Documents of the Leonese Monarchy (Collection) Facsimile Edition

Across ten Spanish archives — the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid, the cathedral holdings of Astorga, Burgos, Lugo, Oviedo, Palencia, Santiago de Compostela and Toledo, the diocesan archive of León, the municipal archive of Burgos and the library of the Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan — survive the original royal parchments assembled as Documentos de la Monarquía Leonesa.

Issued between the reign of Alfonso III, who died in 910, and the union of León with Castile in 1230, they follow a kingdom across more than three centuries, reign by reign.

From the Last King of Asturias to the Union with Castile

The first part opens with the monarch whose death turned Asturias into León and closes with Alfonso VI, after whom Portugal broke away and Castile drifted into separate orbit. The second takes up at 1109, with Urraca I, and ends with Alfonso IX, whose son Ferdinand III inherited both crowns. León ceased to be a realm apart; its documents remained.

Visigothic Hands and the Chancery Parchment

These are not the leaves of a book but separate sheets, drawn up as the king’s writing office moved with the court. The documents of the earlier part were selected, in part, to show the regional varieties of Visigothic script across the kingdom. Latin is the language of record throughout, though the Romance speech of León and Galicia presses in through place-names and formulas.

What a Diploma Settled

A royal charter fixed property, immunity and allegiance. Donations, confirmations, privileges and grants of fueros were handed to churches, monasteries and towns, which kept them because keeping them was the proof.

The parchments outlasted the authority they were drawn up to assert.