The epic battle for control of the Strait of Gibraltar waged by Castile, Morocco, and Granada in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries is a major, but often overlooked, chapter in the history of the Christian reconquest of Spain. After the Castilian conquest of Seville in 1248 and the submission of the Muslim kingdom of Granada as a vassal state, the Moors no longer loomed as a threat and the reconquest seemed to be over. Still, in the following century, the Castilian kings, prompted by ideology and strategy, attempted to dominate the Strait. As self-proclaimed heirs of the Visigoths, they aspired not only to reconstitute the Visigothic kingdom by expelling the Muslims from Spain but also to conquer Morocco as part of the Visigothic legacy. As successive bands of Muslims over the centuries had crossed the Strait from Morocco into Spain, the kings of Castile recognized the strategic importance of securing Algeciras, Gibraltar, and Tarifa, the ports long used by the invaders.
At a time when European enthusiasm for the crusade to the Holy Land was on the wane, the Christian struggle for the Strait received the character of a crusade as papal bulls conferred the crusading indulgence as well as ancillary benefits. The Gibraltar Crusade had mixed results. Although the Castilians seized Gibraltar in 1309 and Algeciras in 1344, the Moors eventually repossessed them. Only Tarifa, captured in 1292, remained in Castilian hands. Nevertheless, the power of the Marinid dynasty of Morocco was broken at the battle of Salado in 1340, and for the remainder of the Middle Ages Spain was relieved of the threat of Moroccan invasion. While the reconquest remained dormant during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada, the last Muslim outpost in Spain, in 1492. In subsequent years Castile fulfilled its earlier aspirations by establishing a foothold in Morocco.
Table of Content
List of Illustrations
Genealogical Tables
Chapter 1. Spain and the Strait of Gibraltar
Chapter 2. Alfonso X’s African Crusade
Chapter 3. The Crusade Against the Mudéjars
Chapter 4. The Crusade Against the Marinids
Chapter 5. Sancho IV and the Conquest of Tarifa
Chapter 6. The Crusades of Gibraltar, Almería, and Algeciras
Chapter 7. The Early Crusades of Alfonso XI’s Reign
Chapter 8. The Loss of Gibraltar and the Crusade of Salado
Chapter 9. The Crusade of Algeciras and Gibraltar
Chapter 10. Waging the Crusade of Gibraltar
Chapter 11. The Aftermath: The Strait of Gibraltar to 1492
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
About the author
Joseph F. O’Callaghan is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History, Fordham University. He is the author of The Last Crusade in the West and Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain, both available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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