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| 2. Castile |
| 1072–1109 |
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| ALFONSO VI, of Castile. He captured Toledo from the Moors (1085) and made his son-in-law, Henry of Burgundy, count of Portugal (1093). | 1 |
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| 1086 |
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| The Muslims, alarmed by Alfonso's progress, called from Africa the great Yusuf ibn Tashfin (d. 1106), leader of the newly dominant sect of puritanical berbers, the Almoravids. Ibn Yusuf landed at Algeciras (1086) and, with the support of Sevilla (Seville), began a successful counterthrust against the Christians (defeat of Alfonso at Zallaka, 1086). Yusuf, recalled by the African situation, did not at once exploit his advantage, but on his return to Spain his energetic reforms strengthened the Muslims and brought them into an integral relationship (c. 1091) with his great African empire, which was centered in Morocco. This empire quickly disintegrated on Yusuf's death. | 2 |
| Alfonso resumed the Christian Reconquest with the aid of Rodrigo (Ruy) Diaz (c. 1043–95) of Vivar, the Cid (Cid as applied by the Muslims means lord or master). Alfonso's style of “emperor” represented personal prestige and a vague hegemony rather than political reality. | 3 |
| The Cid, a Castilian originally in the service of Sancho II of Castile, later passed into that of Alfonso VI; he was exiled (1081); returned to Castilian service (1087–88); went over to the Muslim king of Saragossa after his second exile. Eventually he became ruler of Valencia. The Cid served both sides; he was cruel, selfish, and proud. Despite these characteristics, the legendary figure of the man became the great national hero of Spain. After his death (1099), Valencia was soon abandoned to the Almoravids. | 4 |
| In the course of the 11th century, French influence began to penetrate the peninsula. The Cluniacs, already (1033) strong in Catalonia, Castile, and Aragon, reinforced French influence and stimulated clerical reform and the Reconquest. A literary reflection of this is to be found in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140). | 5 |
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| 1126–57 |
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| Alfonso VII, crowned “emperor” (1135) on the basis of military ascendancy and an intense feeling of equality with rival monarchs, especially the Holy Roman emperors. The weakening of the Almoravids by luxury, and the rise of rivals (the Almohades) in Africa (c. 1125), made possible a resumption of the Reconquest (1144–47) with wide raids into Andalusia. The Almohades, summoned from Africa (1146), completed (1172) the second restoration of Muslim unity, and made Muslim Spain a province of their African empire, reducing the Arab influence. Alfonso's death was followed by a minority and an eight-year dynastic crisis from which his son Alfonso VIII finally emerged as master. | 6 |
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| 1158–1214 |
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| Alfonso VIII. After a series of successful attacks on the Muslims, Alfonso was overwhelmingly defeated (Alarcos, 1195) by the Almohades, then at the zenith of their power. Leon and Navarre promptly invaded Castile, but Alfonso triumphed over them and, with the aid of Pope Innocent III and the clergy, began the preparation of a unified general assault on the Muslims that led to the greatest victory of the Reconquest, Las Navas de Tolosa (1212), soon followed by the decline of the Almohade power in Spain and Africa and by Christian dissension. | 7 |
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| 1179 |
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| Portugal's independence and royal title were recognized by Pope Alexander III. | 8 |
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| 1217–52 |
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| FERDINAND III ended the dynastic war in Castile and attacked the Moors in the Guadalquivir Valley, taking Córdoba (1236) and Sevilla (1248). On the appeal of the Almohade emperor, he sent aid to him, gaining in return a line of African fortresses and permission to establish a Christian church at Marrakah. His plans for an invasion of Africa were cut short by his death. After the capture of Jaen (1246), the emir was allowed to establish himself at Granada, the last Moorish stronghold, as Ferdinand's vassal. | 9 |
| The long history of guerrilla warfare in Castile disorganized tillage, made the people averse to agriculture, led to a concentration of population in the towns, and accounts for the poverty of Castilian agriculture, the tremendous influence of municipalities in medieval Castile, the development of a race of soldiers, and the isolation of Spanish thought from general European currents. In general the Moors were not disliked, and intermarriages were not unusual until the 13th century. | 10 |
| The war of Christian Reconquest gave birth to three great native military orders, modeled partly on Moorish societies for border defense and partly on the international crusading orders, notably the Templars, already established in the Peninsula. Some members took the regular monkish vows, others did not. Two Cistercian monks assumed (1158) the defense of Calatrava (when the Templars gave it up), and the Order of Calatrava that grew up was confirmed by the pope (1164). The Order of Santiago (established 1171) was the largest and richest, the Order of Alcántara (founded c. 1156), an offshoot of Calatrava, was the most clerical in type. | 11 |
| In the period following 1252, fear of the Muslim was no longer a dominant force in Iberian politics, and the nobles turned from assaults on the Moors to attacks on the monarchy. The struggle between crown and baronage (which found a parallel all through Europe) was notable in Spain for the depth of governmental degradation that it produced. | 12 |
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| 1252–84 |
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| The new elements in the situation were clearly indicated in the reign of Alfonso X (the Wise), a versatile and learned ruler who presided over a court of poets, scholars, musicians, and artists; promoted Castilian as a literary language; supported the compilation and translation of Arabic scientific works, including the Alfonsine Tables, which tabulated the movements of the planets, and the Siete Partidas, which codified Spanish legal knowledge; and supported schools at Sevilla, Murcia, and Salamanca. Jewish and Muslim knowledge inspired at his court flowed into northern Europe. He built the Castilian navy, continued Christian efforts against the Moors, and captured Cadiz (1262). | 13 |
| As a politician, however, Alfonso was not so “wise.” His claim to the German throne (his mother, Beatrice, was a daughter of Philip of Swabia; (See 1024–1125) and his campaign for election as Holy Roman emperor proved ruinously expensive and ultimately humiliating: he won election by a faction of the German princes in 1257, but the pope vetoed the selection. Concessions forced on him by a very rebellious nobility gravely weakened the monarchy. Domestic discontent, combined with rivalry over the succession, led to revolt and his deposition. | 14 |
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