called Burgos.

Unlike Leon and Astorga, Burgos was not known to the Romans, but was
founded by feudal noblemen in the middle ages, most likely by the Count
of Castilla prior to 884 A. D., when its name first appears in history.

Situated almost in the same line and to the west of Astorga and Leon, it
entered the chain of fortresses which formed the frontier between the
Christian kingdoms and the Moorish dominion. At the same time it looked
westwards toward the kingdom of Navarra, and managed to keep the
ambitious sovereigns of Pamplona from Castilian soil.

During the first centuries which followed upon the foundation of the
village of Burgos at the foot of a prominent castle, both belonged to
the feudal lords of Castile, the celebrated counts of the same name.
This family of intrepid noblemen grew to be the most important in
Northern Spain; vassals of the kings of Asturias, they broke out in
frequent rebellion, and their doings alone fill nine of every ten pages
of mediaeval history.

Orduno III.--he who lost the battle of Valdejunquera against the Moors
because the noblemen he had ordered to assist refrained from doing
so--enticed the Count of Castile, together with other conspirators, to
his palace, and had them foully murdered. So, at least, saith history.

The successor to the title was no fool. On the contrary, he was one of
the greatest characters in Spanish history, hero of a hundred legends
and traditions. Fernan Gonzalez was his name, and he freed Castile from
owing vassalage to Asturias, for he threw off the yoke which bound him
to Leon, and lived as an independent sovereign in his castle of Burgos.
This is the date of Castile's first appearance in history as one of the
nuclei of Christian resistance (in the tenth century).

Nevertheless, against the military genius of Almanzor (the victorious),
Fernan Gonzalez could do no more than the kings of Leon. The fate that
befell Santiago, Leon, and Astorga awaited Burgos, which was utterly
destroyed with the exception of the impregnable castle. After the Arab's
death, hailed by the Christians with shouts of joy, and from the pulpits
with the grim remark: _"Almanzor mortuus est et sepultus et in
inferno_," the strength of Castile grew year by year, until one Conde
Garcia de Castilla married one of his daughters to the King of Navarra
and the other to Bermudo III. of Leon. His son, as has already been seen
in a previous chapter, was killed in Leon when he went