Since the defeat at Alarcos (19 July 1195) the Almohads hold Calatrava la Vieja on the Guadiana and the castles of its plain (Alarcos, Caracuel, Benavente, Piedrabuena, Malagón, and Guadalerzas in the Montes, lost in 1195).
In 1196 and 1197 the caliph al-Mansur rode north through this ground to Talavera, Maqueda, Escalona, Santa Olalla and the walls of Toledo, then on to Madrid, Alcalá, Guadalajara, Oreja, Uclés, Huete and Cuenca. Since June 1197 a ten-year truce stops the royal armies, but the belt from the Montes de Toledo to the Sierra Morena stays empty and unsafe. On the Christian side stand Toledo and its towns, the Hospitallers at Consuegra, Santiago at Uclés, Ocaña and Oreja, and Calatrava at Zorita; deep inside the belt, the Calatravan knights have held Salvatierra since 1198, an island in Almohad ground.
Who raids here
Almohad garrisons of the Campo de Calatrava against the Tajo valley and the Montes; Toledan militias, the knights of Calatrava from Salvatierra and the other orders south into the Campo. Under the truce, raiding is reduced to small-scale theft of flocks and skirmishes; nothing larger is recorded for 1198-99 in the sources used here.
Castles christian
Toledo; Consuegra (Hospitallers, since 1183); Uclés, Ocaña and Oreja (Santiago); Zorita (Calatrava); Ciruelos (Calatrava house, the Order's seat 1195-98); Salvatierra (Calatrava, since 1198, cut off).
Castles almohad
Calatrava la Vieja (the regional fortress on the Guadiana); Alarcos; Caracuel; Benavente; Piedrabuena; Malagón; Guadalerzas (lost by Calatrava in 1195, retaken only after 1211); Castroferral and the Sierra Morena passes.
Last campaign
Al-Mansur's campaign of spring 1197; Calatravan seizure of Salvatierra in 1198. Truce since June 1197.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
In 1200
- through 1200The truce of June 1197 between Alfonso VIII and the Almohads holds; no royal campaign south of the TajoDepends on: both sides keeping the ten-year truce (the new caliph Muhammad al-Nasir, caliph since January 1199, is taken up with securing his rule and with the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya and the Balearics) Stopped by: a Castilian or Almohad breach, or a large raid by the military orders that the other side treats as war
Later, on the likely course
- 1201-1211The truce runs out; Castilian raids from 1209-10, the Almohads take Salvatierra in September 1211, and the Las Navas campaign of 1212 retakes Malagón, Calatrava, Alarcos, Caracuel, Piedrabuena and BenaventeDepends on: the truce lasting its term Stopped by: an earlier breach by either side
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The 1195-97 campaigns and the losses of Calatrava and Guadalerzas are well sourced; which castle of the Campo had an Almohad garrison on 1 January 1200 is inferred from their recapture in 1212.
On the map: A rough polygon over the Campo de Calatrava and La Mancha; the northern edge follows the Montes de Toledo and Consuegra. Neither side farmed most of it.
Sources and studies
- Orígenes de la Orden de Calatrava en el territorio toledano: encomiendas y ámbitos de dominio (1158-1212) (Real Academia de Bellas Artes y Ciencias Históricas de Toledo)
- The Battle of Alarcos (1195) and the campaign of 1196: Arabic account in translation (De Re Militari)
- Castilian-Leonese War (1196-1197) (Wikipedia, citing Fitz 2002, Reilly 1993, Martínez 2021 and others)
- Julio González, El reino de Castilla en la época de Alfonso VIII (Madrid, 1960), 3 vols.
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.