During the reign of Ramiro II (930-950), Count Fernán González united the Castilians under his standard, and after repeated wars was able to make Castile independent of the king of León. The reign of Sancho “the Fat” is typical of the times. Sancho became king of León in 955, but was soon dethroned by his nobles, who alleged among other things that because of his corpulence he cut a ridiculous figure as a king. Sancho went to the court of Abd-er-Rahman III, and got not only a cure for fatness but also a Moslem army. Aided, too, by the Christian kingdom of Navarre he was able to regain his throne. He had promised to deliver certain cities and castles to the caliph, but did not do so until compelled to by the next caliph, Hakem. Civil wars between the nobles and the crown continued, and many of the former joined with Moslem Almansor in his victorious campaigns against their coreligionists and their king. [Sidenote: Advance of the Christian states in the early eleventh century.] [Sidenote: Sancho the Great.] When the caliphate began to totter, following the deaths of Almansor and Abdul Malik, the Christian kings returned to the conquest. Alfonso V (994-1027) of León and his uncle Sancho “the Great” (970-1035) of Navarre pushed their frontiers southward, Alfonso crossing the Douro in Portugal. The counts of Castile, too, now aiding one Moslem faction, now another, now remaining neutral, profited by each new agreement to acquire additional territory or fortified posts. Shortly after the death of Alfonso V, Sancho the Great intervened successfully in the wars of the Christian kingdoms, and united Castile and León under his authority. Since he was also king in Navarre, Aragon, and the Basque provinces of France and Spain, only Galicia, where the kings of León took refuge, and the counties of Catalonia remained free from his rule in the north. Here seemed to be an important moment in the history of Spain,--one which might have had tremendous consequences. But it was as yet too early, not alone for Spanish nationalism, but even for the conception of a Spanish state. Sancho the Great undid his own work, and consigned himself to a place only a little short of oblivion by dividing his kingdom among his sons. The three most important regions resulting from this act were the kingdoms of Navarre, Castile, and Aragon. The death of Sancho in 1035 is an important date, however, for it marks the time when work had to be begun over again to achieve the distant ideal of the unity of Spain. Meanwhile, the counts of Barcelona, who had lost their territories in the days of Almansor, regained them in the ensuing decline of the caliphate, whether by military conquest, or by intervention in the wars of the Moslem state in return for concessions. The important year 1035 is notable also in Catalonia, for at that time Ramón Berenguer I, the first outstanding figure among the counts of Barcelona, inherited the rule of the county.