Before being from Spain, Madrid was the unlikely capital of another kingdom located thousands of kilometers: Armenia

TO Leon v History played a bad pass. And that, by Carambolas of Historyended up turning Madrid into the capital of a kingdom located more than 3,000 kilometers away, south of what is today Türkiye. Sounds crazy, but if something is the story of León V (1342-1393), the king without the kingdom, stripped of his crown just a few months after ascending to the throne of The little ArmenianIt is precisely that: strange. After all, in just a few years he went from monarch to reo, from reo to “Mayor” of Madrid and finally lord of a French castle.

To know its history we must go back to the Middle Ages and travel to the Anatolia Peninsula. There, in the region of CILICIA The XI and XIV centuries extended Little Armenianor Armenia Cilicia, a kingdom formed by refugees who had fled from the Selyuk invasion of Armenia. It was not particularly large, but a prominent role as an ally of the Crusaders and Christian bastion was played.

León V (the brief and insistent)

Or so it was at least until the time of his last sovereign, Leon V of Armeniawho barely had time to accommodate on the throne. The unfortunate was crowned in SIS in September 1374but just a few months later, in 1375he saw how the Egyptian Mamlucos took the capital. For him it was the end of his days (few) of glory. From the amenities of the court he became a prisoner in Cairo.

There León spent a year, two, three, four … and so up to seven long springs deprived of liberty, during which lost his wife and daughterwaiting for some sovereign of Christianity to get close to their bad luck and pay their rescue. Little served. It did not matter to appeal to the charity of other kings or the church. The fate of León V only changed thanks to the mediation of the Franciscan Juan Dardel, who knew how to press the right rope with the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula.

It is said that the situation of León v moved enough to Juan I of Castilla as if to decide to intermediate in favor of the former sovereign of the little Armenian. The truth is that in 1382after seven years of captivity, León V regained his freedom and abandoned Cairo. What could a King do without the kingdom? What would time dedicate a monarch to whom he had given time to savor the throne of the throne? León had no doubt. He wanted to recover his crown. And for this purpose he undertook an international campaign in search of support.

That long journey ended up taking him to the Iberian Peninsula. More specifically to Badajoz, where he met the hospitality of Juan I. upon his arrival León V met with Honors and gifts Gold, silks and jewelry, but not what I was looking for: help to recover the throne of SIS. Instead, the Castilian monarch offered him a curious (and generous) entertainment: he granted to the sovereign of Cilicia the manors of Madrid, Andújar and Villareal (Ciudad Real) “with all his breasts and rights and income.” As if that were not enough, he added an annual income of 150,000 maravedíes.

So and against every forecast León became a tenant of the Real Alcázar de Madridconferring on the villa a new (and unlikely) range: The informal capital of the small Armenian. After all, the heart of a kingdom was where its cut settled. There was even more than a century and a half so that, in 1561Felipe II set his in Madrid, turning her into the capital of her domains.

One thing was, however, the good harmony that Juan I and León could have and another very different than the Madrid were funny to be under the government of a foreign man who did not know and that nothing knew about his land. We know it because the anger of the town soon inspired some scathing and sharp coplillas On the Armenian sovereign, like the one he cried: “If the town was Silva, the lion would keep it, more is Castilian land, we do not want such a lord.”

“They say that a Lord comes from Armenia, guide us God of such real favor,” he proclaimed Another of the topics that were singing on the banks of Manzanares.

It was little for León to try to win the favor of the people down or send Real Alcázar. Juan I soon made it clear that the assignment of the villas was a timely gesture limited to the ancient Armenian sovereign, so that the title would not pass to his heirs. After the arrival on the throne of Juan I’s son, Enrique IIIthat link between Castilla and the Armenian It would blur even more.

The reality is that León’s main interest seemed to be far from Manzanares, Castilla or the Iberian Peninsula. Although a few years had passed since his departure from SIS and despite his years of captivity in Cairo, there was an idea that was still obsessing León V: recover his kingdom. That was his great goal.

From Madrid I had it difficult, so Leon soon packaging his things and going first to Navarra and later to France, where he received a not very different response to that of Juan I of Castilla. Carlos VI dedicated Good wordsostentatious gifts that included the assignment of the castle of Saint-Ouen … but nothing that allowed him to head an offensive that returned it to the court of SIS.

The sovereign ended up dying some time later, in 1393, with about 51 years, without having reached his dream. In Paris he died. And in Paris he was buried.

Before, yes, he wrote one of the most curious chapters in the history of Madrid, a city that over the centuries left him a peculiar and fortuitous? Tribute: His memory is linked mainly to the old Alcazar, where León lived several months Between 1383 and 1384. Armenia are far from there, but curiously, the current embassy of the country is not, which has been located in the middle of the Calle Mayor for years.

Images | Jordi Moncasi (UNSPLASH) and Wikipedia 1 and 2

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