With the coronation of Alfonso VII of Léon and Castile as ‘emperor of all Spain’ in Toledo in 1135 the imperial aspirations of the Leonese kings reached a climax. Their origins, however, go back to the tenth century, when individual kings were called ‘imperator’ in charters. This article traces the origins of this tradition within the context of political history and outlines the phenomenon of imperial self-ascriptions on the Iberian Peninsula. While modern research traditionally focused on the question of whether or not the kings of León pursued an ‘imperial programme’ and, if they did, what fundamental ideas lay behind such a programme, this article proposes a different approach: by focusing on the interdependencies between Christian and Muslim powers, it argues that the coronation of Alfonso VII could have been a direct response to the proclamation of ‘Abd al-Mu’min as caliph of the Almohad Empire in 1132. A close analysis of the royal and imperial titles already used by Alfonso’s grandfather Alfonso VI shows that he imitated the traditional caliphal title to be ‘ruler of the faithful’, although religious references were not a traditional part of Christian imperial titles. By examining Leonese and Almohad imperial self-ascriptions, the article offers a model by which we can explore the ways in which neighbouring imperial powers influenced each other and developed competing claims to power. The article establishes that Christian use of imperial titles on the Iberian Peninsula came to an abrupt end once competition with Muslim rivals became obsolete. It underlines the importance of the individual context in which a title was used, a point that stands in stark contrast to the received view that there was an unchanging ‘conceptual core’ to the notion of ‘empire’ as it was used by the peninsula’s kings. The article also highlights the hegemonic connotations of imperial notions in medieval Iberia and the importance of a motif of rulership that included subjects of both Christian and Muslim belief.

中文翻译：

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中世纪西班牙的帝国统治

1135 年，随着莱昂和卡斯蒂利亚的阿方索七世在托莱多加冕为“全西班牙的皇帝”，莱昂国王的帝国愿望达到了高潮。然而，他们的起源可以追溯到十世纪，当时个别国王在宪章中被称为“皇帝”。本文在政治历史的背景下追溯了这一传统的起源，并概述了伊比利亚半岛上帝国自我归属的现象。虽然现代研究传统上关注莱昂国王是否追求“帝国计划”，如果他们这样做了，这种计划背后的基本思想是什么，但本文提出了一种不同的方法：通过关注之间的相互依存关系基督教和穆斯林势力，它认为，阿方索七世的加冕礼可能是对 1132 年宣布阿卜杜勒·穆明为阿尔默哈德帝国哈里发的直接回应。 对阿方索的祖父阿方索六世已经使用的皇室和帝国头衔的仔细分析表明他模仿了传统的哈里发头衔，称其为“信徒的统治者”，尽管宗教参考并不是基督教帝国头衔的传统部分。通过研究莱昂纳人和阿尔莫哈德帝国的自我归属，本文提供了一个模型，我们可以通过该模型探索邻近的帝国权力相互影响和发展对权力的竞争主张的方式。这篇文章表明，一旦与穆斯林对手的竞争变得过时，基督教在伊比利亚半岛上使用帝王头衔就突然结束了。它强调了使用标题的个人背景的重要性，这一点与公认的观点形成鲜明对比，即半岛国王使用的“帝国”概念具有不变的“概念核心” . 文章还强调了中世纪伊比利亚帝国概念的霸权内涵，以及包括基督教和穆斯林信仰主体的统治母题的重要性。