Reconquista

The Reconquista (English: Reconquest) was the seven-and-a-half century long process by which Christians conquered the Iberian peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain) from the Muslim and Moorish states of Al-Ándalus (Arabic الأندلس — al-andalus). The term "reconquest" is used in the sense that the territories were/are seen as belonging to Christendom, despite the fact that the majority of the conquered peoples were Arabized and Muslim, and originates in the ideology of the 11th century crusading movements that were also applied with equal force to the Holy Land. Although, it must be noted that the truly indigenous inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula had long ago been subjugated and taught the rudiments of civilisation by the Romans and had later accepted then defended their Christianity. It would equally be erroneous to claim that Spain was more an Oriental, and thus an Islamic, region than it was Occidental and Christian, and that Islam or 'the Arab' ever possessed the right, other than that by conquest, to dominate the peninsula. Moreover, so deeply had Roman morals and manners been established in Spain, that the greatest Latin writers of the 1st Century AD, apart from Tacitus (who was Romano-Gaulish) and Suetonius (who was Romano-African), among them the Younger Seneca, Quintillian the rhetor, Martial the epigrammatist, etc, were born and first educated on the peninsula. Even illustrious political leaders hailed from Spain, such as the emperor Trajan whose glories led Rome to her highest majesty and power, and his successor the eccentrically capable Hadrian. In fact so thorough was this socio-ethnic transformation that after Italy, and before Africa Proper or Gaul, Spain was the "most Roman" region outside Italy, hence the Roman citizen St. Paul's desire to preach the Gospel there - the same message which later flourished and was voluntarily espoused by the Spanish indigenes before the Islamic invasion. The Umayyad conquest of Hispania from the Visigoths occurred during the early 8th century, and the Reconquista began almost immediately, in 722, with the Battle of Covadonga, and was completed in 1492, with the conquest of Granada.

In 1236 the last Muslim stronghold of Granada under Mohammed ibn Alhamar was subjugated by Ferdinand III of Castile, and Granada became a vassal state of the Christian kingdom for the next 250 years. On January 2 1492, the last Muslim ruler, Abu 'abd Allah Muhammad XII (also known as Boabdil of Granada), surrendered to Ferdinand and Isabella, Los Reyes Católicos ("The Catholic Monarchs"). This resulted in the creation of a united Christian nation encompassing most of modern day Spain. Navarre remained separate until 1512.

The Portuguese Reconquista culminated in 1249 with the subjugation of the Algarve (Arabic الغرب — Al-gharb) by king Afonso III.

Background

The Christians called Santiago their protector saint (today he is still the patron saint of Spain) under the rubric of *Santiago Matamoros* ("St. James the Moor-slayer")

In the 5th century the Visigoths were commissioned by a weakened Western Roman Empire to reconquer Hispania from the Vandals and the Alans. In return, the Visigoths received Roman Hispania and Southern Gaul as foedus. In 476, the last Roman emperor was deposed by Odoacer, and the Visigoths ruled Hispania as an independent kingdom.

On the death of the Visigothic king Wittiza in 710, Roderic seized the kingdom and the Byzantine exarch. His enemies included Julian the count of Ceuta; who was sheltering Wittiza's family such as his son Agila, and other partisans along with Arians and Jews fleeing forced conversions at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. In 711, Julian is reported to have enjoyed good relations with the Moorish governor of nearby Tangier, Tariq ibn Ziyad and his emir Musa ibn Nusair. He provided ships for a Moorish force consisting of Africans, Berbers and Arabs to land in Gibraltar to assist him in his struggle with Roderic.

Historians differ on whether Musa intended a full invasion at this point, a limited intervention for the sake of alliance-building, or an attack to gauge the strength of the Visigothic defences. Julian's exact motivation is unclear — various accounts of popular traditional stories attribute the dispute to his daughter, Florinda also known as La Cava Rumia, being impregnated by Roderic — and may have stemmed from religious as well as political reasons.

Roderic, who was fighting the Basques in the north, gathered his forces and marched south, where he was defeated (and is assumed to have been killed)^[1] at the battle of Guadalete in 711. His defeat resulted in part from the desertion of Gothic troops under his command at the urging of Wittiza's brother Oppas, the bishop of Seville. After the battle, Visigothic rule fell apart, with Agila surrendering his lands in 712. Pelayo, a noble in charge of Roderic's royal guard (Comes Spatharius), escaped the battle and returned to his native Asturias to regroup.

During the next three years, the Moors conquered the majority of Hispania, often helped and welcomed by the Jews, on whom Christian rulers had imposed harsh sanctions, and partly by those fugitives enslaved under Ergica's laws. The Moors continued marching north until they were defeated by Eudes of Aquitaine near Toulouse in 721 and finally by Charles Martel in 732 in the Battle of Tours. The Moors then settled in the Iberian Peninsula, establishing an Emirate nominally subordinate to the Caliph in Damascus. The native lords were allowed to keep their property and social status as long as they embraced Islam, and the change of governors did not seriously disrupt their everyday affairs. The county divisions were maintained, but local administrators were replaced by Arab Muslims. Non-Muslims were obliged to submit to a series of discriminatory laws (the Code of Umar), ensuring the primacy of Islam over Christianity and Judaism in society.

The beginning of the reconquista: The Kingdom of Asturias

File:Don Pelayo closeup.jpg

Pelayo, first king of the Asturians (?–737)

Northern Hispania, a wet and craggy region crossed by the Cantabrian Mountains, was occupied by the Astures, Cantabri and Vascons during the first millennium BC. Conquered by Augustus in 14 BC it later became part of the Roman province of Tarraconensis. The area had been partially romanized; its people (Celtiberian and Visigothic groups) spoke a Latin-based language and professed Christianity. These lands were difficult to subdue and were largely avoided by the Moors.

In 718 the Visigoth nobleman Pelayo became leader of the Asturian nobility and founded the Kingdom of Asturias^[2], though initially this was little more than a banner for existing guerilla forces, and under his leadership the attacks upon the Berbers increased. In 722 (or possibly in 724 or even as early as 718), the Emir sent a force to quell this rebellion resulting in the Battle of Covadonga. The most commonly accepted hypothesis for this battle is that the Moorish column was attacked from the cliffs and then fell back through the valleys towards present day Gijón. All during their retreat they were attacked by the retinue of the Duke Pedro of Cantabria and nearly destroyed. Once the Moors had been evicted from the eastern valleys of Asturias, Pelayo began attacks upon León, the main city in north-west Hispania, and thereby secured the mountain passes to secure the region from any further Moorish attack while continuing his attacks upon the remaining Berbers. He then married his son Favila to Duke Pedro’s daughter, a descendant of the Astur dynasty. Upon his death in 737 he was the ruler of a small kingdom, known as the Kingdom of Asturias. His descendants would annex Cantabria and Galicia and establish a buffer zone in the Duero valley.^[3],

Several decades later, by the time of the reign of king Alfonso II (791–842), the kingdom had become firmly established. He also expanded his realm through the conquests of Galicia. During his reign, the holy bones of St. James the Great were declared to have been found in Galicia, in Compostela (from Latin campus stellae, literally "the star field"). Pilgrims from all over Europe opened a pilgrimage route between the isolated Asturias and the Carolingian lands and beyond.

Alfonso’s policy consisted of depopulating the border regions of Vardulia (which would turn into Castile) in order to favorably alter the demographics north of the mountains. With his expansions came a corresponding increase in military forces enabling him to sack the Moorish cities of Lisbon, Zamora and Coimbra. However, for centuries to come the focus of these actions was not conquest but pillage and tribute. He also had to deal with 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 attacks by the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba occurred that penetrated into Alava, and the Asturian capital was moved to Oviedo. He is also 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.

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 move fitfully southward as 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.

The Pyrenees: a natural barrier

Once the Franks had driven the Moors out of France, the necessity of defending the mountain passes of the Pyrenees became an important point in Charlemagne's policy. Fortifications were built, and protection was given to the inhabitants of the old Roman cities, such as Jaca and Girona. 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.

In 778, the Frankish expedition against Saragossa failed and the rearguard of the army was destroyed while retreating to France, this event being recorded in the "Chanson de Roland". As a result the western Pyrenees were now free from both Moorish and Frankish rule. 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 Spanish 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. However, the most important role was played by Barcelona, once it was conquered in 801 by Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne. 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.

Military culture in 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.

Spanish 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 double-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 fueros (see below: Repopulating Hispania: the origin of fueros). 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 (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 Spanish tactics obsolete.

Repopulating Hispania: the origin of fueros

The Reconquista was a process not only of war and conquest, but mainly of 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 presura system was employed. South of the Douro, in the 10th and 11th centuries, the presura led to the 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 Leon 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 940s. 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, 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 923 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.

Once he had regained control over the dissident governors, the Caliph desired to expel the Christian leadership from the Iberian peninsula, attacking the Christian states several times and forcing them back beyond the Cantabric range. These were not attacks upon his Christian subjects, 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 Spanish 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.^[4]

Abd-ar-Rahman's grandson became a puppet in the hands of the great Vizier Almanzor (al-Mansur, "the victorious"). Almanzor waged a strong campaign against the Christian kings, attacking and sacking Burgos, Leon, Pamplona, Barcelona and Santiago de Compostela before his death in 1002.

Civil War

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 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 Duero. 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 setting back the date of Christian's reconquest, and weakening the Christian forces.

King Ramiro

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.

Alfonso V

It was Alfonso V in 1002 who finally defeated Almanzor and regained the control over his domains. Navarre, though attacked by Almanzor, remained.

Navarrese Hegemony

In the late 10th century, King Garcia II of Navarre received Biscay from Castile and under his reign, Navarre became the hegemonic kingdom in medieval Iberia. His son, Sancho the Great, who reigned between 1004 and 1035, annexed Castile due to his marriage, conquered Sobrarbe and Ribagorza and made the Kingdom of Leon his vassal after killing the only son of king Bermudo III. But following the Navarrese custom, king Sancho divided his kingdom among his sons: Castile (and Biscay) for Fernando, Navarre and Rioja for Sancho IV, Aragon for Ramiro and Sobrarbe (with Ribagorza) to Gonzalo. Ramiro soon had his brother Gonzalo killed and annexed his domains, while Fernando (naming himself king) married the daughter of Bermudo III, becoming king of Leon and Castile.

King Ferdinand I of Leon

Ferdinand 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 in 1072. His brother Alfonso VI took over Leon, Castile and Galicia.

King Alfonso VI of Castile

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, 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 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 in Battle of Sagrajas in 1086 , but their purpose was not to conquer the Christian kingdoms but to unite all the Taifas in 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.

Sancho Ramírez

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 Huesca deep in the valleys in 1096 and building a fort 25 km away from 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.

It was not until later centuries that the Christians started to see their conquests as part of an effort of centuries to restore the unity of the Visigothic kingdom.

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 promised the participants of an expedition against Barbastro a collective indulgence 30 years before Pope Urban II called the First Crusade. 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 liberate 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.

Cultural influence

Real or imaginary episodes of the Reconquista are the subject of much of Medieval Portuguese-, Spanish- and Catalan-language literature, such as the cantar de gesta.

Modern views

Some scholars dispute the idea that "Reconquista" was merely a war of Christians against Muslims (even when they were completely opposed religions). They note that the Muslims had occupied significant parts of the Iberian Peninsula for up to seven centuries, over which time it would have been impossible to isolate both groups.^{[citation needed]}

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.

The word Reconquista itself should be regarded as an explanation for a long unplanned historical shift or even as Christian and European propaganda by the new reigning houses to justify their rule as heirdom.

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 1257 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 practised 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 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 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 Christian young girls for their harems). Also some Christian champions like El Cid were contracted by Taifa kings to fight against their neighbours.

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

For Old Arabs, the unity of race prevailed over the difference of creed and added another discriminatory system among Muslims supremacy over Christians and Jews. In addition to discriminatory laws as stated by the Code Of Umar, ghettos grouping respectively Christians and Jews were the regular rule of cohabitations of the communities which members also have a distinctive cloth or badge, yellow for the Jews (yellow badge), blue for the Christians.

The last rules of ethnic and religious purity of the Modern Age were the Spanish cleanliness of blood and the expulsion of Jews by Manuel I in Portugal.

Most Muslims and Jews were forced to either convert to Christianity or leave Spain and Portugal and have their assets seized. Many Muslims and Jews moved to North Africa rather than submit to forced conversion. During the Islamic administration, Christians and Jews were allowed to convert or retain their religions with many reduced rights and a tax, which if not paid the penalty was death, although during the time of the Almoravids and especially the Almohads they were also treated badly, in contrast to the policies of the earlier Umayyad rulers.

The new Christian hierarchy, on the other hand, demanded heavy taxes and gave them nominal rights, but only in heavily Islamic regions, such as Granada, until their own power was sufficient, and the influence of the Inquisition strong enough, to make further expulsion both possible and economically feasible. 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.^[5] 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 — mainly for economic reasons.

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 peninsula.

Use of the term by the French in Calais

In 1558 France conquered Calais and its surroundings, which had been under English rule for two centuries. In the aftermath, the region around Calais, then-known as the Calaisis, was renamed the Pays Reconquis ("Reconquered Country") in commemoration of its recovery by the French.

Since the French were well-aware of the importance of the Reconquista in the history of their neighbors to the south, and since the French reconquest of Calais occurred in the context of a war with Spain (Philip II of Spain was at the time the consort of Mary I of England), French use of the term might have been intended as a deliberate snub to the Spanish.^{[citation needed]} However, and just as likely, the term might have simply had a higher frequency of use at that time in Western Europe, in light of the Spanish Reconquista. And therefore, the French would have merely thought it to be politically appropriate and authoritative word for their own reconquest of land.

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 Renegade: Christian individuals who embraced Islam and often fought against their former compatriots.

The Jewish conversos: 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

Currently, the festivals of moros y cristianos (Castilian or Spanish), mors i cristians (Valencian or Catalan) and mouros e cristãos (Portuguese or Galician) these meaning "Moors and Christians" recreate the fights as colorful parades with elaborate garments and lots of fireworks, especially on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, popularly known as Levante.

Footnotes

^ Hitti, The Arabs: A Short History
^ Riley-Smith, 32
^ Riley-Smith, 32
^ Walter Andrews and Mehmet Kalpaklı, The Age of Beloveds, Duke University Press, 2005; p.2
^ Censorship and Book Production in Spain During the Age of the Incunabula, Ignacio Tofiño-Quesada. Graduate Center, CUNY.

Fiction

The Guy Gavriel Kay historical fantasy novel The Lions of Al-Rassan is set in an alternate universe version of medieval Spain, and features Rodrigo, a main character who is clearly modeled on El Cid. The underlying story of the book is based on the Reconquista, though in a fictionalized and romantic form.

External links

Timeline of the Reconquista, The University of Calgary.
Battles of Castile & Leon: 844–1521.
Exiles from Andalusia.

Sources