{{Short description|Political assembly in the medieval kingdom of León, Spain}}
[[File:Basílica de San Isidoro de León. Claustro.jpg|thumb|The cloister of San Isidoro in 2014.]]
The '''Cortes of León''' or '''Decreta of León''' from year 1188 was a [[parliamentary]] body in the medieval [[Kingdom of León]]. According to [[UNESCO]], it is the first historically documented example of a [[parliamentary system]].<ref>{{citation|url=https://en.unesco.org/memoryoftheworld/registry/251 |title=Memory of the World. The Decreta of León of 1188 - The oldest documentary manifestation of the European parliamentary system|author=[[UNESCO]] website}}</ref>

After coming to power, King [[Alfonso IX]], facing an attack by his neighbours, [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]] and [[Portugal]],  decided to summon the {{lang|la-x-medieval|[[curia regis]]}} or king's court/royal council to the [[Basilica of San Isidoro, León]]. This was a gathering of the nobility and the higher clergy called to advise the king, used in numerous countries during the Middle Ages. Because of the seriousness of the situation, Alfonso IX also called in representatives of the wealthy merchants and tradesmen from the most important cities of the kingdom, thus uniting the three [[Estates of the Realm]] in one council.<ref>[http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/mow/nomination_forms/spain_decreta_of_leon.pdf International Memory of the World Register - The Decreta of León of 1188 - The oldest documentary manifestation of the European parliamentary system]</ref>

All these meetings were exceptional and did not lead to a regular attendance of [[commoners]] (the Third Estate) in the council. León's Cortes dealt with matters like the right to [[private property]], the inviolability of domicile, the right to appeal to justice opposite the King and the obligation of the King to consult the Cortes before entering a war.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.interun.ru/ss/interun/u/files/charterv_e.pdf |title=The Leonese parliament of 1188: The first parliament of the western world (The Magna Carta of Alfonso IX) |access-date=2015-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304070224/http://www.interun.ru/ss/interun/u/files/charterv_e.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==See also==
* {{lang|es|[[Cortes (disambiguation)#Institutions|Cortes]]}} - the name of various parliamentary bodies in Spain and Portugal from the Middle Ages to today

==References==
<references />

==Sources==
* Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911: "History of Europe" (Birth of parliamentary bodies)
* O'Callaghan, Joseph F. "The beginnings of the Cortes of León-Castile», American History Review 1969, p.&nbsp;1504.
* O'Callaghan, Joseph F. "A History of Medieval Spain". Ithaca 1975.
* [[Evelyn Procter|Procter, Evelyn]]. "Curia and Cortes in León and Castile 1072-1295". Cambridge 1980.
* Procter, Evelyn."The Interpretation of Clause 3 in the Decrees of León," EHR 85 (1970
* [[Merriman, Roger B.]] "The Cortes of the Spanish Kingdoms in the Later Middle Ages," AHR 16 (1911)
* [[John Keane (political theorist)|Keane, John]]. "The Life and Death of Democracy". Simon & Schuster, London, 2009.
* [https://bibliotecas.unileon.es/tULEctura/files/2020/04/decreta-leon-version-espanola.pdf Spanish version of the ''Decreta'' of León of 1188.] Translation to Spanish by José María Fernández Catón from the original text in Latin, as it was transcribed in the three 16th-century codices compared, namely: ''Biblioteca Nacional de España'', Manuscript 12909, folios 307v-310v; Manuscript 772, folios 305r-308r; ''Biblioteca Capitular de Sevilla'', Signature 56-2-20, folios 189v-192r. 
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leon's Spanish Parliament}}
[[Category:Medieval organizations]]
[[Category:12th-century establishments in the Kingdom of León]]
[[Category:1180s establishments in Europe]]
[[Category:1188 establishments in Europe]]
[[Category:Memory of the World Register in Spain]]
[[Category:Defunct national legislatures]]