Alfonso VI of León and Castile

Alfonso VI, nicknamed the Brave or the Valiant, was an eleventh-century Iberian monarch who lived from about 1040 or 1041 until 1 July 1109. He reigned as king of León from 1065, of Galicia from 1071 and of Castile from 1072, so that three crowns were held by one ruler until his death. His best-known achievement was the conquest of Toledo in 1085, after which he styled himself most victorious king of Toledo, of Spain and of Galicia. That conquest, together with El Cid's taking of Valencia, greatly widened the territory and influence of the Leonese and Castilian realm, but it also provoked an Almoravid invasion that he spent the rest of his reign resisting. His armies suffered decisive defeats at Sagrajas in 1086, Consuegra in 1097 and Uclés in 1108, and at Uclés his only son and heir, Sancho Alfónsez, was killed. Valencia was abandoned, yet Toledo remained part of the enlarged realm that he left to his daughter.