Las Navas de Tolosa 1212 - The Most Crucial Battle of the Reconquista

0:05 On June 30, 1212, Al-Andalusian General

0:08 Aben Qades surrendered the Castle of Calatrava,

0:12 unable to quell the overwhelming assault launched upon it by a Crusader force.

0:16 The Vizier of the Almohads was seething… how could

0:20 that unloyal commander lose Calatrava so easily to the ‘infidels’?

0:23 Aben Qades had to pay… with his life!

0:26 This act of wrath would prove unwise,

0:29 for the Al-Andalusian troops allied to the Almohads

0:32 would not forget the assassination of their commander.

0:35 The Vizier's rash decision would return to haunt

0:38 the Almohads just when they needed their allies the most:

0:41 on a scorching July morning, at a place called Las Navas de Tolosa.

0:52 THE CRUSADE In July 1195,

1:32 the Almohad dynasty had inflicted a decisive defeat on King

1:43 Alfonso VIII of Castile at the Battle of Alarcos.

1:46 The consequences of the battle had been momentous and lasting.

1:51 Following their victory,

1:52 the Almohads consolidated their hold over Southern Spain and forged

1:56 an alliance with the Kingdoms of Léon and Navarre,

1:59 threatening Castile and Aragón.

2:01 More importantly, every plan to resume the ‘Reconquista’,

2:05 or ‘Reconquest’ of Muslim Spain had to be abandoned.

2:08 King Alfonso himself had barely made it back alive from Alarcos.

2:13 However, while the Castilian monarch had been beaten,

2:16 he was not defeated, not yet.

2:18 The desire for battle had not been extinguished,

2:21 and those flames would be fanned by Alfonso’s first-born son,

2:25 the infante Don Fernando.

2:27 Thus, Castile, the Almohads, and their allies,

2:29 were set to collide once more at what

2:29 is considered the most decisive battle of the Reconquista: Las Navas de Tolosa.

2:31 In early 1210, the infante sent a letter to Pope Innocent III,

2:33 pleading for his blessing and support in the fight against the Almohads.

2:37 The Pope was no stranger to inciting

2:40 large-scale wars against ‘infidels’ of all persuasions,

2:43 having called for a Crusade against the Albigensians only one year earlier.

2:48 Thus, in December 1210,

2:49 the Pope wrote to most of the bishops and archbishops in Spain,

2:53 exhorting them to rally around Don Fernando in his fight against the Muslims.

2:57 In his missives, Innocent offered a total

3:00 “remission of sins to those Spaniards or foreigners

3:02 that out of their own devotion would

3:05 faithfully carry out such an endeavour.” Papal blessing?

3:08 Check!

3:09 Absolution from sin?

3:10 Check!

3:11 A call to arms extended to more than one country?

3:14 Check again!

3:15 Innocent III had thus called for a Crusade against the Almohads.

3:19 Fernando, his father Alfonso,

3:21 and the Kingdom of Castille were enthused by this turn of events,

3:25 the Kingdoms of Navarre and Léon less so.

3:28 These states maintained good relationships

3:30 with the Almohads and their Al-Andalusian allies,

3:32 and considered Castille more of a threat than their Muslim neighbours!

3:37 In January 1211, Innocent sent a follow up mail blast to the Spanish bishops,

3:41 asking them to exert all their influence to keep

3:45 Navarre and Léon at bay lest they sabotage the Crusade.

3:50 Meanwhile, Alfonso and Fernando were waiting for the right

3:53 occasion to galvanise their Kingdom and initiate hostilities.

3:56 The opportunity for this presented itself in September of 1211,

4:00 when the Almohads seized the castle of Salvatierra,

4:02 previously held by the Knights of the Order of Calatrava.

4:05 Alfonso convened his war council in Toledo,

4:08 laying plans for a large-scale expedition to take

4:12 place in the summer of the following year.

4:14 The King then sent Gerardo, bishop of Segovia, to Rome,

4:17 with the goal of obtaining a new Papal bull,

4:20 calling for all Christians to join the fight.

4:22 According to Muslim chroniclers,

4:24 Innocent mobilised an army of friars on a recruiting mission,

4:28 seeking volunteers from Portugal to Constantinople.

4:30 It appears that Alfonso’s own recruitment drive in France was more successful.

4:36 His personal physician, Master Arnaldo, and his jester Gavandan,

4:40 successfully recruited the nobility of Poitiers and Gascony.

4:44 However, Alfonso had lost a precious asset: his son Fernand/ By all accounts,

4:49 Fernando was a brave fighter and skilled commander.

4:51 However, after conducting a raiding expedition, against the Muslims,

4:55 the infante had died of a fever on October 14, 1211, aged only 22.

5:03 In February 1212, Alfonso received the Pope’s condolences,

5:07 alongside reassurances of the Roman church’s support.

5:11 In April, Innocent secured a truce with Navarre and Léon,

5:15 protecting Castille’s flanks and allowing Alfonso to prepare his fonsado,

5:18 or large-scale campaign into enemy territory.

5:21 This was not a simple cabalgada, or raid.

5:24 It required a King to muster all available

5:27 men and resources for a chance at victory.

5:30 Alfonso’s army was organised around

5:32 a core of professional and semi-professional soldiers,

5:35 with units of local and foreign volunteers.

5:37 As was customary, the King would travel with his army,

5:40 surrounded by an elite Guards corps of mounted knights.

5:43 The monarch could then rely on the ‘mesnada real’:

5:46 several squadrons of heavy shock cavalry recruited

5:49 from amongst the ‘ricos hombres’- literally ‘rich men’,

5:52 usually meaning the barons and counts of the realm.

5:56 As formidable as they were,

5:58 these units were not as professional as those provided

6:00 by the Military Religious Orders such as the Order of Calatrava,

6:04 Santiago, the Templars, and the Hospitaliers,

6:06 all of whom would participate in the Crusade.

6:09 These ranks would be swelled up by the municipal militias,

6:12 recruited locally, and constituted by ‘peones’,

6:16 meaning infantrymen, and ‘pardos’, meaning horsemen.

6:19 The latter had to buy their own horse,

6:21 which could cost as much as six oxen or an entire house,

6:24 which was a hefty price to pay for the benefit

6:27 of galloping into a rain of Almohad arrow!

6:30 Finally, Alfonso’s hosts welcomed large

6:32 contingents of mercenaries and foreign Crusaders,

6:35 hailing from modern-day Portugal, Italy,

6:38 Germany, and especially Southern France.

6:42 Let us now take a look at Alfonso’s adversaries,

6:45 the Almohad hosts led by the Caliph Muhammad Al-Nasir.

6:48 The Almohad army was recruited from four main national groups:

6:52 the Almohad tribes themselves who hailed from North Africa,

6:55 the Al-Andalusian Muslims residing in Southern Spain,

6:58 Arab fighters recruited amongst the Bau Hilal bedouin tribes,

7:02 and finally the Oguz Turks.

7:03 Each group brought their own specialty tactics to the battlefield.

7:07 The Almohads generally rallied around the Caliph,

7:10 protecting him in the rearguard.

7:12 The Al-Andalusians contributed both heavy cavalry and projectile troops,

7:16 such as the famed Balearic slingers.

7:18 Finally, the Oguz and Arabs formed the bulk of the light cavalry.

7:22 The former had perfected the art of mounted archery,

7:25 while the latter fought with spears and swords

7:28 and were usually the first to attack.

7:30 Their valour was acknowledged by Caliph Al-Nasir,

7:33 so much so that an Arab’s pay was 150% higher than that of an Almohad!

7:40 The Castillian forces assembled in Toledo during the Spring of 1212,

7:44 joined by the foreign crusaders and the allied army of the Kingdom of Aragon.

7:49 The Christians started their southwards march on June 19th, 1212.

7:53 Meanwhile, Al-Nasir, too, had been rallying his forces in Seville,

7:58 well-aware of Christian preparations.

7:59 The Muslim hosts left their base on June 22, and headed towards Jaén.

8:05 By the 23rd, the Crusader vanguard train reached the castle of Malagón,

8:09 an important Almohad stronghold.

8:11 Without even setting up camp,

8:13 the foreign Crusaders in the vanguard seized the side towers

8:16 of the fortress by storm and proceeded

8:19 to mine the castle’s central fortifications.

8:21 Malagón fell during the night,

8:23 and the following morning the garrison was executed,

8:26 just before the arrival of the rearguard under Alfonso VIII.

8:30 This easy victory did not galvanise the morale of the foreign volunteers.

8:34 On the contrary, incensed by the lack of booty and the scarcity of foodstuffs,

8:38 they threatened to mutiny.

8:40 Only the King’s intervention managed to placate the seeds of sedition,

8:44 spurring the host to march on and lay siege to Calatrava on June 27.

8:51 The castle of Calatrava had once been the seat

8:53 of the namesake military order but had since fallen into Almohad hands.

8:58 Therefore, its occupation carried great strategic

9:00 and symbolic significance for both parties.

9:03 The fortress was a formidable obstacle,

9:05 protected by 600 metres of walls and the river Guadiana to its north,

9:10 as well as by a strong garrison under Al-Andalusian commander Aben Qades.

9:14 The King of Aragón, Peter II,

9:16 led an assault on the northern front on the June 29th,

9:20 supported by the Knights of Calatrava and units of French crusaders.

9:23 By the 30th, resistance had crumbled.

9:26 Aben Qades agreed to parlay, allowing to cede the fortress and its riches

9:30 in exchange for the life and freedom of his garrison.

9:33 A great part of the booty was transferred to the foreign Crusaders,

9:37 but this did not placate their mutinous sentiment.

9:40 Most of them had disagreed with Alfonso’s decision to conduct the siege,

9:43 as their intent was to drive deep into enemy territory.

9:47 Moreover, the French, German and Italian Crusaders were not happy

9:50 with the leniency displayed towards the Muslims.

9:53 On July 3, the vast majority of the foreign Crusaders deserted,

9:57 leaving behind only the contingents from Narbonne, Vienne and Poitou.

10:02 The archbishop of Narbonne described how

10:04 the deserters ‘Returned to their lands without honour

10:08 nor glory.” It seemed that honour and glory

10:12 were less important to them than loot,

10:14 for the mutinuous Crusaders rode up north and tried to sack Toledo,

10:19 but the Toledan citizen’s energetic defence ensured

10:21 that they returned to their lands without honour, nor glory, nor cash!

10:26 Meanwhile, news of the fall of Calatrava reached the Muslims in Jaén,

10:31 generating tension amongst their ranks.

10:32 The Almohad vizir Aben Yamaa ordered

10:34 the assassination of the disgraced Aben Qades,

10:37 and later addressed the other Al-Andalusian commanders as such:

10:40 “Leave the Almohad army, for we have no use for you!

10:44 As God says: ‘If they ride out with you they shall

10:46 only cause damage and they shall sow disorder amongst your ranks’.

10:50 After we are done with this expedition,

10:52 we will examine the cause of all the wicked!” Al-Nasir,

10:56 on the other hand, was elated

10:59 at the news that the foreign Crusaders had mutinied.

11:02 Believing that Alfonso was now in a position of weakness,

11:05 he ordered his armies to march north towards Baeza and beyond,

11:09 eventually setting camp at Santa Elena.

11:11 The Christian armies also resumed their descent,

11:14 easily seizing the castle of Alarcos on July

11:17 4 amd avenging Alfonso’s humiliating defeat back in 1195.

11:20 On the 7th, the Castilian and Aragonese set up camp not far from Salvatierra.

11:26 Along the way, Alfonso VIII and Peter II received much welcome reinforcements:

11:31 a Navarrese army led by King Sancho VII ‘The Strong’.

11:35 The conquest of Salvatierra by the Almohads had sparked the entire Crusade,

11:39 but now the three Kings decided not to invest time nor resources in a siege,

11:44 and pressed on instead.

11:46 On July 11, the Christians fended off a Muslim ambush on the Fresnedas heights,

11:51 and on the 13th they seized the castle of Ferral.

11:54 On the 14th, the three Kings established their encampment on a nearby height,

11:58 Mesa del Rey, which was immediately attacked by the Almohad cavalry.

12:02 The Spanish Crusaders repulsed the assault,

12:05 and their war council decided to rest for two days.

12:08 Caliph Al-Nasir, encamped nearby with his armies,

12:10 attempted to provoke the Christians into battle,

12:13 dispatching more mounted attacks.

12:15 But the Kings did not take the bait,

12:18 and their knights defeated these assaults in detail.

12:22 THE BATTLE On Sunday, July 15, the three Kings Alfonso,

12:25 Peter and Sancho decided they would give battle the following morning,

12:29 and prepared their tactics.

12:31 During the early hours of Monday the 16th,

12:33 the Christian army poured into a valley close to the village of Navas de Tolosa.

12:38 They occupied the Western sector of the plain,

12:40 facing the Almohads and their allies,

12:43 positioned over gently sloping hills in the Eastern half.

12:46 Alfonso divided his 14,000 strong army into three battalions,

12:50 deployed along a north-to-south axis and facing the Almohads to the east.

12:54 Each battalion was composed of a vanguard of slingers,

12:57 archers and crossbowmen, with two squadrons of heavy cavalry at their rear.

13:01 The left, or northernmost wing, was led by Peter II of Aragón.

13:05 The centre was firmly held by Don Diego Lopez de Haro, a veteran of Alarcos.

13:10 The right wing was under Sancho VII ‘The Strong’ of Navarre.

13:14 Behind these vanguard lines, Alfonso VIII commanded a reserve of heavy cavalry.

13:22 Al-Nasir’s forces, which numbered 30,000 in total,

13:24 were also structured into three main blocks.

13:27 The central division was made up of three lines of infantry.

13:31 The first line consisted of heavy infantry

13:33 armed with long spears to deter cavalry charges.

13:36 This was followed by two lines of light infantry and missile troops,

13:40 including slingers and archers.

13:42 Each side of the infantry formation was protected by two squadrons

13:46 of Al-Andalusian heavy cavalry backed by two squadrons of light horse.

13:50 At the very back of the formation stood Al-Nasir’s red tent,

13:54 protected by his elite ‘Black Guard’,

13:58 which were recruited amongst Sub-Saharan Africans.

14:01 The engagement was opened by Don Diego Lopez,

14:04 who led a series of heavy cavalry charges against the Almohad front line.

14:08 Don Diego’s knights were truly formidable,

14:11 especially those belonging to the religious-military orders.

14:14 However, they were forced to charge uphill.

14:17 The Almohad infantry maintained their ranks,

14:19 breaking their momentum and unhorsing several notable noblemen.

14:23 The ‘Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile’

14:26 describe the carnage as such: “They attack, they fight everywhere, hand to hand,

14:31 with spears, swords and maces… the Christians insist,

14:34 the Moors resist… the fight goes on, neither one nor

14:38 the other are defeated” The Almohad infantry repelled several charges,

14:42 but Don Diego returned each time for more.

14:45 Eventually, the Christians admitted they could

14:47 not break the Muslims’ spear wall, and retreated behind their own infantry.

14:51 King Alfonso, not realising this was an orderly retreat,

14:55 was about to order his reserve to surge forward.

14:58 This would have probably resulted in a chaotic disaster, but his advisors,

15:02 the Archbishop of Toledo and knight Fernando Garcíá,

15:06 managed to placate his bloodlust.

15:08 However, the Al-Andalusian and Almohad horse was not so level-headed,

15:12 and their cavalry squadrons on the wings

15:15 charged forward in pursuit of Don Diego’s knights.

15:17 The latter had by then reformed behind the screen of missile troops,

15:22 and thus the incoming charge was met by a deluge of slings, arrows and bolts.

15:27 The Muslim cavalry was soundly beaten, and rode back towards their lines.

15:34 As morale plummeted,

15:35 tensions between the Al-Andalusian and the Almohad Berbers resurfaced.

15:39 Following the assassination of Aben Qades,

15:41 the possibility of an Al-Andalusian mutiny was not a question of ‘if’,

15:45 but a question of ‘when’.

15:47 And it happened at the worst possible moment.

15:49 The Al-Andalusian heavy cavalry deserted en masse,

15:52 abandoning the battlefield and leaving Al-Nasir’s flanks vulnerable.

15:56 King Alfonso immediately seized the opportunity,

15:59 ordering his reserves to split in two and bolster

16:03 the wings under Peter II and Sancho the Strong.

16:06 The three Kings thus led a massive charge against the Almohad line,

16:10 which soon began to crumble.

16:11 King Sancho’s right wing was the first one to break

16:15 through the heavy infantry and the remaining light cavalry.

16:17 Sancho’s knights then swung towards the centre,

16:20 heading straight towards Al-Nasir’s tent.

16:22 As the Black Guard formed a square around him and raised their spears,

16:26 the Caliph remained firm,

16:28 sitting on a shield whilst holding a copy of the Quran.

16:31 In previous battles, the Black Guard had been nigh invincible,

16:34 but on this occasion they were gradually cut

16:37 down by the charges of the Christian knights.

16:40 Al-Nasir remained seated until an Arab horseman

16:42 braved the carnage to shake him and say: “Until when will you remain seated?

16:47 Oh, Prince of the Believers,

16:49 God’s judgement has been fulfilled, his will has been accomplished,

16:54 and the Muslims have perished!” The Arab then helped Al-Nasir onto a fast mare,

16:59 and the two escaped by a hair’s breadth.

17:02 The flight of the Caliph dealt the final blow to Almohad morale,

17:05 and what remained of their troops fled in disorder.

17:08 The Christian cavalry gave chase, overrunning the enemy camp.

17:11 Some of them indulged in looting,

17:14 but the majority maintained their discipline and continued the pursuit.

17:18 In this, they were surely motivated by Jimenez de Rada,

17:21 the Archbishop of Toledo, who had threatened excommunication for looters!

17:24 The pursuit continued well into the evening,

17:27 and only at nine that night did the Christian pursuers return to camp.

17:32 Spanish chroniclers reported a total of Christian casualties not exceeding 30,

17:36 which is surely propaganda.

17:38 A more realistic estimate places Christian losses at 2,000,

17:42 while the Almohads and allies may have suffered up to 20,000 casualties.

17:48 More importantly, the defeat at Navas de Tolosa would mark

17:51 the beginning of the end for Almohad dominance in Spain,

17:54 a slippery slope which propelled the momentum of the Reconquista.

18:00 In the next episode we will cover

18:02 the continuing expansion of the Christian kingdoms,

18:04 the rise of the new Marinid dynasty in North Africa,

18:07 and their inevitable clash at the Battle of Rio Salado.

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