Alfonso IX of Leon
1171 – 1230
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About
Alfonso the Ninth was King of Leon for more than forty years, and he summoned to Leon in 1188 an assembly that included elected representatives of the towns, which is now widely reckoned the earliest parliament in Europe. He was the father of Ferdinand the Third.
Research notes
(Standard, undisputed royal genealogy of the houses of Castile and Leon, entered 26 Jul 2026 under the project's relaxed rule for standard royal accounts; prompted by the seal of Elizabeth, Lady Bardolf, Boutell's Heraldry fig. 299, which displays the castle and lion of Castile and Leon.) ALFONSO IX, King of LEON (15 Aug 1171-24 Sep 1230); the Cortes of Leon of 1188 is regarded by UNESCO as the earliest documentary record of European parliamentarism; m. (2nd) BERENGARIA of Castile; father of Ferdinand III (our line). The Leonese line above him kept NOTE-ONLY, the usual frontier. Direct ancestor.