1st Edition
War in the Iberian Peninsula, 700–1600
War in the Iberian Peninsula, 700–1600 is a panoramic synthesis of the Iberian Peninsula including the kingdoms of Leon and Castile, Aragon, Portugal, Navarra, al-Andalus and Granada. It offers an extensive chronology, covering the entire medieval period and extending through to the sixteenth century, allowing for a very broad perspective of Iberian history which displays the fixed and variable aspects of war over time.
The book is divided kingdom by kingdom to provide students and academics with a better understanding of the military interconnections across medieval and early modern Iberia.
The continuities and transformations within Iberian military history are showcased in the majority of chapters through markers to different periods and phases, particularly between the Early and High Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages.
With a global outlook, coverage of all the most representative military campaigns, sieges and battles between 700 and 1600, and a wide selection of maps and images, War in the Iberian Peninsula is ideal for students and academics of military and Iberian history.
PREFACE (Francisco García Fitz and João Gouveia Monteiro)
Chapter 1 - AL-ANDALUS (Javier Albarrán)
Political Outline
The conquest of al-Andalus and the first steps
The Umayyad Emirate of Cordova
The Umayyad Caliphate of Cordova
The Taifa Kingdoms
The Almoravids
The Almohads
Recruitment system and composition of the armies
Military obligations and recruitment methods
Composition of the armies
Umayyad Period
Taifa Kingdoms
Almoravids
Almohads
Chain of Command
Military operations
Attrition warfare
Siege Warfare
Pitched Battles
Logistics, supplies and funding
Armament
Fortifications
Naval warfare
Ideology of war
Main campaigns
The campaign of Muez
The battle(s) of Simancas and al-Khandaq
Almanzor and the Santiago Compostela campaign
Barbastro's sieges
Bibliography
Chapter 2 – GRANADA (Javier Albarrán)
Political outline
Recruitment system and composition of the armies
Military obligations and recruitment methods
Composition of the armies
Chain of Command
Military operations
Attrition warfare
Siege Warfare
Pitched Battles
Logistics, supplies and funding
Armament
Fortifications
Naval warfare
Ideology of war
Main campaigns
The battle of Higueruela
Bibliography
Chapter 3 - CASTILE-LEON
I - Early and High Middle Ages (eighth - thirteenth centuries) (Francisco García Fitz)
Political outline
Recruitment system and composition of the armies
Military obligations and recruitment methods
Composition of the armies
Personal guard of monarchs
Military Order troops (Carlos de Ayala Martínez)
Noble militias
Urban militias
Castle garrisons and tenancies
Chain of Command
Military operations (Martín Alvira Cabrer)
Attrition warfare
Siege Warfare
Pitched Battles
Logistics, supplies and funding
Armament
Fortifications
Naval warfare
Ideology of war
Main campaigns
First Battles: Covadonga (718 or 722)
Conquest of Toledo (1085)
Battle of Zalaca (1086)
El Cid: Conquest of Valencia (1094)
Conquest of Almeria (1147)
The great battles: Alarcos (1195) and Las Navas de Tolosa (1212)
The conquest of Seville (1248)
II - Late Middle Ages (Fourteenth - Fifteenth centuries) (Fernando Arias Guillén)
Political outline
Recruitment system and composition of the armies
Military obligations and recruitment methods
Composition of the Armies
Personal guard of monarchs
Military Order troops
Noble militias
Urban militias
Castle garrisons and tenancies
Chain of Command
Military operations
Attrition warfare
Siege Warfare
Pitched battles
Logistics, supplies and funding
Armament
Fortifications
Naval warfare
Ideology of war
Main campaigns
The Castilian Civil War (1366-1369)
The Castilian War of Succession (1474-1479)
Wars against other Christian kingdoms
The war against Granada
Bibliography
Chapter 4 - CROWN OF ARAGON (Mario Lafuente Gómez)
I - Early and High Middle Ages: Feudal Conquest and Colonization (tenth- thirteenth centuries)
Political outline
Recruitment system and composition of the armies
Military obligations and recruitment methods
Composition of the armies
Personal guards of monarchs
Noble militias
Urban militias
Military Order troops
Castle garrisons and tenancies
Chains of Command
Military Operations
Cavalry raids
Siege Warfare
Pitched Battles
Logistics and finance
Armament
Fortifications
Naval warfare
Ideology of war
Main campaigns
Crusade of Barbastro (1064)
The conquest of Zaragoza by Alfonso I (1118)
The battle of Muret (1213)
The conquest of Majorca by Jaime I (1229)
The conquest of Valencia by Jaime I (1238-1274)
The first Union (1283-1301)
II. Late Middle Ages: Peninsular and Mediterranean Conflicts (fourteenth - fifteenth centuries)
Political outline
Recruitment system and composition of the armies
Military obligations and recruitment methods
Composition of the Armies
Personal guards of monarchs
Noble militias
Urban militias
Military Order troops
Castle garrisons and tenancies
Chains of command
Military Operations
Cavalry raids
Siege Warfare
Pitched Battles
Logistics and finance
Armament
Fortifications
Naval warfare
Ideology of war
Main campaigns
Mediterranean wars
Dispute over Sicily (1282-1301)
The conquest of Sardinia (1323-1324)
The first conquest of the kingdom of Naples (1442)
The second conquest of the kingdom of Naples (1504)
Peninsular conflicts
The War of the Strait: the campaign against Almeria (1309)
The war of the Two Pedros against Castile (1356-1366)
Civil wars
The second Union (1347-1348)
The Catalonian civil war (1462-1472)
Bibliography
Chapter 5 - THE KINGDOM OF NAVARRE (Jon Andoni Fernández de Larrea Rojas)
I. The Early Middle Ages
Political and military outline
Recruitment and organization of the armies
Military obligations and recruitment
Composition of the armies
Personal guard of monarchs
Noble militias
Castle garrisons and tenancies
Chain of command
Military operations
Chevauchées
Siege Warfare
Pitched Battles
Armament
Fortifications
II . The High Middle Ages
Political and military outline
Recruitment and organization of the armies
Military obligations and recruitment
Composition of the armies
Personal guard of monarchs
Noble militias
Urban militias
Castle garrisons and tenancies
Chain of command
Parias and mercenaries
Military operations
Armament
Fortifications
III. The Late Middle Ages
Political and military outline
Recruitment and organization of the armies
Military obligations and recruitment methods
Composition of the Armies
Castle garrisons and tenancies
Chain of Command
Military operations
Logistics
Armament
Fortifications
Cultural aspects
Main campaigns: Selection of a representative campaign
Bibliography
Chapter 6 - PORTUGAL
I – Early and High Middle Ages, 1096-1249 (José Varandas)
Political and military outline
Portugal: from Earldom to Kingdom (1096-1239)
Portuguese Offensive: from the Mondego to the Tagus River (1131-1147)
The conquest of Lisbon (1147)
The Conquest Between the rivers Tagus and Guadiana (1147-1239)
The civil war (1245-1248)
Recruitment and configuration of military service
The host of war
II - The Late Middle Ages
1249-1367: A time of reforms and royal consolidation (Miguel Gomes Martins)
Afonso III and Dinis: mobilizing the nobility
Weapons, local militias and the fleet
From the 1296 intervention in Castile to the 1319-1324 Civil War
Portugal and Castile between the 1336-1338 War and the 1340 Alliance
The Crown and the Military Orders
1367-1495: A time of transition (João Gouveia Monteiro)
Political context
The evolution of the army
Arms and armour
Fortifications
The conduct of war
Naval warfare
Main campaigns
Siege of Lisbon (1384)
Aljubarrota (1385)
Ceuta (1415)
III - The Sixteenth Century (1495-1600)
A - The War on Land (Luís Costa e Sousa)
Political outline
Fortifications and siege operations
Logistics and recruitment
Theory and practice of war
Ethiopia, 1541-43
Alcácer Quibir (4 August 1578)
B - Naval War (Vitor Luís Gaspar Rodrigues)
Political outline
The supremacy of Portuguese sea power in the Indian Ocean: a technological and tactical revolution
Diu: control of the Indian Ocean
Expansion and strengthening of the empire: repercussions on its naval structure
Naval organisation in the Atlantic
The collapse of the Portuguese navy
Bibliography
Chapter 7 - THE SPANISH IMPERIAL WARS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY (Antonio José Rodríguez Hernández)
Politics and conflicts
Changes in the army
The consolidation of a permanent army
Structures and chains of command: the tercios
Recruitment
The militias
The Indian host
The defensive system and its logic: presidios and armies
Military operations
Battles and actions in the open field
Fortifications and siege warfare
Armament
The pikemen
Firearms
The cavalry
The navy
Bibliography
Glossary
Index
Biography
Francisco García Fitz is Professor at the University of Extremadura, Spain. Expert in Medieval History, his research has addressed the military history and more specifically the policies and warlike relations between Christians and Muslims in medieval Spain.
João Gouveia Monteiro is Professor at the University of Coimbra,Portugal. His research has focused mainly on the military history of Portugal and Europe in the Middle Ages.
'Never has the complicated medieval military history of the Iberian Peninsula been told so well. Nor could it have been accomplished without the talents of so many skilled Iberian military historians as those brought together in this book. This is now the seminal work for anyone seeking to study or research the Iberian military history of the Middle Ages, or to understand the Spanish and Portuguese conquests of the sixteenth century.'Kelly Devries, Loyola University Maryland, USA
‘This volume, well thought out in its structure and executed by its authors, is also a testimony of hybridisations and influences in the military field between Christians and Muslims, which is an added value to the individual studies that comprise it. It is a work that also reveals continuities and transformations throughout the different periods up to the beginning of the 16th century, when the medieval legacy, in warfare methods, was still evident (…) an excellent synthesis developed with clarity and efficiency, which also opens up to an international public not always familiar with historiography written in Portuguese or Spanish (…) the difficult work carried out by its editors to articulate the chapters of the book; and evidences of the fruitful path that research can still pursue in many possible directions, regarding the study of the war in the Iberian Peninsula’
J. Santiago Palacios, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, Sehepunkte 21 (2021), Nr. 4
