Nepotian (Latin: Nepotianus; Spanish: Nepociano) was briefly the king of Asturias in 842. Prior to that he served as count of the palace under his predecessor, Alfonso II, to whom he was related. Both the nature of this relationship and the legitimacy of his rule are disputed by scholars.

Later sources make him Alfonso's brother-in-law, but this is chronologically implausible, nor is there evidence for such a sister. The earliest chronicle simply calls him Alfonso's kinsman. Likewise he is sometimes identified with a man of this name who appears in a charter of King Silo, but were he the same he would have been in his nineties at the time he machinated for the throne.[1]

He did not hold the crown long. The same year another kinsman of Alfonso, Ramiro, defeated Nepocian at the Battle of the Bridge of Cornellana, by the river Narcea, and thus became king as Ramiro I.

Notes

  1. ^ Casariego 1969.

Sources

  • Besga Marroquín, Armando (2003). "El rey Nepociano de Asturias, monarca legítimo y vasco". Letras de Deusto. 33 (101): 9–41.
  • Casariego, Jesús E. (1969). "Una revolución asturiana en el siglo IX: el interregno del conde Nepociano". Boletín del Instituto de Estudios Asturianos. 23 (68): 313–39.
  • Collins, Roger (2012). Caliphs and Kings: Spain, 796–1031. London: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-118-73001-0.
  • Martínez Díez, Gonzalo (2005). El Condado de Castilla (711–1038): la historia frente a la leyenda. Vol. 1. Valladolid: Marcial Pons Historia.
Preceded byAlfonso II King of Asturias 842 Succeeded byRamiro I


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