[4] Alfonso began the work of reorganizing the Christian kingdom of the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula after a most disastrous period of civil war and Arab inroads.

[9] The following epitaph was carved on his tomb: H. IACET ADEFONSUS QUI POPVLATIT LEGIONEM...ET DEDIT BONOS FOROS ET FECIT / ECCLESIAM HANC LVTO ET LATERE.

HABVIT PRAELIA CUM / SARRACENIS, ET INTERFECTUS, EST SAGITTA APUD VISEUM / PORTUGAL FUIT FILIUS VEREMUNDI ORDONII / OBIIT ERA M SEXAGESIMA QUINTA III NAS M.[10]Alfonso first married Elvira Menéndez in 1013, daughter of his tutor Menendo González at whose house he was raised as a child.

They had two children:[11] After Elvira's death on 2 December 1022,[12] Alfonso married Urraca Garcés, sister of King Sancho III of Pamplona.

[13] Before this marriage took place, the king of Pamplona had sent Ponce, abbot at the Monastery of San Pedro de Tavèrnoles, later bishop of Oviedo, and a nobleman named Garcia, to intercede before Abbot Oliba, bishop of Vic, in favor of the marriage of his sister Urraca to the king of León, despite the impediments of consanguinity.