The Romans had to wage long years of war to subdue the Cantabrians and Asturians who, protected by their mountains, resisted Augustus for 10 years (29-91 B.C.) at a time when the rest of the Peninsula was under the sway of Roma.

With the Muslim invasion (711), Asturias became the refuge of the Visigoths who had escaped from the Islamic advance and the first pocket of resistance, the starting point of the Reconquest. Under Pelayo, who in Covadonga obtained the first victory in this long struggle (722), the Cantabrian mountains saw the establishment of a small Christian kingdom which began to spread throgh the whole Cantabrian region and under Alfonso I began to expand towards the land north of the river Duero. With the advance of the Reconquest, the centre of gravity of the Asturian monarchy shifted southwards. At the beginning of the 10th century, the capital was moved from Oviedo to Leon and the monarchy began to call itself 'Leonese'. Although it kept its title as a Kingdom, Asturias would from that time on be a mere province of the Castilian Leonese Crown, although it continued to play an important role in the civil struggles of the Middle Ages.

In 1388, during the reign of Juan I, the Principality was constituted and it was decided that the title of Prince of Asturias would be given to the heir presumptive to the Crown. Enrique III (1379-1406) was the first Prince to hold this title.

During the 16th to 18th centuries, Asturias was very much on the sidelines of the major events of Spanish political history, although it revived in the 19th century when it became the first region to organize the revolutionary movement against the French.