Alfonso VIII of Castile reaches majority

1179

The child-king of Castile, having survived a decade of Lara family regency, began ruling in his own name at fourteen. He would spend the next forty-five years as the major Christian opponent of the Almohads and would oversee the great Christian revival that culminated at Las Navas de Tolosa. His marriage to Eleanor of England, daughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, bound Castile to the Plantagenet diplomatic network.