Siege of Algeciras (1369)

Last updated

Siege of Algeciras (1369)
Part of the Reconquista
Puente merini2.jpg
Bridge of access to Al-Yazirat Al-Hadra
Date28 July 1369 – 30 July 1369
Location
Algeciras
36°07′39″N5°27′14″W / 36.1275°N 5.453889°W / 36.1275; -5.453889
Result
  • Reconquest of the city by Granada
Belligerents
Emirate of Granada Kingdom of Castile
Commanders and leaders
Muhammad V Henry II
Spain location map with provinces.svg
Red pog.svg
Algeciras
class=notpageimage|
Location in Spain

The siege of Algeciras (1369) was undertaken during the period of the Reconquest of Spain by Muhammad V, the Emir of Granada to reclaim the city of Al-Hadra Al-Yazirat, called Algeciras by the Christians, in the Kingdom of Castile. The siege lasted just three days, and the sultan was victorious. The Muslims thus regained a major city which had been in Castilian hands since Alfonso XI of Castile took it from the Moroccans after the long 1342–1344 siege. Ten years after the capture of the city, in 1379 the sultan of Granada decided to completely destroy the city to prevent it falling into Christian hands. It was impossible to defend the place at a time when the Muslim kings of the Iberian Peninsula had lost much of military power they enjoyed in earlier centuries.

Contents

Background

Granada - territory gained by Castile or Portugal between 1292 and 1462 Reino de Granada.svg
Granada – territory gained by Castile or Portugal between 1292 and 1462
Region around Al-Hadra Al-Yazirat. North is to the right of this map. Algeciras Arabe grande6.jpg
Region around Al-Hadra Al-Yazirat. North is to the right of this map.

The city of Al-Hadra Al-Yazirat was the first city founded by the Muslims under Tariq ibn Ziyad in the Iberian Peninsula on the ruins of the Roman city of Iulia Traducta. [1] During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it had been held by the rulers of Granada and of Morocco. It was conquered by Alfonso XI of Castile in the siege of Algeciras (1342–1344). [2] Castilian control of the city of Algeciras was important in giving control of the Strait of Gibraltar to the Christian kingdoms.[ citation needed ]

However, the death of Alfonso XI during the siege of Gibraltar in 1350 resulted in a civil war between the two successors to the throne of Castile, Peter and Henry II of Castile. Muhammad V of Granada had embarked on a policy of friendship with Castile, supporting Peter as the legitimate heir to the throne. [3] Relations with Aragon however were not as friendly, and the Aragonese supported the proclamation of Muhammad VI as ruler of Granada between 1359 and 1362. [3]

The return of Muhammad V in 1362 and his support of Peter caused closer relations between Aragon and Henry. The end of the Spanish civil war after Peter died in 1369 convinced the Granadans of the need to secure their borders with Castile and regain control of the Strait of Gibraltar. The Moorish king now engaged with the king of Portugal, Fernando I, against Henry, who he felt was the usurper of the throne of Castile. Muhammad V would attack Algeciras while the Portuguese would attack various sites in Galicia. [4]

Siege

On 28 July 1369 Muhammad V appeared with a large army at the gates of the city of Algeciras. [5] The siege was established by erecting siege towers and deploying his soldiers around the perimeter of the city.[ citation needed ] Algeciras at this time consisted of two separate towns separated by the Río de la Miel. Each town had its own walls with strong towers and gateways. After the previous siege many of the city walls had been destroyed or severely weakened, so the Spaniards had to strengthen various sections.[ citation needed ]

The rushed rebuilding left much to be desired compared to the original fabric of the thirteenth century Moorish defenses. Thus the main gate of the city, the Puerta del Fonsario, which had suffered most of the attacks by trebuchets during the siege of Alfonso XI, was rebuilt in part with a weak wall of mortar.[ citation needed ] The combination of decreased physical defenses and a small garrison for the town after movement of troops to the north caused the Muslim siege to be devastating for the city.[ citation needed ]

The attacks focused at first on the Villa Nueva, the southern of the two towns. The soldiers of Muhammad V mounted numerous siege engines, used high ladders to scale the walls and assaulted the city. There were few defenders within the town and Villa Nueva, called al-Binya by the Moors, fell on 30 July. All its inhabitants were slaughtered. [6]

Capitulation

The terror caused by the fall of the southern town and the conviction that no reinforcements would arrive from Castile forced the decision to deliver the besieged city before suffering more casualties. The mayor of the Villa Vieja, Alonso Fernández Portocarrero, third Lord of Moguer, [7] asked the king of Granada to grant safe conduct to the inhabitants to leave the city with their most valuable possessions. [8] After just three days of siege in which the Nazarites siege weapons were used more as a threat than a real attempt to open a breach, the Spanish defenders of Algeciras surrendered their weapons. [9]

On 31 July Muhammad V's troops entered the Villa Vieja of the city, letting its occupants leave with the belongings they could carry. The Cathedral of Algeciras, the former Mosque, was returned to Islamic worship, and the king of Granada occupied the ancient fortress located in the Cerro de Matagorda. [10] The impact on morale of the people of Granada of the reconquest of Al-Hadra Al-Yazirat is evidenced in the many chronicles made in Granada praising the king's military operation. [11]

Nasrid control

Ruins of Algeciras in an 18th-century illustration Algecirasdestruida.jpg
Ruins of Algeciras in an 18th-century illustration

After the capture of the city, Muhammad V rebuilt the defenses and installed a garrison. For ten years the city remained in the hands of Granada, but without achieving the importance it had in the past. The Kingdom of Granada was no longer an important military or economic power in the peninsula, so the main value of Algeciras as a port for entry of North African troops and trade was diminished. No notable events happened in connection with the city, which almost disappeared from written sources.[ citation needed ]

In 1379 Henry II of Castile died and was succeeded by his son Juan I. The Christian kingdoms prepared for a new phase of the reconquest. In these circumstances, the Moorish kingdom considered consolidating its border with Castille. [12] In the Bay of Algeciras there were two port cities, Algeciras and Gibraltar. Despite the strength of Algeciras, Gibraltar was easier to defend because of the natural defenses. Algeciras on the other hand had more than 5,000 metres (16,000 ft) of walls, needing many more soldiers for defense. [12]

Destruction of the city

The choice was clear. The city of Al-Yazirat had to be abandoned so Granada could concentrate future defensive efforts on nearby Gibraltar. Abandonment of the city should be accompanied by the destruction of its fortifications to make them unusable if it were reoccupied by Castile. [12] Walls were dismantled, the port was blocked and the main buildings of Algeciras destroyed, including the palace and the fortress. The houses of the city were burned. The city remained in ruins until 1704, when the capture of Gibraltar by the British forced the original population of that city to take refuge in the ruins of the old Algeciras. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfonso XI of Castile</span> King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1312 to 1350

Alfonso XI, called the Avenger, was King of Castile and León. He was the son of Ferdinand IV of Castile and his wife Constance of Portugal. Upon his father's death in 1312, several disputes ensued over who would hold regency, which were resolved in 1313.

Algeciras is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Located in the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, near the Strait of Gibraltar, it is the largest city on the Bay of Gibraltar.

Nasr, full name Abu al-Juyush Nasr ibn Muhammad, was the fourth Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada from 14 March 1309 until his abdication on 8 February 1314. He was the son of Muhammad II al-Faqih and Shams al-Duha. He ascended the throne after his brother Muhammad III was dethroned in a palace revolution. At the time of his accession, Granada faced a three-front war against Castile, Aragon and the Marinid Sultanate, triggered by his predecessor's foreign policy. He made peace with the Marinids in September 1309, ceding to them the African port of Ceuta, which had already been captured, as well as Algeciras and Ronda in Europe. Granada lost Gibraltar to a Castilian siege in September, but successfully defended Algeciras until it was given to the Marinids, who continued its defense until the siege was abandoned in January 1310. James II of Aragon sued for peace after Granadan defenders defeated the Aragonese siege of Almería in December 1309, withdrawing his forces and leaving the Emirate's territories by January. In the ensuing treaty, Nasr agreed to pay tributes and indemnities to Ferdinand IV of Castile and yield some border towns in exchange for seven years of peace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yusuf I of Granada</span> Sultan of Granada from 1333 to 1354

Abu al-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn Ismail, known by the regnal name al-Muayyad billah, was the seventh Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada on the Iberian Peninsula. The third son of Ismail I, he was Sultan between 1333 and 1354, after his brother Muhammad IV was assassinated.

Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ismail, known as Muhammad IV, was the ruler of the Emirate of Granada on the Iberian Peninsula from 1325 to 1333. He was the sixth sultan of the Nasrid dynasty, succeeding to the throne at ten years old when his father, Ismail I, was assassinated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Algeciras (1278)</span> Naval battle of the Reconquista

The Battle of Algeciras was a naval battle which occurred on July 25, 1278. The battle pitted the fleets of the Kingdom of Castile, commanded by the Admiral of Castile, Pedro Martínez de Fe, and the combined fleets of the Marinid dynasty and that of the Emirate of Granada, commanded by Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr. The battle was fought in the context of the Moorish naval expeditions to the Iberian Peninsula. The battle, which took place in the Strait of Gibraltar, resulted in a Muslim victory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Algeciras (1278–1279)</span> Part of the Reconquista

The siege of Algeciras was the first of many sieges of the city by Christian forces in the lengthy period of the Spanish Reconquista. The siege, ordered by King Alfonso X of Castile also known as "el Sabio", was a fruitless military campaign initiated by the Kingdom of Castile with the objective of removing the Benimerins from Algeciras. The siege on Algeciras, then known to the Muslims as Al-Jazira Al-Khadra, was strategically important because Algeciras had been at the time the main fortress and landing place for African reinforcement troops in the Iberian Peninsula. Castile, which had a powerful armada of ships anchored in the Bay of Gibraltar to blockade such reinforcement, had a few days previously to the siege, seen that fleet obliterated by the Muslim admiral, Abu Yusuf Yaqub at the Naval Battle of Algeciras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Algeciras (1309–1310)</span> Battle of the Spanish Reconquista

The siege of Algeciras was a battle of the Spanish Reconquista that occurred between July 1309 and January 1310. The battle was fought between the forces of the Kingdom of Castile, commanded by King Ferdinand IV of Castile and his vassals, and the Emirate of Granada commanded by Sultan Abu'l-Juyush Nasr. The battle resulted in a humiliating defeat for the Kingdom of Castile whose army was obliged to lift the siege due to the atrocious conditions of life in the Castilian camp and the desertion of Infante John of Castile. The battle marked one of the many battles fought at Algeciras where the Christian forces would try to take the city unsuccessfully from the Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First siege of Gibraltar</span> 1309 battle of the Reconquista

The first siege of Gibraltar was a battle of the Spanish Reconquista that took place in 1309. The battle pitted the forces of the Crown of Castile under the command of Juan Núñez II de Lara and Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, against the forces of the Emirate of Granada who were under the command of Sultan Muhammed III and his brother, Abu'l-Juyush Nasr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moorish Gibraltar</span> Overview of Gibraltar under the Moors

The history of Moorish Gibraltar began with the landing of the Muslims in Hispania and the fall of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo in 711 and ended with the fall of Gibraltar to Christian hands 751 years later, in 1462, with an interregnum during the early 14th century.

The third siege of Gibraltar was mounted between February–June 1333 by a Moorish army under the prince Abd al-Malik Abd al-Wahid of Morocco. The fortified town of Gibraltar had been held by Castile since 1309, when it had been seized from the Moorish Emirate of Granada. The attack on Gibraltar was ordered by the recently crowned Marinid ruler Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman in response to an appeal by the Nasrid ruler Muhammed IV of Granada. The onset of the siege took the Castilians by surprise. The stocks of food in Gibraltar were heavily depleted at the time due to the thievery of the town's governor, Vasco Perez de Meira, who had looted the money that was meant to have been spent on food for the garrison and to pay for the upkeep of the castle and fortifications. After over four months of siege and bombardment by Moorish catapults, the garrison and townspeople were reduced to near-starvation and surrendered to Abd al-Malik.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourth siege of Gibraltar</span> Conflict between Castilian and Moorish forces (1333)

The fourth siege of Gibraltar, fought from June until August 1333, pitted a Christian army under King Alfonso XI of Castile against a large Moorish army led by Muhammed IV of Granada and Abd al-Malik Abd al-Wahid of Fes. It followed on immediately from the third siege of Gibraltar, fought earlier in 1333. The siege began inauspiciously with a disastrous landing by Castilian forces on the west side of Gibraltar, before developing into a stalemate in which neither side had the strength to capture Gibraltar, nor to break out or lift the siege. Both sides faced acute shortages of food – the Gibraltar garrison was cut off from resupply, while the Castilians, deep within enemy territory, could only be resupplied via an unreliable sea route. After two months of inconclusive siege warfare, the Castilians and Moors reached a truce agreement that allowed both sides to make an honourable exit from the siege. Although the Moors managed to keep Gibraltar, the truce cost Muhammed IV his life when he was assassinated by disgruntled nobles the day after signing it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fifth siege of Gibraltar</span> 1349–50 attempt by Alfonso XI of Castile to retake Gibraltar

The fifth siege of Gibraltar, mounted between August 1349 and March 1350, was a second attempt by King Alfonso XI of Castile to retake the fortified town of Gibraltar. It had been held by the Moors since 1333. The siege followed years of intermittent conflict between the Christian kingdoms of Spain and the Moorish Emirate of Granada, which was supported by the Marinid sultanate of Morocco. A series of Moorish defeats and reverses had left Gibraltar as a Moorish-held enclave within Castilian territory. Its geographical isolation was compensated for by the strength of its fortifications, which had been greatly improved since 1333. Alfonso brought an army of around 20,000 men, along with his mistress and their five illegitimate children, to dig in to the north of Gibraltar for a lengthy siege. In the New Year of 1350, however, bubonic plague – the Black Death – broke out in the Castilian camp. Alfonso refused to abandon the siege but fell victim to the plague on 27 March 1350, becoming the only monarch to die of the disease.

The sixth siege of Gibraltar in 1411 was the only occasion on which control of Gibraltar was contested between two Islamic powers. After the failed fifth siege of Gibraltar in 1349–50, which ended with the death of King Alfonso XI of Castile from bubonic plague, the Kingdom of Castile was preoccupied with the Castilian Civil War and its aftermath. In 1369, Sultan Muhammed V of Granada took advantage of the Castilians' distractions and in the siege of Algeciras (1369) he seized the city of Algeciras, on the west side of the Bay of Gibraltar, which Alfonso XI had captured in 1344. After razing it to the ground he made peace with Henry II, the winner of the civil war. The truce was renewed by Henry's successors John I and Henry III. At some point during the truces, control of Gibraltar was transferred from the Marinid dynasty of Morocco, which had held it since 1333, to the Granadans. It is not clear why this happened; it may have been as a condition of the Granadans assisting the Marinids against rebels in Morocco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Algeciras (1342–1344)</span> Castilian siege of the Marinid Empire capital

The siege of Algeciras (1342–1344) was undertaken during the Reconquest of Spain by the Castillian forces of Alfonso XI assisted by the fleets of the Kingdom of Aragon and the Republic of Genoa. The objective was to capture the Muslim city of Al-Jazeera Al-Khadra, called Algeciras by Christians. The city was the capital and the main port of the European territory of the Marinid Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Málaga (1487)</span> Part of the Reconquista of Spain

The 1487 siege of Málaga was an action during the Reconquest of Spain in which the Catholic Monarchs of Spain conquered the city of Mālaqa from the Emirate of Granada. The siege lasted about four months. It was the first conflict in which ambulances, or dedicated vehicles for the purpose of carrying injured persons, were used. Geopolitically, the loss of the emirate's second largest city—after Granada itself—and its most important port was a major loss for Granada. Most of the surviving population of the city were enslaved or put to death by the conquerors.

The Battle of the Strait was a military conflict contesting the ports in the Straits of Gibraltar taking place in the late thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth. The conflict involves principally the Spanish Muslim Emirate of Granada, the Spanish Christian Crown of Castile and the North African Muslim Marinid state. The ports' strategic value came from their position linking Spain and North Africa, thus connecting Muslims in Spain with the rest of the Islamic world. The campaign had mixed results. Castile gained Tarifa permanently, and managed to take Gibraltar and Algeciras but both would revert to Muslim rule. Castile also failed to gain any port in the African side of the strait.

Chronology of the <i>Reconquista</i>

This chronology presents the timeline of the Reconquista, a series of military and political actions taken following the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula that began in 711. These Crusades began a decade later with dated to the Battle of Covadonga and it ended Its culmination came in 1492 with the Fall of Granada to Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. The evolution of the various Iberian kingdoms to the unified kingdoms of Spain and Portugal was key to the conquest of al-Andalus from the Moors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Algeciras</span>

The history of Algeciras, a Spanish region, can be traced back to initial Paleolithic outdoor settlements. In antiquity, Algeciras was home to two significant settlements: the Roman city of Iulia Traducta, which served as an important commercial hub, and the city of Al-Yazira al-Jadra, the first Arab settlement established in the peninsula. Following a three-century period of abandonment, a new city of Algeciras was re-founded in 1704.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Montero 1860.
  2. ↑ Crónica de Alfonso Onceno 1787.
  3. 1 2 V.V.A.A. 1981, p. 464.
  4. ↑ López de Coca Castañer 2004.
  5. ↑ Viguera 2000.
  6. ↑ Torremocha Silva 1999, p. 316.
  7. ↑ González Gómez 1976.
  8. ↑ Torremocha Silva 1999, p. 317.
  9. ↑ Torremocha Silva 2002, p. 320.
  10. ↑ de Igartuburu 1847, p. 120.
  11. ↑ Martínez Enamorado 2009.
  12. 1 2 3 Torremocha Silva 2002.
  13. ↑ Madoz 1849, p. 567.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.