Pelagius of Asturias

Who was Pelagius of Asturias?

Pelagius was a Visigothic nobleman who founded the Kingdom of Asturias, ruling it from 718 until his death. Through his victory at the Battle of Covadonga, he is credited with beginning the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors. He established an independent Christian state in opposition to Moorish hegemony, but there is no strong evidence that he intended to resuscitate the old Visigothic Kingdom, or was motivated by any religious desire.

The chief sources for Pelagius's life and career are two Latin chronicles written in the late ninth century in the kingdom he founded. The first is the Chronica Albeldensia, written at Albelda towards 881, and preserved in the Codex Vigilanus, with a continuation to 976. The later is the Chronicle of Alfonso III, which was revised in the early tenth century and preserved in two textual traditions that diverge in several key passages: the Chronica Rotensis, preserved in the Roda Codex, and the Chronica ad Sebastianum, supposedly written by Sebastian, Bishop of Salamanca. The only likely earlier sources from which these chroniclers could derive information are regnal lists.