(2) Spain (910 - 1492): Military History and Notable Events

718 - 1492 - Reconquista (All Facts)

• Period in the history of Spain that involved the taking back of the Iberian Peninsula lands by the Christians from the Muslims

1065 - Battle of Paterna (All Facts)

• Battle in which Ferdinand the Great and his forces in the Kingdom of Leon defeated the Arab-Muslims in Valencia, but in which he fell ill and died while attacking the King of Valencia

1086 - Battle of Sagrajas (All Facts)

• Battle in which Alfonso VI and his forces were defeated by Yusuf ibn-Tashfin and the Almoravids, near Badajoz

• Battle after which ibn-Tashfin decided to reunite Islamic Spain, taking Valencia back after the death of El Cid and the city of Zaragoza shortly after that

• Battle after which carts loaded with Christian heads were sent to the chief cities of Spain and the Maghreb to show them that the Christians were longer to be feared by the Almoravids

1101 - 1102 - Siege of Valencia (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Almoravids were defeated by Alfonso VI and his forces

• Battle in which Alfonso VI evacuated and burned the namesake city

1114 - 1118 - Conquest of Zaragoza (All Facts)

• Battle in which Alfonso “The Battler” and his forces defeated Ali ibn-Yusuf and the Almoravids, taking the namesake city from them

• Battle which represents the first serious reversal in the fortunes of the Almoravids

1195 - Battle of Alarcos (All Facts)

• Battle in which Alfonso VIII of Castile and his forces were defeated by Yaqub al-Mansur and the Almohad Caliphate

• Battle in which Yaqub al-Mansur and the Almohad Caliphate reconquered Trujillo, Montánchez, and Talavera

1212 - Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (All Facts)

• Battle in which Alfonso VIII of Castile and his forces defeated Mohammed al-Nasir and the Almohad Caliphate

• Battle in which the two armies met near the Guadalquivir River between Toledo and Granada

• Battle in which the Christian force which advanced from Toledo to meet the caliph al-Nasir included troops from all the Spanish kingdoms and contingents from France as well

• Battle which laid the foundations for the final phase of the “Reconquista” of Al-Andalus

  • Battle in which Muslim power in Spain nearly collapsed following the victory of the Christian army there

1247 - 1248 - Siege of Seville (All Facts)

• Battle in which Ferdinand III and the Castilians defeated the Arab Muslims in the namesake city, which fled to Granada

• Battle which marked the penultimate city controlled by the Muslims, it was the penultimate conflict of the Reconquista

1297 - Treaty of Alcanices (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty between Portugal and Castile in which Castile defined the Portuguese frontiers

1340 - Battle of Rio Salado (All Facts)

• Battle in which Alonso XI of Castile and Leon and his forces, with support from the Portuguese, defeated the Moors, with support from the Marinids

1351 - 1369 - Castilian Civil War (All Facts)

• War of succession over the throne of the Kingdom of Castile

1367 - Battle of Najera (All Facts)

• Battle in which Peter, aided by Edward the Black Prince of England, and his forces defeated Henry of Tratsamara and his forces during the Castilian Civil War

1369 - Battle of Montiel (All Facts)

• Battle in which Henry of Tratsamara and his forces defeated Peter and his forces, ending the Castilian Civil War

• Battle after which Henry of Tratsamara stabs Peter to death

1384 - Siege of Lisbon (All Facts)

• Battle in which King John of Castile and his forces were defeated by John of Portugal and his forces, failing to take the namesake city

• Battle in which the Portuguese likely won because the Castilian army was hit was a devastating plague that killed over 2,000 men and its best commanders, thus saving the Portuguese from the Castilian threat

1385 - Battle of Aljubarrota (All Facts)

• Battle in which John of Castile and his forces were defeated by John of Portugal and his forces, with the help of English forces

• Battle in which the 17K-large Castilian force outnumbered but was defeated by the Portuguese, who had the help of 300 English archers sent by John of Gaunt (himself pursuing claims to the Kingdom of Castile)

  • Although tired by a 12-mile march, the Castilians were ordered to attack the Portuguese but came under terrible crossfire from English archers and those not killed became entangled in a network of wolf-traps and trenches

• Battle which secured

  • Portuguese independence

    • This allowed a new age of its history to unfold, it being independent of its powerful neighbor

  • John of Portugal’s kingship

• Battle after which John of Castile fled to Seville

• Battle which famously lasted less than an hour

1391 - Pogroms of 1391 (All Facts)

• Series of massacres of and mass violence committed against Jews in Spain by Catholics in Castile and Aragon including

  • One massacre in which

    • Castilian sailors and a rampaging crowd set fire to a Jewish ghetto, killing 100 Jews and in which many Jews fled the castle

    • when the ringleaders were arrested and imprisoned, they were eventually freed by the mob

    • the rioters besieged a royal castle in Barcelona and forced the Jews to march out of it and in procession to be baptized

    • the 300 Jews who refused to march out of the castle in procession and be baptized were killed on the spot

  • Several in which Jews were killed daily in Seville and in which mass hysteria had spread

  • One massacre in Toledo

  • Several massacres in Valencia

• Series of massacres which may have arose from the need to blame a group of people for the Black Death