The Kingdom of Asturias (Latin: Regnum Asturorum) was a kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula founded in 718 by Visigothic nobleman Pelagius of Asturias (Spanish: Pelayo). It was the first Christian political entity established following the conquest of the Visigothic kingdom by the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate in 718, or probably 722. That year Pelagius defeated an Umayyad patrol at the Battle of Covadonga, in what is usually regarded as the beginning of the Reconquista.