Between history and hagiography: the sanctification of Don Pelayo on the Spanish historiography (XVI-XVII centuries)

Abstract

This article starts with some proposals of the linguistic and cultural turn on history and it makes an analysis of the historiographic construction of Spanish monarchic legitimacy, focusing on the figure of Don Pelayo, considered by Jimenez de Rada’s Chronicle (XIII Century) as “the first monarch of the Restored Spain”. This speech was updated between the XVI and XVII Century as a means to instill a set of values and providing common frames of reference to all subjects belonging to the Spanish Catholic monarchy, in a period when it was necessary to enhance its prestige against other European monarchies.