The Fall and Rise of Kingdom Leon [CK3 Gameplay]

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King Alfonso VI or Alfonso the Brave is a famous historical figure that more or less every history enthusiast knows about. I, on the other hand, came to know about his existence after watching a gameplay of Crusader King 3. In the game demo, his character seemed remarkably cunning and ruthless, and I without a doubt loved every scheme of his. Well, aside from the fact that he was also shagging his own sister (In the game, I don’t know how historically accurate this setup was) the gameplay really gave off a pure Game of Thrones vibe and I needed to check it out myself to see how my version of gameplay could shape the history. So, here how it went:

King Alfonso VI

[SS from Gameplay]

After the death of King Ferdinand I, the middle child King Alfonso VI inherited the Kingdom of Leon by birth right, along with his two brothers. His older brother Sancho II inherited the kingdom of Castile while the younger brother García II got the Kingdom of Galicia. Now because all three brothers had a claim on each other's kingdom, as the months progressed, the tension of game of thrones kept rising.

Right after getting the Kingdom of Leon, the young king formed an alliance with a neighboring kingdom with a strong military by marrying the princes because without an heir and strong alliance, his kingdom would soon crumble under two brothers' schemes. After the marriage ceremony, Alfonso divided his attention to scheming against his two brothers, first he planned to assassinate the younger brother as the young king was still unmarried and without any ally. Alfonsos’ sister Urraca joined with his brother aka lover in the scheme.

While the scheming against King Garcia II was on the move, King Alfonso VI kept a closer eye on the older brother by sending his trusted spy aka sister in the kingdom of Castile. His intention was to dig up dirt on his brothers court members and when the time comes to finish off Sancho II, the members of his own court could be blackmailed into joining the scheme.

Everything was running smoothly and soon it was announced that the queen gave birth to a son and future heir to the throne. Alfonso was delighted, his house, his kingdom would continue to rule by his blood. He named the infant, Esteban Alfonso of Leon and took him as his ward. The young prince would be shaped like the way the King wanted him to be, a worthy heir of his future empire.

As the years finally crossed the threshold of two, the assassination's attempt on King Garcia came to an end as the news of the dead King reached throughout the three kingdoms. With one competition out of the way, it was time to take over the Kingdom of Castile. But Unfortunately a horror was waiting for King Alfonso, he was way too busy with the plot of killing his younger brother that he didn’t notice King Sancho II already formed an alliance and took a wife who was about to give birth to the future king or queen.

Alfonso had to act soon, or else the dream of ruling the three kingdoms would be snatched away from his fingers. Without wasting any time, he ordered the assassination of the pregnant queen and luckily within a few months, the queen was killed by poisoning, with the unborn child. But this turned out to be the action that led him to his doom. The loss of his beloved wife and unborn child pushed King Sancho II to finally declare war upon the kingdom of Lean, it was finally the time to put an end to his cunning schemes.

Even though King Alfonso was a master of schemer, unfortunately he gave most of his attention towards the plots of killing or blackmailing the people, neglecting the condition of his army. The war went on for two years, but even with the army of his ally, King Alfonso couldn’t manage to overpower his brothers vast military and with the defeat in battle of Zamora, the existence of Kingdom of Leon came to an end, King Alfonso was striped down from the throne and forced to take the title of a Count.

And with that, in the year of 1071, King Sancho II united the three kingdoms under one banner and successfully created the United Kingdom of Castilian.