Welcome. This blog is intended to spread in English the history of the Kingdom of Leon, that was without a doubt the most important Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula in the High Middle Ages (11th, 12th and 13th centuries) until the year 1230. The Spanish word "Leon" means "lion" in English; the kingdom had this name because it was the name of its capital city. Leon was founded by the Romans with the name of the legion that settled down there; the Legio VII Gemina. Advancing the time, the word "Legio" resulted in "Leo", and from "Legionis civitas" it passed to be called "Leonis civitas": there are early examples of this transformation in the 10th century. The Leonese kings adopted the lion as the symbol of their realm because this confussion between the words "legio" and "leo" ("lion" in Latin).