Late Middle Ages

The Reconquista: Christian Spain against Muslim Granada

The Reconquista is the name given by later historians to the long Christian campaign to recover the Iberian peninsula from Muslim rule. The campaign began, by the standard dating, with the Berber-Arab conquest of the peninsula in 711 and ended with the fall of the city of Granada on 2 January 1492. The campaign is, in the strict military sense, a long series of wars: the campaigns of the early Asturian kings, the great reconquest of the eleventh century (the capture of Toledo in 1085, the consolidation of the kingdom of Aragon, the independence of Portugal), the great surge of the thirteenth century (the victories of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, the capture of Córdoba in 1236, the capture of Seville in 1248), and the final campaign against Granada from 1482 to 1492. The campaign is, however, also a cultural and religious construction: a long story told by Christian chronicles, by Muslim chronicles, by Jewish chronicles, and by the modern historians who have tried to make sense of the long period. The construction of the Reconquista, in fact, was a long time in the making: the Crónica de 754, the Crónica de Alfonso III, the Crónica del Moro Rasis, the Primera Crónica General of Alfonso X, the later chronicles of the Catholic Monarchs, and the modern historiography of the 19th and 20th centuries. This article treats the long history of the Christian campaign, the structure of the Nasrid kingdom, and the long-term consequences for the political, economic, social, and religious life of the peninsula.

Myth and memory: the making of the Reconquista

The Reconquista is, in the first instance, a modern historiographical construction. The Christian chroniclers of the early period did not see themselves as participants in a long, continuous campaign; the campaigns of the early Asturian kings (Pelayo at Covadonga c. 722, Alfonso I of Asturias, the long resistance of the mountain kingdoms of the north) were local campaigns for local power, not parts of a grand narrative. The narrative of the Reconquista was, in this sense, a later construction. The Primera Crónica General of Alfonso X of Castile (c. 1270) was the first major attempt to make a continuous narrative out of the long process. The chronicle is explicit: the Christian kings of the north are the legitimate heirs of the Visigothic kings of Toledo, and the Muslim conquest is a temporary interruption in the legitimate Christian rule of the peninsula. The chronicle is also a literary and political construction: it served the political purposes of the Castilian crown, and it was used by Alfonso X in the long campaign to be crowned emperor.

The Reconquista as a unified narrative was, however, a long time in the making. The Memorias of Andrés Bernáldez, the Crónica de los Reyes Católicos of Hernando del Pulgar, and the Crónica de la Granada of Alonso de Santa Cruz were the major late-15th and early-16th-century chronicles. The later construction of the Reconquista was the work of the 19th century, and in particular of the Spanish historiography of the period. The work of Modesto Lafuente, the Historia general de España of 1850, was the first major modern synthesis. The more recent historiography has been more cautious. The Cambridge History of Medieval Spain (2015) and the relevant chapters of John Edwards’s The Spain of the Catholic Monarchs (2000) have read the Reconquista in a wider European context, and have been more attentive to the political and economic circumstances that produced it. The most useful single-volume introduction in English is Angus MacKay’s Spain in the Middle Ages: From Frontier to Empire, 1000–1500 (1977).

The eleventh-century frontier

The eleventh century was the period in which the Christian kingdoms of the north began to make significant territorial gains. The capture of Barcelona by the Carolingian Franks in 801, the long campaign of the county of Castile against the kingdom of León in the tenth century, the marriage of Ferdinand I of Castile to Sancha of León in 1037, the long campaigns of Ferdinand I and his son Alfonso VI, the capture of Toledo in 1085 — these were the major events of the period. The capture of Toledo was the symbolic turning point: the old Visigothic capital was in Christian hands, and the kings of Castile could present themselves as the legitimate heirs of the Visigothic kings. The settlement of the Castilian frontier in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, the long process of repopulation, the establishment of the great military orders (the Order of Santiago, the Order of Calatrava, the Order of Alcántara), and the long process of ecclesiastical reorganisation were the work of the period.

The other great event of the period was the consolidation of the Christian kingdoms in the north. The independence of Portugal, acknowledged by the kingdom of León in 1143, the union of Castile and Aragon by the marriage of Petronilla of Aragon and Ramon Berenguer IV in 1137, the long reign of Alfonso VIII of Castile (1158–1214) and his successors — these were the major developments of the period. The Christian kingdoms were, by the late twelfth century, well-established, and the Muslim kingdoms in the south were on the defensive. The battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, on 16 July 1212, in which Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, and Peter II of Aragon defeated the Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nasir, was the decisive event. The battle opened the way to the great campaign of the thirteenth century, the long and systematic conquest of the lower valley of the Guadalquivir, the capture of Córdoba in 1236, the capture of Jaén in 1246, and the capture of Seville in 1248.

The Nasrid kingdom of Granada

The Nasrid kingdom of Granada was the last Muslim kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. The kingdom was founded in 1232, when the Nasrid dynasty under Muhammad I (c. 1195–1273) took over the city of Granada. The kingdom was, in many respects, a remarkable state. The Nasrid kings ruled a federation of the city of Granada, the surrounding plain of the Vega, the Alpujarras in the south, and a string of fortified towns along the frontier with Castile. The kingdom was, for 250 years, the most stable Muslim state in western Europe. The Nasrid kings were also the most cultured: the Alhambra, the great palace of the Nasrid kings, is the most impressive building of the period in western Europe; the Generalife gardens, the Court of the Lions, the Hall of the Ambassadors, the Court of the Myrtles are the architectural legacy of the period.

The kingdom survived for so long by a combination of diplomatic skill and military weakness. The Nasrid kings paid tribute to Castile from 1246, the Treaty of Jaén by which Muhammad I had agreed to make annual payments to Ferdinand III, and the tribute was raised repeatedly in the course of the fifteenth century. The kingdom was also internally divided: the powerful families of the countryside, the caziques, often had more in common with the Christian border lords than with the Nasrid dynasty. The kingdom was, in the long run, a tributary state, and its independence was a function of the political weakness of the Christian kingdoms of the peninsula. The unification of Castile and Aragon under Ferdinand and Isabella in 1479 produced a Christian state that was, for the first time in the history of the late medieval peninsula, in a position to make a sustained and unconditional effort. The fall of Granada, treated in detail in the related article, was the consequence.

The final campaign, 1482–1492

The final campaign against Granada is treated in detail in the related article. It was opened in 1482 with the punitive expedition against Alhama, and it was closed in 1492 with the surrender of the city of Granada. The campaign was a long and difficult operation that required the commitment of significant resources. The Catholic Monarchs were, for the first time in the history of the late medieval peninsula, in a position to devote the necessary resources. The campaign was also a political and religious enterprise: it was the culmination of the long Christian campaign to recover the peninsula from Muslim rule, and it was a central part of the political and religious identity of the Catholic Monarchs.

The long consequences of the Reconquista

The Reconquista had four long-term consequences. The first was political. The Reconquista produced, in the long run, the unification of the Christian kingdoms of the peninsula under the Catholic Monarchs. The political unification of Castile and Aragon in 1479, the conquest of Granada in 1492, and the conquest of Navarre in 1512 were the political consequences. The new state was, in the long view, the basis of the Spanish nation-state of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the basis of the Spanish empire in the New World.

The second consequence was economic. The Reconquista produced a long-term shift in the economic centre of gravity of the peninsula. The capture of Toledo in 1085, of Córdoba in 1236, and of Seville in 1248 gave the Christian kingdoms of the north the agricultural and mineral wealth of the south. The settlement of the Castilian frontier, the long process of repopulation, and the incorporation of the agricultural lands of the south produced a long-term increase in the wealth of the Christian kingdoms. The Reconquista was, in this sense, a long-term economic enterprise, and it was the basis of the fiscal and military power of the Catholic Monarchs in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

The third consequence was social. The Reconquista produced a long-term shift in the social structure of the peninsula. The Christian kingdoms of the north, in the long process of repopulation, established a system of fueros and concejos — local charters and town councils — that gave the new settlements a considerable measure of autonomy. The system of fueros was, in the long view, the basis of the regional autonomy of the modern Spanish state. The Reconquista also produced a long-term shift in the religious composition of the peninsula. The Christian kingdoms of the north were relatively homogeneous; the Christian kingdoms of the south, after the conquest, were religiously mixed. The Muslim and Jewish populations of the south, in the long run, were either converted, expelled, or marginalised. The Alhambra Decree of 1492 was the most extreme expression of this long-term process.

The fourth consequence was religious. The Reconquista produced a long-term identification of the Spanish state with the Catholic church. The Catholic Monarchs, in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, used the title of Catholic Monarchs, the establishment of the Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews, and the conversion of the Muslims as the basis of a religious policy that was unique in Europe. The Spanish state, in the long view, was the most religious state in early modern Europe, and the Reconquista was the basis of this religious identity.

The historiography

The historiography of the Reconquista has been transformed in the past generation. The older Spanish historiography — the work of the centro de estudios of the late 19th century, the Memorial Histórico Español of 1851, the more modern synthesis of the 20th century — treated the Reconquista as a kind of national epiphany. The newer scholarship — the work of the Cambridge school (J. N. Hillgarth, Angus MacKay, Peter Linehan, the Cambridge History of Medieval Spain of 2015) and the more recent Spanish scholarship (Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada, José María Mínguez, the late Manuel González Jiménez) — has read the Reconquista in a wider European context, and has been more attentive to the political and economic circumstances that produced it. The most useful single-volume introduction in English is now Angus MacKay’s Spain in the Middle Ages: From Frontier to Empire, 1000–1500 (1977), which is a balanced and useful synthesis.

References and further reading

  • Angus MacKay, Spain in the Middle Ages: From Frontier to Empire, 1000–1500 (London, 1977).
  • J. N. Hillgarth, The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250–1516 (2 vols, Oxford, 1976–1978).
  • The Cambridge History of Medieval Spain, ed. Elena Lourie (2015).
  • María Rosa Menocal, The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain (Boston, 2002).
  • David J. Wasserstein, The Rise and Fall of the Party-Kings: Politics and Society in Islamic Spain, 1002–1086 (Princeton, 1985).