ERA OF THE SPANISH CRUSADES, 1031-1276
[Sidenote: General characteristics of the era.]
The period of a little more than two centuries after the downfall of the
caliphate was marked by a complete change from that preceding it, and in
like manner was quite independent of the next succeeding era. Up to this
time Moslem Spain had represented by far the principal element in the
peninsula. The Christian states had maintained themselves with
difficulty, making occasional gains, which were not infrequently
followed by equally great losses whenever the Moslem power was
sufficiently united internally to present its full strength. The
civilization of the Christian kingdoms had also been notably inferior in
almost every respect to that of the Moslem south. From the eleventh to
the middle of the thirteenth century, however, the region of Moslem
Spain, divided against itself, could not make an effective resistance,
and the Christian powers began an offensive which enabled them to
reconquer all of the peninsula except for a narrow strip in southern
Andalusia. These wars partook very largely of the crusading spirit then
so prevalent in Europe, and although it was not nearly so persistent,
fervid, or exclusive an aim as is usually believed it seems appropriate
to characterize this era as that of the Spanish crusades. This was also
a period of noteworthy advance in internal organization in Christian
Spain, for although civil war and disorder were great as compared with
some later eras many regions enjoyed long terms of peace, very much more
complete at least than in the three preceding centuries. The pushing
back of the Moslem frontier conduced greatly to this end. The kings
gradually became more powerful than the great individual nobles, who
had been able to meet them on virtually equal terms before. The free
commoners advanced both in status and in numbers. In material well-being
there was a marked improvement. Finally, in general culture the same
tendency appeared. In all of these respects the fund of civilization was
very slight compared with what it was to become in succeeding centuries,
but it was at least something, whereas the period before had represented
little more than bare existence. Despite the fact that there was very
little understanding of the ideal of national unity, as evidenced by the
frequency with which monarchs divided their kingdoms, circumstances
tended toward the accomplishment of what men could not readily grasp.
Two great states emerged in Christian Spain, the kingdoms of Castile and
Aragon. They were able even to act in peace and concert at times in the
wars against the Moslems. A third region tended to withdraw from the
current of peninsula unity, for it was in this period that the modern
state of Portugal had its independent beginnings. Nevertheless, Moslem
Spain, though less important than Castile and Aragon, remained the
keynote of the period, not alone because of the wars against it, but
also because its civilization, especially in material and intellectual
aspects, was still far superior to that of Castile and Aragon. It was at
this time, indeed, that the Moslem world produced its greatest scholars
and the Christian states became most strongly imbued with the spirit of
Moslem culture, with permanent results on Spanish character. This era
was unequal in length for Castile and Aragon, closing respectively in
1252 and 1276 with the deaths of Ferdinand III and Jaime I.
_Moslem Spain_
[Sidenote: The _taifa_ states and the rise of Seville.]
With the dethronement of Hisham III in 1031 the caliphate broke up into
a number of states called _taifas_, from an Arabic word meaning “tribe,”
or “people.” Down to the close of the eleventh century there were many
of these states,--twenty-three at one time,--but the most important were
those of Cordova, Seville, Málaga, Granada, Almería, Denia and the
Balearic Islands, Saragossa, Toledo, and Badajoz. The rulers were
usually Slavic or Berber generals of the latter-day armies of the
caliphate and their descendants. Each desired to make himself sole
caliph, and so an internecine strife was waged almost continuously,
especially in the south. Seville soon forged ahead of its regional
rivals, and was by far the most important _taifa_ of the century. Like
several of the others it had been founded as a republic (as early as
1023), but its skilful ruler, Abul Cassim Mohammed of the Abbadite
family, soon made himself absolute, while retaining the forms of a
republic. In order to overcome his most powerful neighbors he pretended
that Hisham II had reappeared, availing himself of a mat-maker who
resembled the dead caliph. The stratagem was so successful that Carmona,
Valencia, Denia, Tortosa, and even the republic of Cordova recognized
the pseudo-Hisham, whereupon the crafty Sevillian proceeded to conquer
large parts of the _taifa_ states of Málaga and Granada. His successors
were equally fortunate, and by the end of the third quarter of the
century the greater part of Moslem Spain, especially in the west and
south, had acknowledged the rule of the lord of Seville. Seville, too,
had become every bit as noteworthy an intellectual centre as Cordova had
been under the caliphs.
[Sidenote: Yusuf and the Almoravide conquest.]
The Christian kings of Castile and León had meanwhile profited by the
wars of the _taifa_ states to make conquests or to reduce many of the
_taifas_ to the payment of tribute. Even Seville was tributary to a
Christian king. This inclined many of the Moslem princes, realizing
their own helplessness, to invite a newly-risen Mohammedan power in
northwestern Africa to come to their aid. The rulers of the _taifas_
recognized that their own authority might be endangered by the entry of
their coreligionists, but their feelings were well expressed in the
words attributed to the ruler of Seville: “I would rather be a
camel-driver in Africa than a swineherd in Castile.” The African people
referred to were a branch of the Berbers who had dwelt apart in the
Sahara Desert. Converted at length to the Moslem faith, they became
fanatically religious, taking to themselves the name “Almoravides”
(religious men), and launching themselves forth to the conquest of all
northwestern Africa. The African empire of the Almoravides was already
an accomplished fact when their emperor, Yusuf, was invited to help the
Spanish Moslems under a promise that he would not deprive the _taifa_
rulers of their states. In 1086 Yusuf entered Spain, and encountered the
army of Alfonso VI of León at Zalaca, near Badajoz. Yusuf was completely
successful, and the Christian peril was rolled back, but no
counter-conquests of moment were made. Yusuf himself returned to Africa.
Four years later the Moslem princes had need of Yusuf, and once again he
came to avert the threatening danger. By this time popular opinion,
reinforced by the intrigues of the Moslem priesthood, desired the
establishment of Yusuf’s authority in Spain; the restoration of a single
rule, it was believed, would check the Christian kings, and bring peace
and prosperity. By 1091 Yusuf had reduced all of the _taifa_ princes
except the king of Saragossa, and the latter was subjected by Yusuf’s
successor. Thus the unity of Moslem Spain was again accomplished.[18]
[Sidenote: Rise of the Almohades.]
The Almoravide rule rested very lightly on the Moslem population, but
only for a short time. The emperors lost their religious enthusiasm, and
not only did they fail to advance the conquest but they also gave
themselves up to a life of luxury and dissipation. Public security
declined, with the result that the people now wished to rid themselves
of the sovereigns whom formerly they had desired so much. At this time
there came a tremendous uprising in Africa in 1125 of the Moors of the
Moroccan Atlas, an uncivilized branch of the Berber family. They had
become fanatical Mohammedans, and like their Almoravide predecessors had
taken a name springing from their religious faith, that of “Almohades”
(unitarians). Uncultivated as they were, they were able to master the
military art of that day sufficiently to overwhelm the Almoravide power
in Africa, though only after a long war.
[Sidenote: The Almohades in Spain.]
[Sidenote: The Christian reconquest.]
Meanwhile, a second era of _taifa_ states had sprung up in Spain, but in
1146 the Almohades entered the peninsula, and proceeded to reduce the
_taifa_ princes. By 1172 all Moslem Spain was under their sway. Spain
was now formed into a province of the Almohade empire, the capital of
which was in Africa. The new conquerors did more than merely garrison
the peninsula,--they pursued the hated Arabs so zealously that the
latter were either destroyed or absorbed. The Berbers were for many
years virtually the only Mohammedan element in the peninsula except for
the Renegados. The wars with the Christians were also renewed. In 1194
Alfonso VIII of Castile challenged the emperor Yacub to a battle. Yacub
accepted, and the battle was fought at Alarcos (Badajoz) in 1195, ending
in the rout of the Christians. The war continued, however, and in 1212
the united forces of León, Castile, Navarre, and Aragon gained a great
victory at Navas de Tolosa in Andalusia. This was the turning-point in
the Christian reconquest. The Almohade state soon fell to pieces, and by
1228 the _taifas_ began to reappear, but one after another they were
conquered by the Christian kings. A single Moslem state escaped; in 1230
it had been founded at Arjona, and presently took shape as the kingdom
of Granada, establishing its capital in 1238 at the city of the same
name. This tiny realm, extending at its greatest from Almería to
Gibraltar, was able to maintain itself for over two centuries and a
half.
_León and Castile_
[Sidenote: Castilian conquests.]
[Sidenote: Alfonso VI.]
By the will of Sancho the Great of Navarre, Castile had become legally a
kingdom in 1035. Ferdinand I (1035-1065) soon overwhelmed the king of
León, uniting all northwestern Spain under his rule. Wars with Navarre
followed until 1054, after which Ferdinand devoted himself with great
religious zeal to campaigns against the Moslem _taifas_, making numerous
conquests, and subjecting many states to the payment of tribute. Despite
the lesson of his own experience he divided his realm, at death, into
the three kingdoms of Castile, León, and Galicia, besides two lesser
principalities. A long civil war followed, out of which there emerged
Alfonso VI (1065-1109) as sole ruler of the domain of his father.
Alfonso VI took up the wars against the Moslems with great success, and
on one occasion, in 1082, was able to ride his horse into the sea in the
extreme south of Spain at Tarifa, when he is said to have exclaimed:
“This is the last land in Spain, and I have trod it.” The principal
event of the reign was the capture of Toledo in 1085. Alfonso had
promised to restore the _taifa_ king of Toledo to his throne, from which
he had been ousted by a rebellion, but changed his mind, and took the
city for himself. From that time forward Toledo was of great military
importance to the Christians, serving as the centre of the reconquest,
and it was also the medium through which Moslem civilization began to
produce an effect on Castile. The treaty of capitulation was not very
faithfully carried out; for example, Alfonso had promised to allow the
Mohammedans to retain their principal mosque for purposes of worship,
but in his absence the monks of Cluny were able to persuade the queen to
take over that edifice as a Christian church. The incident is
illustrative of a new crusading spirit which had entered Spain with the
monks of Cluny, although it had not yet become general. _Taifa_ after
_taifa_ now humbled itself before Alfonso; Valencia was captured, and
the former king of Toledo became its nominal ruler, but with a Castilian
army; and Alfonso could with reason entitle himself “sovereign of the
men of the two religions,” a phrase which shows that Christian zeal was
not altogether uncompromising. It was then that the Almoravide invasion
checked the Castilian king, but although he lost Valencia he was able to
maintain the principal part of his conquests.
[Sidenote: The Cid.]
It was in the reign of Alfonso VI that Rodrigo, or Ruy, Díaz of Vivar
(near Burgos), better known as “the Cid,” performed the achievements
which have made him a famous character in literature. Until recently he
was represented as a fanatically ardent, Christian crusader, ever
drawing his sword against the infidel or in defence of any just and
noble cause, and performing superhuman prodigies of valor. The true Cid
was very far from answering to that description, and was also so typical
of his age that his real career has historic value apart from
literature. In the civil wars following the death of Ferdinand I, Díaz
was a partisan of Sancho II of Castile, and contributed greatly to that
monarch’s success,--a victory which was spoiled by the assassination of
his patron. Díaz then recognized Alfonso VI, and was sent by the latter
to collect the tribute due from the king of Seville. On his return he
was accused of having appropriated for himself certain of the funds
which he was bringing to the king, and was banished from Castile;
possibly Alfonso VI may still have felt resentment over Díaz’s part in
the victories of Sancho. Followed by only a few warriors Díaz wandered
over Spain, seeking wealth and honors in return for military aid.
Finally he took service with the Moslem king of Saragossa, and won fame
in all the peninsula as a result of his victories not only against
Moslem enemies but more than once against Christian kings; in fine,
religion seems not to have entered into his program to any appreciable
extent; indeed, the name Cid was applied by his Moslem soldiers, meaning
“lord,” or “master.” In 1086 the Moslem king of Valencia, the same one
who had been placed on the throne by Alfonso VI, got into difficulties
with his subjects, and sought the aid of Saragossa. The Cid was sent
with an army of mingled Christians and Moslems to restore the authority
of the Valencian monarch. This he did, but under a contract which
ignored his Saragossan master and enabled the Cid to become the virtual
ruler of Valencia. In 1092 on the death of the king of Valencia the Cid
converted his _de facto_ into a _de jure_ rule, reigning until his death
in 1099. As monarch of Valencia he was selfish and cruel, like others of
his time, sustaining his power by virtue of his army of Christians and
Moslems against foes of whatever faith, even against Castile. He
espoused one of his daughters to Ramón Berenguer III of Barcelona, and
another to a prince of the royal family of Navarre. After his death his
state fell before the advance of the Almoravides.
[Sidenote: The anarchy of Urraca’s reign.]
[Sidenote: The beginnings of Portugal.]
Alfonso VI was succeeded by his daughter Urraca (1109-1126), for he left
no sons, and her reign was a period of anarchy. Urraca, who was a widow,
was compelled by the nobles to remarry, on the ground that affairs of
state needed a man’s direction, while her infant son by a previous
marriage, Alfonso, was brought up in Galicia, being considered king of
that region. Alfonso I “the Battler” of Aragon was selected as a husband
for Urraca, but the marriage was not a happy one. Urraca was so
imprudent in her manner of life that the Battler saw fit to imprison her
in a castle. Furthermore, he displayed a clear intention of making
himself ruler in Castile as he was in Aragon, a course which the
Castilian nobles were far from approving. The scene having been set the
wars began. A complication entered from the side of Galicia, where
Bishop Gelmírez of Santiago de Compostela proposed that the infant
Alfonso should reign in León as well as in Galicia. The changes of side
and fortune in these wars, not only by the three principals, but also by
individual nobles, need not be followed, except to relate one incident
which marked the first step toward the ultimate independence of
Portugal. Teresa, a sister of Urraca, had married a French count, Henry
of Lorraine, to whom (in 1095?) Alfonso VI granted territories called
the county of Portugal in the northern part of the land which now bears
that name. These estates were held as a fief, subject to tribute and
military service. Henry and later Teresa (on the former’s death)
profited by the civil strife to increase their holdings and acquire real
strength. Urraca died in 1126, and matters were arranged by the
recognition of the young Alfonso (Alfonso VII “the Emperor”) as king in
his grandfather’s domain, while Alfonso the Battler gained some
territories adjoining his kingdom of Aragon.[19]
[Sidenote: Alfonso “the Emperor.”]
The death of Urraca did not end the internal strife in Christian Spain.
For ten years there were wars with Teresa and her son Affonso Enríquez
of Portugal; there were wars, too, against Aragon and Navarre, following
the death of Alfonso the Battler, out of which Alfonso VII procured some
extensions of territory. When the century was nearly half gone Alfonso
was able to turn energetically to an attack upon the Moslem states,
especially between 1144 and 1147 during the second era of the _taifas_.
His conquests were vast, but of brief duration, for the Almohades soon
entered Spain to deprive him of what he had won. Like Ferdinand I before
him Alfonso VII took the title of emperor, which then had a significance
equivalent to that of sole temporal ruler of Christendom in succession
to the Roman emperors. In the case of Ferdinand and Alfonso it may also
have represented a protest against the like pretensions of the Holy
Roman Emperors, then reigning principally in Germanic Europe. Alfonso
seemed in a fair way to create a peninsula empire, for he was able to
make the kings of Aragon and Navarre, the counts of Barcelona and
Toulouse, various lesser princes of Spain and southern France, and some
rulers of the Moslem _taifas_ swear fealty to him as their feudal
sovereign. The imperial confederation had no real strength, however, for
the spirit of separatism was as yet too deeply rooted. Alfonso himself
demonstrated this by dividing his realm at his death, in 1157, into the
two kingdoms of Castile and León.
[Sidenote: The defence of Calatrava.]
[Sidenote: Alfonso VIII and the overthrow of the Moslems.]
The next following reigns had their share of internal strife and one
important event in the course of the Moslem wars,--the defence of
Calatrava in 1158 by two Cistercian monks, who procured an army by
proclaiming a crusade. Out of this event there came the founding in 1164
of the important military order of Calatrava. Alfonso VIII (1158-1214)
inherited the throne of Castile while still a child. War and disorder
followed until 1180, for the kings of León and Navarre and various
nobles endeavored as usual to profit for themselves at the expense of
the newly enthroned monarch. At length Alfonso VIII, who was one of the
ablest rulers of this period (both in internal organization and in
external conquest), directed his attention to the reconquest from the
Moslems. After a rapid succession of victories he was defeated, as
already noted, at the battle of Alarcos, on which occasion the kings of
León and Navarre failed to accord him the aid they had promised. Wars
followed against the two kings, but matters were at length adjusted and
a tremendous army, including many foreigners, was raised to combat the
Almohades. All seemed to be imbued with the crusading spirit, but most
of the foreigners deserted before the issue presented itself. Nearly all
the peoples of Christian Spain were represented in Alfonso’s host,
however, and together they won the great battle of Navas de Tolosa in
1212.
[Sidenote: The independence of Portugal.]
Meanwhile, the counts of Portugal had continued their policy of complete
separation from León and Castile, and had also extended their frontiers
southward by successful wars against the Moslems. Affonso Enríquez took
the title of king, and this was recognized in 1143 by Alfonso VII,
subject to the vassalage of the Portuguese monarch to León. Affonso
Enríquez managed to avoid this condition by submitting his state to the
sovereignty of the pope, who accepted it in 1144, though conferring only
the title of duke on Affonso. A few years later Pope Alexander III
recognized the Portuguese ruler as king. Thus Portugal withdrew from the
current of peninsula unity, and established her independence in law and
in fact.
[Sidenote: Saint Ferdinand and the crusades in Spain.]
Berenguela, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile, had married Alfonso IX
(1188-1230) of León, by whom she had a son, Ferdinand. Pope Innocent III
brought about an annulment of the marriage on the ground of
consanguinity, though he recognized the legitimacy of Ferdinand. On the
death of Henry I of Castile in 1217 Berenguela was proclaimed queen, but
granted the throne to her son, who as Ferdinand III, later Saint
Ferdinand (San Fernando), was to prove an even greater monarch than his
grandfather, Alfonso VIII. Wars with his father and with his nobles
occupied the early years of his reign, but by 1225, having overcome his
Christian enemies, he was able to renew the campaigns against the
Moslems. City after city fell into his power; Cordova was taken in 1236;
Murcia became tributary in 1241; and the culminating blow came with the
siege of Seville, which surrendered to Ferdinand in 1248. Despite the
fact that not a little crusading zeal entered into these campaigns and
that Ferdinand himself was an ardent Christian, religious enthusiasm,
even yet, was not as uncompromising as it later became. Ferdinand was an
ally at one time of the Almohade emperor, whom he restored to his throne
in Africa; he also accepted the alliance of the Moslem prince of Granada
in the campaign against Seville; and other similar instances of his
freedom from fanatical intolerance might be adduced. Nevertheless, he
planned to overwhelm the Moslem authority, and would almost certainly
have invaded Africa if he had lived a few years longer. His Christian
spirit, however, was along practical and national lines. When Louis IX
of France invited him to join in a crusade in the orient Ferdinand is
said to have replied: “There is no lack of Moors in _my_ land.” Not only
by conquests but also by internal reforms he assisted in the development
of Castilian unity. One external event of capital importance was the
incorporation into Castile of the kingdom of León in 1230 on the death
of Alfonso IX, despite the latter’s attempt to deliver his dominions to
two daughters by a marriage previous to that with Berenguela. With
Ferdinand’s death in 1252 the era of the Castilian crusades came to an
end.
_Catalonia, 1035 to 1164_
[Sidenote: The extension of the authority of the counts of Barcelona.]
At the time when Ramón Berenguer I (1035-1076) became count of
Barcelona, Catalonia was a federation of counties, acknowledging the
ruler of Barcelona as overlord. Possessed already of Barcelona and
Gerona, Ramón Berenguer soon acquired two more counties, which had been
left by his father to other sons. He extended his frontiers at the
expense of the Moslems, and laid the foundations of the later Catalonian
power in southern France through marriage alliances with princes of that
region. It was in his reign, too, that the Catalan code of the
_Usáticos_, or _Usatges_ (Usages, or Customs), was compiled, though at
the instance of his powerful vassals, who wanted their privileges
reduced to writing. By the end of his reign he had united five
Catalonian counties and many other territories under his rule, including
almost as much land in southern France as he possessed in Spain. No
further progress was made until the reign of Ramón Berenguer III
(1096-1131), who, through inheritance, without civil wars, acquired all
of the Catalonian counties but two and a great part of southern France.
He also waged wars against the Moslems, though perhaps the most notable
thing about them was that the Pisans fought as his allies. Indeed, he
established commercial and diplomatic relations with the various Italian
republics,--a beginning of Spain’s fateful connection with Italy. Ramón
Berenguer IV (1131-1162) inherited only the Spanish portions of his
father’s domain, but extended his authority over Tortosa, Lérida, and
other Moslem regions, being a notable warrior. In 1150 he married the
daughter of the king of Aragon, and in 1164 his son by this marriage
united Aragon and Catalonia under a single rule.
_Aragon_
[Sidenote: The beginnings of Aragon and the union with Catalonia.]
The kingdom of Aragon dates from the will of Sancho the Great of Navarre
in 1035. The new state was almost insignificantly small at the outset,
but, by inheritances, wars with the Moslems, and the peaceful
incorporation of Navarre in 1076, it already included a large portion of
north central Spain by the close of the eleventh century. The era of
great conquests began with Alfonso I “the Battler” (1104-1134), the same
king whose marriage with Urraca of Castile had resulted so unfavorably.
Better fortune awaited him on the Moslem frontier. In 1118 he captured
Saragossa, an event as important in Aragon as was the acquisition of
Toledo a few years before in Castile. He carried his campaigns as far
south, even, as Murcia and Andalusia, but the principal result of these
invasions was that he brought back ten thousand Mozárabes to settle his
newly-won conquests. Having no sons he tried to leave his realm to two
military orders, but this arrangement did not prove agreeable to his
subjects. The nobles of Navarre elected a king of their own, withdrawing
from the union with Aragon, while those of Aragon chose a brother of
Alfonso, named Ramiro, who at the time of his election was a monk. The
reign of Ramiro II “the Monk” (1134-1137) was exceptionally important
for Spain, without any particular merit accruing therefor to the king.
The pope freed him from his vows and he married. From this marriage
there was born a daughter, Petronilla. Ramiro espoused her to Ramón
Berenguer IV of Barcelona, and soon abdicated, returning to his
monastery. Petronilla’s son, Ramón Berenguer, who presently changed his
name to the Aragonese-sounding Alfonso, was the first to rule in his own
right over Aragon and Catalonia in what came to be called the kingdom of
Aragon, although Catalonia was always the more important part.
[Sidenote: The act of vassalage to the pope and the French conquests in
Aragonese dominions of southern France.]
Alfonso II inherited Catalonia in 1162, and became king of Aragon proper
in 1164 on the abdication of Petronilla. Later he inherited nearly all
of southern France. He was also a frequent ally of Alfonso VIII of
Castile against the Moslems, gaining some territories on his own
account. In 1179 these two kings made a treaty dividing Spain between
them, fixing the limits of their respective present and future
conquests,--a noteworthy instance of the approach toward the unification
of Spain. Alfonso II was succeeded by Pedro II “the Catholic”
(1196-1213) at a time when affairs were in a critical state in his
French dominions. That region had been in constant turmoil, as a result
both of the ambitions of the kings of France and of the comparative
independence and selfish aims of the feudal lords. There was now added a
new factor,--the widespread Albigensian heresy, which had been accepted
by the majority of the Provençal people and even more by their lords.
With matters in this state Pedro visited Rome in 1204, and, while
there, gave his dominions in vassalage to the pope, receiving them back
as a fief. This act was to have important consequences at a later time,
but if its immediate object was to check French pretensions to southern
France, as has been supposed, it was not very successful, for the pope
himself proclaimed a crusade against the Albigenses. The crusaders were
French nobles, who represented a purely French invasion quite as much as
they did an orthodox host. Under their leader, Simon de Montfort, they
won several victories, displaying such cruelty against Catholics and
heretics alike that they were censured by a famous religious at that
time preaching among the Albigenses, Domingo de Guzmán. Guzmán was the
Spaniard who later founded the Dominican order, named for him, and who
became canonized as Saint Dominic (San Domingo). Pedro II endeavored to
mediate to check the temporal designs of Montfort, but was persuaded by
the pope to recognize the French leader as his vassal in the regions he
had conquered. When Montfort continued in his aggressive designs Pedro
II declared war against him, but was defeated in a battle which cost him
his life.
[Sidenote: Early years of the reign of Jaime “the Conqueror.”]
The death of Pedro II brought to the throne the greatest Aragonese
monarch of the period, Jaime I “the Conqueror” (1213-1276), a worthy
contemporary of Ferdinand III of Castile. At the outset of his reign he
was a mere child in the dangerous possession of Simon de Montfort. On
this occasion the tremendous influence of the great pope, Innocent III,
was beneficial to Spain, for Montfort was constrained to surrender the
boy king to his people. Then followed the usual troubles which beset the
early years of a youthful monarch in that period. There were wars
brought about by ambitious nobles fighting for the possession of the
king, wars of the nobles among themselves, and wars of the nobles
against the king. Though only a boy, Jaime took a hand in the fighting,
and was many times in danger,--twice he was captured by hostile
nobles,--but thanks to his courage and coolness was always able to free
himself from the perils which beset him. Not until 1228 was he in full
command of the situation. Meanwhile, civil wars had been taking place
in southern France, resolving themselves finally into a struggle between
the count of Toulouse, aided by the Catalans, and Simon de Montfort. In
this war Montfort lost his life, and the French power in that region for
the time being vanished.
[Sidenote: The conquests of Jaime.]
Backed by the sentiment of most of Catalonia, which desired territorial
and commercial expansion in the Mediterranean, Jaime now planned a
career of conquest. Many of the Aragonese and western Catalonian nobles
declined to join him in this enterprise; so he had to find means as best
he could without their aid. In 1229 he entered the island of Majorca,
which for centuries had been successively a pirate and Moslem
stronghold. Having achieved the conquest, which proved an easy matter,
Jaime distributed the lands among his Catalan followers. In 1232 Minorca
was subjected, and in 1235 Ibiza, too. Thus the Balearic Islands fell
into Jaime’s power and received a Catalan civilization, which they still
possess. The greatest prize, however, was the rich kingdom of Valencia.
Although handicapped by the lukewarm support of his nobles Jaime
proceeded to the conquest with such success that he won the aid of those
who had previously failed to help him, and in 1238 the city of Valencia
fell,--an event comparable with the capture of Seville by Ferdinand III.
The rest of the kingdom was not long in falling into Jaime’s power, and
the lands were distributed among his nobles, but the Moslems were so
numerous that they were able to rise in rebellion on two occasions
before the end of the reign. On achieving the conquest of Valencia,
Jaime had agreed with the king of Castile that the southern boundary of
that kingdom should be the limit of the Aragonese conquest, while
Murcia, which became tributary to Ferdinand III in 1241, was reserved
for the ultimate definitive conquest of Castile. The unquenchable
military ardor of Jaime I would not allow him to rest on his laurels,
however, and he engaged to conquer Murcia for the king of Castile. This
he accomplished in the years 1265 and 1266, giving the lands to his
Catalan nobles, who were subjected to the Castilian king, whereupon
Jaime withdrew. These relations between the kings of Castile and Aragon
not only instanced a somewhat rare good faith, but also marked a
tendency which was gradually manifesting itself toward the ultimate
unity of Spain. Next, the restless warrior-king planned to go on a
crusade to Palestine, but his fleet was wrecked, and he gave up the
project, although some Catalan boats did reach their destination. In
1273 Jaime wanted to conquer Granada for Castile, but this time he could
not persuade his Catalan nobles to follow him. He did, however, send a
fleet to attack the coast of Morocco.
[Sidenote: Other characteristics of Jaime’s rule.]
Jaime was not only a great conqueror; he was also a great administrator.
Owing to the entry of feudalism into northeastern Spain his nobles had
such power that even the able Jaime was obliged often to compromise or
to yield to their wishes. He took steps to reduce their power, at the
cost of civil war, and in many other respects bettered the
administration of his kingdom. Though deeply religious he was far from
being an ascetic, as is evidenced by the many illegitimate children
descended from him, and although usually magnanimous in character he was
capable of acts of ferocious cruelty,--such, for example, as that of
ordering the tongue of the bishop of Gerona to be torn out for the
latter’s having revealed to the pope a secret of the confession. In 1276
when the great king died he left a will which contradicted the policies
of centralization and the aggrandizement of the kingdom which in his
lifetime he had unfailingly pursued. He divided his realms, giving
Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia to his eldest son, Pedro, and Majorca
and the Roussillon (southern France) to his son Jaime. The division was
not to endure long, however.
_Navarre_
[Sidenote: Navarre passes under French rule.]
There is little worth recording in the history of Navarre in this
period. After the separation from Aragon in 1134 Navarre engaged
periodically in civil strife and in wars with Aragon or Castile. When
the throne became vacant in 1234 the French count of Champagne was
elected king, and, with this, Navarre was, for many years, more
involved in the history of France than in that of Spain. At length the
heiress of Navarre married Philip IV of France, whereupon Navarre ceased
to be a kingdom, becoming a mere dependency of the French monarch.