Alfonso VI en la Estoria de Espanna: Retrato ejemplar y narración histórica

Abstract

Alfonso VI's figure is presented in the Estoria de Espanna through two different types of discourse: the initial portrait, where he is described as an exemplary king (chapter 846), according to the image of the ideal statesman given on the second Partida, and his reign's account, which reveals a far more complex and contradictory personality. The opposition between non-temporality = individuality raises, among many others, two main problems to the understanding of the alphonsine historian workshop: the conception of human personality, within the framework of the "discovery of the individual" process -studied by Morris (1987)-, and the comprehension of unique and unrepeatable historical facts, enlightened by principles and general categories.