WI: Surviving Kingdom of Leon

In what ways could the Kingdom of León have survived being incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile? How would this have impacted Iberian and European history?
 
Err...It survived up to the XIX as it wasn't incorporated into the kingdom of Castile. It was a personal union between Leon and Castille, with continuation of local institutions, more or less what you had with Aragon.

Admittedly, you had an heavy tendency from the XIV to the XVII to unify towards castilian standards, but it's a long process.
 
Leon and Castille separated and came back together (more than once) as a consequence of dynastic accident -- a king had more than one son who he wanted to inherit a kingdom, so the kingdoms were divided; later, one individual inherited both kingdoms and they came back together. Nothing was inevitable about either process; clearly it's possible for both royal lines to continue.

Conflict between the kingdoms was frequent but never decisive in OTL. It's possible, but not inevitable, for one to have conquered the other. It's also possible for either or both to have tried to get an edge by merging via dynastic marriages with the ruling houses of Portugal, Aragon or Navarre. Some combinations make more geographical sense than others, but that's never constrained anybody.
 
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