There’s an old Spanish saying that goes: "León tenía 24 reyes antes que Castilla leyes"—“León had 24 kings before Castile had laws.” At first glance, it sounds like an old jab—something regional, maybe even petty. But like many enduring proverbs, there is some truth to it about power, legacy, and the way history is shaped.
To understand it, we need to travel back a thousand years.
The Kingdom of León: A Forgotten Giant
Long before Spain was “Spain,” the Iberian Peninsula was a land scattered with Christian and Muslim territories. Among the Christian realms that slowly emerged from the fallen Visigothic kingdom after the Muslim conquest in 711 AD, León was the heavyweight.
Founded in the early 10th century, León was not just a kingdom—it was the kingdom. It inherited the mantle of the old Kingdom of Asturias, claimed continuity with the Visigoths, and held the prestige of being the heart of Christian resistance during the early stages of the Reconquista. It was, in every sense, a royal powerhouse.