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Birth:          ABT  873 
Death:          3 Jan  924 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordo%C3%B1o_II_of_Le%C3%B3n
Ordoño II (c. 873 – June 924, León) was a king of Galicia from 910, and king of 
Galicia and León from 914 until his death. He was an energetic and feisty ruler who 
submitted only the territories of the kingdom of Leon under his control and fought 
successfully against the Muslims, who still dominated most of the Iberian Peninsula. 
His reign marked the tactical and smooth transition of the regnum Asturum to the 
regnum Legionis, with the royal headquarters already established in the city of León.
Family[edit]

Born around 873, he was the second son of King Alfonso III the Great, king of 
Asturias and his wife, Queen Jimena.

Upon Alfonso's death in 910, the kingdom was divided between his three sons; León 
went to García, Galicia to Ordoño, and Asturias to Fruela. Asturian primacy was 
nevertheless recognised, though Ordoño was of a harder temperament than his 
brothers. Upon García's death in Zamora in 914, Ordoño succeeded him to the throne 
of the León.

Life[edit]

Youth[edit]

His father sent him to Zaragoza to be educated in the court of the Banu Qasi. In 
lifetime of his father he performed in the government of Galicia. He personally 
directed, before the year 910, a military expedition against the Muslims in the south of 
the Iberian Peninsula, which came to the city of Seville. The expedition destroyed and 
looted the neighborhood of Regel, "considered one of the strongest and most 
opulent," as it is referred to by Historia silense, but this neighborhood has not been 
identified with certainty by historians[citation needed].

For unknown reasons, the children of Alfonso III the Great rebelled against their father 
in 909. Although the infant Garcia, brother of Ordoño, was arrested and imprisoned in 
the Gauzón castle, a year after Alfonso III was obligated to abdicate by his children 
and divide his kingdom amongst them. The kingdom of León corresponded to the 
firstborn son, Garcia, the kingdom of Asturias corresponded to that of Fruela and 
Galicia to Ordoño.[1] Alfonso III died in the city of Zamora on December 20 910.

Garcia I kept distant and conflictive relations with his brother Ordoño. When Alfonso 
III died, Garcia prevented the bishop Gennadius of Astorga from taking five hundred 
mizcals, donated by Alfonso III to the shrine of the Apostle, to the city of Santiago de 
Compostela with him.[2]

Accession to the throne of León[edit]

At the death of his brother Garcia, which occurred in the city of Zamora in 914, 
Ordoño II inherited the kingdom of León since, even though his brother had married, 
he died childless.

Reign[edit]

Ordoño continued thereafter the expansion of the Christian polity of his forefathers on 
two fronts. In his south-western territories, he sacked Mérida and Évora and forced 
the Muslim governor of the region to buy his retreat.

In his eastern territories, he united with Sancho I Garcés, king of Navarre, against the 
emir of Córdoba, Abd-ar-Rahman III. The Moors were put to rout at San Esteban de 
Gormaz (917). Arnedo and Calahorra were taken the next year from the Banu Qasi. 
The reaction of Abd-ar-rahman, however, was severe. In 920, he put to march an army 
to recover Osma and San Esteban de Gormaz. He crossed into Navarre and defeated 
the Christians at Valdejunquera and took the bishops of Tui and Salamanca captive. 
Though intending to crush Pamplona itself, he turned around to deal with his immense 
booty.

Ordoño II—who had come at King Sancho's request—attributed the loss to the absence 
of the counts of Castile, who had not come at his call. He brought them together at 
Tejares and had them killed. The Christian counteroffensive was immediate, occupying 
La Rioja and incorporating into Navarre Nájera and Viguera.

He suffered frequent raids into his territory from the armies of Abd-ar-Rahman III and 
he confronted the Castilians who were aspiring to foment revolt in León.

Marriages[edit]

Ordoño married three times. His first wife, and the mother of his children, was Elvira 
Menéndez, daughter of count Hermenegildo Gutiérrez and aunt of San Rosendo.

He then married Aragonta González, daughter of count Gonzalo Betótez. He set her 
aside because "she was not pleasing to him". When he formed a political alliance with 
Sancho I of Pamplona, he was married to that king's daughter, Sancha. He died in 
924 leaving young children, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving brother, 
Fruela, the king of Asturias, thereby reuniting their father's patrimony. His widow would 
remarry Álvaro Herraméliz, Count of Álava, and following his death in 931, became the 
wife of Fernán González of Castile.

Parents
____ Alfonso III "the Great" ( 848 - 20 Dec  910)
GARCES Jimena (ABT  845 - )

Siblings
____ Ordono II (ABT  873 - 3 Jan  924)

Marriage To MENENDEZ Nunja Elvira (ABT  875 -  921)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
GUTIERREZ OF PORTUGAL Hermenegildo (ABT  850 - AFT May  912)
GATONEZ Hermesinde (ABT  850 - )

Children by MENENDEZ Nunja Elvira ABT  875 -  921
____ Ramiro II (ABT  900 - 1 Jan  951)

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