Biography: Fruela I | King of Asturias (757-768). Energetic and loving nature of the war.

(?, 722 - cangas de Onis, 768) King of Asturias (757-768). Energetic and loving nature of the war, she won 764 Omar, Envoy of Abd al - Rahman I, freeing Muslim pressure Galicia. It is credited with the founding of Oviedo. Reformed the clergy of his Kingdom and, due to the strict discipline that applied to their subjects, had to cope with some rebellions.

Fruela I of Asturias

The main events of his reign are documented in the Chronicle of Alfonso III and the chronic albeldensis. He was the son of Alfonso I the Catholic, who was succeeded on the throne, and Ermesinda, daughter of don Pelayo. Once formed the Kingdom of Asturias, after the union of the brands of Galicia and Vasconia performed by his father, Fruela I of Asturias submitted to the Basques and Galicians who had rebelled against the new monarchical. He tried to seal an alliance with the vascons; to this end he married Munia, a native of Alava, and related with the ad nobility. From this union was born Alfonso II el Casto.

To weaken the new Kingdom, the emir Abd al - Rahman I sent two armies that supported the ad and Galician insurrection. Fruela I of Asturias won the first army, commanded by Omar, perhaps son of Abd al - Rahman I, at the battle of Pontuvio (Pontedeume, a Coruña, 764), causing a number of casualties among the Muslim hosts (54,000, according to the Chronicle of Alfonso III). Sanchez-Albornoz situates this battle not in Pontedeume, but in Pontumia, next to the River Umia. According to the chronicler Al-Andalus Ahmad al - Razi, Fruela I also fought the second army, located in the Valley of the Duero, but the chronic Christian designated as head of the Asturian hosts to Alfonso I.

Fruela I tried to strengthen the monarchical central against the autonomist tendencies of the newly constituted nobility and the high hierarchy. According to Ibn al - Atir and al - Maqqari, conquered Lugo, Oporto, Salamanca, Ávila and Segovia, continuing the reconquistadora task begun by his father, and carried out the repopulation of Galicia to the Minho river, the region of El Bierzo and the high valleys of León. Possibly also began the repopulation of the North of the Valley of the Ebro, which led to the year 766 or 767 campaigns of Badr, maula of Abd al - Rahman I, who, from La Rioja, Alava, where demanded tribute and hostages in order to stop the expansive process of Christians addressed.

Traditionally it has been attributed to Fruela I of Asturias Foundation of Oviedo, city which moved the capital of the Kingdom from Cangas de Onis (Asturias). Fruela assassinated his brother Vimarano or Vímara, which had become head of the series of conspiracies against the monarchy that came already happening from Visigothic times. In the year 768 died murdered in Cangas de Onís by several of his vassals and family. His cousin Aurelio (768-774) succeeded him on the throne.

Extracted from the website: Biografías y Vidas