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The Battle of Simancas was a military confrontation between the troops of a Christian coalition led by the King of León, Ramiro II, and the Muslims settled in Córdoba under the Caliph Abd al-Rahman. -
This was formed when Sancho III bequeathed Navarra´s county to Fernando I, one of his sons. The county of navarra was linked to the kingdom of León because Fernando I was married with the princess of León.
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They were the taifa of Sevilla, the taifa of Toledo, the taifa of Badajoz and the taifa of Zaragoza
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After the death of Sncho III el mayor, his lands were divided.
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The counties of Sobrarbe and Rivagorza were added to the Kingdom of Aragón with Ramiro I as king.
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Rodrigo Díaz of Vivar was a Castilian military leader who came to dominate the Levant of the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 11th century as a lordship autonomous from the authority of any king at the head of his own arm. He is a historical and legendary figure of the Reconquest, whose life inspired the most important canto de gesta in Spanish literature, the Cantar de mio Cid.
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Although this was the heart of Sancho’s power, it was difficult to expand towards the south. In this period of time, Navarra was ruled by the kings of Aragón
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Alfonso VI, King of Castilla and León, took Toledo. This city had a high symbolic value, as it was the centre of a powerful taifa and had been the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom.
After this, the taifa kings were forced to seek help from the Almoravids.
The kingdoms of León and Castilla united by the monarch Alfonso VI, had been strengthened by this. -
Alfonso I of Aragón and Navarra conquered Zaragoza, occupied part of the Ebro valley and reached the Sistema Ibérico mountain range
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The kingdoms of León and Castilla united by the monarch Alfonso VI, had been strengthened by the conquest of Toledo. This opened up opportunities for expansion throughout the lands of the Tajo. This expansion took place during the reign of Alfonso VII, although these kingdoms separated on his death in 1157.
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Portugal was a county belonging to the Kingdom of León that was given as a gift to Henry of Burgundy when he married Alfonso VI’s daughter. Their son declared it independent in 1128 and it was established as a kingdom in 1143. The borders of the Kingdom of Portugal extended to the banks of the Tajo after the conquest of the city of Lisbon in 1147.
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Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona and Petronila of Aragon married to form the Crown of Aragon. -
The Almohads took advantage of the territorial fragmentation of al-Andalus and managed to unite the Andalusian territory in 1172, establishing their capital in Seville. This empire hindered the expansion of the Christian kingdoms. -
The Battle of Alarcos was a battle that was fought next to the castle of Alarcos, located on the top of a hill next to the Guadiana River, near the present-day Spanish city of Ciudad Real, between the Christian troops of Alfonso VIII of Castile and the Almohad troops of Yusuf II. The battle resulted in the defeat of the Christian troops, which destabilised the Kingdom of Castile and halted the advance of the reconquest for a few years, until the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. -
A Christian coalition made up of the Christian kingdoms of Castile, León and Aragon fought against the Almohad Caliphate, with victory for the Christians, helping greatly in the reconquest. -
Aragón lost nearly all its land in the Midi after the defeat by the French in the battle of Muret (1213), in which Pedro II died. His successor, Jaime I of Aragón, conquered the Islas Baleares (1235) and Valencia (1245), which were added to the Crown of Aragón as kingdoms.
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The definitive union of Castile and León came with Fernando III. This king conquered the two great Islamic capitals, Cordoba in 1236 and Seville in 1248. He also took Murcia in 1243
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Navarra turned to France, with whom it had the closest ties from that moment. In 1234, a French dynasty occupied the throne of Navarra, bringing a series of fiefdoms located in France.
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The Nasrid Kingdom of Granada lasted until 1492. It had a good economic situation, although it lost some territories close to the Strait of Gibraltar, such as Algeciras.
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Portugal reached the southern coasts of the peninsula with the conquest of Faro, bringing the end of its expansion. -
In 1250, there was only one Andalusian kingdom, the Kingdom of Granada, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty. -
The Battle of the Strait was a series of clashes during the Reconquest from 1274 to 1350 between the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, the Benimerin Sultanate and the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada that affected the area of the Strait of Gibraltar. This phase was characterised by the continuous change of alliances and the siege battles suffered by some cities such as Algeciras, Tarifa and Gibraltar.
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Pedro III launched the Aragonese Crown into a policy of true imperialism in the Mediterranean Sea. Aragon incorporated three large islands in the western Mediterranean: Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia. Later, these islands were lost
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The 14th and 15th centuries were marked by conflicts between Christian kingdoms and civil wars caused by rivalry between the nobility and the monarchy.
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One of the bloodiest civil wars was that between king Pedro I of Castilla and his step-brother Enrique of Trastámara, who aspired to the throne. Enrique II was victorious and acceded to the throne of the Trastámara dynasty. He granted large estates to the nobility who had supported him. To compensate for this, he developed an intense domestic policy to reorganise the kingdom and managed to increase his authority.
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The conquest of the Canary Islands took place between 1402 and 1496. It was not an easy conquest in military terms, given the aboriginal resistance on some islands. Nor was it easy politically, given the convergence of the particular interests of the nobility, determined to strengthen their economic and political power by acquiring the islands, and the states, particularly Castilla.
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In the Crown of Aragón, King Martín I died without an heir in 1410. Therefore, in 1412, representatives of institutions from every state in the Crown were convened to choose a new king. The resolution reached at this meeting, the Compromise of Caspe, meant that the House of Trastámara was put in place to rule Aragón. However, this branch of the family did not strengthen its authority to the same extent as the branch from Castilla.