THE GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN SPAIN[42]
Characteristics of Spanish History—The Caliphate of Cordova and its
decline—The Christian States—Navarre under Sancho the
Great—Beginning of the Christian advance—Alfonso VI. and the
Conquest of Toledo—The Cid—The Almoravides and the Battle of
Zallaca—The Divisions of Islam—Rivalry of Almoravides and
Almohades—Alfonso I. and the Rise of Aragon—Affonso Henriquez and
the Capture of Lisbon—Triumph of the Almohades—Innocent III. and the
Spanish Crusades—Las Navas de Tolosa—James I. of Aragon and St.
Ferdinand of Castile—Completion of the Reconquest—Organisation of
Christian Spain—Peter of Aragon and Alfonso the Wise of Castile.
[Sidenote: Characteristics of Spanish History.]
The period covered by this volume is marked by the gradual re-entry of
the Spanish peninsula into the Christian Commonwealth. At the beginning
of the tenth century the Christian states of Spain were still confined
to the extreme north, while nearly all the land worth having was subject
to the sway of the Caliphs of Cordova. Before the end of the thirteenth
century Islam had been driven back into the hills of southern Andalusia.
Four strong Christian kingdoms ruled the greater part of the peninsula,
and acquired, as a result of the continued Crusade that gave them
existence, a character intensely warlike, turbulent, religious, and
enthusiastic. On the ruins of the civilisation of Islam arose one of the
most characteristic types of mediæval Christianity.
It is impossible to follow in detail either the unending revolutions of
the Spanish Mohammedans, or the constant fluctuations of victory and
defeat between them and their Christian rivals, or the intricate
domestic history and perpetual unions and divisions of the Spanish
states themselves. Yet the history of Europe, and of the great contest
of Christianity and Islam round which so much of our history turns,
would be very incompletely narrated were all reference to the Spanish
struggle omitted. In the present chapter this can only be told in the
baldest and briefest outline.
[Sidenote: The Caliphate of Cordova.]
Among the first signs of the dissolution of Islam had been the
establishment by a branch of the Ommiades of a schismatic Caliphate at
Cordova. Yet so long as the divisions of the Mohammedan world were not
too inveterate, the followers of the Prophet, if no longer active or
aggressive, still upheld great and flourishing states. Nowhere did
Mohammedan civilisation attain a greater glory than under the Caliphs of
Cordova. The wealth, the luxury, the trade, the science and the arts of
the East never shone more brilliantly than in the days when Cordova
rivalled in splendour, luxury, and culture both the Fatimite Court at
Cairo and the orthodox Abbasside Caliphs of Bagdad. Both the Jews and
Christians enjoyed tolerable prosperity under the Ommiad yoke, and the
schools of Cordova preserved a tradition of Greek culture which made
them famous even in the Christian world. The Caliphs ruled over all
Spain south of the lower Douro and the mountains of the Guadarrama,
restricting the kings of Leon and Navarre and the counts of Castile
within the rugged region of the north, while a series of
half-independent Moorish states ran like a wedge from the Ebro to the
Pyrenees, and utterly separated the kingdom of Navarre from the county
of Barcelona or Catalonia, which in its weakness remained dependent upon
the West-Frankish kings, as it had been since Charlemagne first
organised the Spanish March between Pyrenees and Ebro. Wars of
aggression seemed over; religious wars even were almost dead. The
Christian warriors of the north held frequent intercourse with their
infidel neighbours, and did not scruple to avail themselves of their aid
in their ceaseless feuds with one another.
[Sidenote: The Decline of Cordova.]
The decline of the Caliphate of Cordova destroyed these fair prospects.
The dismemberment of Moorish Spain amongst a series of rival Ameers
increased the opportunities of Christian aggression, while it destroyed
the peace and prosperity of Islam. In 1002 the death of the great
minister Almansor ended the prosperity of the Caliphate. In 1028 the
fall of the Ommiades was completed. Yet Moorish culture died very
slowly, and it was not until the next century was nearly over that the
glory of Arab science attained its culmination in the career of Averroes
(1126–1198), the greatest of the Cordovan doctors, and the teacher of
the schoolmen of Christendom. But political supremacy had long passed
away from the Moors. The disunion of Islam was the opportunity of the
Christians, and, despite several Mohammedan revivals, the fortunes of
Christian Spain were now assured, though for a long time the advance was
fitful and exceedingly slow. The divided Moors fell back upon the
support of their brethren in Africa, without whose help their decline
would have been much more rapid.
[Sidenote: The Christian States.]
At the time of the fall of the Calipate there were four Christian states
in Spain, the kingdoms of Leon and Navarre, and the counties of
Barcelona and Castile. Under the rule of Sancho the Great (970–1035) the
little upland kingdom of Navarre held for the moment the first place
among them. But Sancho turned his main energies towards conquering his
Christian neighbours, and before his death he dominated, with the title
of Emperor, all Christian Spain, save the Spanish March. [Sidenote:
Supremacy of Navarre under Sancho the Great.] On his death his dominions
were divided among his children. Among these was Castile, already
erected into a kingdom in favour of his second son Ferdinand. Another
son, Ramiro, had received the little knot of mountain land which
subsequently grew into the kingdom of Aragon, and which under Alfonso I.
extended its territories towards the Ebro valley, at the expense of the
Ameers of Saragossa. [Sidenote: Union of Castile and Leon and beginning
of the Christian advance.] Meanwhile the preponderance formerly enjoyed
by Sancho the Great was transferred to central Spain by the union of the
ancient kingdom of Leon with the great monarchy of Castile, under
Ferdinand I. Before this prince’s death in 1065 the conquest of the
valley of the Douro began the period of definitive expansion. In the
lower Douro valley Ferdinand set up the vassal county of Oporto, and,
between that stream and the Mondego, another tributary county of
Coimbra. Under Alfonso VI. the time of the great conquests began. The
Castilians crossed the high mountains of Guadarrama, and penetrated into
the valley of the Tagus. For a long time Alfonso feared to break openly
with the Ameer of Toledo, the lord of that region, but he found an ally
in the rival Ameer of Seville, whose daughter he now took as his
concubine. [Sidenote: Alfonso VI. conquers Toledo.] While the Moors of
Toledo fought against their co-religionists at Seville, Alfonso
conquered the upper valley of the Tagus, and became lord of Madrid, the
modern capital of Spain. In vain the Ameer offered to become the vassal
of the triumphant Castilian for the rest of his dominions. Alfonso
swept, steadily down the course of the great river. In 1085 he entered
in triumph into Toledo itself.
The history of Alfonso’s alliances shows how little of religious
fanaticism entered into the wars of the two races. Even his crowning
conquest of Toledo was due not so much to his prowess as to a
treacherous league with some of its disloyal defenders. [Sidenote: The
Cid.] Alfonso’s famous subject, Ruy Diaz, the Cid Campeador, the most
famous legendary hero of early Spain, though figuring in romance as a
Christian hero, was in history a brave and self-seeking _condottiere_,
who sold his sword to the Moors, or took the pay of the rival King of
Aragon almost as cheerfully as he fought for his native Castile. But the
fall of the ancient Gothic capital created a terrible panic in the
Mohammedan world, and something like a Crusade was started by Islam to
win back the ground that it had lost. The frightened Ameers of Spain met
together, and agreed to seek foreign help against the overbearing foe.
[Sidenote: The Almoravides.] A sect of Mohammedan enthusiasts, called
the Almoravides, and mainly composed of the Berbers of the Sahara, had
recently overrun all northern Africa, displacing the ancient Arab
dynasts, and rekindling the ancient zeal of the followers of the
Prophet. The Spanish Moors now turned to Yussuf, the Almoravides’
leader, and begged him to come to their assistance. After some
hesitation Yussuf accepted the challenge. In 1086 he crossed the Straits
of Gibraltar. His army of fierce and barbarous nomads of the desert soon
wrought infinitely greater havoc on the Christians than the lax and
effeminate Arabs of the Peninsula had been wont to do. Alfonso VI., who
was besieging Saragossa when he heard of Yussuf’s arrival, turned south
to resist the new foe, and the kings of Aragon and Navarre sent
reinforcements to the strongest representative of the Christian cause.
[Sidenote: Battle of Zallaca.] But on 23rd October 1086 the host of
Alfonso was utterly destroyed at the battle of Zallaca, near Badajoz,
and the victorious African was proclaimed Ameer of Andalous or Moorish
Spain.
[Sidenote: Divisions of Islam.]
Spanish Christianity was now saved by the dissensions that broke out
between the Spanish Arabs and their African champion. The petty Ameers
of Spain were disgusted at Yussuf remaining behind in the Peninsula and
striving to be its effective ruler. Hostilities soon broke out between
them and Yussuf, who, finding allies in the fanatic party in Andalous
itself, diverted his arms from the Christians against the subordinate
lords of Islam. Within the next few years he had conquered every Ameer
save the ruler of Saragossa, who was suffered to hold his northern
marchland against the aggressive Aragonese. During this period Alfonso
VI. resumed his conquests. He devastated the lower valley of the Tagus
from Toledo to the sea, and for the time made himself master of Lisbon.
[Sidenote: Alfonso VI. takes Lisbon.] Meanwhile the Cid profited by the
dissensions of Islam to pursue a bolder career. He deserted his
paymaster, the Ameer of Saragossa, and at the head of his trusty
mercenaries sought to carve a state for himself out of the ruins of the
power of Islam in eastern Spain. [Sidenote: Conquest of Valencia by the
Cid.] In 1094 he made himself master of Valencia, after performing
prodigies of valour. But a disastrous failure cost him the lives of the
best of his troops, and in 1099 the Cid died of grief at the loss of his
faithful followers. His widow strove in vain to hold Valencia against
the Moors, but her only possible helper was the king of Castile, and he
was too far off to give effective assistance. Three years later she
abandoned the smoking ruins of Valencia to the Moorish hosts, and
retired with the bones of her husband to a safe refuge in Castile.
Before this Yussuf had become master of Mohammedan Spain. He again
turned his arms against Alfonso, and easily drove the Castilians from
Lisbon and their other recent conquests. It was all that Alfonso could
do to maintain himself in Toledo. His death in 1108 saved him from
further disasters.
[Sidenote: The rivalry of Almoravides and Almohades.]
Yussuf had already died in 1106, but the dissensions of Castile and Leon
that followed the death of Alfonso VI. made it easy for his successors
to hold their own. Before long, however, the short term of activity of
an Oriental dynasty had ended; and the Almoravides saw their African
possessions taken away from them by the newer and fiercer power of the
Almohades, the Berbers of the Atlas, who had long resented the rule of
their brethren of the desert. Meanwhile the Almoravides’ hold over Spain
was becoming weakened. The Berber soldiers still ruled over the Moslem
as conquered subjects, and their fanatic zeal still more disgusted the
Mozarabic Christians (_i.e._ the Christians subject to the Arab yoke)
who had borne with equanimity the tolerant yoke of the Spanish Arabs.
[Sidenote: Alfonso I. and the Rise of Aragon.] A new saviour of the
Christians now arose in Alfonso I. of Aragon, the true founder of the
Aragonese power. In 1118 he had won for Aragon its natural capital in
Saragossa. He led destructive forays into the heart of Andalusia, and
brought home with him numerous Mozarabic families, to whom he afforded a
new home in the north. By the time of his death before the walls of
Valencia, Aragon had become second only to Castile among the kingdoms of
Christian Spain. Nor were the successes of the Cross only in Aragon.
Count Raymond Berengar IV. of Barcelona united for a time his county
with Aragon and conquered Tortosa in 1148. In the extreme west the
little counties of Oporto and Coimbra had long been united to form the
county of Portugal, now ruled by Affonso Henriquez, the founder of
Portuguese greatness. [Sidenote: Affonso Henriquez and the Capture of
Lisbon.] In 1139 Affonso penetrated far into the heart of the Moorish
country beyond the Tagus and won the famous battle of Ourique. Next year
he assumed the title of King of Portugal. In 1147, with the help of a
fleet of English and German warriors on their way to join the Second
Crusade, Affonso drove the Moors out of Lisbon, which now became the
capital of the infant kingdom. The Crusaders to the East now joined
hands with the Crusaders of the West. While the Northern pilgrims helped
to conquer Lisbon, French Crusaders fought for Raymond Berengar of
Barcelona and Provence, and the Knights of the Temple and the Hospital
stationed themselves in the valley of the Ebro as well as in Syria.
Spain soon had Military Orders of her own. In 1149 Sancho IX. of Castile
captured Calatrava, on the upper Guadiana, from the Moors, and made it
over to the Cistercians, who, inspired by St. Bernard, were already
establishing themselves in Spain and proclaiming the Crusade against the
infidel. [Sidenote: The Spanish Military Orders.] In 1158 the knightly
order of Calatrava was set up to defend the Cistercian possession. The
order was the ‘holy soldiery of Cîteaux,’ a sort of martial section of
the White Monks, and in close dependence upon them. In an equally close
relation to the Cistercians stood the order of St. Julian, founded even
earlier, in 1152, by the king of Leon, which became, in 1218, the order
of Alcantara, when that stronghold on the lower Tagus was won from the
Moors and handed over to the knights to defend it. Both orders took the
full monastic vows, but a less ascetic regimen prevailed with the order
of Evora in Portugal, set up in 1162 as a sort of ‘conversi’ or lay
brethren of the Cistercians, and allowed marriage and the enjoyment of
property. On the same lines was formed, under the patronage of Alexander
III. and Innocent III., the most famous of the Spanish orders, that of
Santiago, which, alone of its class, was quite independent of Cîteaux.
[Sidenote: The Crusades in Spain.] Under the Cistercian guidance the
Spanish struggle took more and more the character of a religious war.
Instead of local wars between neighbouring chieftains, the contest now
became part of the general struggle between the two civilisations and
religions that had so long divided the world.
[Sidenote: Triumph of the Almohades.]
The deepening feud of the Almoravides and Almohades allowed the
Christians, despite their own divisions, to win fresh ground. In 1146
Morocco was captured by the Almohades, who immediately afterwards
crossed the Straits to extend their rule from Africa to Andalous. The
fierce sectarian conflict of the rival Mohammedans had for its natural
result the almost simultaneous captures of Tortosa, Lisbon, and
Calatrava. But the Almohades soon made themselves masters of infidel
Spain, and turned fiercely against the Christians. In 1185 they won the
battle of Alarcos over Alfonso VIII. of Castile. Their victory stayed
for the time the progress of the Cross, and restored Calatrava to the
rule of the Crescent. For the rest of the century the constant wars
between Leon, Castile, Navarre, and Aragon played the game of the
infidel.
[Sidenote: Innocent III. and the Spanish Crusade.]
Innocent III. revived the Crusading ardour of Spain, and inspired great
bands of Northern warriors to cross the Pyrenees and join in the
struggle against Islam. Alfonso VIII. sought to atone for the disasters
of his youth by victories in his old age. A vast Crusading host
collected at Toledo, and showed its ardour by mercilessly butchering the
Jews of that city. The threats and entreaties of the great Pope inspired
King Peter of Aragon and the king of Navarre to join the army of Alfonso
of Castile. The local military orders were well to the fore, and only
the king of Leon held aloof from the greatest combined effort that had
as yet ever been made against Spanish Islam. [Sidenote: Battle of Las
Navas de Tolosa.] The crusading host crossed the mountains of Toledo and
restored the rule of Castile in the upper valley of the Guadiana, where
Calatrava was now restored to its Cistercian lords. It was with much
difficulty that the Christians could be persuaded to advance farther
south, but a shepherd showed them a path which enabled them to avoid the
Moorish host that was waiting for them in the defiles of the Sierra
Morena, and they successfully crossed the mountains to Las Navas de
Tolosa, an upland valley watered by a tributary of the Guadalquivir.
There, on 16th July 1212, was fought the famous battle of Las Navas de
Tolosa, which secured for ever the preponderance of Christianity in
Spain. Within fifty years of the victory the Moors had all they could do
to hold their own in the little kingdom of Granada that alone
represented the ancient Andalous.
[Sidenote: James I. of Aragon.]
James I. (1213–1276) of Aragon and Ferdinand III. (the Saint) completed
the work which Alfonso VIII. had thus successfully begun. The son of
that Peter of Aragon who had fought so well at Las Navas de Tolosa,
James was called to his kingdom as a child by his father’s death on the
fatal field of Muret. He was a true hero of chivalry, one of the
greatest warriors of the Middle Ages, ardent, pious, merciful, and
ignorant of the very name of fear. Though a soldier of the Cross, his
matrimonial irregularities did not escape papal censure. While first of
all a warrior, he did not shun the arts of peace, writing in his native
Catalan tongue an autobiographical chronicle which is one of the most
precious records of the thirteenth century.[43] His first exploit was
the conquest of the Balearic Islands between 1229 and 1232. He then
turned against Valencia, anxious to do over again the work of the Cid.
In 1238 Valencia opened her gates to him, and Aragon thus established
her limits such as they remained so long as she remained an independent
kingdom.
[Sidenote: St. Ferdinand of Castile.]
Saint Ferdinand (Ferdinand III.) of Castile reigned from 1214–1252, and
was enabled in 1230 to effect the definitive union of Leon with his
original inheritance. He fought with great brilliancy and courage with
the Moors in the valley of the Guadalquivir, and before his death
succeeded in utterly expelling them from the most famous of their
haunts. In 1236 he conquered the ancient seat of the Caliphs at Cordova,
and turned the famous mosque of many columns into a Christian cathedral,
while in 1246 his triumphs in this region were completed by his capture
of Jaen. Before that, in 1244, he had entered Seville, and in 1250 the
capture of Xeres and Cadiz gave him access to the Atlantic. His
successor, Alfonso X., completed the conquest of Murcia in conjunction
with James of Aragon. Meanwhile Portugal had acquired her modern limits
by 1262, by the conquest of Algarve, Spanish Algarve being also won by
Alfonso X. When Islam was thus nearly overthrown the tide of conquest
was stayed, and for more than two hundred years longer Granada, but
Granada alone, remained in Moorish hands.
After the land had been won back from the Moors, the Spanish kings had
to deal with the organisation and government of their conquests. The
withdrawal of the Mohammedans left great tracts of territory open to the
settlement of the hardy northerners, among whom the land was divided
out, like a new country for the first time opened up to civilisation.
[Sidenote: The Organisation and Government of Christian Spain.] Foreign
countries, especially the south of France, contributed to these
emigrations. The Mozarabs soon amalgamated with the settlers, and even
after constant expulsions a strong Moorish and a considerable Jewish
element remained, especially in the south, for the central provinces of
Old and New Castile were cleared of the Moors. The whole of Spanish
institutions bore a deep impress of the character of the conquest. The
military orders, who had fought so well, had enormous territories in the
reconquered lands. The clergy were invested with higher authority than
in any other Christian country. The kings were proud to obtain from the
Papacy a confirmation of their right to govern their realms. But the
nobility was also very powerful, and the division of interests between
the greater and the lesser barons was so marked that in Aragon they
formed separate Estates of the realm. In Castile the monarchical
authority was the strongest, but the grants of privileges to the king’s
partners in the conquest had even here given the institutions a markedly
aristocratic character, and no country was fuller of hereditary feuds
and local dissensions. Aragon was a thoroughly feudalised country, where
the maintenance of public rights was intrusted to a supreme magistrate
called the _Justicia_, before whose tribunal all disputes between the
king and his subjects might be carried, and whose influence overshadowed
that of the monarch. The _Justicia_ was always chosen from the lesser
nobility, a class that the Aragonese kings favoured as their best
supporters against the feudal magnates. Even the towns of Spain bore the
military and ecclesiastical impress that the Moorish wars had given to
the whole nation. They were an important element of the _Cortes_, or
Estates-General, that grew up very early in the Peninsula. Their
associations or _hermandads_ were almost as formidable to the crown as
the leagues of the nobility.
[Sidenote: The New Spain.]
After the reconquest from the Moors was over, Spanish history takes a
new character. Under Alfonso X. of Castile (1252–1284), Peter III. of
Aragon (1276–1285), and Affonso III. of Portugal (1245–1279) the
internal development of the three chief Spanish kingdoms falls into line
with that of the rest of Europe.
[Sidenote: Alfonso X. of Castile.]
Alfonso X., surnamed the Wise, of Castile, was one of the most
remarkable sovereigns of the thirteenth century, and is well worthy to
be classed with St. Louis, with Frederick II., or with his
brother-in-law, Edward I. of England. His rare gifts gave him fame as a
man of learning, a poet, a historian, and a legislator, but his violent
and unmeasured ambition paid but too little regard to the narrowness of
his resources, and he had not the iron will and strong, resolute
character without which no mediæval king could be a successful ruler.
Thus it was that Alfonso failed in his early struggles with his
neighbour Affonso III. of Portugal, whose more limited ambitions better
enabled him to carry out his ideas. [Sidenote: Affonso III. of
Portugal.] While the Castilian strove to play a great part in Europe,
the Portuguese built cities, encouraged trade and agriculture, and
struggled successfully even with the Papacy. While Portugal secured its
rights over the Algarves, Alfonso plunged into a long contest with his
Castilian nobles, in which he was by no means triumphant. The marriage
of Alfonso’s sister with his Portuguese rival at last secured peace
between the two realms. Alfonso X. was a theorist even in his famous
legislation, called the _Siete Partidas_, in which he laid down a high
theory of monarchy, though he could not live up to his pretensions. His
contest with Richard of Cornwall for the Holy Roman Empire was the
extreme example of his desire to cut a great figure in the world, but
his subjects would not allow him to take any real steps to assert his
claims. His quarrel with his son Sancho led to bloody civil wars that
were continued after his death, and made it impossible for Castile to
play a great part in Europe; but with all his errors Alfonso the Wise
had first made her a European power. Even greater difficulties beset
Alfonso’s contemporary Peter III. in Aragon. [Sidenote: Peter III. of
Aragon.] Like James I., Peter III. had to yield before the nobles and
the confederate cities, while his intervention in the affairs of Italy
involved him in a fierce contest with the Papacy, and seemed for long to
be utterly futile. But, like Alfonso X., Peter prepared for others the
way that he was unable to traverse himself. More than two hundred years
were still to elapse before the rulers of the Peninsula were able to
realise the monarchical theories of Alfonso, and push to a successful
result the Italian policy of Peter.
[Illustration: SPAIN AT THE END OF THE 12TH CENTURY]
[Illustration: SPAIN AT THE END OF THE 13TH CENTURY]