In the Middle Ages, where the Court was the scaffold was not far away. And the new capital was soon to see something of the darker side of regal authority. Ordoño II. attributed his defeat at Val de Junqueras to the defection or mutiny of the Counts of Castile, the wardens of the eastern marches. Summoning four of them into his presence at his palace at Tejares, he placed them under arrest, and sent them in chains to Leon, where after a painful captivity they were put to death. This was not the last tragedy to cast a shadow over the little capital. Meanwhile, under Ramiro II., the name of the town began to be applied to the whole kingdom. It was the scene of the imprisonment of the aspiring Fernan González, Count of Castile; and by him and a Navarrese army it was besieged during the reign of Ordoño III. Under the terrible Al Mansûr, the Moslem tide swept up to the very peaks of Asturias. Leon was submerged, the city taken and burned, and Fernando II. was glad to find an asylum in the mountain fastnesses of his ancestors.
This was but a temporary check to the Christian fortunes. In 1002 the announcement was made from every pulpit in free Spain, ‘Al Mansûr is dead and buried in Hell.’ Emerging once more from their retreat, the Leonese recovered their capital, which was henceforward to remain uninterruptedly in Christian hands.
Alfonso V., the Restorer of Leon, mindful of the precedents set by Visigothic kings, held an ecclesiastical council at his capital in the year 1020. There was a great concourse of prelates and nobles from all parts of Christian Spain. The conference took place in the cathedral church of St. Mary, founded by Ordoño II., and King Alfonso and Queen Elvira presided in person. Of the fifty-eight ordinances and resolutions, thirty-one embodied the municipal constitution of the town of Leon--the first town in Spain to receive a charter. Indeed, it was probably the first town in mediæval Europe to obtain the privilege of self-government.
The history of the city thenceforward becomes merged in the history of the kingdom and in that of Spain generally. But here and there in the annals of the time certain events stand out as specially associated with it. In the year 1029 the young Count Garcia of Castile came hither to espouse Sancha, the sister of King Fernando III. His movements were watched by the three sons of the Count of Vela, whom his father had put to death. Their manner towards the young Count implied rather friendship than enmity. But one morning, as he entered the church of San Isidoro, they fell upon him and slew him. The assassins were burned to death; but their deed served to intensify the bitter rivalry of Castile and Leon.