Alfonso X, the Justinian of His Age

Alfonso X, el Sabio, king of Castile and León (1252–84), and Holy Roman Emperor-elect, excelled among his contemporaries as a distinguished scholar and patron of scholars, and as a great lawgiver in the tradition of the Roman emperor Justinian (525–65).1 Intent on creating a body of law applicable to all his people, he assembled a company of jurists who composed the Libro de las leyes, also known as the Espéculo and, in its revised form, as the Siete Partidas, a comprehensive and systematic code of law. They also wrote the Fuero real, a code of municipal law. The Partidas, one of the greatest legal monuments of medieval Europe, significantly transformed the substance and practice of law in his realms, and though he encountered strong opposition, his work has had an enduring impact on the development of law and institutions, not only in the Iberian Peninsula but also throughout the Spanish-speaking world and in the states of the American west once ruled by Spain.