Conquest of Cuenca

Conquest of Cuenca
Part of Spanish Christian–Muslim War of 1172–1212
Panoramic view of Cuenca
Date 6 January – 21 September 1177 Location Cuenca, Almohad Caliphate Result Christian victory Territorial changes Castilian capture of the city
Belligerents
Kingdom of Castile Crown of Aragon	Almohad Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
Alfonso VIII of Castile Nuño Pérez de Lara † Alfonso II of Aragon Berenguer de Vilademuls	Abu Beka

The Conquest of Cuenca was a siege led by Alfonso VIII of Castile and Alfonso II of Aragon to the city of Cuenca in 1177. The siege lasted for almost a year until it finally fell on Castilian hands in September 21.

Background

The border of the Tagus had been overwhelmed in the second half of the 12th century because Alfonso VIII of Castile was advancing towards the Júcar.^[1] He besieged Cuenca in 1172 but, after five months of siege, the caliph Abu Yaqub forced the Castilian to lift the siege by attacking Huete.^[2] The caliph Yaqub, the philosopher Averroes, the historian Sahib as-Sala (who gives a detailed description of Cuenca) and other notable Almohads entered the city and helped the besieged.^[3][4] However, the Almohads also failed to take Huete and signed a seven-year truce with Alfonso.^[5]

The truce was broken in the summer of 1176 when the Muslims of Cuenca, together with those of Alarcón and Moya, attacked the Christian lands of Huete and Uclés, breaking the pact.^[6] Alfonso VIII summoned the Castilian counts Nuño Pérez de Lara, Pedro Gutiérrez, Àlvar Fáñez, Tello Pérez, Nuño Sánchez, the lord of Albarracín Pedro Ruiz de Azagra, the king of León Ferdinand II, the King of Aragon Alfonso II and the orders soldiers of Saint John, Calatrava and Alfama and laid siege to the city on January 6, 1177.^[7]

Siege

Faithful to the friendship with the kingdom of Castile, Alfonso II, went to the siege of Cuenca with a group of armed peons identified with the Almogavars in aid of the Castilian monarch.^[8] After arriving to Cuenca, he went to Provence and other points. In July or later, he must have returned to Cuenca. The archbishop of Tarragona, Berenguer de Vilademuls, accompanied him with soldiers from the city and from Camp de Tarragona.^[7]

Cuenca, considered impregnable, suffered a long and very tough siege (for nine months) by the combined armies of Castile and Aragon,^[9] swelled by the large number of foreigners who came from the crusade that the Holy See had raised and that preached the cardinal legate Giacinto Bobone, who later became pope under the name of Celestine III.^[10]

The leader Abu Beka asked for help from the caliph Abu Yaqub but he was in Africa attending to other matters and denied him help.^[11] On July 27, the besieged made an exit attacking the Christian camp with the aim of delivering a coup d'état against the king, but they only managed to kill Count Nuño Pérez de Lara.^[7] Hunger, disease and the deaths from the continuous attacks of clubs and blunderbuss forced them to surrender and liberate the city on September 21,^[12][13] the day of Saint Matthew.^[14] The Christian army took the citadel and the castle and, after the Muslim abandonment of the city, Alfonso VIII and his retinue triumphantly entered the city in October, becoming part of the Kingdom of Castile.^[15]

Aftermath

In that same year, Alfonso II went on a military expedition to Lorca, so that the king of Murcia, who was his vassal, would ensure the tribute.^[16][17] On returning from this victorious expedition and being in Teruel, he gave the church of Saint Vincent to the Royal Monastery of San Juan de la Peña "pro servitio quod mihi fecisti in illa hoste de Valencia".^[18]

As a reward for the participation of Alfonso II in the capture of Cuenca, he and his successors were freed in perpetuity from the vassalage to Castile^[19] that had its origin in the Treaty of Serón de Nágima (1158) [es].^[20]

References

1. Cantudo 2017, p. 23.
2. Gómez, Lincoln & Smith 2019, p. 136.
3. Moral 2005, p. 152.
4. Garrido & Garrido 2005, p. 33.
5. Gómez, Lincoln & Smith 2019, p. 120.
6. Fortanet 1967, p. 269.
7. Pro Uriarte 2015, p. 67.
8. Ruiz-Domènec, Joseé Enrique (April 2010). "D'on van sorgir els almogàvers?". Sàpiens (102): 6.
9. Martín 1994, p. 34.
10. Gómez, Lincoln & Smith 2019, pp. 122–124.
11. Pro Uriarte 2015, p. 66.
12. Sopena & López 2012, p. 191.
13. Peter IV of Aragon 1991, p. 120.
14. Hebblethwaite 2000, p. 342.
15. Forey 2024, p. 132.
16. Lomax 1978, p. 116.
17. de Segovia Peralta y Mendoza 1783, p. 113.
18. Teixidor 1895, p. 271.
19. Pinel y Monroy 1677, p. 29.
20. Henares 2022, p. 576.

Bibliography

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• Cantudo, Miguel Ángel Chamocho (June 2017). Los Fueros del Reino de Toledo y Castilla la Nueva: De Fernando III a los Reyes Católicos (in Spanish). Boletín Oficial del Estado. ISBN 978-84-340-2407-6.
• Gómez, Miguel; Lincoln, Kyle C.; Smith, Damian J. (2 April 2019). King Alfonso VIII of Castile: Government, Family, and War. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-8416-0.
• Moral, Angel Encinas (2005). Cronología histórica de Al-Andalus. Miraguano Ediciones. ISBN 978-84-7813-294-2.
• Garrido, Jesús Villar; Garrido, Ángel Villar (2005). Viajeros por la historia: Extranjeros en Castilla-La Mancha : Albacete. Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, Servicio de Publicaciiones, Consejería de Cultura. ISBN 978-84-7788-373-9.
• Fortanet, T. (1967). Boletín de la Real Sociedad Geográfica.
• Pro Uriarte, Begoña (27 November 2015). El anillo del leal (in Spanish). Ttarttalo, S.L. ISBN 978-84-9843-620-4.
• Peter IV of Aragon (1991). The Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña: A Fourteenth-century Official History of the Crown of Aragon. Translated by Lynn Harry Nelson. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1352-1.
• Hebblethwaite, Margaret (2000). The Living Spirit: Prayers and Readings for the Christian Year. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-58051-075-2.
• Martín, Luis Vicente Díaz (1994). Santo Domingo de Caleruega, en su contexto socio-político, 1170-1221 (in Spanish). Editorial San Esteban. ISBN 978-84-87557-77-4.
• Forey, Alan (28 October 2024). Military Orders and Crusades. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-040-24673-3.
• Lomax, Derek W. (1978). The Reconquest of Spain. Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-50209-3.
• de Segovia Peralta y Mendoza, Gaspar Ibañez (1783). Memorias historicas de la vida y acciones del Rey D. Alonso el Noble, octavo del nombre. en la imprenta de D. Antonio de Sancha.
• Teixidor, Josef (1895). Antigüedades de Valencia: Observaciones críticas donde con instrumentos auténticos se destruye lo fabuloso, dejando en su debida estabilidad lo bien fundado escribiólas en 1767 ... Josef Teixidor (in Spanish). Librerias Paris-Valencia.
• Henares, Antonio Pérez (5 May 2022). Tierra vieja (in Spanish). Ediciones B. ISBN 978-84-666-7203-0.
• Pinel y Monroy, Francisco (1677). Retrato del buen Vasallo copiado de la Vida y Hechos de Andres de Cabrera primero Marques de Moya.