Download PDF | (Fordham Series in Medieval Studies) Miguel Gómez (editor), Damian Smith (editor), Kyle C. Lincoln (editor) - King Alfonso VIII of Castile_ Government, Family, and War-Fordham University Press (2019).
267 Pages
Alfonso VIII: An Introduction
Teofilo F. Ruiz Born in November 1155, the son of Sancho III of Castile-León and Blanche of Navarre, Alfonso VIII ascended to the throne in 1158 on the death of his father. His minority was a troubled period. Noble factions fought for control of the regency, seeking to appropriate as much of the royal prerogatives and domain as possible. In twelft h-century Castile, two great noble factions, the Castro and the Lara, dominated the political life of the realm. Th is was especially the case during a royal minority. In the absence of a strong king, these noble lineages or clans exercised a great deal of infl uence on the political life of the realm. Th eir vast possessions, large number of vassals, armed retinues, and connections to lesser noble families and to the royal house itself oft en made them regard the Crown as something that they ought to control or that was within their reach.
The Castro and the Lara fought for control of the regency of Alfonso VIII, and although the Castro prevailed in armed confl ict, the regency eventually fell into the hands of the Lara. Alfonso VIII grew therefore under the heavy burden of his noble regents. External pressure and threats paralleled internal confl icts. Alfonso VIII’s uncles, Ferdinand II of León (1157–1188) and Sancho VI of Navarre (1150–1194) also saw their nephew’s minority as a golden opportunity to claim Castilian lands on the frontiers of their respective kingdoms. But once he came of age and assumed control of his kingdom, it took Alfonso VIII a great deal of his adult life to recover the lands illegally seized by his uncles and to diminish the infl uence of noble factions. It is no coincidence that Alfonso VIII’s greatest triumphs and his most successful period came aft er the demise of his two contentious and ambitious uncles. But threats came from other sources. By the middle of the twelft h century, the Almoravids fell to the rising Almohad power. Emerging from the mountain areas of the region which is today Morocco, the Almohads conquered most of North Africa and Andalusia from the Almoravids and the kings of taifas. By the second half of the twelft h century, the Almohads built an expansive and successful Western Mediterranean empire. In many respects, Alfonso VIII’s reign would be defi ned by his defeats at the Almohads’ hands and by his eventual victories over them, culminating with the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.
The great victory at Las Navas however was still very much in the future. In mid-twelft h-century Castile, it would have been hard to imagine that such success was possible or that the young boy, held securely in the hands of his Lara relatives, would grow to be one of the greatest kings in medieval Castilian history. His wise policies for the internal governance of the realm, military successes, matrimonial alliances with royal houses outside Iberia, sponsoring of signifi cant landmarks in Castile’s architectural history, and eff orts to create sites of memory for Castile’s royal house, certainly justify Alfonso VIII’s reputation and his claims to a distinguished place among Castilian monarchs.
In many respects, this volume, addressing neglected aspects of Alfonso VIII’s rule, is a timely contribution to our understanding of Alfonso VIII and his era. In the pages that follow, I would like to do two things: (1) to note the canonical and recent historiography of his reign; (2) to briefl y outline some of the salient moments and deeds of his long rule. Already close to six decades since its original publication in 1960, Julio González’s monumental study of Alfonso VIII’s reign, El reino de Castilla en la época de Alfonso VIII, provides a careful narrative of the kingdom’s political life. González’s work was doubly important not only because it off ered the fi rst scholarly monograph on the king since the Marquis de Mondéjar’s study in 1783, but because the 1960 edition included two substantial volumes of documents (at a time when Spanish archives were not always easily accessible) to illustrate the history of the period and González’s interpretations of Alfonso VIII’s policies. More, however, was needed that fi tted the thematic and methodological concerns of the early twenty-fi rst century.
There have certainly been a large number of articles written on the king or on aspects of his rule and cultural program. A great deal of attention has been given to the king’s interaction with the military orders, his role in the Reconquest, his distinguished and very accomplished family, and, most of all, to his signal victory at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. What is clear from the scholarly attention the king and his family have received is that Alfonso VIII played a pivotal role in the history of the realm. Th is role was not limited to his military confl ict with Islam in southern Iberia, but was equally important in diverse (but intertwined) aspects of Castile’s social and cultural life. What were the contributions of Alfonso VIII to the realm and to Castilian society? Was his reign a watershed in peninsular and Western European medieval history? Until his signal victory at Las Navas in 1212, Alfonso VIII, once he reached his majority, toiled unceasingly to restore his royal domain and Castile’s jurisdiction. He also sought to tame the high nobility. All these eff orts were centered on, and given legitimacy by, his campaigns to stop Almohad advances, to expand Castilian presence in the region of New Castile, and then to defeat his Muslim adversaries. As some of the excellent articles in this volume show, developments in the chancery, diplomatic eff orts, and the issuing of charters or fueros (municipal law) to reconquered towns—the most impressive of them the Fuero de Cuenca (1189)—represented a comprehensive eff ort to secure the primacy of the Crown within Castile and of Castile within the peninsula.
First, once he assumed power, Alfonso VIII began a well-plotted policy of recovering lands alienated from the Crown during his minority. Either through military action or through diplomacy (the intervention of the English King Henry II on behalf of his son in law was crucial), Castile recovered most of the lands usurped by Navarre in the rich region of the Rioja. Moreover, as Simon Barton has shown, the reign of Alfonso VIII was critical in the remaking of noble houses and their relationship with the king. Th e emergence of primogeniture, the growing consolidation of aristocratic and bourgeois property, and the close relation between the high nobility and the court transformed the ties between the Crown, noble houses, and cities. Depending on royal largesse until the mid-twelft h century, the advance of the royal-led Reconquest off ered the high nobility unique opportunities on the frontier in terms of new lands, ransom, and booty. Wealth came from the hands of the king, oft en binding the high nobility to royal leadership.
Second, during the latter half of the twelft h century, a nascent royal bureaucracy expanded the king’s power and the Crown’s presence in the realm. Bureaucratic procedures formalized the Crown’s relations with diverse social groups. In this respect, the beginnings of the meetings of the Cortes, or protoCortes, the so-called Curia Plena, under Alfonso VIII (with recorded meetings aft er his majority in 1178, 1182, 1184–1185, 1187, and 1188) attest to the role in which formalized gatherings (which now began to include, besides representatives of the high nobility and the clergy, urban procurators) created a new sense of the connection between Crown and Kingdom. In this respect, the mentioned Fuero de Cuenca represented a watershed in the legal history of the realm. Th e Fuero de Cuenca, offi cially given to the newly conquered city of Cuenca (one of the strategic keys to New Castile), was later given (with small modifi cations) to other newly conquered towns on the frontier, including Alarcos, Iniesta, and Baeza, among others. Alfonso VIII’s active legislative program and the granting of fueros to new settlements served as a model for the large number of charters issued by Ferdinand III (his grandson) and for those of Alfonso X (his greatgrandson).
Third, aft er his successful eff orts to restore his rule over the Rioja and to gain the support of the high nobility, the king turned his attention towards the struggle against the Almohads. It was, however, not an easy road. His capture of Cuenca in 1177 and his incursions south of the Tajo in the 1180s were somewhat eclipsed by the crushing defeat he suff ered at the hands of the Almohads at Alarcos in 1195. Although this defeat did not mean the loss of Cuenca or of other signifi cant and strategic strongholds along the shift ing frontiers between Islam and Christianity, Alarcos brought the Almohads to the southern outskirts of Toledo and represented a signifi cant threat to the realm. It was when faced by these challenges that Alfonso VIII proved his worth.
Although he failed to convince his cousin, former son-in-law, and frequent antagonist, Alfonso IX of León, to join in an anti-Almohad alliance, Alfonso VIII’s diplomatic skills, family connections, and the new interest of the Roman Church under Innocent III to fi ght enemies on the home front allowed him to forge and lead a broad coalition against the Almohads. Th e king of Navarre, Sancho VII, the ruler of the Crown of Aragon, Peter II, French knights, and the Iberian peninsular military orders joined forces on what was one of those rare peninsular examples of a fairly united front against Islam. On July 16, 1212, a large international Christian army, under the leadership of Alfonso VIII, infl icted a crushing blow, capturing a great deal of the Almohad treasure, as well as the green silk banner that may still be seen at Las Huelgas of Burgos.
The Christian victory at Las Navas de Tolosa has long held a central place in the history of late medieval Castile. Th at emphasis is very much justifi ed. If from the collapse of the Caliphate at Córdoba in the 1030s onwards the relations between Muslim and Christians had oscillated between Christian advances and Muslim counterattacks, Las Navas de Tolosa opened the door for Christian hegemony in the peninsula. Even though there were some Muslim attempts to reverse the outcome of Las Navas de Tolosa (the invasions by the Marinids, above all), the fate of the peninsula was, for all practical purposes, decided in favor of the Christians. It is not a coincidence that Alfonso VIII’s grandson, Ferdinand III (1217–1252) carried out successful campaigns in Andalusia that culminated with the capture of Córdoba in 1236 and Seville in 1248, while in the eastern parts of the peninsula, James I of Aragon (1213–1276) conquered Valencia and its kingdom in 1238. But when the Christians gained the upper hand, there were also consequences that went beyond the territorial gains.
Harsh measures against Muslims, along with vitriolic discourses and representations of Muslims and Jews, resulted from Christian hegemony with aft er-eff ects that shaped the social history of peninsular kingdoms until the early modern period. Fourth, Alfonso VIII’s close association with the nascent military orders in the peninsula, one of the central topics of this book, had signifi cant consequences for his reign and for the realm. His donation of Uclés as the Castilian headquarters to the recently founded military order of Santiago served important strategic purposes. Together with the king’s ties to the military orders of Calatrava and Alcántara (the later originally connected to the Leonese monarchy), Alfonso VIII obtained a great deal of the military muscle needed to contain and, eventually, defeat the Almohads. Moreover, the spiritual connection that Alfonso VIII established with the military orders and with new Cistercian foundations enhanced the king’s prestige and his claims to spiritual charisma.
Claims to the sacred through his pious works, crusades, and eff orts to reconquer lands in the hands of Islam are of great importance when one considers that Alfonso VIII, like his father, eschewed coronation and anointment, legitimating his power and claims to the throne through his military role and his relations to the Church and crusading orders. Alfonso VIII’s notable success in brokering matrimonial alliances (for himself and for his children) played a signifi cant role in his diplomatic eff orts to ensure Castilian superiority in the peninsula and peace with his neighbors. It was also crucial for his long-standing eff orts to organize a broad coalition against the Almohads. In many respects, his great victory at Las Navas de Tolosa resulted from the king’s adroit use of his family in diplomatic initiatives. While the Caliphate held sway over the peninsula (until the 1030s), northern Christian kings oft en sent their daughters and sisters to Córdoba to placate Muslim animosity or to gain Muslim support in their internecine confl icts with other Christian realms. Aft er the collapse of the Caliphate, as Lucy Pick has shown, the Asturian-Leonese monarchy kept royal daughters and sisters close to home in the fi rst half of the twelft h century rather than deploying them in the marriage and diplomatic market. Early twelft h-century rulers chose to have their daughters and sisters become “sacred women,” with all the religious advantages that these claims to sanctity provided for their rule. Nothing could diff er more from these policies than Alfonso VIII’s approach to his daughters. His skilled use of marriage for political ends was novel in terms of peninsular marriage practices and foreshadowed new policies of diplomacy and marriage alliances that became common among later Castilian kings. Rather than choose a local noble woman as a consort, as was oft en the case in an earlier period, Alfonso VIII sought an alliance with England. He married Leonor, the daughter of Henry II of England and of the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine.
In doing so, he gained a good marriage partner but also the support of England in his Rioja claims. Th at the English crown held control of the region of Aquitaine was another plus. He also sought an alliance with the empire, promising his daughter Berenguela to Conrad, the son of Frederick I, the German emperor. Although the marriage came to naught, it showed Alfonso VIII’s ambitious reach and wish to expand Castilian interests in wider European circles. When the engagement with Conrad fell through, Berenguela was soon aft erwards betrothed to Alfonso IX. Although the pope eventually annulled the marriage on grounds of consanguinity and although Alfonso IX proved to be a thorn in the side of the Castilian king, the marriage bore great advantages to Castile, as Ferdinand III (the son of Alfonso IX and Berenguela) inherited León in 1230 upon the death of his father. Th at year, the two kingdoms were united, not to be separated again. Berenguela had an illustrious career as queen (both of León and of Castile), as she inherited Castile aft er the death of her brother Henry I.
This was followed swift ly by her own resignation on behalf of her son Ferdinand. Yet, another daughter, Blanca (or Blanche in France) was married to the French king, Louis VIII. Regent for her son Louis IX (Saint Louis), Blanche holds a special role in the history of Capetian kingship. Her policies during her son Louis’s minority went a long way towards building France into the hegemonic realm in Western Europe, but her marriage also cemented a long tradition of CastilianFrench alliances. A third daughter, Urraca, became queen of Portugal, while Leonor (d. 1244), named aft er her mother and grandmother, married James I, the iconic king of the Crown of Aragon. In many respects, Alfonso VIII worked to perfection marriage alliances to foster peaceful relations between the Iberian kingdoms and to do the same with his two closest neighbors, France and England. We will have to wait until the rule of the Catholic Monarchs at the end of the fi ft eenth century for similarly ambitious diplomatic initiatives, founded, as Alfonso VIII’s were, on marriage alliances. Th at Alfonso VIII’s daughters, certainly Berenguela (1179/1180–1246) and Blanche (1188–1252), lived long lives and, far more importantly, were exceedingly capable and forceful political fi gures only enhanced the long reach of Alfonso VIII’s legacy. In Castile, that legacy would be carried even further by the military successes and political reforms of his grandson, Ferdinand III.
One could not be married to the daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England without some understanding of the importance of memorializing one’s royal line or the signifi cance of sponsoring religious establishments and new architectural initiatives. Of these initiatives the foundation of Santa María la Real de las Huelgas in Burgos, sponsored by Alfonso VIII at the request of his wife in 1187, was indeed the king’s most signifi cant attempt to create a royal pantheon and site of memory for the Castilian monarch. A Cistercian monastery by 1199, Las Huelgas had come into being in imitation of the royal abbey of Our Lady of Fontevraud (near Chinon) where Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, and their son Richard the Lion-Heart were buried in a clear attempt to create a Plantagenet site of memory.
In that sense, as Fontevraud sought to shift the association of the English Monarchy with Canterbury or York to a site in Angevin France, Las Huelgas also aimed at creating a royal pantheon (Alfonso VIII, his wife, royal children, and other members of the royal house were buried there) in opposition to the long-held prestige of the basilica of St. Isidore in León. In addition, Alfonso VIII founded a hospital, adjacent to Las Huelgas. Th e Hospital del Rey also associated Las Huelgas with the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostela, making Burgos, now the putative capital of Alfonso VIII’s realm, one of the most signifi cant stops along the pilgrimage road. It is also important to emphasize that Las Huelgas and the Hospital of the King were built in the French Gothic style. As such, they introduced into Castile a successful architectural style clearly associated with the Castilian royal house. Las Huelgas remains one of the most representative (and beautiful) early Gothic buildings in all of Castile.
In 1212, fresh from his victory at Las Navas, Alfonso VIII founded a studium generale at Palencia. Th e fi rst university founded in the Iberian Peninsula, the university at Palencia had a short life, but its foundation is a reminder of Alfonso VIII’s interest in the cultural revival and the formalization of education sweeping Western Europe. Th e king paid for the import of scholars from other parts of Europe to serve as the fi rst instructors. Distinguished and infl uential clergymen traced their intellectual heritage to Palencia. At the same time, the king, probably under the infl uence of his wife, welcomed troubadours and lyrical poets from other lands. Th e late twelft h century also marked the high point of the collaboration between Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scholars in the translation and transmission of Greek classical texts (and of their Muslim and Jewish commentators). Th ese cultural exchanges had a seminal impact on the development of culture throughout Western Europe. Having provided this brief overview of Alfonso VIII’s role in the development of Castilian and European society, I wish to say that I am deeply honored and fl attered to have been asked to write this short introduction for a collection of such insightful and important contributions to a new understanding of Alfonso VIII’s reign. Th e present collection’s ambitious reach and broad appeal presents novel and complex interpretations of Alfonso’s reign. A reading of these articles reveals several important themes. First, the thorough and well-researched articles by Joseph O’Callaghan and James Todesca address important topics in the administrative and economic history of late twelft h and early thirteenth-century Castile.
Miriam Shadis and Janna Bianchini’s incisive treatments of family, property, and gender provide a sophisticated, original, and much-needed reexamination of Alfonso VIII’s time. The role of the military orders and of religious warfare (or crusades) is examined in several carefully done and excellent articles. Th e contributions of Sam Conedera, Carlos de Ayala Martínez, and Miguel Gómez, demonstrate the importance of both the Reconquest and the formation of the military orders in the overall history of the realm and, specifi cally, the role of the military orders in the great victory at Las Navas de Tolosa.
Closely related to the question of crusade and the antagonism with Islam are the contributions to the history of Alfonso’s relations with the outside world. Damian Smith’s insightful article on Alfonso VIII’s relations with the papacy connects with the king’s crusading eff orts. Similarly, Martín Alvira Cabrer’s contribution to our knowledge of the diplomatic exchanges between Alfonso VIII and Peter II, king of the Crown of Aragon, opens new vistas on the diplomatic eff orts that led to an international alliance in the early thirteenth century. In addition, Kyle Lincoln and Th omas Burman’s articles show rich aspects of the episcopate during Alfonso VIII’s reign and of the always complex web of relationships between Islam and Christianity in late twelft h and early thirteenth-century Castile. Taken together these studies show us convincingly that Alfonso VIII was one of the most accomplished and successful rulers in the long and, oft entimes, troubled history of Castilian kings, providing vivid testimony that the late twelft h and early thirteenth centuries (coinciding with Alfonso VIII’s rule) represented a pivotal period in the history of the realm.
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