Shortly after his birth, his family decided to return to Asturias, the native land of his father. After Primary Education, he also studied Secondary Education in Oviedo, although he finished in Madrid. Then he studied Law and Arts at University. On 5th May 900 he married María Goyri. In 1900, he became a member of the Spanish Academy and president in 1925. When the Civil War broke out, he travelled to Cuba and later to the United States. He made courses in different universities and was nominated to 'doctor honoris causa' in many of them.
His activity started in 1895 when the Spanish Academy gave him a prize for his work about Grammar and vocabulary in the Cid's poem (Poema del Cid). In the following year he published his work La leyenda de los infantes de Lara. In 1904, the book Manual elemental de Gramática Histórica Española was published and some years later the book Cantar del Mío Cid. In the 20's the books Poesía Juglaresca y juglares, La España del Cid and Los orígenes del español were published. Towards the year 1935, some of his medieval works were published such as Historia troyana en prosa y en verso and some other texts that appeared in the miscellany titled Reliquias de la poesía épica española. In 1947, he published the prologue to the first volume of Spanish History titled Los españoles en la historia. Cimas y depresiones en la curva de su vida política. In this period he also published El romancero hispánico, La chanson de Roland y el neotradicionalismo, Flor nueva de romances viejos, De Cervantes a Lope de Vega, Idea imperial de Carlos V, Los Reyes Católicos y otros estudios, Los Godos y la epopeya histórica, El padre Las Casas y el padre Vitoria, con otros temas de los siglos XVI y XVII, La epopeya castellana a través de la literatura española, Los romances de América y otros estudios, Miscelánea histórica y literaria.