of Pamplona
IssueOrdoño IV
Fruela
DynastyAstur-Leonese dynasty
FatherOrdoño II of León
MotherElvira Menéndez
ReligionChalcedonian Christianity

When Ordoño II 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. The exact circumstances of the succession upon Fruela's death one year later are unclear, but the son of Fruela, Alfonso Fróilaz, became king in at least part of the kingdom when his father passed. Sancho Ordóñez, Alfonso, and Ramiro, 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 of Asturias, and divided the kingdom among themselves with Alfonso Ordóñez receiving the crown of León and his elder brother Sancho being acclaimed king in Galicia.[1]

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 of Sahagún.[2] Alfonso had married Onneca Sánchez of Pamplona, niece of his ally Jimeno Garcés and daughter of Sancho I of Pamplona by Toda of Navarre. He had two children: Ordoño IV of León, and perhaps another son, Fruela, who was involved in a land dispute during the reign of Ramiro III of León.[lower-alpha 1]

Notes
  1. A minority of modern scholars including Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz and Manuel Carriedo Tejedo, consider Ordoño IV instead to have been son of his rival Alfonso Fróilaz. Independently, the placement of the Froylani prolis Adefonsi regis (Fruela, son of king Alfonso) of the time of Ramiro III as son of king Alfonso IV rather than king Alfonso Fróilaz has been disputed.

References
  1. Rodriguez Fernández, Justiniano (1997). García I, Ordoño II, Fruela II, Alfonso IV. Burgos: Editorial La Olmeda. pp. 176–178. ISBN 84-920046-8-1.
  2. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Alphonso s.v. Alphonso IV.". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 734.

Bibliography
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