What happened at the Battle of Covadonga in Asturias?

Pelayo at Covadonga

Pelayo en Covadonga

between 718 and 722. In the mountains of Asturias a nobleman called Pelayo defeated a Muslim force at Covadonga, in 718 or 722: historians disagree on the year.

Where: Spain, Asturias

What happened

In the mountains of Asturias a nobleman called Pelayo defeated a Muslim force at Covadonga, in 718 or 722: historians disagree on the year. The Christian chronicles that tell the story were written about 150 years later and make the battle enormous; the Muslim sources barely mention it, and a few historians doubt it happened at all. What is certain is that a small Christian kingdom, Asturias, grew up there. Nineteenth-century historians made Covadonga the start of the Reconquista, a word many historians now use with care: the centuries that followed were not one long war.

Say it

Según la tradición, la Reconquista empezó en Covadonga.

According to tradition, the Reconquest began at Covadonga.

Why it matters

Covadonga is where the story of 'Christian Spain' begins in the national imagination, which is exactly why historians argue about it; the kingdom of Asturias is the seed of León and Castile.

Read about it

• La Reconquista — The "Reconquest"

Connected

• The Muslim conquest (711)
• The Muslim conquest (711)
• The 'Reconquista': a contested idea (c. 718–1492)
• The tomb of St James (between 820 and 830)
• The tomb of St James (between 820 and 830)

• Before: The Muslim conquest
• After: Abd al-Rahman I founds the emirate of Córdoba

Sources

1. La batalla de Covadonga. Problema historiográfico, trasfondo histórico y consecuencias sociopolíticas (abstract) — Anejos de Nailos 5 (2019), via Dialnet
2. La Batalla de Covadonga en México. Imaginarios en torno a la Reconquista (1889-1900) – M. del Mar Gutiérrez Domínguez — Estudios de Historia Moderna y Contemporánea de México 51 (2016), UNAM
3. Visigoth — World History Encyclopedia