Alfonso X of Castile

Alfonso X became King of Castile, León and Galicia on 1 June 1252. Five years later, a dissident faction elected him king of Germany on 1 April 1257, a claim he'd renounce in 1275 after debasing Castile's coinage to fund the pursuit. His scientific interests earned him the nickname "the Astrologer" and drove him to sponsor the Alfonsine tables; the Alphonsus crater on the Moon now carries his name. He commissioned historians who, for the first time since Isidore of Seville around 600, framed Spain within world history, and introduced the Siete Partidas, Castile's first vernacular law code. He…