Alphonse VI of Castille, called the Valiant one, king de Castille (1065-1109), king de León (1072-1109) with the death of his/her brother, king de Tolède (1085-1109) by conquest and king de Galice (1090-1109) with the different death of sound brother.

He was the son of Ferdinand I of Castille, León and Asturies and Sancha de León. In fact, it took the name of Alphonse VI like successor of kings de León. In Castille, it should be called Alphonse IV.

When Ferdinand I of Castille and León, father of Alphonse, dies in 1065, the kingdom is divided between his/her three sons. Alphonse, known as the Valiant one, receives the kingdom of León. After a fratricidal war with its elder, Sanche II, it there assoit its power and manages to unify the Castilian kingdom.

In 1069, it made pay tribute with Abbad III, king de Séville under the dynasty of Abbadides.

Extremely of this success, it launches out in the reconquest of Moslem Spain (or Reconquista), divided since the collapse of the caliphate of Cordoue into independent principalities (reyes of taifa). Supported by the monks of Cluny and the pope Gregoire VII, Alphonse, married to Constance of Burgundy, fact call to the Burgundian knights. In 1085, after a four year old seat, Tolède is taken.

However, the Moslem princes call with their help Almoravides who cross the Straits of Gibraltar and put in rout Alphonse VI at Zallaka, in October 1086. But Almoravides do not succeed in drawing advantage from their military victories, like those of Consuegra (1097) and Malagón (1100). Cid Campeador, with the service of Alphonse, symbolizes this Christian resistance to Islam.

Many tales of chivalry illustrated its name. In the chanson de geste of Cid, he plays the role allotted by the medieval poet to the largest kings and to Charlemagne itself. He is turn with all the oppressor and the heroic and whom been obstinated victim - the ideal type of guard whom the jugglers and the troubadours sang. He is the hero of a chanson de geste who just like the primitive Spanish songs, the songs of Bernard del Carpio and the legend of the Infantes of Lara does not exist any more but in fragments incorporated in the Chronicle of Alphonse the Wise one.

With a little indulgence, Alphonse VI is introduced as a strong man who acts as a king whose interests are the law and the order and who is the chief of a nation in reconquest. Alphonse married twice. His second wife was Constance of Burgundy. Before that, it had been promised in marriage to Agathe, girl of William the Conqueror. Under the influence, one says, of his wife Constance, it established the Order of Cistercian in Spain, establishing them in Sahagun and chooses Cistercian French Bernard like first archbishop of Tolède after the reconquest.

It Maria her Urraque daughters legitimates it and Therese de León, the illegitimate one with French princes and by all means supported the French influence - the greatest force civilized in Europe. It brought also Spain closer to papacy and decided to replace the old rite of saint Isidore, the rite mozarabic by the Roman rite. On another side, it was very open to the Arab influence. It protected its subjects Moors and beat currency with inscriptions in Arab letters. After the death of Constancy, he perhaps married and lived certainly with Zaida; it is said that he was the Al Mutamid son-in-law, king Moor of Seville. His Isabelle wife was perhaps this Zaida which would have converted with the Christianity under the name of Marie or of Isabelle.