History of the Moors of Spain Part 5

While Almamon lived, Alphonso IV. never forgot his obligations to his benefactor. He maintained peace with him, aided him in his campaigns against the King of Seville, and even entered into a treaty with Hacchem, the son and successor of his ally. But, after a brief reign, Hacchem left the throne of Toledo to his youthful brother Jahiah. That prince oppressed the Christians, who were very numerous in his city; and they secretly implored Alphonso to make war upon Jahiah. The memory of Almamon long caused the Spanish monarch to hesitate in relation to this subject. Grat.i.tude impelled him not to listen to the suggestions of ambition and the prayers of his countrymen; but the arguments of grat.i.tude proved the least strong, and Alphonso encamped before Toledo.

After a long and celebrated siege, to which several French and other foreign warriors eagerly hastened, Toledo finally capitulated, A.D.

1085, Heg. 478.

The conqueror allowed the sons of Almamon {89} to go and reign at Valencia, and engaged by an oath to preserve the mosques from destruction. He could not, however, prevent the Christians from speedily violating this promise.

Such was the end of the Moorish kingdom of Toledo. This ancient capital of the Goths had belonged to the Arabs three hundred and eighty-two years.

Several other less important cities now submitted to the Christian yoke. The kings of Aragon and Navarre, and the Count of Barcelona, incessantly hara.s.sed and besieged the petty Mussulman princes who still remained in the north of Spain. The attacks of the kings of Castile and Leon afforded sufficient occupation for those of the south, effectually to prevent their rendering any a.s.sistance to their brethren. Above all, the Cid, the famous Cid, flew from one part of Spain to another, at the head of the invincible band with whom his fame had surrounded him, everywhere achieving victories for the Christians, and even lending the aid of his arms to the Moors when they were internally divided, but always securing success to the party he favoured.

This hero, one of the most truly admirable of those whom history has celebrated, since in his {90} character were united the most exalted virtue and the highest qualities of the soldier; this simple Castilian cavalier, upon whom his reputation alone bestowed the control of armies, became master of several cities, a.s.sisted the King of Aragon to seize upon Huesca, and conquered the kingdom of Valencia without any other a.s.sistance than that of his men-at-arms. Equal in power with his sovereign, of whose treatment he frequently had reason to complain, and envied and persecuted by the jealous courtiers, the Cid never forgot for a moment that he was the subject of the King of Castile. Banished from court, and even exiled from his estates, he hastened, with his brave companions, to attack and conquer the Moors, and to send those of them whom he vanquished to render homage to the king who had deprived him of his rights.

Being soon recalled to the presence of Alphonso, in consequence of the king's needing his military aid, the Cid left the scenes of his martial triumphs, and, without demanding reparation for the injuries he had sustained, returned to defend his persecutors; ever ready, while in disgrace, to forget everything in the performance of his duty to his king, and equally ready, when enjoying {91} the favour of the sovereign, to displease him, if it should be necessary to do so, by advocating the cause of truth and justice.[2]

While the prowess of the Cid maintained the contest, the Christians had the advantage; but a few years after his death, which occurred in the year 1099 and the 492d of the Hegira, the Moors of Andalusia changed masters, and became, for a time, more formidable than ever to their Spanish foes.

After the fall of Toledo, Seville had increased in power. The sovereigns of that city were also masters of ancient Cordova, and possessed, in addition, Estremadura and a part of Portugal. Benabad, king of Seville, one of the most estimable princes of his age, was now the only one of its enemies capable of disturbing the safety of Castile. Alphonso IV., desirous of allying himself with this powerful Moor, demanded his daughter in marriage. His proposal was acceded to, and the Castilian monarch received several towns as the dowry of the Moorish princess; but this extraordinary union, which seemed to ensure peace between the two nations, nevertheless soon became either the cause or the pretext of renewed contests.

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Africa, after having been separated from the vast empire of the Caliphs of the East by the Fatimite caliphs, and being, during three centuries of civil war, the prey of a succession of conquerors more ferocious and sanguinary than the lions of their deserts,[3] was now subjected to the family of the _Almoravides_, a powerful tribe of Egyptian origin.

Joseph-ben-Tessefin, the second prince of this dynasty, founded the kingdom and city of Morocco.

Endowed with some warlike talents, proud of his power, and burning to augment it, Joseph regarded with a covetous eye the beautiful European provinces which had formerly been conquered by the Mussulmans of Africa.

Some historians a.s.sert that the King of Castile, Alphonso IV., and his father-in-law Benabad, king of Seville, having formed the project of dividing Spain between them, committed the capital error of summoning the Moors of Africa to their a.s.sistance in this grand design. But others, founding their a.s.sertions upon more plausible reasoning, say that the petty Mussulman kings, who were the neighbours or tributaries of Benabad, justly alarmed at his alliance with a {93} Christian king, solicited the support of the Almoravide.

But, be that as it may, the ambitious Joseph eagerly availed himself of the fortunate pretext presented by the invitation he had received, and crossed the Mediterranean at the head of an army. He hastened to attack Alphonso, and succeeded in overcoming him in a battle that took place between them, A.D. 1097, Heg. 490. Then turning his arms against Benabad, Joseph took Cordova, besieged Seville, and was preparing for the a.s.sault of that city, when the virtuous Benabad, sacrificing his crown and even his liberty to save his subjects from the horrors that threatened them, delivered himself up, together with his family of a hundred children, to the disposal of the Almoravide.

The barbarous African, dreading the influence of a monarch whose virtues had rendered him so justly dear to his people, sent him to end his days in an African prison, where his daughters were obliged to support their father and brothers by the labour of their hands.

The unfortunate Benabad lived six years after the commencement of his imprisonment, regretting his lost throne only for the sake of his {94} people, and beguiling the period of his protracted leisure by the composition of several poems which are still in existence. In them he attempts to console his daughters under their heavy afflictions, recalls the remembrance of his vanished greatness, and offers himself as a warning and example to kings who shall presume to trust too confidently to the unchanging continuance of the favours of fortune.

Joseph-ben-Tessefin, after he had thus become master of Seville and Cordova, soon succeeded in subjugating the other petty Mussulman states; and the Moors, united under a single monarch as powerful as Joseph, threatened again to occupy the important position they had sustained during the supremacy of their caliphs. The Spanish princes, alarmed at this prospect, suspended their individual quarrels, and joined Alphonso in resisting the Africans.

At this particular juncture, a fanatical love of religion and glory induced many European warriors to take up arms against the infidels.

Raymond of Bourgogne, and his kinsman Henry, both French princes of the blood, Raymond of Saint-Gilles, count of Toulouse, with some other cavaliers from among their va.s.sals, crossed the {95} Pyrenees with their retainers, and fought under the banners of the King of Castile.

Thus a.s.sisted, that sovereign put the Egyptian commander to flight, and compelled him, soon afterward, to recross the Mediterranean.

The grateful Alphonso gave his daughters as a recompense to the distinguished Frenchmen who had lent him the aid of their arms. The eldest, Urraca, espoused Raymond of Bourgogne, and their son afterward inherited the kingdom of Castile. Theresa became the wife of Henry, and brought him as a dowry all the land he had thus far conquered or should hereafter conquer in Portugal: from thence originated that kingdom. Elvira was given to Raymond, count of Toulouse, who carried her with him to the Holy Land, where he gained some possessions by his valour.

Excited by these ill.u.s.trious examples, other French cavaliers resorted soon after to the standard of the King of _Aragon_, Alphonso I., who made himself master of Saragossa, and for ever destroyed that ancient kingdom of the Moors, A.D. 1118, Heg. 512.

The son of Henry of Bourgogne, Alphonso I. king of Portugal, a prince renowned for his {96} bravery, availed himself of the presence of a combined fleet of English, Flemings, and Germans, who had anch.o.r.ed in the harbour of that city on their way to the Holy Land, to lay siege to Lisbon. He carried that place by a.s.sault, in spite of its great strength, and made it the capital of his kingdom, A.D. 1147, Heg. 541.

During this period the kings of Castile and Navarre were extending their conquests in Andalusia.

The Moors were attacked on all sides, and their cities were everywhere compelled to surrender, now that they were no longer materially aided by the Almoravides. Those African princes were at this time sufficiently occupied at home in opposing some new sectaries, the princ.i.p.al of whom, under pretext of reinitiating the people in a knowledge of the pure doctrines of Mohammed, opened for themselves a path to the throne, and, after many struggles, ended by effectually driving the family of the Almoravides from its possession. The new conquerors, becoming by these means masters of Morocco and Fez, destroyed, according to the African custom, every individual of the supplanted race, and founded a new dynasty, which is known under {97} the name of the _Almohades_, A.D. 1149, Heg. 543.

In the midst of these divisions, these wars and combats, the fine arts still continued to be cultivated at Cordova. And though they were no longer in the flourishing condition in which they were maintained during the reigns of the several caliphs who bore the cherished name of Abderamus, yet the schools of philosophy, poetry, and medicine had continued to exist. These schools produced, in the twelfth century, several distinguished men, among the most celebrated of whom were the learned Abenzoar and the famous Averroes. The former, equally profound in medicine, pharmacy, and surgery, lived, it is said, to the age of one hundred and thirty-five years. Some estimable works which he produced are still extant. Averroes was also a physician, but he was more of a philosopher, poet, lawyer, and commentator. He acquired a reputation so profound, that pa.s.sing centuries have only served more firmly to establish it. The disposition made by this remarkable man of his time during the different periods of his existence, will ill.u.s.trate his mental character. In his youth he was the pa.s.sionate votary of {98} pleasure and poetry: in more mature age he burned the verses he had previously composed, studied the principles of legislation, and discharged the duties of a judicial officer: having advanced still farther in life, he abandoned these occupations for the pursuit of medicine, in which he attained very great eminence: at last philosophy alone supplied the place of every earlier taste, and wholly engrossed his attention for the remainder of his life. It was Averroes who first created among the Moors a taste for Greek literature. He translated the works of Aristotle into Arabic, and wrote commentaries upon them.

He also published several other works upon philosophy and medicine, and possessed the united glory of having both enlightened and benefited mankind.[4]

As Africa, distracted by the long war of the Almoravides and the Almohades, was unable to offer any opposition to the progress of the Christians in Spain, these last, availing themselves of this condition of affairs, continued to extend their conquests in Andalusia. If the Spanish princes had been less disunited, and had acted in concert against the infidels, they would have been able {99} at this period to deprive the Mussulmans of their entire dominions in the Peninsula. But these ever-contending princes had no sooner taken a Moorish city than they began to dispute among themselves about its possession.

The newly-created kingdom of Portugal, established by the military powers of Alphonso, was soon at war with that of Leon.[5] Aragon and Castile, after many b.l.o.o.d.y quarrels, united in a league against Navarre. Sancho VIII., the sovereign of that little state, was forced to resort to Africa for a.s.sistance, and implore the aid of the Almohades. But they, being but recently established on the throne of Morocco, were still employed in exterminating the dismembered fragments of the party of the Almoravides, and could not, in spite of their eager desire to do so, establish any claim to their a.s.sumed rights in Spain.

Nevertheless, two kings of the race of the Almohades, both named Joseph, pa.s.sed the Mediterranean more than once with numerous armies.

The one was successfully opposed by the Portuguese, and did not survive his final defeat; the other was more fortunate, and succeeded in vanquishing the Castilians, but {100} was soon after obliged to accept a truce and return in haste to Morocco, to which new disturbances recalled him, A.D. 1195, Heg. 591.

But these useless victories, these ill-sustained efforts, did not permanently disable either the Mussulmans or the Christians. On both sides, the vanquished parties soon re-entered the field, in utter neglect of the treaties into which they might ever so recently have entered. The sovereigns of Morocco, though regarded as the kings of Andalusia, nevertheless possessed only a precarious authority in that country, which was always disputed when they were absent, and acknowledged only when necessity forced the Mussulman inhabitants to have recourse to their protection.

At last Mohammed _El n.a.z.ir_, the fourth prince of the dynasty of the Almohades, to whom the Spaniards gave the name of the Green, from the colour of his turban, finding himself in quiet possession of the Moorish empire of Africa, resolved to a.s.semble all his forces, to lead them into Spain, and to renew in that country the ancient conquests of Tarik and Moussa. A holy war was proclaimed, A.D. 1211, Heg. 608, and an innumerable army {101} crowded around the ensigns of Mohammed, left the sh.o.r.es of Africa under the guidance of that monarch, and safely arrived in Andalusia. There their numbers were nearly doubled by the Spanish Moors, whom hatred to the very name of Christian, arising from the vivid remembrance of acc.u.mulated injuries, induced to join the bands of El n.a.z.ir.

The sanguine Mohammed promised an easy triumph to his followers, together with the certainty of rendering themselves masters of all that their ancestors had formerly possessed; and, burning to commence the contest, he immediately advanced towards Castile at the head of his formidable army, which, according to the reports of historians, amounted to more than six hundred thousand men.

The king of Castile, Alphonso the n.o.ble, informed of the warlike preparations of the King of Morocco, implored the a.s.sistance of the Christian princes of Europe. Pope Innocent III. proclaimed a crusade and granted indulgences most lavishly. Rodrique, archbishop of Toledo, made in person a voyage to Rome, to solicit the aid of the sovereign pontiff; and, returning homeward through France, preached to the people {102} on his route, and induced many cavaliers to proceed at the head of bands of recruits to Spain, and join the opponents of the Mussulmans.

The general rendezvous was at Toledo, at which point there were soon collected more than sixty thousand crusaders from Italy and France, who united themselves with the soldiers of Castile. The King of Aragon, Peter II., the same who afterward perished in the war of the Albigense, led his valiant army to the place of meeting, and Sancho VIII., king of Navarre, was not backward in presenting himself at the head of his brave subjects. The Portuguese had recently lost their king, but they despatched their best warriors to Toledo. In short, all Spain flew to arms. There was general union for the promotion of mutual safety; for never, since the time of King Rodrique, had the Christians been placed in such imminent danger.

It was at the foot of the Sierra Morena, at a place named _Las Navas de Toloza_, that the three Spanish princes encountered the Moors, A.D.

1212, Heg. 609.

Mohammed El n.a.z.ir had taken possession of the mountain gorges through which it had been the intention of the Christians to approach {103} his camp. The adroit African thus designed, either to force his opponents to turn back, which would expose them to the danger of a failure of provisions, or to overwhelm them in the pa.s.s if they should attempt to enter it. Upon discovering this circ.u.mstance, a council was called by the embarra.s.sed Christian leaders. Alphonso was desirous of attempting the pa.s.sage, but the kings of Navarre and Aragon advised a retreat. In the midst of this dilemma, a shepherd presented himself before them, and offered to conduct them through a defile of the mountain, with which he was familiar. This proposal, which was the salvation of their army, was eagerly accepted, and the shepherd guided the Catholic sovereigns through difficult paths and across rocks and torrents, until, with their followers, they finally succeeded in attaining the summit of the mountain.

There, suddenly presenting themselves before the eyes of the astonished Moors, they were engaged for the s.p.a.ce of two days in preparing themselves for the conflict, by prayer, confession, and the solemn reception of the holy sacrament Their leaders set an example to the soldiers in this zealous devotion; and the prelates and {104} ecclesiastics, of whom there were a great number in the camp, after having absolved these devout warriors, prepared to accompany them into the midst of the conflict.

Upon the third day, the sixteenth of July, in the year twelve hundred and twelve, the Christian army was drawn up in battle array. The troops were formed into three divisions, each commanded by a king.

Alphonso was in the centre, at the head of his Castilians and the chevaliers of the newly-inst.i.tuted orders of Saint James and Calatrava; Rodrique, archbishop of Toledo, the eyewitness and historian of this great battle, advanced by the side of Alphonso, preceded by a large cross, the princ.i.p.al ensign of the army; Sancho and his Navarrois formed the right, while Peter and his subjects occupied the left. The French crusaders, now reduced to a small number by the desertion of many of their companions, who had been unable to endure the scorching heat of the climate, marched in the van of the other troops, under the command of Arnault, archbishop of Narbonne.

Thus disposed, the Christians descended towards the valley which separated them from their enemies.

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The Moors, according to their ancient custom, everywhere displayed their innumerable soldiers, without order or arrangement. An admirable cavalry, to the number of a hundred thousand men, composed their princ.i.p.al strength: the rest of their army was made up of a crowd of ill-armed and imperfectly trained foot-soldiers. Mohammed, stationed on a height, from which he could command a view of his whole army, was encompa.s.sed by a defence made of chains of iron, guarded by the choicest of his cavaliers on foot. Standing in the midst of this enclosure, with the Koran in one hand and an unsheathed sabre in the other, the Saracen commander was visible to all his troops, of whom the bravest squadrons occupied the four sides of the hill.

The Castilians directed their first efforts towards this elevation. At first they drove back the Moors, but, repulsed in their turn, they recoiled in disorder and began to retreat. Alphonso flew here and there, attempting to rally their broken ranks, "Archbishop," said he to the prelate who everywhere accompanied him, preceded by the grand standard of the Cross, "Archbishop, here are we destined to die!" "Not {106} so, sire," replied the ecclesiastic; "we are destined here to live and conquer!" At that moment the brave canon who carried the chief ensign threw himself with it into the midst of the infidels; the prelate and the king followed him, and the Castilian soldiers rushed forward to protect their sovereign and their sacred standard. The already victorious kings of Aragon and Navarre now advanced at the head of their wings to unite in the attack upon the height. The Moors were a.s.saulted at all points: they bravely resisted their opponents; but the Christians crowded upon them--the Aragonais, the Navarrois, and the Castilians endeavouring mutually to surpa.s.s each other in courage and daring. The brave King of Navarre, making a path for himself through the midst of its defenders, reached the enclosure, and struck and broke the chains by which the Moorish commander was surrounded.[6] Mohammed took to flight on beholding this catastrophe; and his soldiers, no longer beholding their king, lost both hope and courage. They gave way in all directions, and fled before the Christians. Thousands of the Mussulmans fell beneath the {107} weapons of their pursuers, while the Archbishop of Toledo, with the other ecclesiastics, surrounding the victorious sovereigns, chanted a _Te Deum_ on the field of battle.

Thus was gained the famous battle of Toloza, of which some details have been given in consequence of its great importance, and in ill.u.s.tration of the military tactics of the Moors. With them the arts of war consisted solely in mingling with the enemy, and fighting, each one for himself, until either the strongest or the bravest of the two parties remained masters of the field.

The Spaniards possessed but little more military skill than their Moslem neighbours; but their infantry, at least, could attack and resist in ma.s.s, while the discipline of that of the Saracens amounted to scarcely anything. On the other hand, again, the cavalry of the Moors was admirably trained. The cavaliers who composed it belonged to the princ.i.p.al families in the kingdom, and possessed excellent horses, in the art of managing which they had been trained from childhood.

Their mode of combat was to rush forward with the rapidity of light, strike with the sabre or the lance, fly away as quickly, and then wheel suddenly and return again to the {108} encounter. Thus they often succeeded in recalling victory to their standard when she seemed just about to desert them. The Christians, covered as they were with iron, had in some respects the advantage of these knights, whose persons were protected only by a breastplate and headpiece of steel. The Moorish foot-soldiers were nearly naked, and armed only with a wretched pike.

It is easy to perceive that, when involved in the _melee_, and, above all, during a route, vast numbers of them must have perished. This, too, renders less incredible the seemingly extravagant accounts given by historians of their losses in the field. They a.s.sert, for example, that, at the battle of Toloza, the Christians killed two hundred thousand Moors, while they lost themselves but fifteen hundred soldiers. Even when these a.s.sertions are estimated at their true value, it remains certain that the infidels sustained an immense loss; and this important defeat, which is still celebrated yearly at Toledo by a solemn fete, long deprived the kings of Morocco of all hope of subjugating the Spaniards.

The victory of Toloza was followed by more fatal consequences to the unfortunate Mohammed than to the Moors of Andalusia; for the {109} latter retired to their cities, defended them by means of the remains of the African army, and successfully resisted the Spanish princes, who succeeded in taking but few of their strong places, and, speedily dissolving their league, separated for their respective kingdoms. But Mohammed, despised by his subjects after his defeat, and a.s.sailed by the treachery of his nearest relations, lost all authority in Spain, and beheld the princ.i.p.al Moors, whom he had now no power to control, again forming little states, the independence of which they were prepared to a.s.sert by force of arms.[7] The discomfited El n.a.z.ir consequently returned to Africa, where he soon after died of chagrin.

With Mohammed the Green vanished the good fortune of the Almohades.

The princes of that house, who followed El n.a.z.ir in rapid succession, purchased their royal prerogatives at the expense of continual unhappiness and danger, and were finally driven from the throne. The empire of Morocco was then divided, and three new dynasties were established; that of Fez, of Tunis, and of Tremecen. These three powerful and rival sovereignties greatly multiplied the {110} conflicts, crimes, and atrocities, the narration of which alone const.i.tutes the history of Africa.

About this period some dissensions arose in Castile, which, together with the part a.s.sumed by the King of Aragon in the war of the Albigense in France, allowed the Moors time to breathe. The Moslems were still masters of the kingdoms of Valencia, Murcia, Grenada, and Andalusia, with part of Algarva and the Balearic Isles, which last, until that time, had continued to be but little known to the Christians of the Continent.