Iberian Crusades

Background

The Christianisation of the Iberia began under Roman rule. Organised church life is first attested in a 254 letter from the congregations of León and Mérida. In the early 4th century, the Council of Elvira gathered 19 bishops and 24 priests. After successive migrations, the Visigoths gained control of most of Hispania by c. 472. Originally Homoian Christians, deemed heretical by Nicene (Catholic) Christians, they converted under King Reccared I to Catholicism, shared by most Hispano-Romans. By the late century the archbishops of Toledo consecrated bishops across the realm, establishing the Toledan liturgy as standard. The Visigothic kingdom was unstable, marked by aristocratic coups. In 711 Muslim forces from North Africa defeated the Visigoths at Guadalete, and conquered most of the peninsula in a decade. Christians became second-class citizens, or dhimmi ("protected people"), paying the jizya tax.

Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) was initially ruled by governors of the Umayyad caliphs. After the Abbasid overthrow in 749, the Umayyad prince Abd al-Rahman escaped to al-Andalus and made Córdoba his capital. From 929 its rulers adopted the title of caliph, asserting independence from the Abbasids. Restrictions on Christians—including bans on converting children of mixed marriages—sparked an anti-Muslim movement in the 840s. The "Martyrs of Córdoba" sought execution by publicly denouncing the Islamic prophet Muhammad; ensuing persecution drove migration north, though rural al-Andalus remained largely Christian for centuries.

In the unconquered north, Asturias emerged after the Visigothic noble Pelayo defeated Muslim troops at Covadonga. Exploiting divisions in al-Andalus, Asturian kings advanced south to the River Duero. When the capital moved from Oviedo to León in the 910s, Asturias evolved into the Kingdom of León. In the northwest, the shrine of the apostle James the Great at Santiago de Compostela became a major pilgrimage centre.

In 778 Charlemagne, king of the Franks, invaded al-Andalus. Later Frankish campaigns established Catalan counties along the Pyrenees, while Basque resistance produced the Kingdom of Navarre in the 820s. Dominated by a warrior aristocracy, the Christian realms often divided and reformed, giving rise to new polities such as Castile and Aragon. From the 10th century Western Europe experienced economic and demographic renewal, the "Commercial Revolution", benefiting merchants of Italian city-states such as Pisa and Genoa.

In 1031 the Caliphate of Córdoba fractured into taifas (small states), many paying parias (tribute) to Christian rulers. The Reconquista revived, and the papacy occasionally granted spiritual rewards to those fighting the Moors. The popes asserted supremacy over Christendom as successors of Peter the Apostle in the episcopal see of Rome, invoking Jesus' words empowering Peter. In the mid-11th century reforming clerics in Rome, seeking freedom from lay control, banned simony (the sale of offices) and vested the right to elect popes in senior clergy, the cardinals.

On the eve of the Crusades

For warriors fighting in Iberia, Pope Alexander II issued the first papal bull promising spiritual rewards in 1063. He ordered them to confess their sins and granted absolution and release from penance "by the authority of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul". The next summer, French, Italian, and Catalan troops joined Sancho Ramírez, king of Aragon, in besieging Barbastro in the taifa of Zaragoza. They captured the town and massacred or enslaved its people, but the Moors recaptured it within a year. The historian Ramón Menéndez Pidal called the campaign "a crusade before the crusades", while the medievalist Peter Lock classed it among the "proto-crusades".

Pope Gregory VII opposed secular rulers investing their own candidates with church offices, bringing him into armed conflicts. The Investiture Controversy revived interest in the theology of war, prompting Anselm of Lucca c. 1083 to compile the late antique theologian Augustine's scattered thoughts on just war into a coherent synthesis. Drawing on classical philosophy, Roman jurisprudence, and biblical precedent, Augustine argued that war, though sinful, could be just if fought for a rightful cause—defence or recovery of possession—declared by legitimate authority and pursued with proper intent.

In 1085 Alfonso VI of León-Castile intervened in a succession dispute and seized Toledo. That year, the taifas of Zaragoza and Valencia sought protection from the exiled Castilian noble Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known El Cid, while Seville, Granada, and Badajoz appealed to Yusuf ibn Tashfin, leader of the fundamentalist Almoravids in Morocco. Yusuf invaded Iberia and crushed Alfonso at the Battle of Sagrajas in 1086, later returning to begin the conquest of the taifas in 1090. The Almoravids reunited Muslim Spain but failed to push north. El Cid captured Valencia in 1094, but the Muslims retook the city after his death.

Confronting resurgent Muslim powers

By the late 11th century the papacy had consolidated its authority and could direct major military enterprises. At the Council of Clermont on 27 November 1095, Pope Urban II urged an expedition to relieve eastern Christians from Muslim rule. Combining just-war principles with penitential pilgrimage, he promised spiritual rewards to participants. His appeal initiated the First Crusade: thousands adopted the cross as a badge of their crusade vow and set out for the Holy Land. The campaign created four Crusader states in the Levant, whose defence inspired subsequent crusades for nearly two centuries.

From 1095 to 1212 Muslim power in Iberia revived under the Almoravids and later the Almohads, Berber movements from North Africa that gained limited support in al-Andalus. Despite occasional Christian reverses, the strategic balance altered little as Muslim forces could win engagements yet rarely hold territory.

Aftermath of the First Crusade

Pope Urban II's call for the First Crusade inspired zeal in Iberia. William I Raymond of Cerdanya, and Berenguer Ramon II of Barcelona were among those who took the cross. Yet Urban discouraged Catalan magnates such as Bernard I of Besalú, Giselbert II of Roussillon, and William Raymond, urging them instead to defend nearby churches from Moorish attacks with remission of sins. His successor, Pope Paschal II, in 1102 formally forbade Iberian Christians from abandoning lands threatened by Almoravid raids.

Peter I of Aragon and Navarre, son of Sancho Ramírez, was the first Iberian ruler to fight as a crucifer ("cross-bearer") within the peninsula. He took the cross in 1100 but, abandoning his plan to reach Jerusalem, turned to attack Zaragoza. In February he built a castle near the city named Juslibol, from the Crusaders' cry Deus vult ("God wills it"), yet failed to take it. Sigurd I of Norway, the first crowned ruler to go on armed pilgrimage to the Holy Land, fought Iberian Muslims by sea and land during his voyage east in 1108.

In 1113 the Pisans sought Pope Paschal II's support backing for a campaign against the Balearic Islands. Paschal offered spiritual rewards for freeing Christian captives and named Cardinal Boso of Sant'Anastasia as papal legate. A fleet led by Pietro, Archbishop of Pisa, sailed in August 1113, wintered in Catalonia, and was joined by Catalan and Occitan nobles including Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona, William VI of Montpellier, and Ramon Guillem, Bishop of Barcelona. By 1114 the armada of over 120 ships seized Ibiza and in 1115 took Palma de Mallorca, but the Almoravids retook the islands in 1116.

The Almoravids had seized Zaragoza, the last taifa, in 1110. Alfonso I, successor of Peter I, sought external aid to reconquer it in 1118. His allies included leading Occitan, Castilian, and Catalan nobles such as Gaston IV of Béarn, Centule II of Bigorre, Diego López I de Haro, and Ramon of Pallars. The siege began on 22 May 1118. Alfonso sent Pedro, bishop-elect of Zaragoza, to Pope Gelasius II, who granted absolution to those slain in the campaign. Acting as legate, Bernard, archbishop of Toledo, extended similar benefits to donors. Zaragoza capitulated on 18 December 1118.

The historian Joseph F. O'Callaghan argues that Alfonso's conquest of Zaragoza prompted Pope Calixtus II to strengthen papal support for crusading in Spain. In 1123 he convened the First Lateran Council, which recognised that crusading vows could be fulfilled in both the Holy Land and Iberia. Calixtus appointed Olegarius, archbishop of Tarragona, as legate for a new Iberian crusade. O'Callaghan links this appeal to the Battle of Corbins, where Christian forces were defeated in 1124. The following year Diego Gelmírez, bishop of Santiago de Compostela, described Iberian crusades as "a road toward the ... Holy Sepulchre [in Jerusalem] which is shorter and less difficult". O'Callaghan reads this as a plan for a major crusade through Iberia and North Africa, while Jotischky interprets it as an allegory suggesting that crusading in Iberia offered an easier path to spiritual reward.

Second Crusade

After 1120 the Almoravids faced rebellion from the Almohads in Morocco. Denouncing the Almoravids as apostates, the Almohads proclaimed their leader Ibn Tumart as the divinely guided Mahdī. Although their first rising failed, after Ibn Tumart's death in 1131 his successor, Abd al-Mu'min, declared himself caliph and began conquering Morocco.

Alfonso I waged campaigns until his death in 1134, leaving his dominions by will to religious institutions—the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller, and the Holy Sepulchre, but his subjects ignored these bequests. His brother Ramiro II, a monk, was proclaimed king of Aragon, while a distant kinsman, García Ramírez, king of Navarre. After the birth of his daughter Petronilla, Ramiro returned to monastic life, arranging her marriage to Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona, uniting the Catalan counties with Aragon into the Crown of Aragon. By then Alfonso VII of León-Castile had become the leading Christian ruler in Iberia. His vassals included García Ramírez, Ramon Berenguer IV, and Alfonso Jordan of Toulouse. In 1135 he assumed the title Emperor of Hispania. His cousin Count Afonso Henriques of Portugal advanced south and, after victory the Battle of Ourique, adopted the title of king. In 1142 he besieged Lisbon backed by northern crusaders sailing for the Holy Land, but failed to capture it.

The Muslim capture of Edessa in the East in December 1144 alarmed Western Christendom, prompting Pope Eugenius III to call the Second Crusade. He extended crusading privileges to Iberia in the bull Divina dispensatione on 13 April 1147. Meanwhile, Almoravid decline under Almohad pressure revived the taifa system in al-Andalus. One taifa ruler, Ibn Qasi, sought 'Abd al-Mu'min's protection, and early in 1147 Almohad troops crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to begin conquering al-Andalus.

According to the historian Jonathan Phillips, Afonso Henriques enlisted the support of Bernard of Clairvaux, leading preacher of the Second Crusade, for an attack on Lisbon. A fleet of over fifty Flemish, Frisian, German, and Anglo-Norman ships left the port of Dartmouth in April 1147 under nobles like Arnold of Aerschot, and Hervey de Glanvill, reaching Lisbon on 28 June. Despite some wishing to continue east, the Crusaders joined the Portuguese in besieging the city. After five months, the city surrendered on terms of safe conduct, but many, including its Mozarabic bishop, were killed in the sack. After securing nearby fortresses such as Sintra and Almada, most Crusaders sailed for the Holy Land on 1 February 1148.

Genoese envoys approached Alfonso VII with a proposal for a joint assault on the city of Almería. They agreed Alfonso would pay 20,000 gold dinars and grant Genoa commercial privileges in return for naval and military aid. His vassals Ramon Berenguer IV and William VI of Montpellier also joined. In July 1147, a fleet of 63 Genoese galleys and 164 other ships, with over 450 knights and 1,000 infantry, besieged Almería, which capitulated on 17 October. Meanwhile, Ramon Berenguer arranged another campaign with the Genoese against Tortosa, for which Pope Eugenius granted crusading privileges. Reinforced by crusaders from France and northern Europe, Ramon Berenguer and the Genoese captured Tortosa on 31 December 1148 after a six-month siege.

Wars against the Almohads

Fought across three theatres—the Holy Land, Iberia, and the Baltic—the Baltic achieved lasting success only in Iberia. Its failure in the Holy Land caused deep disillusionment among the French nobility. Nevertheless, Alfonso VII of León-Castile concluded the Treaty of Tudilén with Ramon Berenguer V of Barcelona, dividing future conquests and assigning the taifas of Dénia, and Murcia to Ramon Berenguer under his suzerainty. At his request, Pope Eugenius III in 1152 and Anastasius IV in 1153 granted crusading indulgences for his campaigns against the Moors, which strengthened his control along the Ebro valley.

After the Almohads united all former Almoravid lands in 1154, the papal legate Cardinal Hyacinth offered crusading privileges to those fighting them. Hyacinth himself took the cross, and, according to O'Callaghan, Alfonso VII's conquests of Andújar and nearby towns were tied to this crusade. In 1157 the Almohads launched a counteroffensive, regaining these towns and Almería. Alfonso died returning from the campaign on 21 August. His sons succeeded him: Sancho III in Castile and Ferdinand II in León. By the 1158 Treaty of Sahagún, they divided Portugal and the remaining Muslim territories in the west. Sancho died that August, leaving his three-year-old son, Alfonso VIII, as heir. Ramon Berenguer died in 1162, succeeded by his son, Alfonso II of Aragon.

Unlike his predecessors, Pope Adrian IV withheld crusading privileges from those fighting in Iberia, focusing instead on the Holy Land. The Almohads consolidated control over al-Andalus, exploiting rivalries among Christian rulers. In 1170 Afonso I of Portugal attacked Badajoz, prompting Ferdinand II of León to ally with the Almohads to relieve it. Two years later, the new caliph Yusuf I seized Murcia and Valencia. When he attacked Huete in 1172, Cardinal Hyacinth granted remission of sins to the defenders, and Alfonso VIII relieved the town. Back in Rome, Hyacinth convinced Pope Alexander III to issue a crusading bull on 23 March 1175 granting absolution to those dying against the Moors and remission of penance to those serving a year. In 1177 the kings of León, Castile, and Aragon met at Tarazona to coordinate campaigns. Alfonso VIII and Alfonso II captured Cuenca, and their Treaty of Cazola confirmed a new division of Muslim lands, assigning Murcia to Castile and freeing Aragon from Castilian suzerainty. The treaty also envisaged partitioning Navarre between Castile and Aragon.

In 1184 Afonso, aided by León, repelled Yusuf's attack on Santarém; Yusuf died of his wounds and was succeeded by his son al-Mansur. The next year Afonso's son Sancho I became king of Portugal. In 1188 Ferdinand II of León died and was succeeded by Alfonso IX, who did homage to his cousin Alfonso VIII of Castile to secure his crown, though this later strained relations.

Third Crusade

In July 1187, Muslim forces destroyed the field army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and captured the relic of the True Cross. Hearing of the disaster, Pope Gregory VIII issued the bull Audita tremendi that October, calling for th Third Crusade. The next year his successor, Clement III, extended crusader privileges to Iberian Christians fighting the Moors and ordered their kings to maintain a truce of at least ten years.

In spring 1189 c. 12,000 Danish and Frisian crusaders, en route to the Holy Land, helped Sancho I of Portugal seize the Castle of Alvor, massacring its inhabitants. In July they were joined by German, French, and English crusaders led by Henry I of Bar and Saer de Sandwich, who together besieged Silves. Starved into surrender, the defenders were granted safe conduct, but the crusaders plundered the city. In July 1190 the Almohad caliph al-Mansur launched his first Iberian campaign from Morocco. His assault on Silves failed, and Sancho repelled his attack on Santarém with English aid, but in the next year's campaign al-Mansur capturing Alcácer do Sal and Silves in July. After these victories he concluded truces with the Christian monarchs.

Almohad triumph and internal rivalries

In 1191 Cardinal Hyacinth, former papal legate to Iberia, was elected pope as Celestine III. Condemning Iberian monarchs for alliances with Muslims, he urged reconciliation and issued crusading indulgences to promote anti-Moorish warfare. Bypassing royal authority, he appealed directly to the Christian populace. Alfonso II of Aragon, Alfonso VIII of Castile, and Alfonso IX of León soon made peace before their truce with the Almohads expired in 1194.

Meanwhile, Alfonso VIII ordered a fortress built at Alarcos on the south bank of the Guadiana River. Provoked also by an earlier raid by Archbishop Martín of Toledo, the Almohad caliph al-Mansur launched a campaign from Morocco in spring 1195. Though Alfonso sought aid from León and Aragon, he confronted al-Mansur before reinforcements arrived. At the Battle of Alarcos on 19 July 1195, al-Mansur gained the last major Almohad victory over the Christians but withdrew within three weeks.

Alfonso IX reached Toledo only after Alfonso VIII's crushing defeat, and their meeting revived old rivalries. He then forged an anti-Castilian alliance with Sancho VII of Navarre and the Almohads. When Almohad forces invaded Castile in early 1196, Alfonso IX and Sancho VII attacked from the west and north. The papal legate, Cardinal Gregory of Sant'Angelo—nephew of Celestine III—excommunicated Alfonso IX for his Muslim alliance and persuaded Sancho to make peace. By year's end, Celestine proclaimed a crusade against León.

In spring 1197 al-Mansur raided the Tagus valley but soon agreed to a ten-year truce with the Christians. Alfonso VIII then invaded León with Peter II of Aragon, while Sancho I of Portugal attacked from the northwest. Seeking support, Alfonso IX met al-Mansur in Seville, but, failing to gain aid, he made peace with his Christian foes and, as a token of reconciliation, married Alfonso VIII's daughter Berengaria in October 1197.

The truce with the Almohads revived rivalries among the Christian monarchs. Castilian and Aragonese forces invaded Navarre, but Sancho VII preserved independence with Almohad support. In 1199 al-Mansur was succeeded by his son al-Nasir, who completed the conquest of the Balearics with the capture of Mallorca Peter II sought papal backing for a campaign against the island and, after agreeing to hold Aragon as a papal fief, was crowned by Innocent III on 10 November 1204. Although Aragonese barons rejected Peter's proposed property tax to fund the war at an assembly in November 1205, he continued preparations and in summer 1210 launched the campaign, capturing several fortresses around Teruel.

Crusade of Las Navas de Tolosa

In 1210 Pope Innocent III wrote to Infante Ferdinand, heir of Alfonso VIII of Castile, declaring that kings were not bound by truces with infidels and referring to remission of sins—implying, according to O'Callaghan, that Ferdinand had taken the cross. When the truce with the Almohads expired, Christian raids resumed, prompting Caliph al-Nasir to invade Castile. He captured Salvatierra Castle in July 1211 but soon withdrew. Expecting a renewed offensive, Alfonso ordered his vassals to gather at Toledo on Trinity Sunday. Though Ferdinand died meanwhile, preparations continued. Innocent directed French and Provençal bishops to grant indulgences to volunteers, while Archbishop Rodrigo of Toledo sought aid in France with limited success amid the Anglo-French conflict.

On arriving in Toledo in February 1212, some crusaders carried out a pogrom against the Jewish community. Around 70,000 crusaders gathered there by Pentecost. Arnaud Amalric, Archbishop of Narbonne and leader of the French contingent, persuaded Sancho VII of Navarre to make peace with Castile en route. More French forces followed under Archbishop Guillaume of Bordeaux and other clerical and noble commanders. Crusaders from León and Portugal also joined, though their kings abstained.

The army left Toledo on 2 June. Most of the French contingent withdrew after Alfonso forbade plundering, save Archbishop Arnaud and 130 knights. Soon after, Sancho VII joined the host. On 16 July the crusaders won a decisive victory over the Almohads at Las Navas de Tolosa. Al-Nasir fled, many of his troops were slain, and rich spoils were taken. The Muslim chronicler al-Marrakushi attributed the defeat to the flight of poorly paid soldiers. The crusaders advanced further, but shortages and plague forced them to end the campaign before month's end. The victory was celebrated throughout Catholic Europe.

Acceleration of the Reconquista

The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa was a major turning point in medieval Iberian history. The Almohads' defeat deepened tensions between native Moors and their North African rulers, leading to a new disintegration of al-Andalus.

Aftermath of Las Navas de Tolosa

In early 1213 Alfonso VIII of Castile captured several Moorish fortresses. He made peace with Alfonso IX of León, who likewise campaigned against the Moors and captured Alcántara on the Tagus. Meanwhile, Peter II of Aragon became embroiled in the Albigensian Crusade in Occitania, opposing the crusader Simon de Montfort's war against his brother-in-law Raymond VI of Toulouse. When mediation failed, Peter attacked Montfort but was defeated and killed at the Battle of Muret on 12 September.

He was succeeded by his underage son James I. That same year the child al-Mustansir became Almohad caliph after al-Nasir was slain by a retainer. In Castile, Alfonso VIII was succeeded by his young son Henry I in 1214. Believing the Moorish and Albigensian threats diminished, Pope Innocent III withdrew crusading privileges from both Iberia and Occitania.

Fifth Crusade

Convoked by Pope Innocent III, the Fourth Lateran Council, meeting in November 1215, proclaimed the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land. It also standardised the crusade indulgence, granting full remission of confessed sins to all crusaders. In July 1217 about 300 ships with Frisian and German crusaders reached Lisbon. The new king of Portugal, Afonso II, was unwilling to violate the truce with the Almohads, but Bishop Soeiro urged them to help recapture Alcácer do Sal. Although the Frisians continued east, the Germans under William I of Holland and George of Wied stayed with some 180 ships. Allied with the Portuguese, they besieged and captured Alcácer do Sal on 18 October. The Portuguese later petitioned Pope Honorius III, Innocent's successor, to let the crusaders fulfil their vows locally, but he granted absolution only to those unable to proceed to the East.

After the child king Henry I of Castile died in an accident, his sister Berengaria—whose marriage to Alfonso IX of León had been annulled for consanguinity—secured the throne for their son, Ferdinand III. Having already taken the cross, Alfonso IX joined in an attack on Cáceres in November 1218 with an army including crusaders from across Europe, such as Savari de Mauléon, but heavy rains and flooding forced their withdrawal before year's end. In June 1219 Pope Honorius granted indulgences for Archbishop Rodrigo's campaign against Valencia. The crusaders took several fortresses but failed to seize Requena. He likewise extended the indulgence to Alfonso IX's attacks on Cáceres, which the King failed to capture in 1221 and 1222.

Disintegration of the Almohad Empire

The Almohad caliph al-Mustansir died young in January 1224, and the ensuing power struggle allowed the native rulers of al-Andalus to cast off caliphal authority. Though not stated outright, references to his vows suggest Ferdinand III of Castile took the cross soon after John of Brienne, former king of Jerusalem, married his sister Berenguela in April 1224. The Almohad governors Abu Zayd of Valencia and Abu Mohammad of Baeza did homage to him, though Abu Zayd soon defected. Crusading privileges were granted for local causes: part of church revenues went to the noble Alfonso Téllez de Meneses for Alburquerque's defence, and his brother Tello, bishop of Palencia, received indulgences to fortify Aliaguilla.

Pope Honorius III appointed Archbishop Rodrigo of Toledo and Bishop Mauricio of Burgos as protectors of the Iberian crusaders. After the Moors of Córdoba murdered Abu Mohammad in 1225, Ferdinand captured Baeza and Capilla. In 1228 Ibn Hud, a native Moorish aristocrat, seized Murcia and broke from the Almohads, gaining control over much of al-Andalus. Alfonso IX of León renewed the war, taking Mérida in spring 1230, defeating Ibn Hud at Alange, and capturing Badajoz in May. He was preparing to attack Seville when he died suddenly on 24 September. Ibn Hud's defeat undermined his rule, and he was soon expelled from Murcia.

After taking the cross in April 1225, James I of Aragon planned to invade Valencia. Abu Zayd secured peace by agreeing to pay a fifth of his revenues as tribute to Aragon, but was expelled from Valencia by Zayyan ibn Mardanish. Soon converting to Christianity, Abu Zayd sought James's aid, yet the king turned instead to Mallorca, which under Abu Yahya had broken from the Almohads and become a corsair base. Pope Gregory IX authorised his legate Jean d'Abeville to grant indulgences to participants. In spring 1229 about c. 800 knights and over 2,000 infantry set sail on c. 150 ships. Palma de Mallorca fell after a months-long siege on 31 December, and by 1231 most of the island's Muslims had fled to North Africa.

Christian expansion

Although expelled from Murcia, Ibn Hud retained control over much of al-Andalus, including Granada, Córdoba, and Seville. His authority was soon contested by Muhammad I of the Banu Nasr, who began establishing his own dominion. Other rivals included Zayyan of Valencia and Ibn Mahfuṭ of Niebla in the Algarve.

Ferdinand III of Castile resumed his campaigns against the Moors in 1229, pausing only on the death of his father, Alfonso IX of León, which allowed him to reunite the two kingdoms. In 1231 Pope Gregory IX granted crusading indulgences to those joining the expeditions of Archbishop Rodrigo of Toledo or Ferdinand, or contributing funds. After Rodrigo captured Quesada and Cazorla, the Pope directed the Toledo clergy to support him for three years. Ferdinand then took Úbeda, compelling Ibn Hud to pay tribute. When Christian troops occupied part of Córdoba, Ferdinand besieged the city in February 1236 and forced the defenders to surrender on 29 June, granting them safe conduct.

James I of Aragon began the conquest of the divided taifa of Valencia in 1232, prompting Pope Gregory IX to grant indulgences to volunteers for three years. James renewed his alliance with Valencia's former ruler, Abu Zayd, who had converted to Christianity as Vincent. In April 1238, aided by French and English crusaders, he besieged Valencia; on 28 September, Zayyan surrendered in return for safe conduct. Ibn Hud was assassinated in 1238, and his family sought Ferdinand III's support against Muslim rivals. In May 1243 al-Mutawakkil of Murcia paid homage to Ferdinand, permitting Castilian troops to garrison his capital. Rival claims to Muslim territories led to war between Castile and Aragon until the Treaty of Almizra fixed the frontier in March 1244. Thereafter James I captured the remaining fortresses of Valencia, forcing Zayyan to flee to Tunis, and the remnants of al-Andalus fell under Castilian influence. James began planning an eastern crusade, but the Mudejars of Valencia rebelled, prompting Pope Innocent IV to proclaim crusades against them in 1248 and 1250.

Afonso II of Portugal's son, Sancho II, played no active role in the Reconquista for much of his reign due to disputes with the Church and nobility, leaving the warrior monks of the Order of Santiago to capture several towns, including Beja and Mértola. Sancho's brother, Infante Fernando—excommunicated for his excesses against the clergy—formed an anti-Moorish alliance with the Leonese infante Alfonso of Molina. At their request, Pope Gregory IX in 1239 granted indulgences for a projected campaign, though none was launched. Sancho later renewed the war against the Moors; in 1241 the Pope granted indulgences to his supporters as the Portuguese took Alvor and Paderne. Sancho's conflict with the Church deepened, and Gregory IX authorised Sancho's brother Afonso to restore order. The coup succeeded, and Sancho died in exile in 1248. In the following two years Afonso III completed the conquest of the Algarve, capturing Faro and other towns.

Ferdinand III renewed his campaigns by besieging Jaén on the Guadalquivir. Instead of supporting the defenders, Muhammad I, now ruler of Granada, did homage to Ferdinand, forcing Jaén's Muslim inhabitants to surrender in March 1246. Around this time Pope Innocent granted indulgences to Castilians and Leonese who joined or financed the campaign. After Jaén's fall, the Muslims of Seville, the chief centre of al-Andalus, offered tribute, but the militant populace overthrew the moderates and accepted Tunisian suzerainty. In response, Ferdinand began the siege of Seville in July 1247, supported by a fleet of thirteen galleys. The defenders failed to destroy the fleet with Greek fire, while the besiegers were reinforced by crusaders from Aragon and Portugal. Seville surrendered on 23 November 1248, and its fall compelled the remaining Moorish cities, including Jerez de la Frontera and Cádiz, to pay annual tribute to Castile.

Survival of al-Andalus

After the fall of Seville, al-Andalus became, in the words of the medievalist Paul M. Cobb, "a hemmed-in, isolated, and besieged toehold at Granada". For nearly 250 years it was ruled by the Banu Nasr dynasty, whom Cobb describes as "in many ways the greatest kings of Muslim Spain". Although a tributary state, Granada resisted Christian attacks through its formidable fortifications, watchtowers, and skilled troops. Its distance from the Christian centres of power also enabled support from the Muslim rulers of North Africa. Alongside Granada, the minor taifa of Niebla endured in south-western Iberia. Following the Christian advance of the early 13th century, an expanded Castile alone bordered al-Andalus. Its relations with its weaker Christian neighbours were cursory and uneasy. James II of Aragon even declared that final victory over the Moors could not be achieved without the partition of Castile.

Conflict over the Strait of Gibraltar

In 1245, the Muslim ruler of Salé in Morocco—identified by O'Callaghan as al-Hasan, son of the convert Abu Zayd—offered to cede the town to the Order of Santiago. The plan failed when al-Hasan was executed on the orders of the Almohad caliph al-Said. Preoccupied with the resettlement of Seville, Ferdinand III of Castile concluded peace with the Almohads before his death on 30 May 1252. His son, Alfonso X, succeeded him and began his reign by quelling Mudéjar revolts. To prepare for campaigns in North Africa, Alfonso established shipyards in Seville and ports at Cádiz and El Puerto de Santa María to strengthen his navy. In 1260, aided by a crusading indulgence, his fleet raided Morocco for three weeks; two years later, he annexed the taifa of Niebla.

In 1262, as Alfonso prepared to invade North Africa, the Mudéjars—encouraged by Granada—rose in revolt across southern Spain. The uprising was crushed with crusader levies, but the revolt revealed that war could not shift to Africa while Granada endured. Meanwhile, the Marinids replaced the Almohads as North Africa's leading power, and in 1275 Muhammad II, Muhammad I's successor in Granada, allied with the Marinid ruler Abu Yusuf. Marinid forces crossed the Strait, capturing Algeciras and Tarifa, and routed the Castilians at Écija. Alarmed by the Marinids' ascendancy, Muḥammad II persuaded Alfonso X to besiege Algeciras; yet, after taking Málaga from the Marinids, he reversed allegiance and assisted them in compelling the Castilians to lift the siege.

After the death of Alfonso X's eldest son, Infante Ferdinand, Castile descended into civil war between Alfonso and his second son, Sancho, who claimed the succession over his late brother's son, Alfonso de la Cerda. During the conflict, the father allied with the Marinids, while the son was supported by Granada. On his father's death in 1284, Sancho IV succeeded to the throne and continued to regard the Marinids as his principal Muslim adversaries. Meanwhile, under the reign of Peter III, son of James I, Aragon had seized Sicily from Charles I of Anjou, a papal vassal, thereby inciting a crusade against Aragon.

To ease Aragonese fears of Castilian expansion, Sancho IV concluded the Treaty of Monteagudo with James II of Aragon, son and successor of Peter III, in 1291, apportioning prospective North African conquests: territories west of the Moulouya River to Castile, and those to the east to Aragon. The following year, Sancho captured the key Iberian port of Tarifa from the Marinids. Amid domestic turmoil, the papacy withheld crusading indulgences for his campaigns, prompting him to invoke earlier bulls of Popes Innocent IV and Clement IV when preparing an assault on Algeciras in 1294. Sancho's death rekindled civil war in Castile during the minority of his son, Ferdinand IV, and enabled Aragon to occupy Murcia for several years despite prior treaties.

Muhammad III, who succeeded his father in Granada in 1302, launched several raids into Castilian territory. In 1306 he captured the North African port of Ceuta from the Marinids, prompting an alliance between Ferdinand IV, James II, and the Marinid sultan Amir. Pope Clement V granted indulgences for the war against Granada, leading to the conquest of Gibraltar for Castile in 1309 the nobleman Alonso Pérez de Guzmán with the support of an Aragonese fleet; however, Ferdinand failed at Algeciras and James at Málaga, while Amir, having retaken Ceuta, allied himself with Granada. The setback weakened Aragon's commitment to anti-Moorish campaigns in Iberia, and thereafter the papacy offered only limited support for operations against Granada.

Papal indulgences for campaigns against Granada were reinstated in 1328, three years after Alfonso XI, son and successor of Sancho IV, attained his majority. Exploiting the Castilian nobility's desire to avenge a humiliating defeat at the 1319 Battle of the Vega, Alfonso consolidated his authority and launched incursions into Granada. The indulgences inspired several foreigners to join the campaigns. In response, Muhammad IV of Granada allied with the Marinid sultan Ali, and their combined forces recaptured Gibraltar from the Castilians in 1333.

Crusade of Salado

Following the fall of Gibraltar, Pope John XXII granted new indulgences in support of Castile, yet Alfonso XI concluded a five-year truce with Granada's new ruler, Yusuf I in 1334. The death of the Marinid prince Abu Malik during a raid near Jerez de la Frontera in 1337 led his father, Sultan Ali, to prepare a fresh campaign against Castile. When the Marinid fleet of some 200 ships sailed from North Africa, Admiral Alfonso Jofré Tenorio, aided by Aragonese vessels, attempted to intercept it, but the combined fleet was defeated at the Battle of Getares in April 1340.

Yusuf I soon joined the Marinid forces in besieging Tarifa, prompting Peter IV of Aragon to dispatch galleys for its defence. Pope Benedict XII proclaimed a crusade, and Alfonso XI advanced to Tarifa with Afonso IV of Portugal. On 30 October, the combined Christian armies, aided by a sortie from Tarifa's defenders, defeated the united Marinid and Granadan host at the Battle of Salado. This victory ended the last major Muslim invasion of Iberia from North Africa, though it left the Emirate of Granada largely intact.

Despite the considerable plunder gained from the battle, Alfonso required two years to amass the funds to besiege Algeciras in 1342, completing the operation only two years later with papal financial aid. During the siege, an Aragonese fleet supported the Castilians, and crusaders such as Philip III of Navarre and the English nobles Henry of Grosmont and William Montagu fought against the Moors. In July 1349, Alfonso turned his assault to Gibraltar, the Marinids' final foothold in Iberia, but the Black Death claimed his life on 27 March 1350, compelling his army to abandon the siege.

Decline of the Reconquista

Secure within the rugged Sierra Nevada, Granada could be subdued only through firm leadership and sustained national resolve—qualities Castile lacked for more than a century. During this time, the Reconquista assumed two main forms: constant frontier skirmishes and occasional large-scale campaigns, collectively known as the Guerra de Granada ("Granadan War") or Guerra del Moro ("Moorish War"). Castile and Granada frequently concluded truces lasting two or three years, though raiding persisted in the intervals.

Although Alfonso XI's son, Peter of Castile, sought crusading privileges from Pope Innocent VI for a North African campaign, he soon became embroiled in conflict with Aragon, sparking a war that endured until 1366. He was deposed in 1369 by his illegitimate brother, Henry of Trastámara, with French support. Henry's planned conquest of Granada stirred crusading fervour in France in 1375, but renewed hostilities with Portugal forced its abandonment. After his death, the claim of his son John I to the Portuguese throne, together with the Western Schism, produced rival papal crusades: in 1382 Pope Urban VI preached one against Castile, while his opponent, Clement VII, granted indulgences to John I of Castile for his war against John I of Portugal.

Piracy revived enthusiasm for anti-Moorish warfare towards the close of the 14th century. In 1398 the Avignon pope Benedict XIII granted indulgences to Valencians and Mallorcans who launched counter-raids against North African pirates. Granadan forces penetrated deep into Castilian territory in 1401 and 1406. King Henry III of Castile persuaded the Cortes (parliament) to approve an extraordinary subsidy for a counter-attack. Although Henry died of illness, his brother Infante Ferdinand, acting as regent for the young John II, soon renewed the war. The Castilian fleet defeated the Marinid navy on 26 August, but aristocratic indifference compelled Ferdinand to abandon the sieges of Ronda and Setenil in 1407. Reviving the campaign in 1410, he captured the strategically vital fortress of Antequera in September. Although no crusade bulls survive, Ferdinand's campaigns were supported by foreign volunteers, among them the French James de La Marche and the Burgundian Guillebert de Lannoy.

Ferdinand became King of Aragon in 1412, but his grants of lands and offices to his younger sons, John and Henry, enabled them to obstruct royal policy in Castile. Royal authority was restored under John II's favourite, Álvaro de Luna, by 1431. Meanwhile, Granada descended into anarchy amid rivalries between three claimants—Muhammad VIII, Muhammad IX, and Yusuf IV—permitting Castilian intervention. The ensuing campaigns, endorsed by indulgences granted by Popes Martin V and Eugenius IV, led to Castile's victory at the Battle of La Higueruela and a temporary expansion into the Emirate. Civil war broke out in Castile in 1438, undoing these gains, though Pope Nicholas V renewed indulgences for anti-Moorish campaigns between 1448 and 1452.

Nicholas V and Callixtus III were the first popes to regard crusading in Iberia within the wider context of the Ottoman advance. While recognising that Castile could not confront the Ottomans directly, they invoked its victories over Granada to urge other Catholic powers to take up arms against the Ottoman threat. Henry IV of Castile, son of John II, conducted raids into Granadan territory between 1455 and 1458 but sought to avoid prolonged and costly campaigns for which both his opponents and the traveller Gabriel Tetzel accused him of sympathy towards Islam. When frontier hostilities resumed, a coalition of Castilian nobles, notably Juan de Guzmán and Rodrigo Ponce de León, aided by urban militias, captured the weakly garrisoned Gibraltar in 1462.

Granada War

Castile was racked by civil wars. The first, between King Henry IV and his opponents, forced him in 1468 to disinherit his daughter Joanna—suspected of illegitimacy—in favour of his half-sister Isabella. After Henry died in 1474, a second war broke out between Isabella and Joanna: Isabella was supported by her husband, Ferdinand, heir to the Aragonese throne, while Joanna was backed by her fiancé, Afonso V of Portugal. Isabella and Ferdinand triumphed in 1479, the year Ferdinand also became king of Aragon.

The union of Castile and Aragon under their rule ended Granada's ability to exploit rivalry between the two kingdoms. In 1480, the Ottoman capture of Otranto in Italy heightened fears that Granada might serve as a base for an Ottoman invasion of Iberia. From 1482, the emirate was divided between Muhammad XI in Granada and his deposed father, Abu'l-Hasan, in Málaga.

The final war against Granada began with frontier raids and evolved into annual campaigns that gradually eroded the emirate's defences. The fall of Ronda in 1485 cost Granada its western provinces. Under mounting pressure, Muhammad XII allied with the Castilian–Aragonese forces, first against his father and later his uncle, Muhammad XII. The capture of Málaga in 1487 ended any realistic prospect of Muslim naval aid from North Africa. In the closing phase of the war, Muhammad XIII allied with the Christians against his nephew who defended the emirate's capital. After an eight-month siege, it capitulated on 2 January 1492. In announcing the victory to Pope Innocent VIII, Ferdinand declared that the fall of Granada marked the end of nearly eight centuries of Muslim rule in Iberia.

Warfare

While the medievalist Luis García-Guijarro Ramos concludes, crusading "contributed to Christian military expansion in Iberia only in a subsidiary way", O'Callaghan notes that "the organization and operations of Christian armies" underwent substantial development in the crusading period. The improvement of army organisation was accompanied by frequent consideration of strategic matters—defensive and offensive alike—including the advisability of raids, sieges, and pitched battles.

Organisation of armies

Campaigns were usually waged between late spring and early autumn. With no standing armies, forces were raised for each expedition. Secular and ecclesiastical leaders were summoned by name. Under the Usages of Barcelona, musters were called by letters, envoys, or signal fires, requiring recruits to assemble fully equipped at a set place and time. Absence incurred fines, disinheritance, or excommunication. Nobles and townsmen generally served three months for pay or tenure. Disobedience, disorder, theft, desertion, or aiding the enemy were harshly punished.

Kings commonly led their armies in person, accompanied by sons, brothers, and a corps of knightly guards known as the mesnada. Bishops, abbots, and other prelates were expected to provide spiritual and military support. Following the conquest of Lisbon, Sancho I of Portugal maintained the clergy's military duty only when the realm faced Muslim attack. Aristocratic self-awareness was strengthened by chivalric ideals, demanding lifelong devotion to arms. Noble children trained as squires under experienced knights and were knighted after proving themselves in battle. The leading magnates kept personal retinues, while royal charters defining municipal privileges also specified military obligations, often redeemable by a tax called the fonsadera. Fortresses were often manned by warrior monks of the military orders.

Corps fought under the standard of the king, a great noble, a military order, or a municipality. Defending these banners was a point of honour, and abandoning one was punished as treason. The royal standard was borne by the alférez or signifer, a high-ranking aristocrat who commanded the army in the king's absence. The militia banner was carried by the town's juez (judge), always of knightly rank. Lesser commanders included the adalides, leading cavalry, and the almocadenes, commanding infantry. Candidates for both offices were nominated by twelve of their peers. From the mid-14th century, frontier warfare was chiefly waged by the region's powerful Castilian nobility, including the Guzmáns and the Fernández de Córdoba family.

Naval forces were initially provided by the Pisans and Genoese. The first Aragonese fleet was established under James I, with a royal shipyard at Barcelona. Castile first employed its own navy at the siege of Seville, while Afonso III of Portugal built a fleet to defend the Algarve. Sieges were occasionally coordinated with naval raids on nearby coastal bases.

Military equipment

A knight's chief weapon was a double-edged iron sword, about 3 feet (0.91 m) long, with a hilt, used mainly to cut through chain mail rather than pierce the body. Knights also carried lances 6–7 feet (1.8–2.1 m) in length. They rode either a la jineta, in the Moorish fashion with short stirrups, or a la brida, in the French style with longer ones.

Foot soldiers bore lances or shorter javelins, while both mounted and foot troops employed projectile weapons, such as the crossbow. Armour comprised a mail coat over a quilted jacket, a helmet or iron cap, and metal or leather limb braces. Shields of wood, leather, or iron were round or kite-shaped, and warhorses might wear mail protection. Equipment varied by rank: great lords sometimes adorned their helmets with jewels. On the frontiers, the Almogavars—light raiders on foot or horseback—favoured daggers and darts.

Raids, sieges and battles

Cavalcades and raids were the chief forms of offensive warfare. Short raids of a day or two sought plunder, while longer expeditions, launched after the harvest, aimed at devastation. Minor raids rarely exceeded 300 troops; major incursions, involving thousands, were organised into vanguard, rearguard, and flanking forces.

Small garrisons were often taken by surprise, but great sieges could last for months. Besiegers frequently plundered the surrounding countryside, while defenders launched sorties against them. Walls were breached by battering rams or mining, and siege towers enabled archers and crossbowmen to fire from above, although such towers were often destroyed by burning oil poured from the walls. Trebuchets and mangonels were employed for bombardment. Psychological warfare included impaling the heads of captives or taunting besiegers about their wives' fidelity during long absences. Defenders were usually subdued by famine or disease. When a city surrendered, its inhabitants were generally allowed to depart or remain; if taken by storm, they were often massacred. Gunpowder was first used by the Granadans in Iberian warfare c. 1350, but the Castilians quickly adopted it for mines and small cannons, known as lombards. Cannons were employed extensively, together with large siege towers, during the siege of Antequera.

Battles generally resulted from sieges or raids, as pitched battles were avoided to limit casualties and territorial loss. The scale of combat is poorly documented. O'Callaghan estimates that major actions involved up to 10,000 troops on each side, though 3,000–5,000 was typical.

Booty from raids enhanced a soldier's standing, and border towns profited from the spoils of war. Municipal statutes held that plunder seized by the militia belonged to the urban community. It was auctioned publicly, with proceeds distributed as follows: one-fifth to the king; compensation to those who lost kin, horses, or equipment; payments to commanders and rewards to the distinguished; the remainder to the rank and file. Prisoners of war were usually ransomed by relatives or monastic orders founded for that purpose, such as the Trinitarians and Mercedarians. Ransoms were negotiated by alfaqueques, specialists fluent in Arabic.

Military orders

The military orders were religious communities uniting monastic discipline with a martial life, reflecting the diversity of Western Christian spirituality at the turn of 11th–12th centuries. As the historian Peter Lock notes, they combined "knighthood and monasticism in an innovative and appealing way" consistent with crusading ideals. Members took the usual monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, living communally within convents. They attended the divine offices and recited prescribed Paternosters. Meditative reading was not required of the lay brethren—knights and serjeants—who formed the majority, and little is known of their peacetime training.

Templars and Hospitallers

The Knights Templar, the first religious order dedicated to arms, arose from crusaders who, after the First Crusade, settled in Jerusalem to serve the Holy Sepulchre. Led by Hugues de Payens, they declared the protection of pilgrims their principal aim and gained papal recognition at the Council of Troyes in 1129. Though the union of knightly and clerical callings drew criticism, Bernard of Clairvaux became their chief advocate. The militarisation of a second order, the Knights Hospitaller—originally a charitable brotherhood—is attested from the 1130s.

Both orders gained extensive estates in Aragon after an accord with Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona over the will of Alfonso I. They held lands across Christian Iberia, with headquarters at Monzón (Templars) and Amposta (Hospitallers). As both sent much of their Iberian revenue to the Holy Land, Afonso I of Portugal required that their income be spent locally.

After the fall of the last Crusader strongholds in the Holy Land in 1291, the Templars faced mounting criticism. Acting on Philip IV of France's orders, all French Templars were arrested in 1307 for heresy, idolatry, and sodomy. Under royal pressure, Pope Clement V dissolved the order at the Council of Vienne in 1312. Across most of Europe, the Hospitallers took over Templar estates, but in Iberia two new orders were formed: in Aragon, the Order of Montesa received both Templar and Hospitaller lands in Valencia; in Portugal, the Order of Christ received the Templar holdings.

Iberian orders

The example of the Templars and Hospitallers inspired the formation of indigenous Iberian military orders whose resources were concentrated on warfare within the peninsula. The first such confraternity, or militia Christi, was founded in 1122 by Alfonso I of Aragon: the Confraternity of Belchite, whose members fought in exchange for absolution from sin. Around 1124, Alfonso established another confraternity at Monreal for overseas campaigns, while in 1138 Iberian prelates, led by Bishop Guifré of Barbastro and Roda, founded a third to defend his see. None endured long; Belchite is last recorded in 1136.

The Order of Calatrava, first of the native Iberian military orders, arose after the Templars abandoned the border fortress of Calatrava la Vieja. In 1158, Sancho II of Castile granted it to Raymond, Cistercian abbot of Fitero, who gathered monks and laymen with remission of sins to defend it. Recognised by the papacy in 1164, the order gained wide estates across Iberia. In 1187 its monastic rule was codified, and it was placed, in theory, under the Cistercian abbey of Cîteaux.

The first Leonese order, that of San Julián del Pereiro, was first recorded upon its papal recognition in 1176. After its headquarters moved to Alcántara in 1218, it became the Order of Alcántara. The Portuguese Order of Évora, likewise attested in 1176, took the name of its new seat at Avis in the early 1220s. The Order of Santiago, the most prominent Iberian military order, was founded at Cáceres in 1170. Within a decade it came under the authority of the cathedral chapter of Santiago de Compostela and gained wide endowments across the Iberian realms and beyond. Its rule, derived from that of St Augustine, was confirmed by the papacy in 1175. Uniquely, Santiago accepted married men as full members.

Several short-lived orders were founded but soon incorporated into larger ones, such as the Order of Mountjoy, whose Aragonese branch passed to the Templars in 1196 and its surviving branch, the Order of Monfragüe, to the Calatravans in 1221. Aware of the harm caused by rivalries between the Templars and Hospitallers in the Holy Land, leaders of the Iberian orders at times made pacts to secure cooperation, the first between the masters of Calatrava and Santiago in 1221. Despite royal pressure, the orders generally remained neutral in wars among the Christian realms.

After the extensive conquests of the 13th century, the military orders turned chiefly to the defence of the frontiers—against both Moors and Christians—and to the colonisation of their lands. Under the patronage of the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, the Order of Christ directed naval expeditions along the Atlantic coast of Africa, thereby inaugurating the Age of Discovery. During the Granada War, the orders' military role briefly revived. By this time, the Iberian monarchs had assumed control of all the orders, at times appointing illegitimate or underage sons as their heads. Following the completion of the Reconquista, secularisation advanced steadily: within a century, all the orders had been incorporated into the royal crowns, and their members were released from monastic obligations such as celibacy.

Finances

Crusading warfare, as O'Callaghan notes, "placed a heavy strain on the resources" of the Iberian Christian states "and required extraordinary financial support". Yet the royal archives of Castile, León, and Portugal have not survived, while in Catalonia only financial records from the late 12th and early 13th centuries remain. The considerable diversity of coinage in circulation further complicates the study of the available evidence.

From the 12th century onwards, unlike in much of Catholic Europe, the Iberian Christian monarchs compensated their vassals with stipends rather than land grants. These payments were chiefly drawn from ordinary royal revenues—such as tolls on pasturage, trade and market dues, fines, fees, and tributes from Jewish and Mudejar communities. Levies on clerical income emerged as a significant extraordinary source of finance for crusading expeditions, first introduced in 1199 as a one-off 2.5 per cent tax by Pope Innocent III. The Fourth Lateran Council later authorised a 5 per cent levy over three years to fund crusades in the Levant; yet the Iberian clergy's reluctance to comply provoked stern rebukes from Pope Honorius III. Under pressure from Iberian monarchs and prelates, he ultimately conceded a share of this tax to support campaigns within the peninsula.

Kings occasionally appropriated church revenues—most commonly the tercias (tithes reserved for ecclesiastical maintenance)—and at times seized the property of deceased prelates. The use of the tercias for crusading purposes was first authorised by Pope Honorius III for Archbishop Rodrigo of Toledo in 1219, and they later helped to finance Ferdinand III of Castile's campaign against Seville. Extraordinary taxes included the petitum (a lump-sum levy) in Castile and León, the bovaticum (a tax on draught animals) in the Crown of Aragon, and the monetaticum (a payment compensating the fisc for refraining from reminting coinage). The parias re-emerged as a significant source of royal income after the collapse of the Almoravid and Almohad empires. Iberian monarchs frequently contracted loans to finance military expeditions, often from ecclesiastical institutions, the Templars, merchants, and Italian bankers. Under Ferdinand III, towns and cities were regularly compelled to advance such loans.

From the 1430s, crusade indulgences were offered at a fixed rate. Under Pope Martin V the standard price was eight ducats, reduced by Eugenius IV to five florins and by Nicholas V to three. The establishment of a fixed charge increased the financial returns and augmented royal revenue in Castile. In 1460, Pope Pius II authorised the granting of indulgences to those engaged in the wars against Granada, stipulating that half of the proceeds be allocated to anti-Ottoman crusading efforts.