Castile and Leon is a region which seems to have been peopled by Iberians, Celts and Ligures, and was not disturbed by the Phoenicians, Greek or Carthaginian invasions. Subsequently it was a Roman province, became important with the Visigothic rule and was overrun by the Arabs. It then became the scene of constant skirmishes which incenssantly shifted its borders.

With Fernan Gonzalez (950), Castile emerged as a hereditary County, still as a vassal to Leon, until in 1029 it came into the possession of Sancho III of Navarre and, on his death, was passed on to his son Ferdinand I, the first king of Castile. Ferdinand absorbed into his kingdom Leon and the Muslim territories, only to divide up the kingdom again on his death, sharing it out between his sons Sancho and Alfonso.

The final union came in 1230 with Ferdinand II the Saint. After years of internecine struggle, the situation was consolidated with the union of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs, although as Isabella died first the two kingdoms remained separate until Charles I ascended the Throne.

The last time the personality of the old kingdom of Castile seemed to assert itself in all its vigour was at the beginning of the 16th century with the War of the 'Comuneros' which, although going beyond the geographical confines of Castile itself, had its principal centres there.

After this, the history of Castile is idnetical to that of Spain as a whole.