According to some sources, Bardulia is the ancient name of the territories that composed the primitive Castile in the north of what later became the

province of Burgos The province of Burgos is a Provinces of Spain, province of northern Spain, in the northeastern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Palencia (p ...

. The name comes from ''

Varduli The Varduli were a pre-Ancient Rome, Roman tribe settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, in what today is the western region of the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country. Their historical territory corresponds with the current ...

'', the name of a tribe who, in pre-Roman and Roman times, populated the eastern part of the Cantabrian coast of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

, primarily in present-day

Guipúzcoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantique ...

. Some assert that the Varduil also encompassed or assimilated the

Caristii The Caristii were a pre-Ancient Rome, Roman tribe settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, in what today are known as the historical territories of Biscay and Álava, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, northern Spa ...

and Autrigones. It has been speculated that a possible expansion of the Basque territories— Late Basquisation, an expansion to the Basque Country in the 6th through 8th centuries—occasioned a westward migration of the Varduli to what the documents of the

Low Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and t ...

call ''Bardulia''.

''Bardulia'' and ''Castile''

The first written mention of ''Bardulia'' is a 10th-century chronicle that describes it as a former name for Castile. The '' Chronicle of Alfonso III'', written in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, uses the term four times, in various

declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...

s. Similar passages recur in the texts of later chroniclers. There are two variants of the ''Chronicle of Alfonso III''. Among the passages there are "" ("Bardulia, which is now called Castella") and "" ("the Bardulian Province") where King Ramiro I of Asturias was traveling to take a wife, and where he heard of the death of his predecessor Alfonso II. The early 12th-century says of Ramiro I: "" The 12th-century and the forged donation to the bishops of

Lugo Lugo (, ) is a city in northwestern Spain in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. It is the capital of the Lugo (province), province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 100,060 in 2024, ...

and

Oviedo Oviedo () or Uviéu (Asturian language, Asturian: ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains th ...

(11th-12th century) also refer to . In the first half of the 13th century, Lucas de Tuy twice mentions ''Bardulia'', as does Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, in an allusion to Ramiro, that on the death of Alfonso II, "" ("he stayed some time in Bardulia to take a wife"). In another place Jiménez de Rada closely parallels the ''Chronicle of Alfonso III'': "" ("nobles of Bardulia, which is now called Castile"). The first of Alfonso el Sabio, basically a compilation of earlier chronicles, makes four mentions of ''Bardulia'', and the , says that (probably Abu-Otman, a distinguished general of

Hisham I of Córdoba Hisham I Al-Reda ibn Abd ar-Rahman () was the second Emir of Cordoba, ruling from 788 to 796 in al-Andalus. Hisham was born April 26, 757 in Cordoba. He was the first son of Abd al-Rahman I ( r. 756-788) and his wife, Halul, and the younger ...

) died in 844 (

Spanish era The Spanish era (), sometimes called the era of Caesar, was a calendar era (year numbering system) commonly used in the states of the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th century until the 15th, when it was phased out in favour of the ''Anno Domini'' (A ...

; 806 AD), in Pisuerga, "" ("when he arrived in Bardulia"). Addressing the claim that Bardulia was simply a scholarly term, the 20th century medievalist and statesman Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz y Menduiña defends Alfonso III from the charge of a scholarly error in equating Bardulia with early Castile, but his words leave the matter somewhat open: "It is very probable that Alfonso III did not commit a error of erudition in identifying Bardulia with Castile," and that "If there was an error in the identification of Bardulia with Castile, that error propagates from Castile itself in the 9th century, which is hard to reconcile with it being of atererudite origin.

Notes

{{reflist Historical geography of Spain