Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/341

 IITH TO I3TH CENTURY.] SPAIN 317 Separa- tion of Castik Downfall of the Almo- hades. Castile and Leon reunited. vas quite as complete. The Almoravids appealed to the Christians, and both Castile and Aragon came to their aid. Alfonso VII., with the help of the Genoese and Pisan fleets, besieged and took Almeria, while Raymond Berengar captured Tortosa. But these successes were only temporary. In ten years the Almoravids had been driven from the mainland, and only a small remnant found refuge in the Balearic Islands. Almeria was again wrested from the Castilians, and in 1157 Alfonso VII. died, the last of the series of "emperors of Spain." His territories were divided between his two sons, the elder, Sancho, succeed- ing to Castile, while Leon went to his brother Ferdinand. The quarrels which resulted from this partition would probably have been fatal to the Christian cause but for the exertions of the great knightly orders. The successors of 'Abd al-Mu'min (d. 1163), Yusuf and Ya'kub Almansor, continued to advance the power of the Almohades, and the latter inflicted a crushing defeat at Alarcos (1195) upon Alfonso VIII. of Castile, who had succeeded his father Sancho in 1158. Castile was at this time dis- tracted by the feuds of the great families of Lara and Castro, and the count of Castro, who had been worsted by his rival, rendered conspicuous service to the infidels in the battle. Even Sancho of Navarre, out of jealousy of the rival kings, concluded an alliance with the Almo- hades. Luckily for the Christians Ya'kub, the most formidable opponent they had had to face since the great Almans6r, died in 1199, and his death was followed by a rising of the Almoravids which took five years to suppress. Mean- while successful efforts had been made by the pope and clergy to arrange the differences among the Christian states, and a confederation was formed between the five kings of Castile, Aragon, Leon, Navarre, and Portugal. When Ya'kiib's successor, Mohammed al-N&sir, had suc- ceeded in restoring order in Andalusia and prepared to inarch against the Christians, he was confronted by the allies in the famous battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, in the Sierra Morena (July 16, 1212). After an obstinate struggle the Christians gained a decisive victory, and their success decided the fate of Spain. The religious impulse which had constituted the original strength of the Almohades had come to an end ; they were regarded as infidels by the orthodox Moslems, and the first failure necessarily led to their downfall. The cruelties with which they sought to repress the rising discontent only excited popular feeling against them, and when Al-Mota- wakkil, a descendant of the family of Ibn Hud which had once ruled in Saragossa, raised the standard of revolt in Andalusia, the bulk of the population joined him, and Al-Ma'mun, the last of the Almohades who held any power in Spain, fled to Africa in 1232. The chief result of their rule was to depress the Arab element in the Mus- sulman population of Spain. Hitherto the Arabs, though numerically in a minority, had retained the preponderance due to their original prestige. Henceforth the infidels of Spain can only be considered and spoken of as Moors. After the fall of the Almohades the triumphs of the Christian arms were rapid and decisive. The separation of Castile and Leon, which had been productive of so much disaster, was finally terminated in 1230 by the accession of Ferdinand III., the son of Alfonso IX. of Leon and Berengaria of Castile. The province of Estre- madura had been annexed to Leon by Alfonso IX., and now formed part of the united kingdom which under Ferdinand III. rapidly extended itself southwards. In 1233 the Castilian army won a great victory over the Moors under Al-Motawakkil, and three years later Ferdin- and himself captured Cordova, so long the capital of the Mohammedan rulers and one of the most wealthy and beautiful cities of Europe. In 1237 Al-Motawakkil was assassinated, and with him perished the last semblance of Moorish unity. The numerous emirs became independent rulers, and the most powerful of them, Mohammed Ibn al-Ahmar of Granada, became a tributary of Castile and ceded the strong town of Jaen (1246). In 1248 Seville, the second of the Mohammedan cities, submitted to Ferdinand, who within a few years annexed Xerez de la Frontera, Medina Sidonia, and Cadiz. By these acquisitions the frontier of Castile was extended to the southern coast before Ferdinand III.'s death in 1252. A considerable number of Moors submitted to the rule of Castile, but the Christians had become intolerant during the long war, and most of the conquered population sought a new home either in Granada or in Africa. Meanwhile Aragon had taken a no less important part Successes in the struggle. Pedro I. (1196-1213), the successor of of Aragon. Alfonso II., had excited the discontent of his subjects, partly by seeking coronation from Pope Innocent III., and partly by his excessive taxation. The "union" of nobles and towns compelled the king to diminish his ex- actions. Pedro took part in the battle of Navas de Tolosa, but his attention was diverted from Spanish affairs by his relationship with Raymond of Toulouse, which involved him in the Albigensian crusade, where he met his death. His son James I. (1213-1276), however, resumed the war against the infidels, and won in it the title of "The Conqueror." With the help of his Catalonian subjects, at that time perhaps the most accomplished sailors in the world, he conquered the Balearic Islands (1229-1233), which had long been a stronghold of the Moslem and a centre for piratical attacks upon the Christian states. Still more important was his reduction of Valencia (1238), which had once before been conquered by Ruy Diaz. The last achievement of the great king was the conquest of the province of Murcia (1266), the last of the Moorish territories in Spain except Granada. Murcia, though reduced by Aragon, was handed over to Castile. By the acquisition of Algarve Portugal had already acquired frontiers which correspond roughly to those which it has at the present day. From the latter half of the 13th century the crusading Cessation energy of the Spaniards came to a sudden standstill, and f the the Moors were allowed to retain possession of Granada crusa(le - for more than two centuries. The causes of this abrupt termination of the war before it had reached what seemed to be its natural and legitimate end have often been dis- cussed. In the first place Castile was henceforth the only state which was directly interested in the war. By the acquisition of Seville and Murcia it had separated Granada both from Portugal and Aragon, neither of which states had henceforth any conterminous frontier with the Moors. The state of Granada, though small when compared with Castile, was by nature easily defensible, as was made amply apparent in the last campaigns under Ferdinand and Isabella. The attention of Castile was often distracted by foreign interests or by internal dissensions. Again, the Moors were more concentrated and homogeneous in Granada than they had been when their rule was more extensive. The large subject population, many of whom were Christians or renegades, had been a great source of weakness, and this no longer existed. They, like their opponents, had given up the tolerance that had once dis- tinguished them, and hardly any but true Mohammedans can have remained in Granada. Something, too, must be attributed to the wily policy and well-timed submission of Mohammed Ibn al-Ahmar, who even gave assistance to Ferdinand III. against the other Moorish emirs. With the termination of the crusade Spanish history loses what little unity it had possessed for the last two