Pelayo of Asturias

Leader (d. 737) of the mountain polity in Asturias that resisted the Umayyad conquest of Iberia, remembered for the victory at Covadonga (c. 718-722). The earliest narrative was written about 160 years later and is heavily legendary; what is secure is that an independent Asturian kingdom formed around his line and became the nucleus of the later Christian kingdoms of Spain.