Santiago (Ethelred the Pious)

The Reino de Santiago, or the Kingdom of St. John, is a country in northern Spain. It was founded by Viking attackers from England in the late. Its second king after the conquest, Hrut, converted to Christianity and brought his kingdom into the cultural world of Christian Spain. After the fall of in 1036, Santiago was the only remaining Christian kingdom on the peninsula.

Foundation
Norse raiders based in England raided the Spanish coast throughout the Tenth Century. The Christian states of the north were severely weakened by an expanding Umayyad Caliphate and proved to be easy targets. A raiding party captured Pamplona in 924, founding a state that later became the Emirate of Nawar. Caught between the Moors and Vikings, the Christian kingdoms fell one by one.

In 949 Olaf the Hairy, a cousin of King Thorvald of Jórvik, sailed with the greatest Viking force ever to attack Spain. He landed on the peninsula's northwest corner. The land belonged to the Kingdom of Galicia, which had been a vassal of the Kingdom of León before that city had fallen seven years earlier. It was not difficult for Olaf to conquer the kingdom and establish his capital at Santiago de Compostela. Santiago had been an important religious center for about a century and by this time was one of Galicia's principal cities.

Viking kingdom
During this first generation, Galicia was ruled as a Viking kingdom. King Olaf actively encouraged Englanders to immigrate. He was generous in granting fiefdoms to loyal underlings. The newcomers largely replaced the local nobility, but they had to depend on church officials for much of the kingdom's administration.

The rulers were still connected to England and its turbulent politics. King Olaf ruled as a vassal of his cousin the king of Jórvik. When his cousin died in 954, Olaf sailed to England in an attempt to claim the throne for himself. He failed, losing to his nephew Thorkell, and his ally, the powerful Erik Bloodaxe. Olaf survived and returned to Spain; the failed war helped to disconnect Galicia from England.

he defended his own kingdom against Moors and Vikings alike and passed his crown to his son Hrut.

Conversion to Christianity
Like many less powerful Anglo-Norse leaders in Spain, Hrut converted to the religion of his neighbors. While the Vikings in Pamplona and elsewhere adopted the dominant religion of Islam, Hrut became a devout Christian. Apparently after experiencing a vision, he restored Compostela's bishop and cut ties with England. Hoping to draw pilgrims to the holy city, he improved the port at Ferrol and the road connecting it to the capital. Soon his kingdom was known as Sant Jakob, the Englesk form of "Santiago".

The Umayyad breakup saved the remaining Christian kingdoms from certain annihilation.

In the early 1000s, Galicia/St. John and Castile forged a close alliance, leading to a union of crowns in mid-century. This kingdom, uniting all of Christian Spain, vigorously expanded to the southwest where Moorish control was weak, but it was checked in the east along the Castilian frontier. The Emirate of Nawar (Navarre) overran all of Castile and tore down the walls of Burgos. Asturias remained part of the Kingdom of St. John.

Sole Survivor
Thereafter, Castile was a part of the Muslim world of Al-Andalus, but the population always remained heavily Christian. The King of St. John continued to use "King of Castile" as part of his royal title; the title is connected with the Crown of Asturias.