Kingdom of Castile

The Kingdom of Castile was a medieval polity of the Iberian Peninsula, formed in 1065 when the County of Castile, an eastern frontier lordship of Leon, was raised to a kingdom under Ferdinand I. Castile was reunited with Leon in 1072 and again from 1157, and after 1230 the union became permanent under Ferdinand III. Its kings pushed south against the Islamic principalities, winning Toledo in 1085, the Tagus valley, and the great victory of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, which opened Andalusia. Burgos served as the royal capital, seat of the cortes and of the wool trade that carried Castilian merino fleeces to Flanders. The kingdom's society was built on frontier castles, municipal fueros and the military orders, while its herdsmen's guild, the Mesta, shaped the economy of the meseta. By 1230 Castile had become the largest Christian power of Iberia, and its crown would carry the Reconquista to Seville and beyond, laying the basis of the later Spanish monarchy.