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Birth:          ABT  790 
Death:          1 Feb  850 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramiro_I_of_Asturias
Ramiro I (c. 790 – 1 February 850) was King of Asturias from 842 until his death. He 
was son of King Bermudo I, and became king after a struggle for succession that 
followed the death of Alfonso II without issue. He was a contemporary of Abd ar-
Rahman II, Umayyad Emir of Córdoba. During his turbulent reign, the chronicles relate 
that he had to fend off attacks from both Vikings and Moors. Numerous important 
structures, such as his recreational palace Santa María del Naranco, were built during 
his reign in the estilo ramirense that prefigured Romanesque architecture.
Reign[edit]

Gaining the throne[edit]


 


 Like the statue of Ramiro at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Manuel Rodriguez's 18th-
century depiction of Ramiro has no basis in any contemporary image.
The death of King Alfonso II brought about a succession crisis in the Kingdom of 
Asturias. According to the Chronicle of Alfonso III, credited to Ramiro's grandson, the 
childless Alfonso II chose as his successor Ramiro, his distant kinsman and son of 
Alfonso's predecessor Bermudo I.[1] At the time of King Alfonso's death, Ramiro was 
outside of Asturias in Castile (or Bardulia according to the Chronicle of Alfonso III), 
where he was attending his own marriage ceremonies.

Nepocian, comes palatii and the late king's son-in-law, challenged Ramiro's 
succession in his absence, being supported by Astures and Vascones who had been 
loyal to Alfonso II. Ramiro sought support in Galicia, where he formed an army and 
advanced toward Oviedo.[2] Nepotian awaited Ramiro's advance at Cornellana, by the 
river Narcea where either Ramiro defeated him in the Battle of the Bridge of 
Cornellana[2] or Nepotian's troops fled without putting up a fight.[citation needed] 
Nepotian fled. He was pursued and captured by Counts Scipion and Sonna. After his 
capture, Nepotian was blinded and interned in a monastery. Upon gaining the throne, 
Ramiro removed the system of election through which a faction of nobles had favored 
the succession of Nepotian.[citation needed]

Fending off Vikings[edit]

Early in his reign, Ramiro received word that Viking pirates were attacking along the 
Atlantic coast of France, and were headed in the direction of the Cantabrian coast of 
his own kingdom. The Vikings were mainly in search of navigable rivers and large 
cities to sack. Asturias lacked these; the chronicles of the era refer only to two minor 
attacks[1] in Gijón and in A Coruña, both in 844. These attacks were confronted by 
troops sent by Ramiro.[2]

The Viking invaders, having failed to sack Asturias, later successfully attacked and 
sacked Lisbon and, still later, Cádiz and Seville. They then advanced into the interior 
of the Iberian peninsula and menaced Córdoba. Abd ar-Rahman II organized a large 
army to defeat the invaders and recapture Cádiz and Seville.

The legend of the Battle of Clavijo[edit]

According to legend, in 834 Ramiro defeated the Moors in the Battle of Clavijo. The 
date was later changed to 844 in order to accommodate the contradictions inherent to 
the story (Ramiro was not ruling in 834). The account of the battle came to the 
spotlight on a spurious charter forged in Santiago de Compostela in the early 12th 
century.[3] Neither Asturian nor Arab chronicles of the period make any mention of 
such a battle. It is first mentioned in the chronicles of the Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, 
13th century archbishop of Toledo.

The account of the battle appears to be a mythification of the historical 859 Second 
Battle of Albelda, in which Ramiro's son and successor Ordoño I along with García 
Íñiguez of Pamplona crushed the forces of Musa ibn Musa ibn Qasi.[4][5] According to 
the legend, during the battle, Saint James the Greater, the Moor-Slayer, is said to 
have appeared riding a white horse and bearing a white standard, and aided Asturian 
troops to defeat the Moors. This gave rise to the cult of Saint James in Iberia (see 
Way of St. James).[6][7]

In thanks for the intervention of the Apostle, Ramiro is said to have instituted a forged 
grant called Voto de Santiago actually dating from the 12th century, a tax for the 
benefit of the Church that was finally repealed by the Cádiz Cortes in 1812.[8]

Attempt to repopulate León[edit]

In reality, Ramiro's most important confrontation with the Muslim kingdoms of Iberia 
was not such a success. Emir Abd ar-Rahman II of Córdoba likewise had to face 
Viking invaders, as well as internal rebellions led by Musa ibn Musa, of the Banu Qasi 
family. Ramiro took advantage of the temporary respite by repopulating the city of 
León (see Repoblación).

This particular attempt at repopulation was short-lived. Abd ar-Rahman II dispatched 
both the Vikings and the rebels, and in 846 sent an army led by his son (later 
Muhammad I of Córdoba), forcing the Christians to evacuate León, which the Muslims 
burned. The city was not reoccupied until 856, under Ordoño I.

Internal conflict and harsh justice[edit]

While Asturias under Ramiro was relatively free of foreign confrontations, the latter 
portion of the reign saw much internal conflict. As mentioned above, his ascent to the 
throne had been problematic, and he continued to encounter discontented and 
rebellious nobles. The Chronica Albeldensis makes mention of two of these rebels in 
particular. After defeating the rebel prócer (grandee or high-ranking noble) Piniolo, 
Ramiro condemned him to death along with his seven sons. The leader of the second 
rebellion, the comes palatii Aldroito, he condemned to be blinded.[1]

Ramiro also acted with severity against latrones (thieves) whose number nonetheless 
grew the civil discord of his reign, and against magos, presumably the pagans still 
rooted amongst the more isolated settlements.

The Chronica Albeldensis praises Ramiro as Uirga iustitiae, that is, "the Rod of 
Justice".

Marriages, descendants, and succession[edit]

All that is known of Ramiro's first marriage is that it must have occurred early enough 
for his son to have already been an adult at the time of Ramiro's succession.[9] 
Ramiro's son Ordoño succeeded his father as king of Asturias upon the former's death.

Ramiro contracted his second marriage, to Paterna, around 842, the year of the death 
of his predecessor Alfonso II. The chronicle of his grandson asserts that when Alfonso 
II died, Ramiro was in the Castilian lands for his wedding, suggesting that his wife was 
Castilian. It is presumed that the bride in this marriage was the Paterna who appears 
later as his widow.

There is no solid evidence of children other than Ordoño. Traditionally, Count Rodrigo 
of Castile (died 873) has been named as son of Ramiro and Paterna. The medievalist 
Justo Pérez de Urbel says that Rodrigo was named count of Castile because of his 
link to the Asturian royal family, and that it is possible that this link existed through 
Queen Paterna, but not necessarily through being her son.

Ramiro also may have been the father of Gatón, Count of Astorga and of El Bierzo, 
since the 14th century Al-Bayan al-Mughrib of Ibn Idhari, states that Gatón was the 
'brother' of Ordoño I de Asturias.[10]

Death and burial[edit]

Ramiro died 1 February 850 [ on the sepulcher is Feb 1, 888] in his palace at Santa 
María del Naranco, located on Mount Naranco, near the city of Oviedo. He was 
buried in the Pantheon of Asturian Kings in the Cathedral of San Salvador, Oviedo, 
alongside his second wife, Paterna. His remains were deposited in a stone sepulcher, 
no longer extant, next to a similar sepulcher for his predecessor Alfonso II el Casto. 
His sepulcher was inscribed:

"OBIIT DIVAE MEMORIAE RANIMIRUS REX DIE KAL. FEBRUARII. ERA 
DCCCLXXXVIII. OBTESTOR VOS OMNES QUI HAEC LECTURI ESTIS. UT PRO 
REQUIE ILLIUS ORARE NON DESINETIS".[11]

The Ramirense style in architecture[edit]

The art and architecture of Ramiro's reign forms the Pre-Romanesque Ramirense 
phase of Asturian art. His court was the center of great splendor, of which the palace 
and church of Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo are testimony.

On the southern slopes of Mount Naranco, near the city of Oviedo, Ramiro I ordered 
the construction of the palace of Santa María del Naranco, and a church known as 
San Miguel de Lillo or Liño. The church collapsed in the thirteenth century, and today 
only about a third of the original survives. Related service buildings do not survive 
even as ruins.

Another example of Ramirense architecture is the church of Santa Cristina de Lena, 
near the municipality of Lena, some 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Oviedo. The palace and 
the two churches have been designated World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

Ramirense architecture introduced barrel vaults made of tufa (a relatively lightweight 
limestone). These were novel not only with respect to earlier architecture of the region 
but in terms of the European architecture of the period, including that if Muslim Spain, 
which used wooden roofs.

Depiction in literature[edit]

The historical novel Los clamores de la tierra by the Asturian author Fulgencio 
Argüelles is set in the era of Ramiro I. It begins with the sentencing of Nepotian to be 
blinded, and focuses on Ramiro's fight against the surviving pagan cults of the 
region.[12]

Parents
____ Vermudo (Bermudo) I (ABT  750 -  797)
MUNILONA Ursinda ()

Siblings
____ Ramiro I (ABT  790 - 1 Feb  850)

Marriage To ----- ----- ()
    m.  

Notes


Children by ----- ----- 
____ Rodrigo (ABT  810 - 4 Oct  873)
____ Ordono I (ABT  821 - 27 May  866)

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