Caliph al-Nasir, also known as Miramamolin invades Spain with a huge Muslim army which is met in the Sierra Nevada mountains by a Christian army, including King Alfonso VIII of Castile, Pedro/Peter II of Aragon and Sancho VII of Navarre. Pictured – King Sancho VII of Navarre breaks through the Caliph’s bodyguards of black African slave-warriors. Tapestry by Vicente Pascual, 1950
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The Almohads invade Spain from North Africa while the Christian kings bicker among themselves. Alfonso VIII suffers a heavy defeat at the Battle of Alarcos in 1195
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The Almohads arrive in Spain from North Africa and threaten to overwhelm the peninsula. The greatest resistance comes not from the Christian kingdoms, but from a fellow Muslim known as ‘El Rey Lobo’ (The Wolf King), head of a kingdom based in Murcia, a city in its golden age
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The birth of the kingdom of Portugal, the Siege of Lisbon, and the Union of Aragon and Catalonia – the political map of the peninsula begins to form. Pictured: King Afonso I of Portugal, nicknamed “the Conqueror”, “the Founder” or “the Great”
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Before 1085 in Spain there was little question that it was the Muslims who had the upper hand in the balance of power. But after King Alfonso VI captured the city of Toledo in 1085, the Christians became much more confident and threatened to rapidly take over the whole peninsula. Why this didn’t happen can be explained for two reasons – firstly, the infighting between Christian rulers, and secondly, the influx of Muslim peoples from north Africa, firstly the Almoravids
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