ALFONSO THE AVENGER
King Alfonso XI of Castile vanquished a Moroccan army bent on rolling back the Reconquista during his dynamic 14th century reign
“ALFONSO CUT HIS TEETH IN THE RELIGIOUS WARS BETWEEN CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS BATTLING THE MOORS OF GRANADA”
The mounted vanguard of the Castilian army streamed down from its hilltop position shortly after dawn on 30 October 1340, and fought its way across the narrow bridge over the Rio Salado. The lightly armoured Moors reeled under the blows of the heavily armoured Christian knights’ lances, swords, and maces. Twenty-nine-year-old Castilian King Alfonso XI watched with satisfaction as the cream of the Castilian royal army drove the Moors towards a string of hills south of the river. As part of the Reconquista, Alfonso hoped to crush the Moroccan-granadan army that had assembled for battle that day.
Alfonso became king when he was just a year old, in 1112 upon his father’s death. Castile quickly became embroiled in a contentious civil war among loyal royals and rebellious magnates that left its southeastern border vulnerable to the ravages of the Moors of Granada. When he reached his majority on his 14th birthday on 13 August 1325, Alfonso set about strengthening royal authority.
He did so both by increasing the power of the Castilian parliament, as well as the vibrant townships of the realm at the expense of the aristocracy. He used both skilful persuasion and military force to stamp down the rebellion. However, it would flare up again.
Alfonso cut his teeth in the religious wars between Christians and Muslims battling the Moors of Granada. One of his early victories was the capture of the town of Olvera on the Granadan frontier in 1327 following a short siege. At the start of his reign, Castile controlled the ports of Tarifa and Gibraltar on the Straits of Gibraltar, but did not control the large port of Algeciras, which was situated opposite Gibraltar on Algeciras Bay.
Nasrid King of Granada Mohammed IV was hard pressed to match the power of Castile and its allies in the Iberian Peninsula, and he handed over Algeciras to the Maranids of Morocco in 1328 in exchange for military support against Castile. The Maranids were elated because this gave them a port through which to funnel troops into the Iberian Peninsula.
Crusade of 1330
Alfonso succeeded in 1328 in getting Pope John XXII to issue a crusading bull in effect for four years against the Moors in Iberia. The pope instructed the archbishop of Seville and the bishops of Cordoba and Jaen to bestow the cross of the crusader on both Castilians and Christians from other lands. The pope stipulated that Alfonso must lead, in person, an offensive crusade against the Muslims.
In July 1330 Alfonso led his crusaders south from Cordoba. His goal was to capture the Castillo de la Estrella (Castle of the Star) in the foothills of the mountains of Ronda near the town of Teba. The Castilians rolled siege engines into place and pioneers began building siege towers to assail its walls. Six thousand Moors arrived to defend the Granadan frontier, and the two sides took up positions facing each other across the Guadateba River.
The following month the commander of the Nasirid army tried to ambush the crusaders by launching an attack with 3,000 troops and concealing another 3,000 in an adjacent valley. The ambush failed because Alfonso was familiar with Muslims tactics and did not fall prey to the feigned retreat when the
Moors retreated after a successful Castilian mounted charge. Having driven off the relief army, Alfonso’s troops breached the castle walls on 30 August.
Fall of Gibraltar
In keeping with the terms of his alliance with Granadan King Mohammed IV, Maranid Sultan Abu l-hassan Ali dispatched his son, Abu Malik, at the head of 5,000 troops, to join forces with the Granadans in attacking Gibraltar in 1333.
After landing at Algeciras in February of that year, the Moroccans rendezvoused with the Granadans and then laid siege to the town of Gibraltar. At the time Alfonso was bogged down fighting rebellious magnate Don Juan Manuel and therefore could not march to its relief. After resolving his dispute with Juan Manuel in June, Alfonso marched south from Seville with the intent of driving
off the besiegers. Unfortunately, the starving Castilian garrison surrendered before he could engage the Muslims.
Alfonso attempted to retake the city, but the Moroccan garrison proved too strong. When the Castilians attempted to mine the walls of the town, the Moroccans dropped stones down upon the miners and poured boiling pitch on them. The Moroccans also burned the Castilian siege towers. When a Granadan relief force camped near his army, Alfonso reluctantly gave up and withdrew.
Alfonso spent the years immediately following the fall of Gibraltar building the strength of his royal army. He did this by actively promoting chivalry and strengthening the recruitment process. To increase the number of knights and the size of his mounted force, he promoted ‘popular knighthood’, a concept practised in Leon that he applied to Castile. The program required individuals at a certain threshold of wealth to serve in the Castilian army and furnish their own weapons, armour, and horse.
Alfonso also set minimal standards for arms and equipment for both infantry and cavalry. To ensure that his knights were ready for battle, he encouraged them to participate in tournaments. One of his most notable and enduring achievements was the establishment of the Order of the Band, one of the earliest monarchical chivalric orders in Europe.
Moroccan Offensive
War between Castile and Morocco heated up again in 1339. To roll back the Reconquista, Sultan Hassan-ali declared a jihad against the Christians of the peninsula and sent his son Abu Malik to Al-andalus with 8,000 Moroccans to capture Tarifa, the sole remaining port on the Straits of Gibraltar in Castilian hands. The Maranid sultan also arranged for Granadan
King Yusuf I, who had succeeded Mohammed IV, to contribute 18,000 Moors to the offensive.
While the Moroccan-granadan army was encamped on the Alberite River on its march to Tarifa, Alfonso launched a stunning surprise attack against it at dawn on 20 October. In the confused fighting, Abu Malik was slain trying to rally his disrupted troops. The setback incensed Sultan Abu l-hassan, who began raising a new army to revive his flagging offensive against Castile.
Alfonso again appealed to the Papacy to issue a crusading bull. In response to his request Pope Benedictine XII proclaimed a three-year crusade in March 1340 for all of the Christian kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula. As the natural leader of such a crusade, Benedictine sent Alfonso a papal banner to carry into battle to inspire the crusaders. To counter the Moroccan jihad Alfonso and his father-in-law Afonso IV of Portugal assembled a crusader army that included troops from all of the Christian kingdoms of Iberia.
The Moroccan sultan crossed the straits in August 1340 and besieged Tarifa on 23 September. His nearly two dozen siege engines bombarded the fortress around the clock, eventually knocking down a section of its walls and one of its stone towers.
Alfonso was determined to force the Moroccans to raise their siege. When one of his senior advisors suggested he abandon the port to the enemy, the Castilian king said he would never abandon Tarifa if he could help it. The two Christian kings led the crusader army south with the intention of relieving the city in late October. Upon the approach of the crusader army, Abu l-hassan raised the siege in order to bring the full strength of the Moroccangranadan army against the crusaders.
Battle of Rio Salado
The Castilian-portuguese army encamped five miles northwest of the port on a 1,400-foot hill overlooking the Rio Salado. Alfonso’s first step
“ALFONSO’S VICTORY EARNED HIM FAME THROUGHOUT CHRISTIAN EUROPE. HE HAD DEFEATED A FORCE NEARLY THREE TIMES THE SIZE OF THE CRUSADER ARMY”
was to dispatch 5,000 troops to reinforce the 1,000 Castilian troops in Tarifa. This left 22,000 troops with which to engage the Muslim host.
The 60,000-strong Moroccan-granadan army arrived shortly afterwards and encamped on a string of hills south of the river. Both sides were eager for battle. The Portuguese king took up a position on the Christian left opposite Yusuf I of Granada’s corps. Alfonso deployed on the Christian right opposite the Moroccans led by Abu l-hassan and Abu Umar, the commander of the Tarifa contingent.
When Alfonso rode forward to watch his heavy cavalry as it overwhelmed the Muslim army on 30 October, a Moroccan archer fired an arrow that nearly struck the king in the abdomen. The arrow struck his saddle with such force that it stuck to it.
The Archbishop of Toledo, who was riding alongside the king, urged Alfonso to return to the safety of the rear. But Alfonso had no intention of riding to the rear. Instead he spurred on his horse and led his troops in a fresh charge against the retreating Moors.
“Santiago and Castile!” he shouted, and the crusaders continued their advance. To the north, Portuguese King Afonso, having already driven off the Granadans, led his troops in an attack on the Moroccan right flank and rear.
The Moroccan sultan tried in vain to rally his troops, but was swept away in their headlong retreat. The Castilians stopped to plunder the sultan’s camp, thus allowing a sizeable part of the Moroccan-granadan army to escape intact.
Alfonso’s victory earned him lots of fame throughout Christian Europe. He had defeated a force nearly three times the size of the crusader army. In so doing, he ruined Abu l-hassan’s dreams of one day entering Seville in triumph. The Maranids never launched another offensive in Al-andalus after their humiliating defeat at Rio Salado.
Siege of Algeciras
Alfonso besieged Algeciras two years later with crucial naval support from Genoa, Aragon, and Portugal. Algeciras was the most heavily fortified of the three major ports on the Straits. Its Moroccan garrison was protected by high walls with towers at regular intervals. Alfonso established his base northwest of the city and sent a blocking force to contain the Moroccan garrison at Gibraltar on the east side of Algeciras Bay.
The siege formally began on August 1342. After sustained bombardment of the city over many months, the Castilian army tightened the siege in early 1343. Alfonso was content to starve out the garrison rather than conduct a costly assault on the heavily fortified town.
It was difficult for the Castilian monarch to maintain the siege, though, for he ran out of money to pay the Christian navy and provisions to feed the Castilian ground troops.
Just when it seemed he might have to quit the siege, Pope Clement VI sent word that the Papacy would give Alfonso 20,000 gold florins. What’s more, King Philip VI of France promised shortly afterward to furnish 25,000 gold florins. These funds enabled Alfonso to continue the siege.
Although the Moroccans received a small amount of supplies by fast boats that ran the blockade, by the end of 1343 they were starving. A Moroccan-granadan relief army arrived in the region in November 1343.
Alfonso attacked it on 12 December 1343 in an engagement known as the Battle of
Rio Palmones. The Castilian heavy cavalry smashed and routed the Muslim horsemen just as they had at Rio Salado. This time, though, they chased after the retreating Muslims and then cut them to pieces.
In January 1344 the Christian fleet off Algeciras deployed a floating barrier that prevented the Moroccan fast boats from running the blockade. The Moroccan garrison surrendered two months later.
Alfonso entered the city in triumph on 28 March after the gruelling 19-month siege. A sustained period of peace followed with the Moors of Granada avoiding war now that they faced the might of Castile alone.
In early 1350 Alfonso besieged Gibraltar, the last Maranid stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula. Fortune seemed to be against Alfonso for an outbreak of plague swept through the Christian camp. Although he was advised to raise the siege, Alfonso so desperately desired to recover the strategic port that he refused to raise the siege. He succumbed to the plague and died on 26 March. His greatest contribution to the Reconquista was preventing the Maranids of Morocco from establishing a firm foothold in southern Iberia.