Fruela, nevertheless, was known as 'Fruela the Cruel' after he assassinated his brother in order to gain total control.
This period was also known for the construction of splendid Asturian architecture, with basilicas and monuments appearing across the region. His successors, Alphonse and Fruela, extended Asturian borders further. Pelagio's resultant power structure endured, lasting until after his death in 737 CE.
Yet a surviving nobleman, Pelagio, fled to Asturias, where he began to resist the Caliphate, leading Christian forces to victory over the Muslims at the Battle of Covadonga in 722 CE a turning point in the struggle - essentially the beginning of the Reconquista. When the Umayyad Caliphate invaded Iberia in 711 CE, the Visigoths buckled their king was betrayed and murdered, and the Muslim invaders stormed the south of the Peninsula, almost wiping out the remainder of the Visigothic aristocracy. During the fall of the Roman Empire, Asturian an identity was formed through their constant feuding between the rival Visigoths and Suebi. The Kingdom of Asturias began in the Roman province of Gallaecia, a melting pot of tribes during antiquity. Although the Visigoths have been destroyed and their kingdom shattered, their spirit lives on.
In the northwest of Iberia, along the Cantabrian mountains, the Asturias stand tall.