Name for the exam

ADRIANO

Hadrian in English. The same guy who creates the Hadrian wall in Great Britain and gives shape to the divide between England and Scotland. He is relevant to us because it highlights how people born in provinces outside Rome (like Hispania) could reach the very top of the Empire.

DON PELAYO

The guy who starts a kingdom in the north and starts organizing the faction against Al- Andalus. Most of his life has been exaggerated, but he is quite referenced in cultural terms as the first king of the resistance, etc.

ABDERRAMAN III

He turned the Emirate into the Caliphate of Cordoba. Blond or ginger according to the chronicles due to his mother and grandmother being from the north of Spain. Good at diplomacy and strategy, respected by most, and with the dark side of being abusive to the women in his palace, so the guy was far from ideal.

EL CID

The national knight hero with poems and songs about his bravery, nobility, and fight for justice. He had allies in the northern kingdoms as well as in Al-Andalus, where he got his name.

AVERROES

The philosopher from Al-Andalus that was good at Math, Astronomy, Religious affairs, Philosophy, etc. He is taken as the main example of the cultured scholar of his time. He is essential with the first wave of Al-Andalus (Almoravides) and he is censored and exiled with the second wave (Almohades, the bad guys that caused the loss of power of Al-Andalus with their ideas, so to speak).

ALFONSO 10th

Called “The Wise”, he got obsessed with collecting knowledge, books, scholars, and recognized the need for wisdom and information to govern correctly. His kingdom gained immense power after choosing that way of doing things, so he is taken as an example of success through knowledge.

LOS REYES CATÓLICOS

ISABEL (Castilla), FERNANDO (Aragón) had the two most powerful kingdoms in the area so after they married they were unstoppable. They fund the expeditions to discover America, they take the kingdom of Granada (last Al-Andalus land to be taken). They expel or convert anyone in the land (Jews expelled from Spain in 1492) and they are described by the chroniclers as particularly intelligent and ambitious.

EL GRAN CAPITÁN

We don’t need the name of the guy, just his nickname and the fact that he organized the armies in a way that they couldn’t be defeated in the next century and a half, so he single-handedly created the war machine that started conquering everything in the next decades.

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

Author of El Quijote (The book about the old man who goes crazy reading knighthood stories). The main book in Spanish language, which makes him the main writer.