Abstract

This article explores the meanings and interpretations of power and authority in the historical collections supervised by Alfonso X of Castile (1252-1284); namely in the ambitious project of a universal history of the General Estoria and in the events concerning the Iberian Peninsula from the origins to the reign of Ferdinand III recounted in the Estoria de España. Whilst relying significantly on the sources, these two compendia also represented an instrument of political and religious propaganda, based on an innovative legislative perspective, as well as on a more traditional theocratic framework which contributed to legitimize it. Shifting between law, religion and common practice, Alfonso X proposed a model of power where tradition merged with the pragmatic exigencies of his own era; a successful paradigm which would survive in the future.