Alfonso X.

Alfonso X., surnamed 'the Astronomer,' 'the Philosopher,' or 'the Wise' (El Sabio), king of Leon and Castile, born 1226, succeeded his father, Ferdinand III., in 1252. Elected as their king by part of the German princes in 1257, he had to be content with the empty honour, nor was he more successful in his hereditary claim to Swabia through his mother Beatrix, daughter of Philip of Swabia. He was more successful in his wars with the Moors, and his victories over them enabled him to unite Murcia with Castile. In 1271 he was able to crush an insurrection headed by his son Philip; but a second and successful rising, under another son Sancho in 1282, deprived him of his throne. Two years later, he died a fugitive at Seville. Alfonso was the founder of a Castilian national literature. He caused the first general history of Spain to be composed in the Castilian tongue by his historians, as well as a translation of the Old Testament to be made into the vernacular by Toledo Jews. He completed the well-known code of laws, Leyes de las Partidas, which in 1501 became the universal law of the land; and he wrote several long poems, besides a work on chemistry, and another on philosophy. He sought to improve the Ptolemaic planetary tables, whose anomalies had struck observers even at that early time. For this purpose, he assembled at Toledo upwards of fifty of the most celebrated astronomers of that age. His improved planetary tables, still known as the Alfonsine Tables, were completed in 1252 at the cost of 40,000 ducats. The Opusculos Legales of Alfonso were published by the Royal Academy of Madrid in 1836.