 | Reconquista: Encyclopedia II - Reconquista - The 10th and 11th centuries: crisis and splendour
Reconquista - The 10th and 11th centuries: crisis and splendour
Knowing the circumstance of Al-Andalus in the 10th and 11th centuries is important to understand the development of the Christian kingdoms.
Reconquista - The Caliph of Córdoba
The 9th century saw the Berber revolts, and they returned back to Africa, and many governors of big cities far away from the capital (Córdoba) planned to separate. Then, in 923 the Emir of Córdoba (Abd-al-Rahman III), the last descendant of the Ummayad dynasty, declared himself caliph, independent from Baghdad. He took all the military, religious and political power and reorganised the army and the bureaucracy. Once he had regained the control over the dissident governors, the caliph decided to expel the Christians from the Iberian peninsula, attacking several times the kingdoms and making them retreat back to the Cantabric range. After his death his son became a puppet in the hands of the great Vizer Almanzor (al-Mansur, "the victorious"). Almanzor became the terror of all the Christian kings, as he attacked and sacked Burgos, Leon, Pamplona, Barcelona and Santiago de Compostela. Almanzor died in 1002.
Reconquista - Civil War
Between Almanzur’s death and 1031, Al-Andalus suffered many civil wars which ended in the appearance of the Taifa kingdoms. The taifas were small kingdoms, result of the independence wishes of the governors of many cities. The result was many (up to 34) small kingdoms centered upon their capital, and the governors seeking only their benefit, attacking at any opportunity their neighbour kingdoms.
Reconquista - The Kingdom of León
Alphonso III of Asturias repopulated Leon and set there the capital, as it was in a more strategic position (the kingdom became at his death Kingdom of Leon). From his new capital, king Alphonso started a series of campaigns which gave him 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), he also fortified the borders with many castles. At his death in 910 his heir Ordoño II was able to organize attacks to Toledo and even Seville. The Caliphate of Córdoba was gaining power, and started to attack Leon. Navarre and king Ordoño allied against Abd-al-Rahman but were defeated in Valdejunquera, in 920. For 80 years on, the kingdom of Leon suffered civil wars, the devastating attacks of the Moors, intrigues and assassinations, and the partial independence of Galicia and Castile.
Reconquista - King Ramiro
The only moment when the situation seemed to change was under Ramiro III, until he was killed. 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, Almanzor was the next to attack the Christians.
Reconquista - Alfonso V
It was Alphonso V in 1002 who finally defeated Almanzour and regained the control over his domains. Navarre, even if suffering from attacks from Almanzor was able to keep it safe. Alphonso annexed Aragon in the 10th century and expanded its control over southern France. King Garcia II (late 10th century) received Biscay from Castile and under his reign, Navarre was the hegemonic kingdom in the medieval Spain.
Reconquista - Sancho the Great
King Sancho the Great, who reigned between 1004 and 1035 annexed Castile due to his marriage, conquered Sobrarbe and Ribagorza and made 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.
Reconquista - King Fernando
Fernando I was the leading king of his era. He conquered Coimbra, in Portugal and attacked the taifa kingdoms, not willing to conquer, but to receive the tributes known as parias. Fernando’s strategy was to ask for parias until the taifa was too weak. King Fernando also repopulated the Borders with numerous fueros. Following the Navarrese tradition, he divided at his death in 1064 his kingdom upon 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 while in the siege of Zamora by the traitor Bellido Dolfos in 1072. His brother Alphonso VI took over Leon, Castile and Galicia.
Alphonso VI, “the brave”, gave more power to the fueros and repopulated Segovia, Avila and Salamanca. Then, once he had secured the Borders, king Alphonso conquered the powerful Taifa kingdom of Toledo in 1085. Toledo, which was the former capital of the Visigoths was a very important landmark, and gave Alphonso renown all through the Christianity, and named himself Imperator totius Hispaniae, or "Emperor of all the Spains" (all the Christian kingdoms of Spain). Of course, this meant an important change in the policy about Taifas, and all the Taifa kings feared Alphonso, so they asked the African Almoravids for help.
Reconquista - The Almoravids
Almoravids were religiously fanatic and were mainly Berber. Their armies entered several times in the peninsula (1086, 1088, 1093) and defeated king Alphonso, but their purpose was not to conquer the Christian kingdoms (for the moment) but to unite all the Taifas in a single Almoravid Caliphate. Anyway, they stopped the Christian expansion south, excepting their only defeat, at Valencia in 1094, which was defended by El Cid.
Meanwhile, Navarre lost all importance under king Sancho IV, for he lost Rioja against Sancho II of Castile, and was nearly the vassal of Aragon. At his death, the Navarrese chose as their king Sancho I of Aragon, who became Sancho V of Navarre and I of Aragon. Sancho Ramírez I gave Aragon international recognition, as united Aragon and Navarre, expanded the borders south, deep in the valleys conquering Huesca in 1096 and building a fort 25 km away from Saragossa.
Catalonia suffered lots of pressure from the Taifa of Saragossa and of Lleida, and also internal disputes, as Barcelona had a dynastical crisis which lead to open war among the smaller counties, but by the 1080’s, the situation calmed, and the domain 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.
Reconquista - 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 family of the Banu Qasi of Tudela. The Moorish kings often had wives or mothers born Christians. Also 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 parias. The commerce of Granadan goods and the parias were a main way for the African gold to enter medieval Europe.
Reconquista - Expansion into the Crusades
In the High Middle Ages, the fight against the Moors in Iberia was linked to the fight of the whole of Christendom. Military orders like the order of Santiago, Montesa ,Order of Calatrava and the Temple Knights 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 Battle of Alarcos, French, Navarrese, Castilian and Aragonese armies united in the massive battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212).
Reconquista - Ethnic cleansing
The mixing of Christians, Muslims and Jews was later officially ended by the rules of ethnic or religious purity of the Modern Age, namely the Spanish limpieza de sangre and the expulsion of Jews by Manuel I in Portugal.
Reconquista - Division of land
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.
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