Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/340

 316 SPAIN [HISTORY. Alraor- avid cam- paigns in Spain (1069- 91). Alfonso VI. of Castile. Tempo- rary union of Castile and Aragon. of Europe, and of his own accord conceded the demands of Gregory VII. From this time Christian Spain was directly connected with Borne, and became the most faithful, if not the most servile, of Roman Catholic countries. The Christian victories of the llth century seemed likely at one time to annihilate the Mohammedan power in Spain. From this fate, however, it was saved, not by any internal strength, but by the arrival of assistance from Africa. The emir of Seville, Al-Mo'tamid, the most powerful of the Moslem princes, watched with profound misgiving the progress of the Castilian arms. When Toledo fell before Alfonso VI. he determined to appeal to Yusuf b. Tashuffn, the king of the Almoravids, a con- federation of Berber sectaries that had recently established a vast empire reaching from the Senegal to Algiers. Yusuf, who had established his capital at Morocco in 1069, was at this time eighty years of age, but he did not hesitate to accept the prospect of a new field of conquest and adventure. In 1086 he sailed from Ceuta to Algesiras, the cession of which he had demanded as the price of Ms aid, and was at once joined by the forces of the emirs of Andalusia. Alfonso VI. hastened to obtain assistance from the king of Aragon and the count of Barcelona, and with a larger force than had ever before been assembled in the Christian cause he met the Moors in the battle of Zallaka (Sacralias), a few miles from Badajoz (October 1086). After an obstinate struggle victory declared for the infidels, and Alfonso had great difficulty in escaping with his life. Luckily for the Castilians, Yiisuf was recalled to Africa by the death of his eldest son, whom he had left at Ceuta, and his victory, which might have been as decisive as that of Tarik, was not followed up. Alfonso even ventured to resume his aggressions, and laid siege to the important towns of Murcia and Almeria. Mo'tamid, seeing that the danger was as great as ever, proceeded to Africa in person in order to urge the return of Yusuf. The Almoravid prince, on whom the attractions of Andalusia had made a profound impression, crossed again to Algesiras (1090), and this time the predictions of the princes who had foreseen the risk of calling in so powerful an ally were fully verified. Postponing the task of resisting Alfonso, Yusuf set to work to make himself master of Andalusia. Mo'tamid himself had to fly from his territories, after a futile appeal for aid to the king of Castile. Captured by the Africans, the emir of Seville was condemned to end his life in close imprisonment. In the course of a few years the whole of Moslem Spain was reunited under the king of Morocco, and the death of the Cid in 1099 enabled the Moors to recover Valencia, which he had taken in 1094. This was the last event of the reign of Yusuf, who in 1103 handed over the government to his son 'All and returned to Africa, where he died three years later at the ripe age of a hundred years. Alfonso VL of Castile had raised his kingdom to such pre-eminence in the Peninsula that he had assumed the title of " emperor of Spain." But a great disaster clouded his later years. In 1108 his only son Sancho perished with the flower of the Castilian chivalry on the fatal field of Ucles, and most of Alfonso's conquests passed into the hands of the victorious 'AH. In 1109 the emperor died, leaving the succession to his daughter Urraca, the widow of Count Raymond of Burgundy. In order to secure the unity of the Christian kingdoms, Urraca was married to Alfonso I. of Aragon (1104-1134), who imitated his father-in-law in assuming the imperial title. But the marriage failed to produce the desired result. Urraca induced the Castilian nobles to revolt against the Aragonese rule and to set up Alfonso VII., her son by her first marriage. A civil war ensued, which was only ended in 1127 by the separation of the kingdoms. Alfonso I. retained Aragon and Navarre, while Castile, with Leon and Oalicia, passed to Alfonso VII. Alfonso of Aragon renewed the war against the Moors which he had so gloriously begun by the capture of Tudela and Saragossa, but in 1134 he was completely defeated in the battle of Fraga, a disaster which hastened his death. As he had no children, he bequeathed his territories to the great crusading order of the Templars. The Aragonese. however, refused to recognize this testament, and gave the crown to his brother, Ramiro II. (1134-1137), who was brought out of a monastery to continue the dynasty. Ramiro fulfilled his duties by marrying a sister of the duke of Aquitaine, who bore him a daughter, Petronilla. At the age of two the child was betrothed to Raymond Berengar IV. of Barcelona, and Ramiro, leaving the administration of the kingdom to his son-in-law, hastened to return to his cloister. Thus a permanent union was effected between Aragon and Catalonia, both of which passed in 1162 to Petronilla's son, Alfonso II. But, if Catalonia was gained, another province, Navarre, was lost. The Navarrese had Navarre ; long desired to recover their independence, and on the ^depend' death of Alfonso L they refused to acknowledge Ramiro, en ' and chose a ruler of their own, Garcia Ramirez. Ramiro, who needed Garcia's generalship against a threatened attack from Castile, recognized him, first as a vassal of Aragon and afterwards as an independent king. Thus Navarre regained its place among the kingdoms of Spain, though it never enjoyed its old importance. The main interest of Spanish history in the 13th Crusadin century centres round the war against the Moors, which orders - was beginning to attract the interest and assistance of the other European states. It was the age of the great crusades, and Christendom was absorbed in the struggle against the infidel, both in the East and West. Spain, like Palestine, had its crusading orders, which vied with the Templars and Hospitallers both in wealth and military distinction. The order of Calatravawas founded in 1158, that of St James of Compostella in 1175, and the order of Alcantara in 1176. The kingdom of Portugal, which had risen with great rapidity in the 12th century, had a no less distinguished order, that of Evora. These military priests, debarred by their profession from the ordinary interests of humanity, gave a firmness and consistency to the Christian cause which had too often been sacrificed to the dynastic quarrels of the temporal princes. The empire of the Almoravids, like so many of its Struggles predecessors, had soon begun to fall to pieces. It was too f Almor large and unwieldy for permanence. Its real centre was A Ymo- at Morocco, and the attention of the caliphs was absorbed hades. in the affairs of Africa, while the extortion and misgov- ernment of their viceroys excited discontent among the Mohammedans of Spain. This state of things gave a great advantage to Alfonso VII. of Castile, who revived the title of emperor of Spain, allied himself with Raymond Berengar of Barcelona and Aragon, and sought to emulate the achievements of his grandfather. For the second time the Moorish power in Spain was only saved from dissolu- tion by the arrival of reinforcements from Africa. As happened so often in Mussulman history, a movement which began with religious reform ended with the forma- tion of an empire. Mohammed b. 'Abdallah, an Arab from Mount Atlas, gave himself out as the expected Mahdf, and formed a sect known as the Almohades (Unitarians). His disciple, 'Abd al-Mu'min, was chosen as his successor, and soon overthrew the power of the Almoravids. Tashufin, 'All's son, made a vigorous but ineffectual resistance, and the conqueror crossed the sea to complete his work by the reduction of Spain (1146). The success of c Abd al-Mu'inin, if less rapid than that of Yusuf,