(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

  • 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