When the crusaders assaulted and captured Jerusalem in July 1099 the struggle between Christians and Muslims in Spain had been in progress for nearly four hundred years. From 711, when a mixed force of Arabs and Moroccan Berbers crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and overthrew the Visigothic kingdom, until the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031, Muslim supremacy in Spain was unquestioned. As the seat of Islamic power was Córdoba, an eccentric location in the southern part of the peninsula, the Muslims did not permanently occupy large stretches of mountainous zones in the north. That made it...

From the middle of the eleventh century to the middle of the twelfth the Christian reconquest made important advances at the same time that crusading ideas were introduced into the peninsula. Following the disintegration of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba early in the eleventh century a significant alteration of the political situation occurred with the emergence of a series of statelets known as taifas: Badajoz in the west; Seville, Granada, and Málaga in the south; Toledo in the center; Valencia and Denia on the east coast; the Balearic Islands; and in the northeast, Zaragoza, and Lleida (Lérida). None of them...

In spite of the successes achieved in Spain during the Second Crusade, the disaster in the Holy Land dampened enthusiasm for crusading throughout Europe. Contributing to that was the rivalry and even outright hostility that developed following Alfonso VII’s division of his dominions between his sons, Sancho III of Castile (1157–58) and Fernando II of León (1157–88). The resources that either monarch could employ against the Almohads were necessarily diminished, and whatever claims to hegemony they may have had were seriously challenged by both Portugal and the kingdom of Aragón, now united with the county of Barcelona.¹ Meanwhile,...

An extraordinary transformation of the political landscape occurred in the nearly forty years following the Crusade of Las Navas de Tolosa. As the Almohads struggled to survive in Morocco, Spanish Muslims asserted their independence, but the Christians, taking advantage of Muslim disunity, demanded tribute, set rival Muslim leaders against one another, and eventually conquered Muslim cities and towns. Once again northern crusaders collaborated with the Portuguese in taking Alcácer do Sal, while the Catalans conquered Mallorca, the Leonese captured Mérida and Badajoz, and the Castilians seized Córdoba, once the seat of the Caliphate.

Innocent III, convinced that the danger posed...

In the decade and a half following the fall of Córdoba, the Christian kings achieved exceptional success as they took advantage of continued rivalry among the Spanish Muslims, who could no longer expect any significant assistance from the Almohads of Morocco, preoccupied as they were by internal dissension. As a consequence, the Christians were able to subjugate the Muslim kingdom of Valencia, complete the conquest of the Alentejo and the Algarve, subject the Muslims of Murcia to tributary status, and conquer the kingdoms of Jaén and Seville. By the middle of the century Islamic Spain had been reduced to the...

During the age of the crusades the organization and operations of Christian armies engaged in the reconquest developed significantly. Not only was the formation of armies improved, but there were frequent opportunities to consider strategic issues of defense and offense, including the relative wisdom of undertaking raids, sieges, or pitched battles. Whereas the focus of this chapter is on peninsular warfare, many will observe that its methods and operations were often typical of medieval warfare in general. Any attempt to distinguish between reconquest and crusade in this regard is meaningless. Whether an expedition had the formal character of a crusade...

Warfare in the crusading era placed a heavy strain on the resources of Christian Spain and required extraordinary financial support. The almost total lack of official documentation, however, renders any financial study exceptionally difficult. Although Bisson edited Catalan fiscal accounts for the late twelfth and very early thirteenth centuries, similar records concerning the middle and later years of the reign of Jaime I, if they are extant, have still to see the light. Whatever records may have been kept in the kingdoms of Castile, León, and Portugal have long since disappeared. There are bits and pieces of evidence, but without...

The religious rituals or liturgy associated with the war against Islam were equally as important as considerations of strategy. Soldiers then as now needed a reason to go to war and to expose themselves to the possibility of being maimed or slaughtered. Christian warriors were exhorted to regain land, once theirs, but now wrongfully occupied by Muslim intruders who were charged with oppressing Christianity and despoiling churches. Seeking to exalt the Christian name and suppress that of Muhammad, the Christians, certain that their cause was just and that God was on their side, faced the enemy.

Ideas such as these...

In contrast to the dismal failure of the oriental crusades to secure enduring Christian control over the Holy Land, crusading Spain expanded successfully in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. By the middle of the thirteenth century the Christian reconquest was nearly complete, as only the kingdom of Granada, in feudal dependence on Castile, survived. That last semblance of Islamic rule was erased in 1492. Thus, whereas the crusades to the Holy Land ultimately failed, in part because of the difficulty of implanting an alien power and culture in a region far distant from western Europe, the home of the crusaders,...