Alfonso X of Castile

Alfonso X, king of Castile, Léon, and Galicia, was born in Toledo to the king and queen of Castile, Ferdinand III and Elizabeth of Swabia. As a young man, he served his father, fighting in the Reconquista to conquer Muslim areas of the Iberian peninsula. In 1249, he married Violant of Aragon and in 1252 became king of Castile and Léon. Alfonso was known as “el Sabio” (the wise) for his scholarly and scientific interests. He was responsible, for example, for the Castilian law code, the Siete Partidas, and was known for his patronage of the sciences and literature. He promoted the Castilian language, in part by employing Jewish scholars to translate works from Arabic and Hebrew into Castilian. He also hired Jewish astronomers, two of whom compiled what are now called the Alfonsine Tables, highly influential astronomical tables of planetary motion, written in Castilian, that allowed users to calculate the positions of the sun, moon, and planets. He died in a civil war over claims to the succession by his son Sancho.