(1) Spain (910 - 1492): Political History and Notable Figures

1004 - 1035 - Sancho III of Pamplona / Navarre (All Facts)

• He was the Christian King of Navarre who conquered the neighboring kingdom of Castile

1037 - 1065 - Ferdinand the Great (All Facts)

• King of Leon and Castile

  • He initially imposed his rule over the old Kingdom of Leon, ruling over Galicia, Leon, Castile, and the Rioja

  • He was the first crowned “Emperor” of Spain after he had gained enough territory from modern-day Portugal after besieging and capturing Coimbra

• He preferred consolidating territory not by military force but rather by exacting tribute from the peoples of those territories and agreeing to protect them in exchange

  • When Coimbra resisted, he had no choices but to take to battering-rams to bring it to its knees

• His siege and capture of Coimbra (Portugal) from the Muslims set important precedents for the Spanish “Reconquista” of Al-Andalus

  • If Muslims surrendered immediately, before a siege, they would be allowed to stay and carry on as normal, but be under the control of the Emperor of Spain

  • If Muslims surrendered during the siege, they could still department with their lives and what they could take away with them

  • If Muslims never surrendered, their cities would be stored and they themselves would be killed or enslaved

• He demonstrated that he was not trying to force Muslims to change their religion but rather that he wished to spread the political power of a Christian community rather than belief in the religion onto the Andalusian lands

• While attacking the King of Valencia in the Battle of Paterna, he fell ill and died

• His kingdom was divided between his three sons

1043 - 1099 - El Cid / Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (All Facts)

• He ruled the city of Valencia after besieging it for 20 months

  • He did this before the Almoravids had a chance to seize Valencia

• He was born as the offspring of a noble Castilian family

• He entered the service of King Alfonso VI of Castile and Leon

  • He was eventually banished from Alfonso’s army for his unauthorized raiding

• He eventually became an independent travelling knight, notably serving in both Christian and Muslim armies

  • He earned his namesake title while in service of the Muslim rulers at Saragossa

• He promised freedom of worship for his Muslim subjects

1077 - 1109 - Alfonso VI (All Facts)

• 2nd Emperor of Spain

  • On the death of their father, his predecessor, he received Leon but lost it to Sancho (who received Castile) shortly afterwards

  • He became King of Leon and Castile after the assassination of his brother Sancho

  • He was the most powerful of Spain’s Christian monarchs at the time

• He (re)took Toledo from the Almoravid Caliphate

  • He did this on the justification that the tribute he demanded from the city was paid in debased coinage

  • The city was the old capital of Visigothic Spain

  • The city was the greatest that the Christians have taken back from the Islamic World, especially given the strategic disaster it caused for the Muslims, since it penetrated their territorial power bloc

  • Upon his reconquest, he took the title “Emperor of Toledo”

  • He promised tolerant rule to Toledo’s Muslim and Mozarabic populations, but demanded increased tribute from them

• He and his forces were defeated by Yusuf ibn Tashufin and the Almoravids in the Battle of Sagrajas

  • This came after Toledo appealed to them to free them from the namesake and his forces

• He gave his son-in-law the land between the Mingo and Tagus Rivers to hold as a hereditary country, which became the county of Portugal

1096 - 1112 - Henry of Chalon (All Facts)

• Count of the county of Portugal

1104 - 1134 - Alfonso VII (All Facts)

• King of Aragon and Navarre (of Castile and Leon)

  • He was nicknamed “The Battler”

  • He was in an almost permanent state of war against the Muslims since succeeding his father

  • He resumed the Reconquista (conquest of Islamic Spain) while the Islamic dynasties within Spain and North Africa (Almoravid, Almohad, etc.) fought against each other

• He and his forces defeated Ali ibn-Yusuf and the Almoravids in the Battle of Zaragoza, taking it from them and making Zaragoza the new capital of his kingdom

• Launched a raid as far as Granada

• Upon his death, his realm was divided between his two sons Sancho III and Ferdinand II

1196 - 1213 - Peter II (All Facts)

• King of Aragon

  • He was nicknamed “The Catholic”

• He was believed to have an impeccable anti-heretical pedigree capable of exposing Simon de Montfort’s so-called crusade

• He and his forces were defeated by and he died from Simon de Montfort and his forces in the Battle of Muret

  • He was the French southerners’ final hope at ousting Simon de Montfort

  • He was prompted to engage with Simon de Montfort after de Montfort had seized in his sweep for heretics the dioceses of Carcassonne and Albi, which came within the namesake’s own fief

1158 - 1214 - Alfonso VIII (All Facts)

• King of Castile and Toledo

  • He was nicknamed “The Noble”

• He and his forces were defeated by Yaqub al-Mansur and the Almohad Caliphate in the Battle of Alarcos

• He and his forces defeated Mohammed al-Nasir and the Almohad Caliphate in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

  • This came after he had successfully exploited the truce signed after the battle, in which he and other Christian rulers set about patching up their quarrels and determined once and for all to end Muslim domination for the Iberian Peninsula

1188 - 1230 - Alfonso IX (All Facts)

• King of Leon

1217 - 1252 - Ferdinand III (All Facts)

• King of Castile and Leon

  • He united the two kingdoms

• He took Cordoba

• He took Seville after a two-year siege, seizing the opportunity after Seville expelled its Tunisian overlord Abu Zakariya Yahya

  • Most of the Muslim inhabitants there fled to Granada afterwards

1213 - 1276 - James (All Facts)

• King of Aragon

  • He came to the throne at the age of 5

• He resolved a major offensive against the Muslims in his conquest of Majorca, a part of the much larger Reconquista of Al-Andalus

  • Following the capture of Palma, he overcame Muslim resistance in Majorca

• He then took Valencia from the Arab Muslims after he had captured the islands of Majorca and after King Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon took Cordoba

1252 - 1284 - Alfonso X (All Facts)

• King of Castile and Leon

• He protected Moorish and Jewish communities and culture

• He contributed to the Spanish cultural renaissance

• He died at Seville

1276 - 1285 - Peter III (All Facts)

• King of Aragon and Valencia

• He opposed the French in Sicily

• He was deposed by Pope Martin IV

  • Under his reign, a crusade was called by Pope Martin IV against Aragon to conquer it for the ruler with which he displaced the namesake

1291 - 1327 - James II (All Facts)

• King of Aragon and Valencia

• He was given Corsica and Sardinia by Pope Boniface VIII after he decided to give up his claims to Sicily

1312 - 1350 - Alfonso XI (All Facts)

• King of Castile and Leon

• In alliance with Portugal, he conquered the Moors, who were supported by the Marinids, in the Battle of Rio Salado

• He died of the Black Death while besieging the Marinids over Gibraltar

1350 - 1366 - Peter (All Facts)

• King of Castile and Leon

  • He was nicknamed “The Cruel”

  • He was supported by Edward the Black Prince of England

• He and his forces defeated Henry of Tratsamara and his forces in the Battle of Najera

• He and his forces were defeated by Henry of Tratsamara and his forces in the Battle of Montiel

  • After the battle, he was stabbed to death by Henry of Tratsamara

1366 - 1379 - Henry of Tratsamara (All Facts)

• King of Castile and Leon

  • He was supported by Peter IV of Aragon

  • He was the illegitimate half-brother of King Peter of Castile and Leon

  • He thus laid claim to the throne of Castile and Leon

• He and his forces were defeated by King Peter of Castile and Leon and his forces in the Battle of Najera during the Castilian Civil War

• He and his forces defeated King Peter of Castile and Leon and his forces in the Battle of Montiel, ending the Castilian Civil War

  • After the battle, he stabbed King Peter of Castile and Leon to death

1379 - 1390 - John (All Facts)

• King of Castile and Leon

• He and his forces were defeated by John of Portugal and his forces in the Siege of Lisbon, due to a plague that killed over 2,000 men and his best commanders

  • Despite this, he was determined to risk everything on another battle

• He and his forces were defeated by John of Portugal and his forces in the Battle of Aljubarrota, relinquishing Portugal and effectively securing Portuguese independence

  • He came with 17K men