Gerald the Fearless
Encyclopedia
Gerald or Gerard the Fearless (died prob. 1173), known in Portuguese as Geraldo Geraldes Sempavor ("without fear"), was a Portuguese warrior and folk hero of the Reconquista
whose theatre of operations was in the barren Alentejo and Extremadura
regions of the lower Guadiana
river. The city of Évora
was the most lasting of his conquests and was never retaken. His success and independence have suggested parallels with the Castilian
hero El Cid
and Gerald has been called "the Cid of Portugal".
Of the places Gerald conquered the primary sources are in general agreement, also as to the order of their seizure, but as to the dating of events there is ambiguity. Ibn Ṣāḥib's version goes:
The years 560 and 561 correspond roughly to the annos Domini
1165 and 1166, but here Ibn Ṣāḥib is almost certainly off in his dating by a year. The events rather took place in 1164 and 1165. A later Portuguese chronicle, the Crónica dos Godos ("Chronicle of the Goths"), dates the conquest of Évora
to the year 1204 of the Spanish era
, that is, 1166. Trujillo was taken on 14 May 1164, or in June; Évora in September 1164; and Cáceres
in December 1164 or, on a later dating, in September 1166. These were the major conquests. The lesser conquests of Montánchez
, Serpa
, and Juromenha
took place in 1165, based on Ibn Ṣāḥib's scheme, but Montánchez and Serpa may have gone in March 1167, as one historian has it. All the primary sources agree that Santa Cruz de la Sierra was the last of Gerald's successes, which may place it as late as 1169, though perhaps earlier (1167/8), along with Ureña
. The conquest of these last two places left Gerald in a position to harass Beja
. The date of the capture of Monfragüe
, which was certainly one of his conquests, cannot be established.
. These actions were in violation of the succession arrangements laid down by Alfonso VII at Sahagún
, since they comprised lands whose conquest had been assigned to León. A few of Gerald's conquests in the far east had even been assigned to Castile
. The Leonese king, Ferdinand II
, son of Alfonso VII, took action immediately after the taking of Cáceres, probably early in the spring of 1166, capturing Alcántara
later that year and thus securing a crossing over the Tagus
. Subsequently he allied with the Almohad
caliph Yusuf I
, who had warned him of Gerald and the Portuguese's encroachments on his interests.
In the early summer of 1169, Gerald took taifa
and city of Badajoz
after a long siege, but the garrison took refuge in the citadel, the alcazaba
, the siege of which continued. Seeing an opportunity to add to his domains the chief city of the region at the expense of both his Muslim and Christian enemies, Afonso I of Portugal
came with an army to Badajoz to relieve his nominal vassal. This provoked the opposition of Ferdinand of León, who claimed Badajoz as his own and came south with an army at the request of Yusuf, who had already sent a contingent of 500 cavalry to assist the garrison. The besieging Portuguese were themselves besieged by the Leonese and fighting broke out in the streets. While trying to flee, Afonso was caught on the hinge of a gate and flung from his horse, breaking his leg. He was captured by Ferdinand's men, while Gerald was captured by the Leonese majordomo, Fernán Ruiz de Castro
, called el Castellano ("the Castilian"). He was an important person at court, who for a while held the highest military post in the capital (tenente turris Legionis, "possessing the tower of León"). He was the king's brother-in-law, being married to Stephanie the Unfortunate, an illegitimate daughter of Alfonso VII by his second mistress, Urraca Fernández, and thus a half-sister of Ferdinand II. After the mêlée the Leonese had control of the town and the alcazaba, which they soon relinquished to their Muslim allies. Ferdinand succeeded in gaining the valley of the upper Limia
and the regions of Toroño (around Tuy
), Capraria (around Verín
), and Lobarzana (around Chaves
) from Afonso in exchange for his release. Several of Gerald's conquests were ceded to purchase his freedom. Ferdinand retained Cáceres, but Trujillo, Montánchez, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Monfragüe he gave to Fernán Ruiz.
and Murcia
, general anarchy prevailed in the Extremadura as Leonese, Portuguese, and Almohad troops fought for supremacy. Gerald took advantage of Yusuf's absence to conquer Beja in the Alentejo (1172). When he and Afonso disagree over whether to hold the site or raze it, Gerald—"impoverished and bereft of all aid" —went to Seville
to put himself in the service of the caliph. To keep him away from Portugal he was sent to Morocco
with 350 troops. There he received the governorship of al-Sūs (the desert of the southern Maghreb
), but soon entered into negotiations with his former monarch concerning the use of al-Sūs as a base for a Portuguese invasion. When his correspondence was intercepted, he was arrested and put to death. The Chronica latina regum castellae
, a Latin Christian chronicle, summarises Gerald's career in one paragraph at the end of its tenth chapter:
The chief source for Gerald's negotiations with the caliph and his death in Morocco is Ibn `Idhārī al-Marrākushī's Al-Bayān al-Mugrib. Many of the cities and castles that Gerald captured with ease were later re-conquered by the Almohads, who improved their fortifications so much that they were not taken by the Christians again until the next century. Cáceres was besieged four times without success (1184, 1213, 1218, and 1222) and is usually referred to as a castrum famossum ("famous castle") or muy fuerte castillo ("very strong castle") in Christian sources, although it had fallen relatively easily to Gerald. Trujillo was not taken by the Christians again until 1234. The defences of Badajoz were completely reworked after 1169 and those that survive today are almost entirely of the Almohad period; the city only fell to the Christians permanently in 1226.
of 1218 refers to the cabeza de giraldo ("head of Gerald") as a place, without indicating where it lay. Two streams, the Geradillo and the Geraldo, the first flowing from the second and into the Tagus, are also named after Gerald. The region where the stream originates is in the highlands around Casas de Miravete
, which is quite possibly the site of the cabeza.
The legends which later arose surrounding Gerald are given concise retelling by Louis-Adrien Duperron de Castera, a French translator:
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
whose theatre of operations was in the barren Alentejo and Extremadura
Extremadura
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...
regions of the lower Guadiana
Guadiana
The Guadiana , or Odiana, is an international river located on the Portuguese–Spanish border, separating Extremadura and Andalucia from Alentejo and Algarve...
river. The city of Évora
Évora
Évora is a municipality in Portugal. It has total area of with a population of 55,619 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Évora District and capital of the Alentejo region. The municipality is composed of 19 civil parishes, and is located in Évora District....
was the most lasting of his conquests and was never retaken. His success and independence have suggested parallels with the Castilian
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
hero El Cid
El Cid
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar , known as El Cid Campeador , was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat...
and Gerald has been called "the Cid of Portugal".
Reconquista in Alentejo and Extremadura
Around 1162 Gerald assembled a private army (a mesnada) and rapidly developed tactics that proved remarkably successful in seizing Muslim strongholds, though it was not adapted for siege warfare. He "perfected techniques of nocturnal surprise in wintry or stormy weather, stealthy escalading of walls by picked commando-like troops, cutting down of sentries and opening of town gates to the larger force stationed without." Among the primary sources for Gerald's methods the most important is the contemporary Arabic chronicler Ibn Ṣāḥib al-Ṣalā, whose Al-Mann bil-Imāma was incorporated into the history of al-Maqqarī in the seventeenth century. His opinion of Gerald and his tactics is very low:
The dog [Gerald] marched on rainy and very dark nights, with strong wind and snow, towards the cities and, having prepared his wooden instruments of scaling [walls] very large, so that they would surpass the wall of the city, he would apply those ladders to the side of the tower and catch the sentinel [by surprise] and say to him: "Shout, as is your custom," in order that the people would not hear him. When the scaling of the group had been completed on the highest wall in the city, they shouted in their language with an abominable screech, and they entered the city and fought whom they found and robbed them and captured all who were there in [the city, taking] captive and prisoner all who were there.
Of the places Gerald conquered the primary sources are in general agreement, also as to the order of their seizure, but as to the dating of events there is ambiguity. Ibn Ṣāḥib's version goes:
In the second Jumada al-awwalJumada al-awwalJumada al-awwal is the fifth month in the Islamic calendar.We can also find the alternative spelling Jumada al-Ula.The origin of the word is as follows: the word Jumda, from which the name of the month is derived, is used to denote dry parched land: land devoid of rain, and hence denote the dry...
[15 April–13 May] of the anno Hegirae 560 [1165] the city of Trujillo was surprised, and in Dhu al-Qi'dahDhu al-Qi'dahDhu al-Qa'dah, Dhu'l-Qadah, or Dhu al-Qi'dah is the eleventh month in the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months in Islam during which warfare is prohibited, hence the name ‘Master of Truce’.- Timing :...
the notable village of Évora. Also was the population of Cáceres in SafarSafarSafar is the second month in the Islamic calendar.The root of the name, صفر ṣafr, has three basic areas of meaning: 1) whistle, hiss, chirp; 2) be yellow, pale ; 3) to be empty, devoid, vacant...
561 [1166], and the castle of Montánchez in Jumada al-thaniJumada al-thaniJumada al-Thani is the sixth month in the Islamic Calendar.It is also known as Jumaada al-Akhir and Jumada al-Akhira.This is the sixth month of the Islamic calendar...
and the strongholds of Serpa and Juromenha.
The years 560 and 561 correspond roughly to the annos Domini
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
1165 and 1166, but here Ibn Ṣāḥib is almost certainly off in his dating by a year. The events rather took place in 1164 and 1165. A later Portuguese chronicle, the Crónica dos Godos ("Chronicle of the Goths"), dates the conquest of Évora
Évora
Évora is a municipality in Portugal. It has total area of with a population of 55,619 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Évora District and capital of the Alentejo region. The municipality is composed of 19 civil parishes, and is located in Évora District....
to the year 1204 of the Spanish era
Spanish era
The Spanish era, Hispanic era or Caesar era refers to the dating system used in Hispania until the 14th century, when the Anno Domini system was adopted. It began with year one in what is 38 BC, probably the date of a new tax imposed by the Roman Republic on the subdued population of Iberia....
, that is, 1166. Trujillo was taken on 14 May 1164, or in June; Évora in September 1164; and Cáceres
Cáceres, Spain
Cáceres is the capital of the same name province, in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. , its population was 91,131 inhabitants. The municipio has a land area of 1,750.33 km², and is the largest in geographical extension in Spain....
in December 1164 or, on a later dating, in September 1166. These were the major conquests. The lesser conquests of Montánchez
Montánchez
Montánchez is a town in Spain, in the province of Caceres, Extremadura.It is situated at , some 702 metres above sea level. The municipality has an approximate population of just over 2,000.....
, Serpa
Serpa
Serpa is a municipality in Portugal, in Alentejo Region, with a total area of 1104.0 km² and a total population of 16,178 inhabitants. The Guadiana River flows close to the town of Serpa....
, and Juromenha
Juromenha
Juromenha is a town in southeastern Portugal, near the border with Spain....
took place in 1165, based on Ibn Ṣāḥib's scheme, but Montánchez and Serpa may have gone in March 1167, as one historian has it. All the primary sources agree that Santa Cruz de la Sierra was the last of Gerald's successes, which may place it as late as 1169, though perhaps earlier (1167/8), along with Ureña
Ureña
Ureña is a surname of Spanish origin. It can refer to:*Salomé Ureña, writer from the Dominican Republic*Pedro Henríquez Ureña, writer from the Dominican Republic*Gerardo Ureña, Costa Rican soccer player*Leopoldo Alas y Ureña, Spanish novelist...
. The conquest of these last two places left Gerald in a position to harass Beja
Beja (Portugal)
Beja is a city in the Beja Municipality in the Alentejo region, Portugal. The municipality has a total area of 1,147.1 km² and a total population of 34,970 inhabitants. The city proper has a population of 21,658....
. The date of the capture of Monfragüe
Monfragüe
Monfragüe is a comarca of Extremadura, western Spain, which contains the most recently designated of the country's fourteen National Parks ....
, which was certainly one of his conquests, cannot be established.
Conflict with León
So successful was Gerald by 1168 that his eastward expansion threatened the southward expansion of the Kingdom of LeónKingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
. These actions were in violation of the succession arrangements laid down by Alfonso VII at Sahagún
Sahagún
Sahagún can refer to:*Sahagún, Spain, a town and monastery in Léon, Spain. Cradle of the Mudéjar architecture*Sahagún, Córdoba, the second town in population in Córdoba Department, Colombia, also called "The Cultural City of Cordoba"People...
, since they comprised lands whose conquest had been assigned to León. A few of Gerald's conquests in the far east had even been assigned to Castile
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
. The Leonese king, Ferdinand II
Ferdinand II of Leon
Ferdinand II was King of León and Galicia from 1157 to his death.-Life:Born in Toledo, Castile, he was the son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and of Berenguela, of the House of Barcelona. At his father's death, he received León and Galicia, while his brother Sancho received Castile and...
, son of Alfonso VII, took action immediately after the taking of Cáceres, probably early in the spring of 1166, capturing Alcántara
Alcántara
Alcántara is a municipality in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain, on the Tagus, near Portugal. The toponym is from the Arabic word al-QanTarah meaning "the bridge".-History:...
later that year and thus securing a crossing over the Tagus
Tagus
The Tagus is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula. It is long, in Spain, along the border between Portugal and Spain and in Portugal, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon. It drains an area of . The Tagus is highly utilized for most of its course...
. Subsequently he allied with the Almohad
Almohad
The Almohad Dynasty , was a Moroccan Berber-Muslim dynasty founded in the 12th century that established a Berber state in Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains in roughly 1120.The movement was started by Ibn Tumart in the Masmuda tribe, followed by Abd al-Mu'min al-Gumi between 1130 and his...
caliph Yusuf I
Abu Yaqub Yusuf
Abu Ya`qub Yusuf or Yusuf I was the second Almohad Amir or caliph. He reigned from 1163 until 1184. He had the Giralda in Seville built....
, who had warned him of Gerald and the Portuguese's encroachments on his interests.
In the early summer of 1169, Gerald took taifa
Taifa of Badajoz
The Taifa of Badajoz was a medieval Muslim kingdom in what is now parts of Portugal and Spain and centred on the city of Badajoz which exists today as the first city of Extremadura, in Spain....
and city of Badajoz
Badajoz
Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain, situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana, and the Madrid–Lisbon railway. The population in 2007 was 145,257....
after a long siege, but the garrison took refuge in the citadel, the alcazaba
Alcazaba
An alcazaba , alcáçova or alcassaba is a Moorish fortification in Spain and Portugal. The word derives from the Arabic word القصبة , a walled-fortification in a city....
, the siege of which continued. Seeing an opportunity to add to his domains the chief city of the region at the expense of both his Muslim and Christian enemies, Afonso I of Portugal
Afonso I of Portugal
Afonso I or Dom Afonso Henriques , more commonly known as Afonso Henriques , nicknamed "the Conqueror" , "the Founder" or "the Great" by the Portuguese, and El-Bortukali and Ibn-Arrik by the Moors whom he fought, was the first King of Portugal...
came with an army to Badajoz to relieve his nominal vassal. This provoked the opposition of Ferdinand of León, who claimed Badajoz as his own and came south with an army at the request of Yusuf, who had already sent a contingent of 500 cavalry to assist the garrison. The besieging Portuguese were themselves besieged by the Leonese and fighting broke out in the streets. While trying to flee, Afonso was caught on the hinge of a gate and flung from his horse, breaking his leg. He was captured by Ferdinand's men, while Gerald was captured by the Leonese majordomo, Fernán Ruiz de Castro
Fernando Rodríguez de Castro
Fernando Rodríguez de Castro was a Castilian nobleman, statesman and military leader who made his career in León. He was the leader of the House of Castro during the civil wars that followed the death of Sancho III of Castile and the succession of the infant Alfonso VIII...
, called el Castellano ("the Castilian"). He was an important person at court, who for a while held the highest military post in the capital (tenente turris Legionis, "possessing the tower of León"). He was the king's brother-in-law, being married to Stephanie the Unfortunate, an illegitimate daughter of Alfonso VII by his second mistress, Urraca Fernández, and thus a half-sister of Ferdinand II. After the mêlée the Leonese had control of the town and the alcazaba, which they soon relinquished to their Muslim allies. Ferdinand succeeded in gaining the valley of the upper Limia
Limia
Limia is a genus of livebearing freshwater fishes belonging to the cyprinodontiform family Poeciliidae, which includes other livebearers such as platys, swordtails , guppies and mollies...
and the regions of Toroño (around Tuy
Tui, Galicia
Tui , in Spanish Tuy, is a town in Galicia , in the province of Pontevedra. It is located on the left bank of the Minho River, facing the Portuguese town of Valença....
), Capraria (around Verín
Verín
Verín is a small city in the Autonomous Community of Galicia, Spain located in the southeast of the province of Ourense. The population of the concello is about 14,433. It is located 70 kilometers east of the provincial capital of Ourense and 15 kilometers north of the Portuguese city of Chaves...
), and Lobarzana (around Chaves
Chaves (Portugal)
Chaves is a municipality and municipal seat of an area 10 km south of the Spanish border and 22 km south of Verín in the north of Portugal. The municipality is the second most populous of the district of Vila Real...
) from Afonso in exchange for his release. Several of Gerald's conquests were ceded to purchase his freedom. Ferdinand retained Cáceres, but Trujillo, Montánchez, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Monfragüe he gave to Fernán Ruiz.
Serving the Almohads
In 1171 and 1172, while Yusuf was waging war on ValenciaTaifa of Valencia
The Taifa of Valencia was a medieval taifa kingdom which existed, in and around Valencia, Spain during four distinct periods: from 1010 to 1065, from 1075 to 1099, from 1145 to 1147 and last from 1229 to 1238 when it was finally conquered by Aragon....
and Murcia
Taifa of Murcia
The Taifa of Murcia was one of the Taifas of medieval Al-Andalus, in what is now southern Spain. It became independent as a taifa centered on the Moorish city of Murcia after the fall of the Omayyad Caliphate of Córdoba...
, general anarchy prevailed in the Extremadura as Leonese, Portuguese, and Almohad troops fought for supremacy. Gerald took advantage of Yusuf's absence to conquer Beja in the Alentejo (1172). When he and Afonso disagree over whether to hold the site or raze it, Gerald—"impoverished and bereft of all aid" —went to Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
to put himself in the service of the caliph. To keep him away from Portugal he was sent to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
with 350 troops. There he received the governorship of al-Sūs (the desert of the southern Maghreb
Maghreb
The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...
), but soon entered into negotiations with his former monarch concerning the use of al-Sūs as a base for a Portuguese invasion. When his correspondence was intercepted, he was arrested and put to death. The Chronica latina regum castellae
Chronica latina regum Castellae
The Chronica latina regum Castellae, known in Spanish as the Crónica latina de los reyes de Castilla, both meaning "Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile", is a medieval Latin history of the rulers of Castile from the death of Count Fernán González in 970 to the reconquest of Córdoba by King...
, a Latin Christian chronicle, summarises Gerald's career in one paragraph at the end of its tenth chapter:
Also then [at the capture of Afonso I at Badajoz] was captured Gerald, alias "without fear", who was given over to Rodrigo Fernández [sic], the Castilian, to whom, in exchange for his liberty, Gerald handed over Montánchez, Trujillo, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Monfragüe, which the same Gerald had gained from the Saracens, to whom he had caused much damage, and by whom he was decapitated in Moroccan territory on a laughable pretext.
The chief source for Gerald's negotiations with the caliph and his death in Morocco is Ibn `Idhārī al-Marrākushī's Al-Bayān al-Mugrib. Many of the cities and castles that Gerald captured with ease were later re-conquered by the Almohads, who improved their fortifications so much that they were not taken by the Christians again until the next century. Cáceres was besieged four times without success (1184, 1213, 1218, and 1222) and is usually referred to as a castrum famossum ("famous castle") or muy fuerte castillo ("very strong castle") in Christian sources, although it had fallen relatively easily to Gerald. Trujillo was not taken by the Christians again until 1234. The defences of Badajoz were completely reworked after 1169 and those that survive today are almost entirely of the Almohad period; the city only fell to the Christians permanently in 1226.
Legacy and legend
Gerald left his mark on the toponymy of the Extremadura. A document of the Order of CalatravaOrder of Calatrava
The Order of Calatrava was the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Order of Calatrava as a Militia was given by Pope Alexander III on September 26, 1164.-Origins and Foundation:...
of 1218 refers to the cabeza de giraldo ("head of Gerald") as a place, without indicating where it lay. Two streams, the Geradillo and the Geraldo, the first flowing from the second and into the Tagus, are also named after Gerald. The region where the stream originates is in the highlands around Casas de Miravete
Casas de Miravete
Casas de Miravete is a municipality located in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain. According to the 2006 census , the municipality has a population of 172 inhabitants....
, which is quite possibly the site of the cabeza.
The legends which later arose surrounding Gerald are given concise retelling by Louis-Adrien Duperron de Castera, a French translator:
He was a man of rank, who, in order to avoid the legal punishment to which several crimes rendered him obnoxious, put himself at the head of a party of freebooters. Tiring, however, of that life, he resolved to reconcile himself to his sovereign by some noble action. Full of this idea, one evening he entered Évora, which then belonged to the Moors. In the night he killed the sentinels of one of the gates, which he opened to his companions, who soon became masters of the place. This exploit had its desired effect. The king pardoned Gerald, and made him governor of Évora. A knight with a sword in one hand, and two heads in the other, from that time became the armorial bearing of the city.
Works cited
- Simon Barton. 2002. "Traitors to the Faith? Christian Mercenaries in al-Andalus and the Maghreb, c.1100–1300". Medieval Spain: Culture, Conflict, and Coexistence: Studies in Honour of Angus MacKay. Edited by Roger CollinsRoger CollinsRoger J. H. Collins is an English medievalist, currently an honorary fellow in history at the University of Edinburgh.Collins studied at the University of Oxford under Peter Brown and John Michael Wallace-Hadrill. He then taught ancient and medieval history at the universities of Liverpool and...
and Anthony Goodman. Palgrave Macmillan. - Charles Julian Bishko. 1975. "The Spanish and Portuguese Reconquest, 1095–1492". A History of the Crusades, vol. 3: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Harry W. Hazard, ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
- Francisco Cillán Cillán. 2006. "La fortaleza medieval de la Sierra de Santa Cruz". Coloquios Históricos de Extremadura.
- Julián Clemente Ramos. 1994. "La Extremadura musulmana (1142–1248): Organización defensiva y sociedad". Anuario de estudios medievales, 24:647–701.
- Richard A. FletcherRichard A. FletcherRichard A. Fletcher was a historian who specialized in the medieval period. He was Professor of History at the University of York and one of the outstanding talents in English and Spanish medieval scholarship....
. 1978, The Episcopate in the Kingdom of León in the Twelfth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. - Félix Hernández Giménez. 1967. "Los caminos de Córdoba hacia Noroeste en época musulmana, I". Al-Andalus, 32(1):37–123.
- Félix Hernández Giménez. 1967. "Los caminos de Córdoba hacia Noroeste en época musulmana, III". Al-Andalus, 32(2):277–358.
- Basilio Pavón Maldonado. 1967. "Arqueología musulmana en Cáceres (Aljibes medievales)". Al-Andalus, 32(1):181–210.
- James F. Powers. 1987. A Society Organized for War: The Iberian Municipal Militias in the Central Middle Ages, 1000–1284. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Further reading
- Antonio Floriano Cumbreño. 1957. Estudios de Historia de Cáceres (desde los orígenes a la Reconquista). Oviedo: Diputación Provincial de Cáceres.
- David Lópes. 1940. "O Cid português: Geraldo Sempavor". Revista Portuguesa de Historia, 1:92–109.
- Armando de Sousa Pereira. 2008. Geraldo Sem Pavor: Um guerreiro de fronteira entre cristãos e muçulmanos, c. 1162–1176. Oporto: Fronteira do Caos Editores.