Alfonso I of Asturias

From Freepedia

Alfonso I was a King of Asturias (739-757).

He is said to have married Ormesinda, daughter of Pelayo, who was raised on the shield in Asturias as king of the Visigoths after the Moorish conquest He is also said to have been the son of Peter of Cantabria, duke of Cantabria. It is not improbable that he was in fact an hereditary chief of the Basques, but no contemporary records exist. His title of "the Catholic" itself may very well have been the invention of later chronicles. Regardless of these historical uncertainties, there is good evidence that Alfonso was the first king of Oviedo (which later became Asturias). He started a policy of relocation to the Cantabrian mountains (and north thereof) in Northeren Spain as to be out of the easy reach of Moorish raiders. This policy made the Duero river valley a sparsely populated no-mans-land which acted as a buffer between the Christians and Moors.