Chin up: enero 2016

UNIT 6 THE CHRISTIAN KINGDOMS

1. RECONQUEST

English Reconquest,

Alhambra [Credit: © Pixland/Jupiterimages]

in medieval Spain and Portugal, a series of campaigns by Christian states to recapture territory from the Muslims (Moors), who had occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula in the early 8th century.

Carolingian dynasty: Carolingian empire [Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]

Though the beginning of the Reconquista is traditionally dated to c. 718, when the Christian Asturians opposed the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga, the impulse toward reconquest was expressed only sporadically through the first three centuries of Muslim hegemony. After a failed invasion of Muslim Spain in 778, in 801 Charlemagne capturedBarcelona and eventually established Frankish control over the Spanish March, the region between the Pyrenees and the Ebro River. Asturian kings, presenting themselves as the heirs to the Visigothic monarchy that had ruled Spain prior to the Muslim conquest, capitalized on dissension within the Moorish ranks and expanded their holdings in the late 9th century. The Reconquest might have taken root at that earlier date had it not been for a resurgence in the power of the Córdoban caliphate and a break between the Christian kingdoms of Castile and León in the 10th century.

In the meantime, the Christian and Islamic peoples of Spain had become tightly associated with each other culturally and economically, to the extent that consequences of the crusading spirit that manifested in the 11th century were often scarcely less harmful to the Christian conquerors than to the conquered Moors. At that time, Moorish unity broke down, and the Christian lands of northern Spain were briefly united under Sancho III Garcés (Sancho the Great), who greatly expanded the holdings of Navarre. Sancho created the kingdom ofAragon in 1035, and his successors there pursued the Christian reclamation of the peninsula in earnest. Alfonso I of Aragon captured the former Moorish capital of Zaragoza in 1118. In 1179 Alfonso II of Aragon and Alfonso VIII of Castile concluded the Pact of Cazorla, an agreement whereby the task of reconquering the Moorish kingdom of Valencia was reserved to the Aragonese crown. In exchange Aragon relinquished all claims to other Moorish-held territory in the peninsula.

After suffering a crushing defeat at the Battle of Alarcos (July 18, 1195) at the hands of the Almohad caliph Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr, Alfonso VIII appealed to other Christian leaders, and in 1212 he won the support of Pope Innocent III, who declared a Crusade against the Almohads. Supported by the armies of Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal, Castilian forces routed the Almohad emir of Morocco, Muḥammad al-Nāṣir, at Las Navas de Tolosa (July 16, 1212) and so removed the last serious Islamic threat to Christian hegemony in Spain. The way was now open to the conquest of Andalusia.

The last king of León, Alfonso IX, was succeeded upon his death in 1230 by his son, Ferdinand III, who was already king of Castile. Castile and León were thus reunited, and the new sovereign at once embarked on a great series of campaigns to subdue Andalusia. Those began with the capture of Córdoba (1236) and culminated in the surrender of Sevilla(1248). Influenced by the crusading zeal instilled into the Spanish church by the Cluniac and Cistercian orders, Ferdinand at first expelled the Moorish inhabitants of the Andalusian cities en masse but was later forced to modify his policy by the collapse of the Andalusian economy that inevitably ensued. He also assented, chiefly for financial reasons, to the establishment of the new Moorish kingdom of Granada under Castilian suzerainty. The Granadine Moors were forced to pay to Castile a sizable annual tribute, but Moorish culture experienced something of a rebirth in Christian Spain. In Toledo, a Castilian city already famous throughout Europe as a crossroads of Christian, Arab, and Jewish thought, Alfonso X established the Escuela de Traductores (School of Translators), an institution that made Arabic works available to the Christian West.

During the same period, James I of Aragon completed Aragon’s part in the Reconquest. After occupying the Balearics (1235), he captured Valencia (1238). Unlike Ferdinand, James carefully worked to preserve the agricultural economy of the Moors and so established the final peninsular frontiers of Aragon. In Portugal, Afonso III captured Faro (1249), the last Moorish stronghold in the Algarve. By the end of the 13th century, the Reconquest was, for all practical purposes, brought to an end. The last significant Muslim incursion into Christian Iberia culminated with the Battle of Río Salado (October 30, 1340), where Portuguese and Castilian forces administered a crushing defeat to the armies of Marīnid sultan Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī.

Spanish Inquisition [Credit: © Photos.com/Thinkstock]

The kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, and Portugal spent the next century consolidating their holdings, until the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1469 united the Spanish crown. The Catholic Monarchs, as Ferdinand and Isabella came to be known, completed the conquest of Granada in 1492. Many historians believe that the crusading spirit of the Reconquista was preserved in the subsequent Spanish emphasis on religious uniformity, evidenced by the strong influence of the Inquisition and the expulsion of people of Moorish and Jewish descent.

2. Covadonga,

Covadonga: Chapel of Our Lady [Credit: © Jennifer Stone/Shutterstock.com]

village, Asturias provincia (province) and comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), northwestern Spain. It lies east of Oviedo city, at the head of the Sella River valley, near the base of the Europa Peaks, which form the highest massif of the Cantabrian Mountains. The village is noted as the reputed site of the defeat of the Moors in the Battle of Covadonga (c. 718–725) by Pelayo, the first Christian king of Asturias. The battle traditionally marks the beginning of the Christian reconquest of Spain, and, despite the legendary character of the stories about Pelayo, he became a major symbol of Christian resistance in medieval Spanish history.

3. Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, also called Battle of Al-ʿIqāb, (July 16, 1212), major battle of the Christian reconquest of Spain in which the Almohads (a Muslim dynasty of North Africa and Spain) were severely defeated by the combined armies of Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal. The battle was fought about 40 miles (64 km) north of Jaén, in Andalusia, southern Spain.

Immobilized for several years by his crushing defeat at Alarcos (1195) at the hands of the Almohads, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gained the sympathy of the archbishop of Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, who proceeded to stir up religious indignation at the Muslim victory over Christians. A proclamation of a Crusade was obtained from Pope Innocent III, which elicited further support from several French bishops, and, in the spring of 1212, contingents of French knights and Knights Templars began to converge on Toledo. After some delay, the Crusade set out southward on June 21, augmented by the armies of Aragon, Castile, and Portugal. Despite their success in taking two Muslim fortresses, the non-Spanish forces were soon discouraged by adverse climatic and living conditions and returned home. The armies of Navarre, however, were then recruited for the expedition.

Meanwhile, on June 22 the Almohad caliph Muḥammad al-Nāṣir had moved to Jaén, then the mountainous area around Baeza, intending to cut off the Christians at the plain of Las Navas de Tolosa. Soon after their arrival on July 12, the Christians took Castroferral with hopes of then reaching the Muslim encampment through the pass of La Llosa. The pass was heavily guarded, however, and it was through a local shepherd who directed the Christians to an alternate opening that they were able to reach the Muslim base. Alfonso himself led the Christians into battle and shattered the Almohad forces on July 16. Al-Nāṣir fled, while Alfonso followed up his victory by immediately taking Baeza and Úbeda. The extensive effects of the Muslim defeat did not become apparent until after 1233, when the Almohad empire disintegrated owing to dynastic squabbles and, lacking a central leader, the Muslim hold on Spain slipped rapidly before the armies of the Christian reconquest.

VIDEO
LISTENING

a. Where were the knights from?_________,_____________,__________, navarre, portugal and france.
b.Where did they gather? _____________
c. They organised a crusade against ____________( north african ___________)
d. Which pope inspired the crusade?
e. Who led the crusade?_____________, Sancho de VII of navarre and pedro the II of aragon
f. What was the purpose of Alfonso VII?
g. Pedro the II and the Aragonese took the ____________ flank and sancho and the knights of navarre took the ___________ flank
h. -who penetrated until the caliph body flank? ____________________________
i why was las navas de tolosa a turning point in the history of spain.?

4. FUEROS:

Fuero is a Spanish legal term. This comes from Latin word forum which means an open space used as market, tribunal and meeting place.

Fuero has varied meanings depending on the context it is used.

Fuero refers to the charter given by the king or other authority to townships (also liberated from the Moors) for their governance.

It is the special status given to the church, the dignity or special segments of the population.

It is a set of laws of statewide application, fueros generales.

In many cases fuero is an acknowledgment or sanctification of local custom, known originally only by an oral tradition, but which were eventually reduced to writing. The municipal fueros became a supreme source of private as well as public law, and many of the important cities’ were included in voluminous writings. Some of these fueros will be referred to in the principal text by the name of the city or region in which they applied, regardless of their specific nature.

6. MESTA. Mesta, in full Honrado Concejo de la Mesta (honourable Council of the Mesta), society composed of all thesheep raisers of Castile, in Spain, formally recognized by Alfonso X (the Wise) in 1273. The name is thought to derive either from the Spanish mezcla (“mixture”), a reference to the mixture of sheep; or from the Arabic mechta, meaning winter pastures for sheep.

During the 13th and 14th centuries the Mesta evolved into the central institution that controlled and promoted sheep raising. Its head had both administrative and legal powers. Because of favourable trade with the Netherlands, a leading textile producer, the Mesta controlled the largest and most profitable “industry” in medieval Spain. It was granted generous fueros (“privileges”) by the crown, and each September its members drove their sheep to winter pastures without regard for the private lands that were encountered on the way. So profitable were the activities of the organization that Spain’s nascent industry tended to be neglected in favour of stock breeding, and the country continued to export raw materials and import manufactured goods well into the 19th century. Some historians blame the Mesta for Spain’s lack of industrial development in comparison to that of the rest of Europe. The Mesta reached the height of its power in the 16th century and thereafter declined in importance. In 1836 it was dissolved and replaced by the General Stock Raisers Association.