The
Reconquista (a
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
and
PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. It is derived from the Latin spoken by the romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago...
word for "Reconquest";
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
: الاسترداد
, "Recapturing") was a period of 800 years in the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
during which several
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
kingdoms of the
Iberian PeninsulaThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
succeeded in retaking (and repopulating) the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims. The
Islamic conquestThe Umayyad conquest of Hispania began as an army of the Umayyad Caliphate consisting largely of Berbers, inhabitants of Northwest Africa recently converted to Islam, invaded the Christian Visigothic Kingdom located on the Iberian peninsula...
of the Christian
Visigothic kingdomThe Visigothic kingdom was a kingdom which occupied southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to 8th century AD. One of the Germanic successor states to the Western Roman Empire, it was originally created by the settlement of the Visigoths under King Wallia in the province of...
in the eighth century (begun 710–12) extended over almost the entire peninsula (except major parts of Galicia, the
AsturiasThe Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community within the kingdom of Spain, former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
,
CantabriaCantabria is a Spanish province and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria belongs to...
and the
Basque CountryThe Basque Country as a greater region is a European cultural region in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain, on the Atlantic coast....
). By the thirteenth century all that remained was the
NasridThe Nasrid dynasty or Banuu Nasri was the last Arab and Muslim dynasty in Spain. The Nasrid dynasty rose to power after the defeat of the Almohad dynasty in 1212 at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa...
Kingdom of Granada, to be conquered in 1492, bringing the entire peninsula under Christian leadership.
The Reconquista began in the immediate aftermath of the Islamic conquest and passed through major phases before its completion. The formation of the
Kingdom of AsturiasThe Kingdom of Asturias was the first Christian political entity to be established in the Iberian peninsula after the collapse of the Visigothic Kingdom. This followed the defeat of King Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete and the subsequent Islamic conquest of Hispania...
under Pelagius and the
Battle of CovadongaThe Battle of Covadonga was the first major victory by a Christian military force in Iberia following the Muslim Moors' conquest of that region in 711...
in 722 were major formative events.
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
(768–814) reconquered the western
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
and
SeptimaniaSeptimania was the western region of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed under the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II. Under the Visigoths it was known as simply Gallia or Narbonensis. It corresponded roughly with the modern...
and formed a
Marca HispanicaThe Marca Hispanica was a buffer zone beyond the province of Septimania, created by Charlemagne in 795 as a defensive barrier between the Umayyad Moors of Al-Andalus and the Frankish Kingdom....
to defend the border between Francia and the Muslims. After the advent of the
CrusadesThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
, much of the
ideologyAn ideology is a set of aims and ideas that directs one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a...
of Reconquista was subsumed within the wider context of Crusading. Even before the Crusades, however, soldiers from elsewhere in Europe had been travelling to Iberia to participate in the Reconquista as an act of Christian penitence.
Throughout this period the situation in Iberia was more nuanced and complicated than any ideology would allow. Christian and Muslim rulers commonly fought amongst themselves and interfaith alliances were not unusual. The fighting along the Christian-Muslim frontier was punctuated by periods of prolonged peace and truces. The Muslims did not cease to start offensives aimed at reconquering their lost territories. Blurring the sides even further were mercenaries who simply fought for whoever paid more.
The
Reconquista was essentially completed in 1238, when the only remaining Muslim state in Iberia, the
Emirate of GranadaThe Emirate of Granada was established in 1228, after the Almohad dynasty was defeated by the Christians at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa...
, became a vassal of the Christian King of Castile. This arrangement lasted for 250 years until the Spanish launched the
Granada WarThe Granada War was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1492 during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella by Castile and Aragon against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada...
of 1492, which finally expelled all Muslim authority from Spain. The last Muslim ruler of Granada, Muhammad XII, better known as Boabdil, surrendered his kingdom to
Ferdinand II of AragonFerdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, de jure uxoris King of Castile and then Regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of his mentally unstable daughter Joanna the...
and
Isabella I of CastileIsabella I was Queen of Castile and León. She and her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon, laid the foundation for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor....
, the
Catholic MonarchsThe Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. The title of "Catholic King and Queen" was bestowed on them by the Pope Alexander VI. They married on October 19,1469, in the city of Valladolid; Isabella was eighteen...
(
los Reyes Católicos).
Islamic conquest
From 711 to 756, the Moors (mainly North African
BerberBerber may refer to:*a member of the Berber people**the Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages**Berberism, a political-cultural term supporting a distinct Berber identity**Berber calendar**Berber cuisine...
warriors) swept over the Iberian Peninsula, conquering nearly all of it and establishing a foothold north of the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
in
NarbonneNarbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon région. It lies from Paris in the Aude département, of which it is a sous-préfecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...
. They put down local rebellions and established the Emirate of Córdoba.
Islamic decline
After the establishment of a local
EmirateAn emirate is a political territory that is ruled by a dynastic Muslim Monarch styled emir.-Etymology:Etymologically emirate or amirate is the quality, dignity, office or territorial competence of any emir .-As monarchies:The United Arab Emirates is a federal state that comprises seven federal...
,
CaliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
Al-Walid IAl-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik or Al-Walid I was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 705 - 715. He continued the expansion of the Islamic empire that was sparked by his father, and was an effective ruler.His father Abd al-malik had taken the oath of allegiance for Walid I during his lifetime ., As such...
, ruler of the
Umayyad caliphateThe Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four Islamic caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
, removed many of the successful Muslim commanders. Tariq ibn Ziyad, the first governor of the newly conquered province of
Al-AndalusAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
, was recalled to
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
and replaced with Musa bin Nusair, who had been his former superior. Musa's son, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, apparently married
EgilonaEgilona was the wife of the last Visigothic King Roderic in the early years of the 8th Century during the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. When he died in the Battle of Guadalete she was captured by the Moorish leader Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa...
,
RodericRuderic, Roderic, Roderik, Roderich, or Roderick was the Visigothic King of Hispania for a brief period between 710 and 712...
's widow, and established his regional government in
SevilleSeville is the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital 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. The inhabitants of the city are known as Sevillanos or...
. He was suspected of being under the influence of his wife, accused of wanting to convert to Christianity, and of planning a secessionist rebellion. Apparently a concerned Al-Walid I ordered Abd al-Aziz's assassination. Caliph Al-Walid I died in 715 and was succeeded by his brother
Sulayman ibn Abd al-MalikSulayman bin Abd al-Malik was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 715 until 717. His father was Abd al-Malik, and he was a younger brother of the previous caliph, al-Walid I.-Early years:...
. Suleiman seems to have punished the surviving Musa bin Nusair, who very soon died during a pilgrimage in 716. In the end Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa's cousin,
Ayyub ibn Habib al-LakhmiAyyub ibn Habib al-Lakhmi he was the 5th Umayyad Governor of Al-Andalus who succeeded his cousin Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa.He ruled for only 6 months,he moved to Cordoba and made it the Capital of Muslim Iberia instead of Toledo...
became the emir of Al-Andalus.
The conquering generals were necessarily acting very independently, due to deficient methods of communication. Successful generals in the field — and in a very distant province to boot — would also quickly gain the loyalty of their officers and warriors and their ambitions were probably always watched by certain circles of the distant government with a certain degree of concern and suspicion. Old rivalries and perhaps even full-fledged conspiracies between rival generals may have had influence over this development. In the end, the old successful generals were replaced by a younger generation considered more loyal by the government in
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
.
The Muslim conquerors had a serious weakness. Ethnic tensions existed between the
BerbersBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
and the
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
s. The Berbers were the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa who had been recently converted to
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
and had provided the bulk of the manpower for the invading Islamic armies. However they felt the Arabs discriminated against them. This latent internal conflict would jeopardize Muslim unity time and time again.
Beginning of the Reconquista
Around 718 Pelagius, a Visigothic noble, began a rebellion against
MunuzaMunuza was the Moorish governor of northern Iberia . He was subject to the Wāli of Al-Andalus, Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi. He was defeated in the Battle of Covadonga and killed by Pelayo of Asturias at the beginning of the Reconquista...
, a local Muslim governor. Becoming a local rebel leader he gathered all available support and one his most important allies was
Duke Pedro of CantabriaPeter or Pedro was the duke of Cantabria. While various writers have attempted to name his parentage, , early sources say nothing more specific than the chronicle of 'Pseudo-Alfonso': that he was "ex semine Leuvigildi et Reccaredi progenitus"...
.
The main strength of the Moorish army was absent; under the command of
Al-Samh ibn Malik al-KhawlaniAl-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani was the Arab governor general of the Muslim occupied region of the Iberian Peninsula called Al-Andalus from between 718 and 721.He led a Muslim incursion into southern France in the early part of the 8th century...
, emir of Al-Andalus, it had crossed the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
and overrun
SeptimaniaSeptimania was the western region of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed under the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II. Under the Visigoths it was known as simply Gallia or Narbonensis. It corresponded roughly with the modern...
, located in southern France. This invasion force was severely defeated in 721 by Odo the Great, the
Duke of AquitaineThe Duke of Aquitaine ruled the historical region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of the Frankish, The English King and later the French kings....
, in the
Battle of ToulouseThe Battle of Toulouse was a victory of a Frankish army led by Duke Odo of Aquitaine over an Umayyad army besieging the city of Toulouse, and led by the governor of Al-Andalus, Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani...
. Al-Samh was seriously wounded and died shortly afterwards. A drastic increase of taxes by the new emir
Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-KalbiAnbasa ibn Suhaym al-Kalbi was the Muslim wali of al-Andalus, also known as Moorish Hispania, from 721 to 726 CE....
provoked several rebellions in Al-Andalus, which a series of succeeding weak emirs were unable to suppress. Around 722 a military expedition was sent into the north to suppress the rebellion of Pelagius, but his forces prevailed in the
Battle of CovadongaThe Battle of Covadonga was the first major victory by a Christian military force in Iberia following the Muslim Moors' conquest of that region in 711...
.
- This battle, at the time probably considered little more than a small skirmish against local rebels would be considered by later Christian historians as the starting point of the Reconquista. Its true importance lies in the fact that Pelagius' victory secured his independent rule over the local area. The date and circumstances of this battle are very unclear, with several sources giving different dates. It is possible that the rebellion of Pelagius unfolded precisely because the greater part of the Muslim forces were gathering for the invasion of France, that it unfolded during this invasion, or even a bit later as the battered and weakened expedition returned and all available garrisons and reinforcements were probably re-called to bolster the army for its new invasion attempt.
Meanwhile Odo had married his daughter to
Uthman ibn NaissaUthman ibn Naissa was a Berber Wāli of Narbonne and effective Muslim governor of Septimania.He was married to the daughter of Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine and was known as "Munuza" by the Franks....
, a Berber and the
WāliWalī , is an Arabic word meaning "trusted one or patron"; it generally denotes "friend of God" in the phrase ولي الله walīyu 'llāh It should not be confused with the word Wāli which is an administrative title that was used in the Muslim Caliphate, and still today in some Muslim countries.-Sunni...
- deputy governor of Septimania, fostering yet another rebellion. However a major
punitive expeditionA punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons. It is usually undertaken in response to percieved disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge. provides the following definition:...
led by
Abdul Rahman Al GhafiqiAbdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi , also known as Abd er Rahman, Abdderrahman, Abderame, and Abd el-Rahman, led the Andalusian Muslims into battle against the forces of Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours on October 10, 732 A.D. for which he is primarily remembered in the West...
, the latest emir of Al-Andalus, defeated and killed Uthman. Abdul Rahman later managed to defeat Odo in the
Battle of the River GaronneThe Battle of the River Garonne was fought in 732 between an Umayyad army led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, governor of Al-Andalus, and Frankish forces led by Duke Odo of Aquitaine....
in 732. A desperate Odo turned to his rival
Charles MartelCharles Martel , called Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks. In 739 he was offered the title...
, who decisively beat the Muslims at the
Battle of ToursThe Battle of Tours , also called the Battle of Poitiers and in Battle of Court of The Martyrs, was fought in an area between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, located in north-central France, near the village of Moussais-la-Bataille about north of Poitiers...
in 732 and where Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi died.
Meanwhile Pelagius began raiding the city of
LeónThe city of León is the capital of León province in the autonomous community of Castile and León, in northwest Spain. Its population of 136,985 makes it the largest municipality in the province, accounting for over one quarter of the province's population...
, the main city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. He was crowned king and successfully established the small
Kingdom of AsturiasThe Kingdom of Asturias was the first Christian political entity to be established in the Iberian peninsula after the collapse of the Visigothic Kingdom. This followed the defeat of King Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete and the subsequent Islamic conquest of Hispania...
. He also established a
royal dynasty, marrying his son and heir
FavilaFafila, Favila, or Favilac was the second King of Asturias from 737 until his death. He was the only son and successor of Pelagius, the first Asturian monarch. In 737 he founded the church of Santa Cruz, probably in his capital of Cangas de Onís, but asides from this, nothing else about his reign...
to Duke Pedro's daughter.
Abd ar-Rahman I establishes the Emirate of Córdoba
The rule of the Umayad dynasty was in decline. Weakened by a string of defeats, rebellions, and revolts, it lost the
Battle of the ZabThe Battle of the Zab took place on the banks of the Great Zab river in what is now Iraq on January 25, 750. It spelled the end of the Umayyad Caliphate and the rise of the Abbasids, a dynasty that would last until the 13th century.-Background:A serious rebellion had broken out in 747 against...
in 750 and was overthrown and replaced by the
AbbasidThe Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus....
s. Most members of the Umayyad dynasty were hunted down and killed. However
Abd ar-RahmanAbd ar-Rahman I was the founder of the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba , a Muslim dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries . The Muslims called the regions of Iberia under their dominion al-Andalus...
managed to escape and to survive, fleeing for the north of Africa. From there he went to al-Andalus and with Berber support was able to conquer it from the local governor
Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-FihriYusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri was Umayyad governor of Narbonne in Septimania and then from 747 to 756 governor of al-Andalus, ruling independently following the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750...
. Abd ar-Rahman proclaimed himself
emirEmir , is a high title of nobility or office, used throughout the Arab World and historically in 19th-century Afghanistan and also in the medieval Muslim World...
of the
Emirate of CórdobaThe Caliphate of Córdoba ruled the Iberian peninsula and North Africa from the city of Córdoba, from 929 to 1031. This period was characterized by remarkable success in trade and culture; many of the masterpieces of Islamic Iberia were constructed in this period, including the famous Great Mosque...
. By claiming the lesser title of Emir - provincial governor - he was technically acknowledging the sovereignty of the Abbasid Caliph, and proclaiming that his domain was a mere province of the Caliphate. However it was little more than a nominal gesture and he was de facto ruling an independent kingdom. Meanwhile the Abbasids transferred the capital from
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
to
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
.
Franks invade Al-Andalus
The takeover of Al-Andalus by Abd ar-Rahman I was not unopposed. Certain local
wāliWalī , is an Arabic word meaning "trusted one or patron"; it generally denotes "friend of God" in the phrase ولي الله walīyu 'llāh It should not be confused with the word Wāli which is an administrative title that was used in the Muslim Caliphate, and still today in some Muslim countries.-Sunni...
s decided to oppose him, but instead of appealing to the distant Caliph, they decided to enlist the Franks, their Christian opponents.
According to
Ali ibn al-AthirAbu al-Hassan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad, better known as Ali 'Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari was an Arab Muslim historian born in Cizre, a town in present-day...
, a Kurdish historian of the 12th century,
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
received the envoys of
Sulayman al-ArabiSulayman ibn Yaqzan al-Arabi was Wali of Barcelona and Girona in the year 777.For the history of al-Arabi, we must rely on the Muslim historian Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad , also known as Ali ‘izz ad-Din ibn al-Athir al-Jazari, who wrote four centuries after the fact.According to...
, Husayn, and
Abu TaurAbu Taur was the Wali of Huesca in 777, who joined Sulayman al-Arabi in offer his submission to Charlemagne and collaborated with Frankish forces in the unsuccessful assault on Zaragoza in 778. It has been suggested that he may be identical to Abu Tawr ibn Qasi, son of the eponymous ancestor of...
at the Diet of Paderborn in 777. These rulers of
ZaragozaZaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza province and of the autonomous community and former Kingdom of Aragon, Spain...
,
GironaGirona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell with an estimated population of 95,000...
,
BarcelonaBarcelona is the capital, most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,615,908 in 2008. It is the 11th-most populous municipality in the European Union and sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris,...
, and
HuescaHuesca is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon...
were enemies of Abd ar-Rahman I, and in return for Frankish military aid against him offered their homage and allegiance.
Charlemagne, seeing an opportunity of conquest and annexation of new territories, agreed upon an expedition and crossed the Pyrenees in 778. Near the city of
ZaragozaZaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza province and of the autonomous community and former Kingdom of Aragon, Spain...
Charlemagne received the homage of
Sulayman al-ArabiSulayman ibn Yaqzan al-Arabi was Wali of Barcelona and Girona in the year 777.For the history of al-Arabi, we must rely on the Muslim historian Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad , also known as Ali ‘izz ad-Din ibn al-Athir al-Jazari, who wrote four centuries after the fact.According to...
. However the city, under the leadership of
HusaynHusayn of Zaragoza , Wali of Zaragoza, which is now the Spanish province of Aragón, from 774 to 781.-Events during the rule of Husayn:...
, closed its gates and refused to submit. Unable to conquer the city by force, Charlemagne decided to retreat. On the way home the rearguard of the army was ambushed and destroyed at the
Battle of Roncevaux PassThe Battle of Roncevaux Pass was a battle in 778 in which Roland, prefect of the Breton March and commander of the rear guard of Charlemagne's army, was defeated by the Basques...
.
The Song of RolandThe Song of Roland is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. It exists in various different manuscript versions, which testify to its enormous and enduring popularity in the 12th to 14th centuries...
, a highly romanticized account of this battle, would later become one of the most famous
chansons de gesteThe chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds [or lineages]", are the epic poems that appear at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known examples date from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, nearly a hundred years before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the...
of the Middle Ages.
Charlemagne decided to organize a regional sub-kingdom in order to secure the southern border of
his empireCarolingian Empire is a historiographical term sometimes used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty. This dynasty is seen as the founders of France and Germany...
. In 781 his three year-old son
LouisLouis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
was crowned king of
AquitaineAquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 26 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. In the Middle Ages it was a kingdom and later a duchy, with boundaries considerably larger...
and was nominally in charge of Spanish March.
Around 788 Abd ar-Rahman I died, and was succeeded by Hisham I. In 792 Hisham proclaimed a
JihadJihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād is a noun meaning "struggle." Jihad appears frequently in the Qur'an and common usage as the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of Allah "...
, advancing in 793 against the
Kingdom of AsturiasThe Kingdom of Asturias was the first Christian political entity to be established in the Iberian peninsula after the collapse of the Visigothic Kingdom. This followed the defeat of King Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete and the subsequent Islamic conquest of Hispania...
and the Franks. In the end his efforts were turned back by
William of GelloneSaint William of Gellone was the second Count of Toulouse from 790 until his replacement in 811. His Occitan name is Guilhem, and he is known in French as Guillaume d'Orange, Guillaume Fierabrace, and the Marquis au court nez.He is the hero of the Chanson de Guillaume, an early chanson de geste,...
, count of Toulouse.
BarcelonaBarcelona is the capital, most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,615,908 in 2008. It is the 11th-most populous municipality in the European Union and sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris,...
, a major city, became a potential target for the Franks in 797, as its governor Zeid rebelled against the Umayyad emir of Córdoba. An army of the emir managed to recapture it in 799 but Louis, at the head of an army, crossed the Pyrenees and besieged the city for two years until the city finally capitulated on December 28, 801.
The main passes were
RoncesvallesRoncesvalles is a small village and municipality of northern Spain , in the province of Navarre. It is situated on the small river Urrobi at an altitude of 900 meters among the Pyrenees, and within five miles of the French frontier...
,
SomportSomport is a mountain pass in the central Pyrenees on the border of France and Spain. The pass, whose name is derived from the Latin Summus portus, was one of the most popular routes for crossing the mountains for soldiers, merchants, and St...
and Junquera. Charlemagne settled in them the counties of
PamplonaPamplona is the capital city of Navarre, Spain and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 7 to 14, in which the running of the bulls or encierro is one of the main attractions...
,
AragonAragon is an autonomous community of Spain. Located in northeastern Spain, the region comprises three provinces from north to south: Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza .Aragon's northern province of Huesca borders France and is positioned in the middle of the Pyrenees...
and
CataloniaCatalonia is an Autonomous Community in northeast Spain. The capital city is Barcelona.Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an official population of 7,364,078. It borders France and Andorra to the north, Aragon to the west, the Valencian Community to the south, and the...
(which was itself formed from a number of small counties, Pallars,
GeronaGerona may refer to:* Gerona, Tarlac, Philippines* Girona, a city in Catalonia, Spain* Girona , Catalonia, Spain* A fictional planet in the Star Wars galaxy...
, and
UrgellUrgell is one of the historical Catalan counties, bordering on the counties of Pallars and Cerdanya. Its maximal extension territory was between the Pyrenees and the taifa of Lleida, that is, the current comarques of Alt Urgell , Noguera, Solsonès, Pla d'Urgell, Baix Urgell and the still...
being the most prominent) respectively.
Four states appeared: the kingdom of
PamplonaPamplona is the capital city of Navarre, Spain and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 7 to 14, in which the running of the bulls or encierro is one of the main attractions...
(later known as
NavarreNavarre is a region in northern Spain, constituting one of its autonomous communities - the "Chartered Community of Navarre" .-History:...
) and the counties of
AragonAragon is an autonomous community of Spain. Located in northeastern Spain, the region comprises three provinces from north to south: Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza .Aragon's northern province of Huesca borders France and is positioned in the middle of the Pyrenees...
,
SobrarbeSobrarbe is one of the comarcas in the northern part of the province of Huesca, part of the autonomous community of Aragon in Spain...
and
RibagorzaRibagorza or Ribagorça is a comarca in modern Aragon, situated in the north-east of the province of Huesca. It borders the French département of the Haute-Garonne to the north and Catalonia to the east...
. Navarre emerged as a kingdom around Pamplona, its capital, and controlled Roncesvalles pass. Its first king was Iñigo Arista. He expanded his domains up to the
Bay of BiscayThe Bay of Biscay or the Cantabrian Sea is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea...
and conquered a small number of towns beyond the Pyrenees, but never directly attacked the Carolingian armies, as he was in theory their
vassalA vassal in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudalism of medieval Europe, is one who enters into mutual obligations with a monarch, usually of military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain guarantees, which came to include the terrain held as a fief. By...
. It was not until Queen Ximena in the 9th century that Pamplona was officially recognised as an independent kingdom by the
PopeThe pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
. Aragon, founded in 809 by Aznar Galíndez, grew around Jaca and the high valleys of the
Aragon RiverThe River Aragón or Río Aragón is one of the left-hand tributaries of the river Ebro. It starts at Astún , passes through Jaca and Sangüesa , and joins the Ebro at Milagro , near Tudela.
...
, protecting the old Roman road. By the end of the 10th century, Aragon was annexed by Navarre. Sobrarbe and Ribagorza were small counties and had little significance to the progress of the
Reconquista.
The Catalonian counties protected the eastern Pyrenees passes and shores. They were under the direct control of the Frankish kings and were the last remains of the Iberian Marches.
CataloniaCatalonia is an Autonomous Community in northeast Spain. The capital city is Barcelona.Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an official population of 7,364,078. It borders France and Andorra to the north, Aragon to the west, the Valencian Community to the south, and the...
included not only the southern Pyrenees counties of
GironaGirona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell with an estimated population of 95,000...
, Pallars,
UrgellUrgell is one of the historical Catalan counties, bordering on the counties of Pallars and Cerdanya. Its maximal extension territory was between the Pyrenees and the taifa of Lleida, that is, the current comarques of Alt Urgell , Noguera, Solsonès, Pla d'Urgell, Baix Urgell and the still...
,
VicVic is the capital of the comarca of Osona, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Vic's location, only 69 km far from Barcelona and 60 km from Girona, has made it one of the most important towns in central Catalonia.-History:...
and
AndorraAndorra , officially the Principality of Andorra , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of ...
but also some which were on the northern side of the mountains, such as
PerpignanPerpignan is a commune and the capital of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France...
and
FoixFoix is a commune, the capital of the Ariège département in France. It is the least populous administrative centre of a département in all of France , although it is only very slightly smaller than Privas...
.
In the late 9th century under Count Wilfred, Barcelona became the
de facto capital of the region. It controlled the other counties' policies in a union, which led in 948 to the independence of Barcelona under
Count Borrel IIBorrell II was Count of Barcelona, Girona, and Ausona from 945 and Count of Urgell from 948.Borrell is first seen acting as count during the reign of his father Marquis Sunyer in 945 at the consecration of the nunnery church of Sant Pere de les Puelles in Barcelona, and succeeded Sunyer along with...
, who declared that the new dynasty in France (the Capets) were not the legitimate rulers of France nor, as a result, of his county.
These states were small and with the exception of
NavarreNavarre is a region in northern Spain, constituting one of its autonomous communities - the "Chartered Community of Navarre" .-History:...
did not have the same capacity for expansion as
AsturiasThe Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community within the kingdom of Spain, former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
had. Their mountainous geography rendered them relatively safe from attack but also made launching attacks against a united and strong
Al-AndalusAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
impractical. In consequence, these states' borders remained stable for two centuries.
The Kingdom of Asturias
The kingdom of Asturias was located in the
Cantabrian MountainsCantabrian Mountains are a mountain range which extends for more than approximately 180 miles across northern Spain, from the western limit of the Pyrenees to the borders of Galicia, and on or near the coast of the Cantabrian Sea...
, a wet and mountainous region in the north of the Iberian Peninsula.
During the reign of King Alfonso II (791–842), the kingdom was firmly established. He is believed to have initiated diplomatic contacts with the kings of
PamplonaPamplona is the capital city of Navarre, Spain and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 7 to 14, in which the running of the bulls or encierro is one of the main attractions...
and the
CarolingianThe Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with its origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
s, thereby gaining official recognition of his crown from the
PopeThe pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
and
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
.
Alfonso II also expanded his realm westwards conquering Galicia. There,
the bonesA relic is an object or a personal item of religious significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Shamanism, and many other religions....
of St. James the Great were proclaimed to have been found in
CompostelaSantiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the north west of Spain in the Province of A Coruña, it was a "European City of Culture" for the year 2000...
(from Latin
campus stellae, literally "the star field") inside Galicia. Pilgrims came from all over Europe creating the Way of Saint James, a major pilgrimage route linking the Asturias with the rest of Christian Europe.
Alfonso’s military strategy consisted of raiding the border regions of Vardulia (which would turn into the
CastileKingdom 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...
). With the plunder gained further military forces could be paid, enabling him to raid the Moorish cities of
LisbonLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the district of Lisbon and the main city of the Lisbon region...
, Zamora, and
CoimbraCoimbra is a city in Coimbra Municipality in Portugal. It served as the country's capital during the First Dynasty and remains home to the University of Coimbra, the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world and one of the oldest in Europe.According to the INE's census of 2001,...
. For centuries the focus of these actions was not conquest but raids, plunder, pillage and
tributeA tribute is wealth one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance...
. He also crushed a Basque uprising, during which he captured the
AlaviteÁlava is a province of northern Spain in the southern part of the Basque Autonomous Community. The province numbers a population of 301,926 inhabitants in an area of 2,963 km²....
Munia; their grandson is reported to be
Alfonso IIAlfonso II , called the Chaste, was the king of Asturias from 791 to his death, the son of Fruela I and the Basque Munia.He was born in Oviedo in 759 or 760. He was put under the guardianship of his aunt Adosinda after his father's death, but one tradition relates his being put in the monastery of...
.
During Alfonso II's reign a series of Muslim raids caused the transfer of Asturian capital to
OviedoOviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city....
.
Despite numerous battles the populations of neither the Umayyads — using the southern part of old
GallaeciaGallaecia or
Callaecia was the name of a Roman province and an early Mediaeval kingdom that comprised a territory in the north-west of
Hispania...
(today's northern Portugal) as their base of operations — nor that of the Asturians, was sufficient to effect an occupation of these northern territories. Under the reign of
RamiroRamiro I became King of Asturias in 842 and reigned until his death. Son of Bermudo I, he succeeded Alfonso II.First, he had to deal with the usurper Nepocian, defeating him at the Battle of the Bridge of Cornellana, by the river Narcea. Ramiro then removed the system of election which allowed his...
, famed for the legendary
Battle of ClavijoThe Battle of Clavijo was a legendary battle, supposedly fought in 844 near Clavijo between the Christians led by Ramiro I of Asturias and the Muslims led by the Emir of Córdoba. Saint James the Great, known to Spaniards as Santiago Matamoros , is reputed to have aided the vastly outnumbered...
, the border began to slowly move southward and Asturian holdings in
CastileA former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbors to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain with the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Navarre...
, Galicia, and
LeónLeón is a province of northwestern Spain, in the northwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León.About one quarter of its population of 500,200 lives in the capital, León. The weather is cold and dry during the winter....
were fortified and an intensive programme of repopulation of the countryside begun in those territories. In 924 the Kingdom of Asturias became the
Kingdom of LeónKingdom of León was an independent country situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 AD when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their main seat from Oviedo to the city of León...
.
Military culture in the medieval Iberian Peninsula
In a situation of constant conflict, warfare and daily life were strongly interlinked during this period. Small, lightly equipped armies reflected how the society had to be on the alert at all times. These forces were capable of moving long distances in short times, allowing a quick return home after sacking a target. Battles which took place were mainly between clans, expelling intruder armies or sacking expeditions.
The cultural context of the Christian Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula was different than that of the rest of Continental Europe in the Middle Ages, due to contact with the Moorish culture and the isolation provided by the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
(an exception to this is
CataloniaCatalonia is an Autonomous Community in northeast Spain. The capital city is Barcelona.Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an official population of 7,364,078. It borders France and Andorra to the north, Aragon to the west, the Valencian Community to the south, and the...
, where
FrankishThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
influence remained strong). These cultural differences implied the use of doctrines, equipment, and tactics markedly different from those found in the rest of Europe during this period.
Medieval Iberian armies mainly comprised two types of forces: cavalry (mostly nobles, but including commoner knights from the 10th century) and infantry, or
peones (peasants). Infantry only went to war if needed, which was not common.
Iberian
cavalry tacticsFor much of history humans have used some form of cavalry for war. Cavalry tactics have evolved over time. Tactically, the main advantages of cavalry over infantry troops were greater mobility, bigger impact and a higher position.-Predecessors:...
involved knights approaching the enemy and throwing javelins, before withdrawing to a safe distance before commencing another assault. Once the enemy formation was sufficiently weakened, the knights charged with thrusting spears (lances did not arrive in Hispania until the 11th century). There were three types of knights: royal knights, noble knights (
caballeros hidalgos) and commoner knights (
caballeros villanos). Royal knights were mainly nobles with a close relationship with the king, and thus claimed a direct Gothic inheritance. Royal knights were equipped in the same manner as their
GothicThe Goths were a heterogeneous East Germanic tribe. The historian Jordanes claimed that the Goths arrived from semi-legendary Scandza, believed to be somewhere in modern Götaland , and that a Gothic population had crossed the Baltic Sea before the 2nd century, lending their name to the region of...
predecessors — braceplate, kite shield, a long sword (designed to fight from the horse) and as well as the javelins and spears, a
Visigothic axeThe francisca is a throwing axe used as a weapon during the Early Middle Ages by the Franks, among whom it was a characteristic national weapon at the time of the Merovingians from about 500 to 750 AD and is known to have been used during the reign of Charlemagne...
. Noble knights came from the ranks of the
infanzones or lower nobles, whereas the commoner knights were not noble, but were wealthy enough to afford a horse. Uniquely in Europe, these horsemen comprised a militia cavalry force with no feudal links, being under the sole control of the king or the count of
CastileKingdom 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...
because of the "
charterA charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
s" (or
fueros). See "Repopulating Hispania — the origin of fueros", below. Both noble and common knights wore leather armour, javelins, spears and round-tasselled shields (influenced by Moorish shields), as well as a sword.
The
peones were peasants who went to battle in service of their feudal lord. Poorly equipped, with bows and arrows, spears and short swords, they were mainly used as auxiliary troops. Their function in battle was to contain the enemy troops until the cavalry arrived and to block the enemy infantry from charging the knights.
Typically armour was made of leather, with iron scales; full coats of
chain mail"Chain Mail" is a single by Mancunian band James, released in March 1986 by Sire Records, the first after the band defected from Factory Records. The record was released in two different versions, as 7" single and 12" EP, with different artworks by John Carroll and, confusingly, under different...
were extremely rare and horse barding completely unknown. Head protections consisted of a round helmet with nose protector (influenced by the designs used by
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
s who attacked during the 8th and 9th centuries) and a chain mail head piece. Shields were often round or kidney-shaped, except for the kite-shaped designs used by the royal knights. Usually adorned with geometric designs, crosses or tassels, shields were made out of wood and had a leather cover.
Steel swords were the most common weapon. The cavalry used long double-edged swords and the infantry short, single-edged ones. Guards were either semicircular or straight, but always highly ornamented with geometrical patterns. The spears and javelins were up to 1.5 metres long and had an iron tip. The double-axe, made of iron and 30 cm long and possessing an extremely sharp edge, was designed to be equally useful as a thrown weapon or in close combat. Maces and hammers were not common, but some specimens have remained, and are thought to have been used by members of the cavalry.
Finally, mercenaries were an important factor, as many kings did not have enough soldiers available.
NorsemenNorsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language. The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North"...
, Flemish spearmen, Frankish knights, Moorish mounted archers and Berber light cavalry were the main types of mercenary available and used in the conflict.
This style of warfare remained dominant in the Iberian Peninsula until the late 11th century, when couched lance tactics entered from France and replaced the traditional horse javelin-shot techniques. In the 12th and 13th centuries, horse barding, suits of armour, double-handed swords and crossbows finally rendered the early Iberian tactics obsolete.
Repopulating Hispania: the origin of fueros
The
Reconquista was a process not only of war and conquest, but also repopulation. Christian kings took their own people to locations abandoned by the Berbers, in order to have a population capable of defending the borders. The main repopulation areas were the
DouroThe Douro or Duero is one of the major rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing from its source near Duruelo de la Sierra in the province of Soria across northern-central Spain and Portugal to its outlet at Porto...
Basin (the northern plateau), the high
EbroThe Ebro or Ebre is Spain's most voluminous river. Its source is in Fontibre . It flows through cities such as Miranda de Ebro, Logroño, Zaragoza, Flix, Tortosa, and Amposta before discharging in a delta on the Mediterranean Sea in the province of Tarragona.-Name:The Romans named this river Iber...
valley (
La RiojaLa Rioja is a province and autonomous community of northern Spain. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and Nájera.-History:...
) and central
CataloniaCatalonia is an Autonomous Community in northeast Spain. The capital city is Barcelona.Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an official population of 7,364,078. It borders France and Andorra to the north, Aragon to the west, the Valencian Community to the south, and the...
.
The repopulation of the
DouroThe Douro or Duero is one of the major rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing from its source near Duruelo de la Sierra in the province of Soria across northern-central Spain and Portugal to its outlet at Porto...
Basin took place in two distinct phases. North of the river, between the 9th and 10th centuries, the "pressure" (or
presura) system was employed. South of the
DouroThe Douro or Duero is one of the major rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing from its source near Duruelo de la Sierra in the province of Soria across northern-central Spain and Portugal to its outlet at Porto...
, in the 10th and 11th centuries, the
presura led to the "charters" (
foraisthumb|left|200px|Foral of Castro Verde - PortugalThe word Foral derives from the Portuguese word Foro, ultimately from Latin forum, equivalent to Spanish language fuero....
or
fueros). Fueros were used even south of the Central Range.
The
presura referred to a group of peasants who crossed the mountains and settled in the abandoned lands of the Duero Basin. Asturian laws promoted this system with laws, for instance granting a peasant all the land he was able to work and defend as his own property. Of course, Asturian and Galician minor nobles and clergymen sent their own expeditions with the peasants they maintained. This led to very feudalised areas, such as
LeónLeón is a province of northwestern Spain, in the northwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León.About one quarter of its population of 500,200 lives in the capital, León. The weather is cold and dry during the winter....
and
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
, whereas Castile, an arid land with vast plains and hard climate only attracted peasants with no hope in Biscay. As a consequence, Castile was governed by a single count, but had a largely mostly non-feudal territory with many free peasants.
Presuras also appear in Catalonia, when the count of Barcelona ordered the Bishop of Urgell and the count of Gerona to repopulate the plains of
VicVic is the capital of the comarca of Osona, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Vic's location, only 69 km far from Barcelona and 60 km from Girona, has made it one of the most important towns in central Catalonia.-History:...
.
During the 10th century and onwards, cities and towns gained more importance and power, as commerce reappeared and the population kept growing.
Fueros were
charterA charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
s documenting the privileges and usages given to all the people repopulating a town. The
fueros provided a means of escape from the feudal system, as
fueros were only granted by the monarch. As a result, the town council (the
concejo) was dependent on the monarch alone and had to help their lord (
auxilium). The military force of the towns became the
caballeros villanos. The first
fuero was given by count Fernán González to the inhabitants of Castrojeriz in the 940 s. The most important towns of medieval Iberia had
fueros or
foros. In Navarre,
fueros were the main repopulating system. Later on, in the 12th century, Aragon also employed the system; for example, the
fuero of
TeruelTeruel is a city in Aragon, Spain, the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 34,240 in 2006. It is noted for its harsh climate, its jamón serrano , its pottery and its famous Fiestas .Teruel's remote and mountainous location Teruel is a city in Aragon, Spain, the capital of Teruel...
, which was one of the last fueros, in the early 13th century.
From the mid-13th century on no more charters were granted, as the demographic pressure had disappeared and other means of repopulation were created. While
presuras allowed Castile to have the only non-feudal peasants in Europe other than Cossacks and
FrisiansThe Frisians are an ethnic group of Germanic people living in coastal parts of The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. They are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia. They inhabit an area known as Frisia...
,
fueros remained as city charters until the 18th century in Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia and until the 19th century in Castile and Navarre.
Fueros had an immense importance for those living under them, who were prepared to defend their rights under the charter militarily if necessary. The abolition of the
fueros in Navarre was one of the causes of the
Carlist WarsThe Carlist Wars in Spain were the last major European civil wars in which pretenders fought to establish their claim to a throne. Several times during the period from 1833 to 1876 the Carlists — followers of Infante Carlos and his descendants — rallied to the cry of "God, Country, and King" and...
. In Castile disputes over the system contributed to the war against Charles I (
Castilian War of the CommunitiesThe Revolt of the Comuneros was an uprising by citizens of Castile against the rule of Charles V and his administration between 1520 and 1521...
).
The 10th and 11th centuries: crisis and splendour
The situation in the Moorish-ruled region of the Iberian Peninsula,
Al-AndalusAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
, during the 10th and 11th centuries played an important role in the development of the Christian kingdoms.
The Caliphate of Córdoba
The 9th century saw the Berbers return to Africa in the aftermath of their revolts. During this period, many governors of large cities distant from the capital (Córdoba) planned to establish their independence. Then, in 929 the Emir of Córdoba (
Abd-ar-Rahman IIIAbd-ar-Rahman III was the Emir and Caliph of Córdoba of the Ummayad dynasty in al-Andalus. Called al-Nasir , he ascended the throne when he was twenty-two years of age and reigned for half a century as the most powerful prince of Iberia...
), the leader of the
UmayyadThe Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four Islamic caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
dynasty, declared himself
CaliphThe Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transliterated version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
, independent from the
AbbasidThe Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus....
s in
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
. He took all the military, religious and political power and reorganised the army and the bureaucracy.
After regaining control over the dissident governors, Abd-ar-Rahman III tried to conquer the remaining Christian kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, attacking them several times and forcing them back beyond the Cantabric range. His Christian subjects were largely left in peace, however.
Christian political forces then openly accused
Abd-ar-Rahman IIIAbd-ar-Rahman III was the Emir and Caliph of Córdoba of the Ummayad dynasty in al-Andalus. Called al-Nasir , he ascended the throne when he was twenty-two years of age and reigned for half a century as the most powerful prince of Iberia...
of the
pederasticPederasty or paederasty is a relationship between an older man and an adolescent boy outside his immediate family...
abuse of a Christian boy who was later canonized
Saint Pelagius of CordovaSaint Pelagius of Cordova is said to have been a Christian boy left by his uncle at the age of ten as a hostage with the Caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III of al-Andalus, in trade for a clerical relative previously captured by the Moors, the bishop Hermoygius. The exchange never occurred and Pelagius...
as a result of the event. This became a rallying cry for subsequent generations of Christian soldiers, and is reputed to have provided much political strength and popular support to the Reconquista for centuries. The episode is seen by some modern scholars as part of a pattern of demonization of Muslims, portraying Islam as a morally inferior religion.
Later Abd-ar-Rahman's grandson became a puppet in the hands of the great
VizierA vizier is a high-ranking political advisor or minister, often to a Persian Empire's monarchs such as Shah and Shahenshah. It sometimes refers to ministers and advisors of the Muslim's caliph, or sultan...
AlmanzorAbu Aamir Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abi Aamir, Al-Hajib Al-Mansur
أبو عامر محمد بن عبد الله بن أبي عامر الحاجب المنصور , better known as Almanzor, was the de facto ruler of Muslim Al-Andalus in the late 10th to early 11th centuries...
(
al-Mansur, "the victorious"). Almanzor waged several campaigns attacking and sacking Burgos, Leon, Pamplona, Barcelona and Santiago de Compostela before his death in 1002.
Between Almanzor’s death and 1031, Al-Andalus suffered many civil wars which ended in the appearance of the
TaifaIn the history of Iberia, a taifa was an independent Muslim-ruled principality, usually an emirate or petty kingdom, though there was one oligarchy, of which a number formed in the Al-Andalus after the final collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031.The origins of the taifas must be...
kingdoms. The taifas were small kingdoms, established by the city governors establishing their long wished-for independence. The result was many (up to 34) small kingdoms each centered upon their capital, and the governors, not subscribing to any larger-scale vision of the Moorish presence, had no qualms about attacking their neighbouring kingdoms whenever they could gain advantage by doing so.
The Kingdom of León
Alfonso III of Asturias repopulated the strategically-important city León and established it as his capital. From his new capital, King Alfonso began a series of campaigns to establish control over all the lands north of the Douro. He reorganized his territories into the major duchies (Galicia and
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
) and major counties (
SaldañaSaldaña may refer to*Saldaña, Palencia, a municipality in the Castile and León Autonomous Community of Spain*Saldaña, Colombia, a town and municipality in the Tolima Department of Colombia...
and Castile), and fortified the borders with many castles. At his death in 910 the shift in regional power was completed as the kingdom became the
Kingdom of LeónKingdom of León was an independent country situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 AD when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their main seat from Oviedo to the city of León...
. From this power base, his heir Ordoño II was able to organize attacks against Toledo and even Seville. The
Caliphate of CórdobaThe Caliphate of Córdoba ruled the Iberian peninsula and North Africa from the city of Córdoba, from 929 to 1031. This period was characterized by remarkable success in trade and culture; many of the masterpieces of Islamic Iberia were constructed in this period, including the famous Great Mosque...
was gaining power, and began to attack León. Navarre and king Ordoño allied against Abd-al-Rahman but were
defeated in ValdejunqueraThe Battle of Valdejunquera was a victory for the Islamic Emirate of Córdoba over the Christian armies of the kingdoms of León and Navarre that took place in a valley called Iuncaria in 920 as part of the Córdoban "Campaign of Muez" , which was directed primarily against the southern line of...
, in 920. For the next 80 years, the Kingdom of León suffered civil wars, Moorish attack, internal intrigues and assassinations, and the partial independence of Galicia and Castile, thus delaying the reconquest, and weakening the Christian forces.
It was not until the following century that the Christians started to see their conquests as part of a long-term effort to restore the unity of the Visigothic kingdom.
The only point during this period when the situation became hopeful for Leon was the reign of
Ramiro IIRamiro II , son of Ordoño II, was King of León from 931 until his death. Initially titular king only of a lesser part of Asturias, he gained the crown of León after his brother Alfonso IV abdicated in 931...
. King Ramiro, in alliance with Count Fernán González of Castile and his retinue of
caballeros villanos,
defeated the Caliph in SimancasThe Battle of Simancas was a military battle that started on July 19, 939 in the Iberian Peninsula between the troops of the Christian king Ramiro II of León and Muslim caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III near the walls of the city of Simancas...
in 939. After this battle, when the Caliph barely escaped with his guard and the rest of the army was destroyed, King Ramiro obtained 12 years of peace, but had to give González the independence of Castile as a payment for his help in the battle. After this defeat, Moorish attacks abated until Almanzor began his campaigns.
It was
Alfonso VAlfonso V , called the Noble was King of León from 999 to 1028. He was the son of Bermudo II by his second wife Elvira García of Castile. The Abbot Oliva called him "Emperor of all Hispania"....
in 1002 who finally regained the control over his domains. Navarre, though attacked by Almanzor, remained.
Pamplonese hegemony
In the late 10th century, under King Garcia II of Pamplona,
PamplonaThe Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
became the hegemonic power in medieval Iberia. His son, Sancho the Great, who reigned between 1004 and 1035, annexed Castile due to his marriage, conquered
SobrarbeSobrarbe is one of the comarcas in the northern part of the province of Huesca, part of the autonomous community of Aragon in Spain...
and
RibagorzaRibagorza or Ribagorça is a comarca in modern Aragon, situated in the north-east of the province of Huesca. It borders the French département of the Haute-Garonne to the north and Catalonia to the east...
and made the Kingdom of Leon his protectorate after killing the only son of king Bermudo III. But King Sancho divided his kingdom among his sons: Castile for Fernando, Pamplona for
Sancho IVSancho IV Garcés , called Sancho of Peñalén or Sancho the Noble, was King of Navarre from 1054 to 1076. He was the eldest son and heir of García Sánchez III and Estefanía....
, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza to Gonzalo and the County of Aragon (until then part of Pamplona) for his illegitimate son Ramiro. Ramiro soon had his half-brother Gonzalo killed and annexed his domains, while Fernando (naming himself king) married the daughter of Bermudo III, becoming king of Leon and Castile.
Kingdom of CastileKingdom 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...
Ferdinand I of LeonFerdinand I , called the Great , was the son of Sancho III of Navarre and Mayor of Castile, and became Count of Castile from his uncle's death in 1029. Having acquired the Kingdom of León after defeating his brother-in-law in 1037, he became King of León and Castile...
was the leading king of the mid-11th century. He conquered
CoimbraCoimbra is a city in Coimbra Municipality in Portugal. It served as the country's capital during the First Dynasty and remains home to the University of Coimbra, the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world and one of the oldest in Europe.According to the INE's census of 2001,...
and attacked the taifa kingdoms, often demanding the tributes known as
pariasIn medieval Spain, parias were a form of tribute paid by the taifas of al-Andalus to the Christian kingdoms of the north...
. Ferdinand's strategy was to continue to demand parias until the taifa was greatly weakened both miltiarily and financially. He also repopulated the Borders with numerous
fueros. Following the Navarrese tradition, on his death in 1064 he divided his kingdom between his sons. His son
Sancho II of CastileSancho II , called the Strong, or in Spanish, el Fuerte, was King of Castile and León ....
wanted to reunite the kingdom of his father and attacked his brothers, with a young noble at his side: Rodrigo Díaz (later known as El Cid Campeador). Sancho was killed in the siege of Zamora by the traitor Bellido Dolfos (also known as Vellido Adolfo) in 1072. His brother
Alfonso VIAlfonso VI , nicknamed the Brave or the Valiant, was King of León from 1065, king of King of Castile and de facto King of Galicia from 1072, and self-proclaimed "Emperor of all Spain"...
took over Leon, Castile and Galicia.
Alfonso VI the Brave gave more power to the
fueros and repopulated
SegoviaSegovia is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Segovia in Castile and Leon. It is situated north of Madrid, and can be reached by bullet train in 35 minutes from Madrid at . 55,586 people live in the municipality of Segovia.-Name:...
,
ÁvilaÁvila is a province of central-western Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered on the south by the provinces of Toledo and Cáceres, on the west by Salamanca, on the north by Valladolid, and on the east by Segovia and Madrid. Ávila has a population...
and
SalamancaSalamanca is a city in western Spain, the capital of the province of Salamanca, which belongs to the autonomous community of Castile and Leon...
. Then, once he had secured the Borders, King Alfonso conquered the powerful
TaifaIn the history of Iberia, a taifa was an independent Muslim-ruled principality, usually an emirate or petty kingdom, though there was one oligarchy, of which a number formed in the Al-Andalus after the final collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031.The origins of the taifas must be...
kingdom of Toledo in 1085.
ToledoToledo is a municipality located in central Spain, 70 km south of Madrid. It is the capital of the province of Toledo and of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha...
, which was the former capital of the Visigoths, was a very important landmark, and the conquest made Alfonso renowned throughout the Christian world. However, this "conquest" was conducted rather gradually, and mostly peacefully, for the course of several decades. It was not after sporadic and consistent population resettlements had taken place that Toledo was historically conquered. Alfonso VI was first and foremost a tactful monarch who chose to understand the kings of taifa and employed unprecedented diplomatic measures to attain political feats before considering the use of force. He adopted the title
Imperator totius HispaniaeThe title of Imperator Hispaniae was borne, traditionally, by the monarchs of León, from at least the tenth century...
("Emperor of all
HispaniaHispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior...
", referring to all the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, and not just the modern country of Spain). Alfonso's more aggressive policy towards the Taifas worried the rulers of those kingdoms, who called on the African Almoravids for help.
The Almoravids
The Almoravids were a Muslim militia, their ranks mainly composed of African and Berber Moors, and unlike the previous Muslim rulers, they were not so tolerant towards Christians and Jews. Their armies entered the Iberian peninsula on several occasions (1086, 1088, 1093) and defeated King Alfonso at the Battle of Sagrajas in 1086, but initially their purpose was to unite all the Taifas into a single Almoravid Caliphate. Their actions halted the southward expansion of the Christian kingdoms. Their only defeat came at
ValenciaValencia is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Valencia and the third largest city in Spain, with a population of 810,064 in 2008. It is the 22nd-most populous municipality in the European Union and 35th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a...
in 1094, due to the actions of
El CidRodrigo Díaz de Vivar , known as El Cid Campeador, was a Castilian nobleman, a military leader and diplomat who, after being exiled, conquered and governed the city of Valencia...
.
Meanwhile, Navarre lost all importance under King
Sancho IVSancho IV Garcés , called Sancho of Peñalén or Sancho the Noble, was King of Navarre from 1054 to 1076. He was the eldest son and heir of García Sánchez III and Estefanía....
, for he lost Rioja to
Sancho II of CastileSancho II , called the Strong, or in Spanish, el Fuerte, was King of Castile and León ....
, and nearly became the vassal of Aragon. At his death, the Navarrese chose as their king Sancho Ramirez, King of Aragon, who thus became Sancho V of Navarre and I of Aragon. Sancho Ramírez gained international recognition for Aragon, uniting it with Navarre, expanding the borders south, conquering
Wasqat HuescaHuesca is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon...
deep in the valleys in 1096 and building a fort, El Castellar, 25 km away from
Saraqustat ZaragozaZaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza province and of the autonomous community and former Kingdom of Aragon, Spain...
.
Catalonia came under intense pressure from the taifas of Zaragoza and Lérida, and also from internal disputes, as Barcelona suffered a dynastic crisis which led to open war among the smaller counties; but by the 1080s, the situation calmed, and the dominion of Barcelona over the smaller counties was restored.
The Almohads
After a brief period of disintegration (second
TaifaIn the history of Iberia, a taifa was an independent Muslim-ruled principality, usually an emirate or petty kingdom, though there was one oligarchy, of which a number formed in the Al-Andalus after the final collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031.The origins of the taifas must be...
period), the rising power in North Africa, the Almohads, took over most of Al Andalus. But they would be decisively defeated at the
Battle of Las Navas de TolosaThe Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa took place on 16 July 1212 and was an important turning point in the Reconquista and in the medieval history of Spain...
(1212) by a Christian coalition, losing almost all the remaining lands of Al Andalus in the following decades. By 1252 only the Kingdom of Granada remained as sovereign Muslim state in the Iberian peninsula.
Expansion into the Crusades and military orders
In the
High Middle AgesThe High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, the fight against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula became linked to the fight of the whole of
ChristendomChristendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity. This community numbers in the billions of people of the world population. This community is spread across many different nations and ethnic...
. The Reconquista was originally a mere war of conquest. It only later underwent a significant shift in meaning toward a religiously justified war of liberation (see the Augustinian concept of a
Just WarJust War theory is a doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin studied by moral theologians, ethicists and international policy makers which holds that a conflict can and ought to meet the criteria of philosophical, religious or political justice, provided it follows...
). The papacy and the influential Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy not only justified the anti-Islamic acts of war but actively encouraged Christian knights to seek armed confrontation with Moorish "infidels" instead of with each other. From the 11th century onwards indulgences were granted: In 1064
Pope Alexander IIAlexander II , born Anselmo da Baggio, was Pope from 1061 to 1073.He was born in Milan. As bishop of Lucca he had been an energetic coadjutor with Hildebrand in endeavouring to suppress simony, and to enforce the celibacy of the clergy...
allegedly promised the participants of
an expedition against BarbastroThe War of Barbastro was an international expedition, sanctioned by Pope Alexander II, to take the Spanish city of Barbastro from the Moors. A large army composed of elements from all over Western Europe took part in the successful siege of the city...
(
Tagr al-Andalus, Aragon) a collective indulgence 30 years before
Pope Urban IIPope Blessed Urban II , born Otho de Lagery , was Pope from 12 March 1088 until his death...
called the
First CrusadeThe First Crusade was a military expedition by European Christians to regain the Holy Lands taken by the Muslim conquest of the Levant, which resulted in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099. It was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II with the primary goal of responding to the appeal from Byzantine...
. The legitimacy of such a letter establishing a grant of indulgence has been disputed at length by historians, notably by Ferreiro. Papal interest in Christio-Muslim relations in the peninsular are not without precedent - Popes Leo IV (847-855), John VIII (872-882) and John XIX (1024-33) are all known to have displayed substantial interest in the region. Whilst there is little evidence to invalidate the letter as a whole, both the recipient(s) of the letter and whether such a letter actually nominates Barbastro as the first 'crusade' are still a matter of dispute. Neither is there evidence to support the contention that the Cluniacs publicised the letter throughout Europe. It was addressed to the
clero Vulturnensi. The name has been associated with the castle of Volturno in Campania but even this is not concrete. Baldwin, for example, stipulates that the name is simply "garbled" and that it was intended for a French bishopric. Not until 1095 and the
Council of ClermontThe Council of Clermont was a mixed synod of ecclesiastics and laymen of the Catholic Church, which was held from November 18 to November 28, 1095 at Clermont, France...
did the Reconquista amalgamate the conflicting concepts of a peaceful pilgrimage and armed knight-errantry.
But the papacy left no doubt about the heavenly reward for knights fighting for Christ (
militia Christi): in a letter, Urban II tried to persuade the
reconquistadores fighting at
TarragonaTarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia and east of Spain, by the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès...
to stay in the Peninsula and not to join the armed pilgrimage to conquer Jerusalem since their contribution for Christianity was equally important. The pope promised them the same rewarding indulgence that awaited the first crusaders.
Later
military orderA military order is a Christian order of knighthood that is founded for crusading, i.e. propagating and/or defending the faith , either in the Holy Land or against Islam or pagans in Europe, but many became secularized later.-History:Catholic military orders appeared following the...
s like the
order of SantiagoThe Order of Santiago or the Order of Saint James of Compostela was founded in the 12th century, and owes its name to the national patron of Spain, Santiago The Order of Santiago or the Order of Saint James of Compostela was founded in the 12th century, and owes its name to the national patron of...
,
MontesaThe Order of Montesa was a Christian military order, territorially limited to the Kingdom of Aragón.-Templar background:The Templars had been received with enthusiasm in Aragon from their foundation in 1128...
,
Order of CalatravaThe 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:...
and the
Knights TemplarThe Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple , were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
were founded or called to fight in Iberia. The Popes called the knights of Europe to the
CrusadesThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
in the peninsula. After the so called
Disaster of AlarcosBattle of Alarcos , was a battle between an alliance of Almohads led by Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur and some Castilian cavalry led by Pedro Fernández de Castro versus King Alfonso VIII King of Castile,; also referred as the Disaster of Alarcos.- Background :In 1188 the Almohad caliph Abu Yusuf...
, French, Navarrese, Castilian, Portuguese and Aragonese armies united against the Muslim forces in the massive
battle of Las Navas de TolosaThe Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa took place on 16 July 1212 and was an important turning point in the Reconquista and in the medieval history of Spain...
(1212).
The big territories awarded to military orders and nobles were the origin of the
latifundiaLatifundia are pieces of property covering tremendous areas. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates, specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, olive oil, or wine. They were characteristic of Magna Graecia and Sicily, of Egypt and the North African Maghreb and of...
in today's
AndalusiaAndalusia Andalusia Andalusia ' onMouseout='HidePop("42295")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Extremadura">Extremadura
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. It includes the provinces of Cáceres and Badajoz...
, in Spain, and
AlentejoAlentejo is a south-central region of Portugal. Its name's origin, "Além-Tejo", literally translates to "Beyond the Tagus" or "Across the Tagus". The region is separated from the rest of Portugal by the Tagus river, and extends to the south where it borders the Algarve...
, in Portugal.
Granada War
Ferdinand and IsabellaThe Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. The title of "Catholic King and Queen" was bestowed on them by the Pope Alexander VI. They married on October 19,1469, in the city of Valladolid; Isabella was eighteen...
completed the Reconquista with a war against the
Emirate of GranadaThe Emirate of Granada was established in 1228, after the Almohad dynasty was defeated by the Christians at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa...
that started in 1482 and ended with Granada's complete annexation in early 1492. Granada's king
BoabdilAbu 'abd-Allah Muhammad XII , known as Boabdil , was the twenty-second and last Nasrid ruler of Granada in Iberia. He was also called el chico, the little, or el zogoybi, the unfortunate...
was exiled. By this time the
MoorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
of
CastileThe Crown of Castile, as a historic entity, is usually considered to have begun in 1230 with the third and almost definitive union of the monarchies of kingdoms Castile and Toledo in one hand, and the kingdoms of Leon and Galicia in other hand, and with the union of their parliaments a few decades...
numbered "half a million within the realm, 100,000 had died or been enslaved, 200,000 emigrated, and 200,000 remained as the residual population. Many of the Muslim elite, including
BoabdilAbu 'abd-Allah Muhammad XII , known as Boabdil , was the twenty-second and last Nasrid ruler of Granada in Iberia. He was also called el chico, the little, or el zogoybi, the unfortunate...
, who had been given the area of the Alpujarra mountain as a principality, found life under Christian rule intolerable and passed over into north Africa" .
Legacy
Real or legendary episodes of the
Reconquista are the subject of much of Medieval
Portuguese-This is a survey of Portuguese literature.The Portuguese language was developed gradually from the Vulgar language spoken in the countries which formed part of the Roman Empire and, both in morphology and syntax, it represents an organic transformation of Latin without the direct intervention of...
,
Spanish-This article refers to the Spanish language literature of Spain. It includes Spanish poetry, prose and novels. For Spanish American literature specifically, see Latin American literature....
and
Catalan-language literatureCatalan literature is the name conventionally used to refer to literature written in the Catalan language. The Catalan literary tradition is extensive, starting in the Middle Ages....
, such as the
cantar de gestaA cantar de gesta is the Spanish equivalent of the Old French medieval chanson de geste or "songs of heroic deeds".The most important cantares de gesta of Castile were:...
.
Some noble
genealogiesGenealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
show the close relations (although not very numerous) between Muslims and Christians. For example,
Al-Mansur Ibn Abi AamirAbu Aamir Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abi Aamir, Al-Hajib Al-Mansur
أبو عامر محمد بن عبد الله بن أبي عامر الحاجب المنصور , better known as Almanzor, was the de facto ruler of Muslim Al-Andalus in the late 10th to early 11th centuries...
, whose rule is considered to have marked the peak of power for
MoorishThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
IberiaThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
, married Abda, daughter of Sancho Garcés of Navarra, who bore him a son, named Abd al-Rahman, and commonly known in pejorative sense as Sanchuelo (
Little Sancho, in Arabic:
Shanjoul). After his father's death, Sanchuelo/Abd al-Rahman, son of a Christian princess, was a strong contender to take over the ultimate power in Muslim Al-Anadalus. A hundred years later, King
Alfonso VI of CastileAlfonso VI , nicknamed the Brave or the Valiant, was King of León from 1065, king of King of Castile and de facto King of Galicia from 1072, and self-proclaimed "Emperor of all Spain"...
, considered among the greatest of the Medieval Spanish kings, designated as his heir his son (also a Sancho) by the refugee
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
princess
Zaida of SevillePrincess Zaida of Seville was a refugee Muslim princess who was a mistress and then perhaps queen of Alfonso VI of Castile.She is said by Iberian Muslim sources to have been the daughter-in-law of Al Mutamid, the Muslim King of Seville, wife of his son Abu al Fatah al Ma'Mun, Emir of Cordoba,...
.
It has also been proposed that the war left the Iberian kingdoms with deep economic crises, leading to the expulsion of the Jews (who had lived in the Iberian Peninsula for over ten centuries) in order to confiscate their funds and property. It should be noted however that the Portuguese Reconquista ended in 1249 and that the Spanish and Portuguese kingdoms were already profiting from their maritime expansion before the Jews were expelled (see Portugal in the period of discoveries and
History of SpainThe history of Spain spans the period from Prehistoric Iberia, through the rise and fall of the first global empire, to Spain's current position as a member of the European Union.Modern humans entered the Iberian Peninsula more than 35,000 years ago...
).
The Reconquista was a war with long periods of respite between the adversaries, partly for pragmatic reasons, and also due to infighting among the Christian kingdoms of the North spanning over seven centuries. Some populations practiced Islam or Christianity as their own religion during these centuries, so the identity of contenders changed over time.
Earlier Christians fighting the Moors, such as
PelayoPelayo is the Spanish form of the Latin name Pelagius. It may refer to:*Pelagius of Asturias, founder of the Kingdom of Asturias and beginner of the Reconquista*Pelayo of Oviedo, bishop and chronicler...
, could plausibly be described as natives opposing foreign invasion and conquest; however, by the time most parts of Muslim Iberia were (re)conquered by Christian forces, the Muslim population there was centuries old, and much of it undoubtedly composed of converted Iberians rather than migrants from other Muslim lands.
GranadaGranada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain.- Overview :The city of Granada is placed at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, Beiro, Darro and Genil, at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
at the time of its conquest in 1492 was as thoroughly Arab and Muslim a city as were Cairo or Damascus at the time.
Moreover, the ease with which the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula was directly and immediately continued by the exploits of
conquistadorConquistador is the term widely used to refer to the Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th through the 17th centuries following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s beyond the Atlantic clearly shows that for Spaniards at the time, conquest of non-Christian territory and its transformation into a Catholic, Spanish-speaking land were legitimate, whether or not a claim of prior possession of the land could be advanced.
Nevertheless, the expression "Reconquista" continues to be used to designate this historical period by most historians and scholars in Spain and Portugal, as well as internationally.
Christian in-fighting
The battle against Moors did not keep the Christian kingdoms from battling among themselves or allying with Islamic kings. For example, the earlier kings of Navarre were close to the
Banu QasiThe Banu Qasi, Banu Kasi, Beni Casi or Banu Musa were a Basque Muladi dynasty that ruled the upper Ebro valley in the 9th, before being displaced in the first quarter of the 10th century....
of
ZaragozaZaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza province and of the autonomous community and former Kingdom of Aragon, Spain...
and
TudelaTudela may refer to:*Tudela, Navarre, a small city and municipality in northern Spain.** Benjamin of Tudela Medieval jewish traveller*Tudela, Cebu, a municipality in the Philippines province of Cebu...
(who, from their part, originated in the 7th century conversion of Christian
Count CassiusCount Cassius , also Count Casius, kumis Kasi or kumis Qasi, was a Hispano-Roman or Visigothic nobleman that originated the Banu Qasi dynasty....
). Some Moorish kings had wives or mothers born Christians (for years the Moors demanded a yearly tribute of young Christian girls for their harems).
Also some Christian champions like
El CidRodrigo Díaz de Vivar , known as El Cid Campeador, was a Castilian nobleman, a military leader and diplomat who, after being exiled, conquered and governed the city of Valencia...
were contracted by
TaifaIn the history of Iberia, a taifa was an independent Muslim-ruled principality, usually an emirate or petty kingdom, though there was one oligarchy, of which a number formed in the Al-Andalus after the final collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031.The origins of the taifas must be...
kings to fight against their neighbours. Indeed,
El CidRodrigo Díaz de Vivar , known as El Cid Campeador, was a Castilian nobleman, a military leader and diplomat who, after being exiled, conquered and governed the city of Valencia...
got his first battle experience at the 1063
Battle of GrausThe Battle of Graus was a battle of the Reconquista, traditionally said to have taken place on 8 May 1063. Antonio Ubieto Arteta, in his Historia de Aragón, re-dated the battle to 1069. The late twelfth-century Chronica naierensis dates the encounter to 1070...
, where he and other Castilians had taken the side of
al-MuqtadirAhmad ibn Sulayman al-Muqtadir was a member of the Banu Hud family who ruled the Zaragoza from 1049 to 1082. He was the son of the previous ruler, Al-Mustain I, Sulayman ibn Hud al-Judhami.-References:*
...
, Muslim
sultanSultan is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings. Originally it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", or "rulership", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power"...
of
ZaragozaZaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza province and of the autonomous community and former Kingdom of Aragon, Spain...
, against the Christian forces of
Ramiro I of AragonRamiro I was de facto the first King of Aragon from 1035 until his death. Apparently born before 1007, he was the natural son of Sancho III of Navarre by his mistress Sancha de Aybar...
.
In the late years of
Al-AndalusAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
,
CastileThe Crown of Castile, as a historic entity, is usually considered to have begun in 1230 with the third and almost definitive union of the monarchies of kingdoms Castile and Toledo in one hand, and the kingdoms of Leon and Galicia in other hand, and with the union of their parliaments a few decades...
had the military power to conquer the remains of the kingdom of
GranadaGranada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain.- Overview :The city of Granada is placed at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, Beiro, Darro and Genil, at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, but the kings preferred to claim the tribute of the Muslim
pariasIn medieval Spain, parias were a form of tribute paid by the taifas of al-Andalus to the Christian kingdoms of the north...
. The trade of Granadan goods and the parias were a main way for African gold to enter medieval Europe.
Expulsion of the Muslims and Jews
During the Islamic administration, Christians and Jews were allowed to retain their religions by paying a
taxUnder Islamic law, jizya or jizyah is a per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria...
. This tax was more symbolic than practical, but if it was not paid the penalty was death: It was considered as an attack on the supremacy of Islam, and since the tax was for protection from outside invasions, refusal to pay was considered to weaken the empire. Attitudes towards dhimmis were variable, as well. During the time of the Almoravids and especially the
AlmohadThe Almohad Dynasty , was a Berber, Muslim dynasty that was founded in the 12th century, which conquered all of northern Africa as far as Libya, together with Al-Andalus .Between 1130 and his death in 1163, Abd al-Mu'min al-Kumi, the only one Berber from Nedroma among the Masmudas...
s they were treated badly, in contrast to the policies of the earlier Umayyad rulers.
The new Christian hierarchy demanded heavy taxes from non-Christians and gave them nominal rights, but only in heavily Islamic regions, such as
GranadaGranada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain.- Overview :The city of Granada is placed at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, Beiro, Darro and Genil, at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
. In 1496, under
ArchbishopIn Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated bishop. In many Christian Churches, this means that they lead a diocese of particular importance called an archdiocese, or in the Anglican Communion an Ecclesiastical Province, but this is not always the case. An archbishop is equivalent to a bishop in...
Hernando de Talavera, even the Muslim population of Granada was forced to accept Christianity. In 1502, the king and queen declared submission to Catholicism
officially compulsory in Castilian domains. Emperor Charles V did the same for the Kingdom of Aragon in 1526, validating the forced conversions of much of its Muslim population during the Revolt of the Germanies. These policies were not only officially religious in nature but also effectively seized the wealth of the vanquished.
Most of the descendants of those Muslims and Jews who submitted to compulsory conversion to Christianity rather than exile during the early periods of the Inquisition, the Moriscos and Conversos respectively, were later
expelled from Spain and PortugalOn April 9, 1609, King Philip III of Spain decreed the expulsion of the Moriscos. The Moriscos were the descendants of the Muslim population that converted to Christianity under threat of exile from Ferdinand and Isabella in 1502. From 1609 through 1614, the Spanish government systematically...
when the Inquisition was at its height. The expulsion was carried out more severely in Eastern Spain (Valencia and Aragon), due to local animosity towards Muslims and Moriscos where they were seen as economic rivals by the citizenry. A major
Morisco revolt happened in 1568The Morisco Revolt occurred in 1568. It was a rebellion by the remnants of the community of Muslim converts to Christianity in Granada against the Crown of Castile.-The defeat of Muslim Spain:...
, and the
Moriscos were officially expelledOn April 9, 1609, King Philip III of Spain decreed the expulsion of the Moriscos. The Moriscos were the descendants of the Muslim population that converted to Christianity under threat of exile from Ferdinand and Isabella in 1502. From 1609 through 1614, the Spanish government systematically...
in 1609, and, in
AragonAragon is an autonomous community of Spain. Located in northeastern Spain, the region comprises three provinces from north to south: Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza .Aragon's northern province of Huesca borders France and is positioned in the middle of the Pyrenees...
, in 1610.
Because some Muslims, and Jews, shared common ancestors with Christians, it was difficult to expel all of those with non-Christian ancestors from Iberia. However the Spanish state had success in expelling the "Moriscos". Those descended from practicing Muslims or Jews
at the time of the Reconquista, however, were for a long time suspected of various crimes including practicing Islam or Judaism, or
crimes against the Spanish stateIn law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife...
and finally expelled from the peninsula.
Social types under the Reconquista
The advances and retreats created several social types:
- The Mozarab
The Mozarabs were Iberian Christians who lived under Moorish Muslim rule in Al-Andalus. Their descendants remained unconverted to Islam, but did however adopt elements of Arabic language and culture...
s: Christian in Muslim-held lands. Some of them migrated to the North in times of persecution.
- The Muladi
The Muladi or muwallad, from arabic مولدون , were Muslims of ethnic Iberian origin who lived in Al-Andalus during the Middle Ages...
: Christians who converted to Islam after the arrival of the Moors.
- The Renegade
Renegade is a synonym for turncoat. Another definition from the Middle Ages is a fallen Christian or a knight without allegiance, from the Spanish renegado, from the medieval Latin word renegatus, the perfect participle of renego, meaning "deny"....
s: Christian individuals who embraced Islam and often fought against their former compatriots.
- The Jew
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish conversos (pejoratively known as "MarranoMarranos or secret Jews were Sephardic Jews who were forced to adopt Christianity under threat of expulsion but who continued to practice Judaism secretly, thus preserving their Jewish identity...
s"): Jews who either voluntarily or compulsorily became Christians. Some of them were crypto-Jews who kept practicing JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
. Eventually all Jews were forced to leave Spain in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella, and Portugal some years later. Their Converso descendants became victims of the SpanishThe Spanish Inquisition was an ecclesiastical tribunal started in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the medieval inquisition which was under papal control...
and Portuguese InquisitionThe Portuguese Inquisition was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, João III. Manuel I had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515, but it was only after his death that the pope acquiesced...
s.
- The Mudéjar
Mudéjar is the name given to individual Moors or Muslims of Al-Andalus who remained in Christian territory after the Reconquista but were not converted to Christianity...
: Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
s dwelling in land conquered by the Christians, usually peasants. Their characteristic architecture of adobeAdobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, and water, with some kind of fibrous or organic material , which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for some of the oldest extant...
bricks was frequently employed in churches commissioned by the new lords. Their descendants after 1492 were called MoriscoA morisco or mourisco , meaning "Moor-like", was a nominally Catholic inhabitant of Spain and Portugal of Muslim heritage. Over time the term was used in a pejorative sense applied to those nominal Catholics who were suspected of secretly practicing Islam...
s and the entire population was pushed into extinction by the end of the 16th century.
Currently, the festivals of
moros y cristianosMoros y Cristianos or Moros i Cristians , literally means Moors and Christians, and is a set of festival activities which are celebrated in many towns and cities of Spain, mainly in the southern Valencian Community; according to popular tradition the festivals commemorate the battles, combats and...
(Castilian or Spanish),
moros i cristians (Catalan),
mouros e cristãos (Portuguese) and
mouros e cristiáns (Galician), these meaning "Moors and Christians", recreate the fights as colorful parades with elaborate garments and lots of fireworks, especially on the central and southern towns of the Land of Valencia, like Alcoi, Ontinyent or
Villenathumb|Aerial view of Villena.thumb|Castle of la Atalaya, in Villena.Villena is a city located in the province of Alicante, Valencian Country, Spain. Capital city from the region Alt Vinalopó, it has an area of 345.6 km² and, according to the 2006 census, a total population of 34,186 inhabitants....
.
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