The
Reconquista (a Spanish and Portuguese word for "Reconquest";
Arabic: الاسترداد , "Recapturing")
was a period of 800 years in the Middle
Ages during which several Christian
kingdoms of the Iberian
Peninsula
succeeded in
retaking (and repopulating) the Iberian Peninsula from the
Muslims.The Islamic
conquest of the Christian Visigothic kingdom in the eighth century
(begun 710–12) extended over almost the entire peninsula (except
major parts of Galicia
, the
Asturias
, Cantabria
and the Basque
Country). By the thirteenth century all that remained
was the
Nasrid 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
Asturias under
Pelagius and
the
Battle of Covadonga in 722
were major formative events.
Charlemagne
(768–814) reconquered the western Pyrenees
and Septimania
and formed a Marca
Hispanica to defend the border between Francia and the Muslims. After the advent of
the
Crusades, much of the
ideology 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 Granada, became a vassal of
the Christian King of Castile. This arrangement lasted for 250
years until the Spanish launched the
Granada
War 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 Aragon and
Isabella I of Castile, the
Catholic Monarchs (
los Reyes
Católicos).
Major Dates

The Reconquista, 790-1300
- 711: Muslim Invasion begins
- 718: Muslim rule is at its widest extent, covering almost all
of Spain and some of France.
- 718: Reconquista begins in far north. Battle of Covadonga.
- 800: The Franks complete the reconquest of all the Pyrenees as
the Marca Hispanica.
- 801:
The Franks reconquer Barcelona
.
- By 914: The north-western corner of Iberia has been
reconquered. Barcelona has been recaptured by Muslim forces.
- 1130: Half of Iberia has been reconquered.
Background
Islamic conquest
From 711
to 756, the Moors (mainly North African Berber warriors) swept over the Iberian Peninsula,
conquering nearly all of it and establishing a foothold north of
the Pyrenees
in Narbonne
. They
put down local rebellions and established the Emirate of
Córdoba.
Islamic decline
After the establishment of a local
Emirate,
Caliph Al-Walid I,
ruler of the
Umayyad caliphate, removed many
of the successful Muslim commanders.
Tariq ibn Ziyad, the
first governor of the newly conquered province of Al-Andalus
, was recalled to Damascus
and replaced with Musa bin Nusair, who had been his
former superior. Musa's son, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, apparently
married Egilona, Roderic's widow, and established his regional
government in Seville
. 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-Malik. 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-Lakhmi 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 Damascus
.
The Muslim conquerors had a serious weakness. Ethnic tensions
existed between the
Berbers and the
Arabs. The Berbers were the indigenous
inhabitants of North Africa who had been recently converted to
Islam 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
Munuza, a local Muslim governor. Becoming a local
rebel leader he gathered all available support and one his most
important allies was
Duke Pedro of
Cantabria.
The main
strength of the Moorish army was absent; under the command of
Al-Samh ibn Malik
al-Khawlani, emir of Al-Andalus, it had crossed the Pyrenees
and overrun
Septimania
, located in southern France. This invasion
force was severely defeated in 721 by
Odo
the Great, the
Duke of
Aquitaine, in the
Battle of
Toulouse. Al-Samh was seriously wounded and died shortly
afterwards. A drastic increase of taxes by the new emir
Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi
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 Covadonga.
- 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 Naissa, a Berber and the
Wāli - deputy governor of Septimania,
fostering yet another rebellion. However a major
punitive expedition led by
Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, the latest
emir of Al-Andalus, defeated and killed Uthman. Abdul Rahman later
managed to defeat Odo in the
Battle of the River Garonne in
732. A desperate Odo turned to his rival
Charles Martel, who decisively beat the
Muslims at the
Battle of Tours in
732 and where Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi died.
Meanwhile
Pelagius began raiding the city of León
, the main
city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. He was
crowned king and successfully established the small
Kingdom of Asturias. He also established
a
royal dynasty, marrying
his son and heir
Favila 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 Zab in 750 and was
overthrown and replaced by the
Abbasids.
Most members of the Umayyad dynasty were hunted down and killed.
However
Abd ar-Rahman 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-Fihri. Abd ar-Rahman proclaimed himself
emir of the
Emirate of Córdoba. 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 Damascus
to Baghdad
.
Franks invade Al-Andalus
The takeover of Al-Andalus by Abd ar-Rahman I was not unopposed.
Certain local
wālis 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-Athir, a
Kurdish historian of the 12th century,
Charlemagne received the envoys of
Sulayman al-Arabi, Husayn, and
Abu Taur at the Diet of Paderborn in 777.
These
rulers of Zaragoza
, Girona
, Barcelona
, and Huesca
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 Zaragoza
Charlemagne received the homage of Sulayman al-Arabi. However the
city, under the leadership 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 Pass
. The Song of
Roland, a highly romanticized account of this battle, would
later become one of the most famous
chansons de geste of the Middle Ages.
Charlemagne decided to organize a regional sub-kingdom in order to
secure the southern border of
his
empire.
In 781 his three year-old son Louis was crowned king of Aquitaine
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
Jihad, advancing in 793 against the
Kingdom of Asturias and the Franks. In
the end his efforts were turned back by
William of Gellone, count of
Toulouse.
Barcelona
, 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 Roncesvalles
, Somport
and Junquera.
Charlemagne settled in them the counties of
Pamplona
, Aragon
and Catalonia
(which was itself formed from a number of small
counties, Pallars, Gerona, and Urgell being the
most prominent) respectively.
Four
states appeared: the kingdom of Pamplona
(later known as Navarre
) and the counties of Aragon
, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza
. 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 Biscay
and conquered a small number of towns beyond the
Pyrenees, but never directly attacked the Carolingian armies, as he
was in theory their vassal. It was not
until
Queen Ximena in the 9th century
that Pamplona was officially recognised as an independent kingdom
by the
Pope. Aragon, founded in 809 by
Aznar Galíndez, grew around Jaca and the
high valleys of the
Aragon River,
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.
Catalonia
included not only the southern Pyrenees counties of
Girona
, Pallars, Urgell, Vic
and Andorra
but also some which were on the northern side of
the mountains, such as Perpignan
and Foix
.
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 II, 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 Navarre
did not have the same capacity for expansion as
Asturias
had. Their mountainous geography rendered them
relatively safe from attack but also made launching attacks against
a united and strong Al-Andalus
impractical. In consequence, these states'
borders remained stable for two centuries.
Foundations of the christian kingdoms in the peninsula
The moorish occupation of the Iberian peninsula devastated Arian
christianity which had largely been eliminated in other parts of
Europe that had been heavily romanticized but had found a safe
haven in the Iberian peninsula even though the conversion of king
Recared in 587 nominally eliminated it. The reason for this
religious presence was because the Visigothic Monarchy (now
Catholic) was detached from the public (Arian) and so the Arian
undercurrent remained. However the effect the Moorish occupation
played on the Visigothic monarchy meant that they had little
defence against the moors in the south and the Carolingian empire
(franks) in the north, this lead to the quick destruction of their
northern province (the only one left) at the hands of the
Franks.
Early Moorish occupation
After the conquest of the majority of the peninsula, in 711 the
emirate chose to press forward into Gaul. At the battle of Poitiers
in 732 the Moors were defeated, this signified a slow decline in
the emirate and eliminated the possibility of further conquest in
Europe. After a quick succession of battles in the 8th century the
Franks had created a series of feudal counties which would later
form the Principality of Catalonia and the kingdom of Aragon.
Possibly the largest mistake of the emirate however was the
inability, to eradicate resistance of christians in the Basque
county and Cantabrian mountains.
The two resistances (Navarre, the Basque; and Asturias, the
Cantabrian), although extremely small demonstrated an ability to
maintain independence. The moors had made the same fatal mistake
that the Visigoths and the early Romans had made, and that was the
inability to finish off rebel hide outs.
Asturias
By the end of the fifteenth century there had been a myriad of
christian autonomous kingdoms and principalities. The First
christian power was Asturias. The kingdom was established by a
nobleman, Pelayo, who had returned to his country after the Battle
of Guadalete in 711 where he was elected leader of the Astures and
founded the Kingdom of Asturias. However, Pelayo's kingdom
initially was little more than a banner for the existing guerilla
forces.
Because the Umayyad rulers based in Córdoba were unable to extend
their power into Frankish territory, they decided to consolidate
their power in all parts of Iberian peninsula. Therefore, Muslim
forces made periodic incursions into Asturias. However the momentum
was turning. Indeed if they tried to conquer the area earlier they
may have succeeded but the prime reason the Emirate didn't invade
earlier however was because of the poor industrial capabilities,
and the illusion that these counties could do nothing to fight
back.
722 showed one of the first Asturian victories in the history of
the Iberian peninsula, in the late summer a Muslim army overran
much of Pelayo's territory, forcing him to retreat deep into the
mountains. Pelayo and a few hundred men retired into a narrow
valley at Covadonga. There, they could defend against a broad
frontal attack. Pelayo’s forces routed the Muslim army, inspiring
local villagers to take up arms, as well. Despite further attempts,
the Muslims were unable to conquer Pelayo's mountainous stronghold.
Pelayo's victory at Covadonga is hailed by some as the first stage
of the Reconquista.
During the first decades, the Asturian control over the different
areas of the kingdom was still lax, and for this reason it had to
be continually strengthened through matrimonial alliances with
other powerful families from the north of the Iberian Peninsula.
Thus, "Ermesinda, Pelayo's daughter, was married to Alfonso, Peter
of Cantabria's son. Alphonse's children, Froila and Adosinda,
married Munia, a Basque from Alava, and Silo, a local chief from
the area of Pravia, respectively." (quote from 'The making of
medieval Spain')
After Pelayo's death in 737, his son Fafila was elected king.
Fafila, according to the chronicles, got killed by a bear in a
courage trial.
Pelayo founded a dynasty in Asturias that survived for centuries
and gradually expanded the kingdom's boundaries until all of
northwest Iberia was included by roughly 775. However credit must
be given to later rulers, not Pelayo. Alfonso I (king from 739-757)
managed to conquer Galicia and an area of what was to be Leon. The
reign of Alfonso II from (791-842) saw further expansion of the
kingdom to the south, almost as far as Lisbon.
It was not until King Alfonso II of Asturias (791-842) that the
kingdom was firmly established with Alfonso's recognition as king
of Asturias by Charlemagne and the Pope. During his reign, the holy
bones of St. James the Great were declared to be found in Galicia,
at Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims from all over Europe opened a
way of communication between the isolated Asturias and the
Carolingian lands and beyond.
Basque kingdom, Navarre
The kingdom of Pamplona was the second christian great power in the
Iberian Peninsula, and chiefly a Basque polity. Although relatively
weak up until the early eleventh century where it peaked under the
ambitious ruler Sancho III (1004-1035), Navarre took upon a
dominant christian role after the late ninth century. The Kingdom
of Pamplona (after 1100s, Navarre), was a European kingdom which
occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the
Atlantic Ocean.
The kingdom was formed when local Basque leader Íñigo Arista was
elected or declared King in Pamplona (traditionally in 824) and led
a revolt against the regional Frankish authority.
Throughout early history of the Basque kingdom, there were frequent
skirmishes with the Carolingian Empire, and their fierce spirit of
independence was the key feature in their history that helped them
maintain independence until 1513. The reign of Sancho the Great not
only expanded their dominions when they absolved Castile, Leon, and
what was to be Aragon in addition to other small counties which
would also unite and become the Principality of Catalonia, but it
helped form the Galician independence. The conquest of Leon did not
consume Galicia, as the Leonese king retreated and was left to
temporary independence. Galicia was conquered soon after (it was
conquered by Sancho's son Ferdinand around 1038) however this small
period of independence meant that it was fashioned as it's own
kingdom and the subsequent kings named their titles as king of
Galicia and Leon, instead of merely king of Leon even though
Galicia was never to be independent again.
The Kingdom of Asturias
The
kingdom of Asturias was located in the Cantabrian
Mountains
, 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 Pamplona
and the Carolingians,
thereby gaining official recognition of his crown from the Pope and Charlemagne.
Alfonso
II also expanded his realm westwards conquering Galicia
.
There,
the bones of St. James the Great were proclaimed to have been
found in Compostela
(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
Castile).
With the plunder
gained further military forces could be paid, enabling him to raid
the Moorish cities of Lisbon
, Zamora
, and
Coimbra. For centuries the focus of
these actions was not conquest but raids, plunder, pillage and
tribute.
He also crushed a Basque uprising, during
which he captured the Alavite
Munia; their grandson is reported to be Alfonso II.
During
Alfonso II's reign a series of Muslim raids caused the transfer of
Asturian capital to Oviedo
.
Despite numerous battles the populations of neither the Umayyads —
using the southern part of old
Gallaecia
(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 Ramiro, famed for the legendary
Battle of Clavijo, the border
began to slowly move southward and Asturian holdings in Castile, Galicia, and León
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 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 Pyrenees
(an exception to this is Catalonia
, where Frankish 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 tactics 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
Gothic predecessors — braceplate, kite
shield, a long
sword (designed to fight from
the horse) and as well as the javelins and spears, a
Visigothic axe. 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
Castile
because of the "
charters" (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 were extremely rare and
horse barding completely unknown. Head protections consisted of a
round helmet with nose protector (influenced by the designs used by
Vikings 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.
Norsemen,
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
Douro
Basin (the northern plateau), the high Ebro valley (La Rioja
) and central Catalonia
.
The
repopulation of the Douro
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 Douro
, in the
10th and 11th centuries, the presura led to the "charters"
(forais 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
León
and Portugal
, 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 Vic
.
During the 10th century and onwards, cities and towns gained more
importance and power, as commerce reappeared and the population
kept growing.
Fueros were
charters
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 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
Frisians,
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 Wars. In Castile disputes over the
system contributed to the war against Charles I (
Castilian War of the
Communities).
The 10th and 11th centuries: crisis and splendour
The
situation in the Moorish-ruled region of the Iberian Peninsula,
Al-Andalus
, 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 III), the leader of the
Umayyad dynasty, declared himself Caliph, independent from the Abbasids in Baghdad
. 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 III of the
pederastic abuse of a Christian boy who was later
canonized
Saint Pelagius of
Cordova 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
Vizier Almanzor (
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
Taifa 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 Portugal
) and major counties (Saldaña 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
León
. From this power base, his heir Ordoño II
was able to organize attacks against Toledo and even Seville. The
Caliphate of Córdoba was
gaining power, and began to attack León. Navarre and king Ordoño
allied against Abd-al-Rahman but were
defeated in Valdejunquera, 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
II.
King Ramiro, in alliance with Count Fernán González of Castile and
his retinue of caballeros villanos, defeated the
Caliph in 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 V in 1002 who
finally regained the control over his domains. Navarre, though
attacked by Almanzor, remained.
Pamplonese hegemony of the Basque kingdom over the christian
peninsula
In the late 10th century, under King
Garcia II of Pamplona, the Basques and
their polity of
Pamplona became
the hegemonic power in medieval Iberia.
His son, Sancho the Great, king of the Basques, who
reigned between 1004 and 1035, annexed Castile, with help of his
marriage, and also conquered Sobrarbe and
Ribagorza
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, the Basque nuclear land of Pamplona for
Sancho IV, 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.
Ferdinand I of Leon was the
leading king of the mid-11th century. He conquered
Coimbra and attacked the taifa kingdoms, often
demanding the tributes known as
parias.
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 Castile 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 VI took over Leon, Castile and
Galicia.
Alfonso
VI the Brave gave more power to the fueros and repopulated
Segovia
, Ávila
and Salamanca
. Then, once he had secured the Borders, King
Alfonso conquered the powerful
Taifa kingdom
of Toledo in 1085.
Toledo
, 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, during the course of several
decades. It was not until 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 Hispaniae
("Emperor of all
Hispania", 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 Valencia
in 1094, due to the actions of El
Cid.
Meanwhile, Navarre lost all importance under King
Sancho IV, for he lost Rioja to
Sancho II of Castile, 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 Huesca
deep in the
valleys in 1096 and building a fort, El Castellar, 25 km away
from Saraqustat Zaragoza
.
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
Taifa 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 Tolosa
(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 Ages, the fight
against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula became linked to the
fight of the whole of
Christendom. 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 War).
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 II allegedly promised the
participants of
an expedition against
Barbastro (
Tagr al-Andalus, Aragon) a collective
indulgence 30 years before
Pope Urban
II called the
First Crusade. 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 Clermont 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 Tarragona
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 orders like the
order of Santiago,
Montesa,
Order of Calatrava and the
Knights Templar were founded or called to
fight in Iberia. The Popes called the knights of Europe to the
Crusades in the peninsula.
After the so called
Disaster of
Alarcos
, French, Navarrese, Castilian, Portuguese and
Aragonese armies united against the Muslim forces in the massive
battle of
Las Navas de Tolosa
(1212).The big territories awarded to military
orders and nobles were the origin of the latifundia in today's Andalusia
and Extremadura
, in Spain, and Alentejo, in
Portugal.
Granada War
Ferdinand and Isabella completed
the Reconquista with a war against the
Emirate of Granada that started in 1482
and ended with Granada's complete annexation in early 1492.
Granada's sultan
Muhammad
XII was exiled. By this time the
Moors of
Castile 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 Muhammad XII, who had been given the
area of the
Alpujarras 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-,
Spanish- and
Catalan-language literature, such as the
cantar de gesta.
Some noble
genealogies show the close
relations (although not very numerous) between Muslims and
Christians.
For example, Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir, whose rule
is considered to have marked the peak of power for Moorish Iberia
, 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
Castile, considered among the greatest of the Medieval Spanish
kings, designated as his heir his son (also a Sancho) by the
refugee
Muslim princess
Zaida of Seville.
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
Spain).
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
Pelayo, 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.
Granada
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
conquistadors 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 Qasi of
Zaragoza
and Tudela (who, from their
part, originated in the 7th century conversion of Christian
Count Cassius). 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 Cid
were contracted by
Taifa kings to fight
against their neighbours.
Indeed, El Cid got his
first battle experience at the 1063 Battle of Graus
, where he and other Castilians had taken the side
of al-Muqtadir, Muslim sultan of Zaragoza
, against the Christian forces of Ramiro I of Aragon.
In the
late years of Al-Andalus
, Castile had the
military power to conquer the remains of the kingdom of Granada
, but the kings preferred to claim the tribute of
the Muslim parias. 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
tax.
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
Almohads 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 Granada
. In 1496, under
Archbishop 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 Portugal
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 1568, and the
Moriscos were officially
expelled in 1609, and, in Aragon
, 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 state and finally expelled from the
peninsula.
Social types under the Reconquista
The advances and retreats created several social types:
- The Mozarabs: Christian in Muslim-held
lands. Some of them migrated to the North in times of
persecution.
- The Muladi: Christians who converted to
Islam after the arrival of the Moors.
- The Renegades: Christian individuals
who embraced Islam and often fought against their former
compatriots.
- The Jewish conversos (pejoratively known as
"Marranos"): Jews who either
voluntarily or compulsorily became Christians. Some of them were
crypto-Jews who kept practicing Judaism. 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 Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions.
- The Mudéjar: Muslims dwelling in land conquered by the Christians,
usually peasants. Their characteristic architecture of adobe bricks was frequently employed in churches
commissioned by the new lords. Their descendants after 1492 were
called Moriscos and the entire
population was pushed into extinction by the end of the 16th
century.
Currently, the festivals of moros y cristianos (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 Villena
.
References
Notes
- Walter Andrews and Mehmet Kalpaklı, The Age of Beloveds, Duke
University Press, 2005; p. 2.
- Henry Kamen, Spain 1469 - 1714 A Society of Conflict Third
edition, pp 37-38
- Censorship and Book Production in Spain During the Age of
the Incunabula, Ignacio Tofiño-Quesada. Graduate Center,
CUNY.
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External links