The emergence of the unified monarchy of León-Castile in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is perhaps one of the most significant developments in the history of Iberia, and one which was to have long-lasting consequences for the religious, political, and cultural configuration of the Iberian peninsula. While traditional Spanish (national) historiography has tended to depict this political development as an inevitable reemergence of a “united Spain” following the rupture inaugurated by the Muslim conquest, more recent scholarship has tended to be wary of such an essentializing approach in which there is institutional and ideological continuity drawn between the Visigothic monarchy and the Christian kingdoms of northern Iberia. Rather than viewing the emergence of the kingdom of León-Castile as a natural political evolution, modern historians have emphasized the importance of the Muslim-Christian frontier in Iberia and the process of Christian conquest and settlement, known as the Reconquista, at the expense of al-Andalus (Muslim-ruled Iberia) as central to the rise of the Christian kingdoms of northern Spain between the tenth and twelfth centuries.
Ballandalus 