Who is alfonso el sabio

He was born in Toledo in and died in Seville in He promoted an active economic policy, reformed the currency and the inland revenue and recognised the Honoured Council of La Mesta the powerful association of sheep owners.

He produced an outstanding body of literary, scientific, historical and legal work through his Royal Scriptorium.

Alfonso X patronised, supervised and frequently contributed with his own writing, and in partnership with the cohort of intellectuals known as the School of Translators of Toledo, in the composition of an extensive literary collection which largely served as the starting point for prose works in Castilian.

The lyrical poetry written in Galician-Portuguese includes songs known as cantigas. A collection of songs for one voice in Galician mensural notation. Their traditional and simple nature and their expressionism are the main features. Spanish National Library Madrid. Calendar Plan your trip Favourites. Styles In this section you can search all our contents throughout the different stages in the history of art in Spain, to find styles such as Baroque, Gothic, Mudejar and many, many more.

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Subscribe Please subscribe to access the full content. Oxford University Press. That this reputation for intellectual capabilities accompanied him from before his years as king can be seen in the description of him as non ignarus Alfonso on the Atarazanas de Sevilla; an inscription made short weeks after his accession to the throne in As king, Alfonso faced the challenge of extending the frontiers of his kingdom, something which he would have assumed to be a central part of his royal task.

The practical failure on all four political fronts has tinged the conclusions of subsequent accounts of his reign although the totalising aim of his projects is not often appreciated.

With respect to the expansion of Christian territory on the Peninsula, Alfonso failed to advance much beyond what his father had already achieved. But perhaps the greatest political failure associated with Alfonso is that of his frustrated aspirations to claim the title of Holy Roman Emperor. But the overwhelming desire to be elected Romanorum Imperator ended by emptying the treasury of the kingdom and pushing the resources and patience of the powerful groups of his kingdom nobility, Church and councils to breaking point.

In between these dates there were almost twenty years of campaigning, the outlay of vast sums of money and intense international diplomacy which kept the king of Castile and Leon in the eye of all of Occidental Europe, but which also made him the object of ever more harsh criticism from the influential circles of his own kingdom, from whom, in repeated gatherings, he ceaselessly demanded the means to pursue his Imperial ambitions.