Las Navas de Tolosa
In 1212, as religious tensions boiled over, the Christians of northern Spain set aside their differences to deal the Almohad Caliphate a critical defeat
This battle was a turning point in the conflict, as Christian rivals united to attack the Almohad Caliphate
In the 12th century, the Muslim Berber Almohad Caliphate emerged from Morocco’s Atlas Mountains into southern Andalusia, uniting the various Muslim principalities that had once been part of the collapsed Almoravid dynasty. With their Maghreb power base in Marrakesh and an Andalusian capital in Seville, under the leadership of Caliph Yaqub Al Mansur, the Almohads ushered in a brief architectural, trade, scientific and intellectual renaissance.
Their path was made easier by infighting among the Christian kingdoms of northern Iberia. Ferdinand II of León and his son Alfonso IX both allied with the Almohads to stave off the threats of Portugal and Castile. However, after suffering a catastrophic loss to the caliphate at the 1195 Battle of Alarcos, King Alfonso VIII of Castile began a campaign to unite the Christians against what he saw as a common enemy.
Together with the Bishop of Toledo, he worked to convince Pope Innocent III of the urgent need to defend the western borders of Christendom. They built a propaganda campaign around Caliph Yaqub’s successor, Muhammad Al Nasir, claiming he had vowed to “seize all of Europe, transform the porch of St Peters into a stable for his horses and establish his banner in the top”. In the midst of this diplomatic whirlwind, in October 1211, Alfonso and his main power rival Pedro II of Aragón joined forces and began raiding Andalusian holdings.
When news reached the 19-year-old caliph in Marrakesh, he immediately set off at the head of a great army. However, on the eve of his departure a fire wiped out the capital’s supplies in what many viewed as an ill omen. Undeterred, he crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and seized the powerful fortress of Salvatierra, prompting the pope to finally call a formal Crusade, with indulgences promised to all volunteers. Knights poured into Toledo from across the northern Iberian kingdoms of Castile, Aragón and Navarre, as well as from France and the Knights Templar.
Al Nasir’s 1,500km march north was plagued with problems. With food increasingly sparse and payments long-overdue, after a year-and-a-half the men had just about had enough. Things were not much better up north where, just weeks into their campaign, after taking the fortress of Calatrava, either fed up of the heat or the lack of pillaging, 40,000 French volunteers abandoned the Crusade. To make matters worse, as the Christians worked south they found the Almohads had blocked off every conceivable route. Just as all hope seemed lost, one night a shepherd appeared rather miraculously and led the Christians down a hidden pass, straight into the Muslims’ camp on the plains outside Las Navas de Tolosa, or Al Iqab.
Shocked, the Al Nasir quickly organised his army into a square formation, with spearmen on all flanks guarding the javelinmen and stone slingers. Behind them were the archers, with a cavalry core at the heart. This would allow them to break the Christian cavalry charge and then open up corridors for their own horsemen to counter-attack. With 2,000 knights and 10,000 other warriors, Alfonso looked on in horror at an army that was clearly at least twice the size of his. Martyrdom looked far more likely than conquest. However, as soon as the Christian shock troops thundered into the Almohad camp, scores of the disgruntled Almohad fled.
Unable to counter-attack, Al Nasir’s elite cavalry and infantrymen alike were drawn into the desperate fray, battling in a crush of lances, swords and battle-axes. Sensing the tide turn, Alfonso seized the initiative, smashing his cavalry straight into the heart of Al Nasir’s line. With the Almohad flanks left exposed, Aragón and Navarre impaled the left and right flanks with their lances, tearing Al Nasir’s army apart and sending them on a chaotic rout.
While the Crusader boasts of killing 100,000 Almohads were most certainly an exaggeration, it was a defeat from which Al Nasir could not recover. He retreated with his tail between his legs to Marrakesh, where he died under suspicious circumstances. Before long, the caliphate would once again splinter, allowing the Crusaders to divide and conquer their way through southern Iberia. Although Muslim rule would continue for another 200 years in the Emirate of Granada, the battle marked the beginning of the end of Islam’s dominance over the Iberian peninsula.
“ALFONSO LOOKED ON IN HORROR AT AN ARMY THAT WAS AT LEAST TWICE THE SIZE OF HIS. MARTYRDOM LOOKED FAR MORE LIKELY THAN CONQUEST”