Toledo tenancy

Who he is

Title

Tenant (tenente) of Toledo, the city and its alcázar, for the king

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

No holder for 1195-1200 was found in this pass. Pedro Manrique de Lara governed the kingdom of Toledo from 1173 to 1179 (Barton). The city's own officers are its alcaldes and alguacil; the Mozarab Esteban Illán, who raised Alfonso VIII's banner in Toledo in 1166 and lives until 1208, is the best-known alcalde of these years.

Overlord

Alfonso VIII of Castile

What it holds

• The alcázar of Toledo and the king's rights in the city: justice, tolls, the mint
• Command of the castles of the Tajo line in time of war

How it was acquired

A royal office held at the king's pleasure.

Allies and rivals

Works beside the archbishop, Martín López de Pisuerga, the king's close ally, and the city's alcaldes.

How things stand that morning

The city is firmly the king's. The tenant's name is not pinned; the campaign may name one or leave the charge in the king's own hands while he is in the south.

Wealth

Tolls of the gates (the Bisagra gate toll paid for the walls from 1196), the markets of the Alcaná, the royal mint that strikes Alfonso VIII's gold maravedí (since 1172), rents of royal houses and mills on the Tajo.

Military

The alcázar and walls of Toledo, the city's militias (Castilian, Mozarab and Frankish), and the royal castles round about. No figures in the sources.

Threats

• A break of the 1197 truce would bring the Almohads back to the walls, as in 1196 and 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.

1. 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

Places of note

• Alcázar of Toledo: royal fortress

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Royal confirmation lists for 1199-1200 were not available in this pass; González (1960) would settle the name.

On the map: Shown on the city only; the land is in the Toledo town record.

Primary sources for Castile

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Toledo and other short Iberian annals (12th and 13th centuries; Anales Toledanos I to 1219). Florez's volume 23 gathers the short annals of the peninsula. Read online
• Chronicle of the World (Lucas of Tuy), Lucas de Tuy (1236, for Queen Berenguela). The Leonese counterpart to Rodrigo, written at San Isidoro for Berenguela. Read online
• Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
• Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
• The Complete History: the passages on the Maghreb and al-Andalus, Ibn al-Athir (about 1220 to 1231, at Mosul). The year entries for 595 to 597 of the Hijra (late 1198 to 1201) record the death of Yaqub al-Mansur, the accession of al-Nasir and the opening of Yahya ibn Ghaniya's war in Ifriqiya; the following years follow Yahya and the Ghuzz captain Qaraqush through Tripoli, Gabès and Mahdia to al-Nasir's reconquest in 1206, with the best eastern account of Qaraqush's career. Read online
• The Garden of Pages: a History of the Kings of the Maghreb and of the City of Fez, Ibn Abi Zar al-Fasi (completed in 1326 at Fez, for the Marinid sultan Abu Said Uthman). The Almohad chapters give a brisk dated narrative of al-Mansur's death and burial, al-Nasir's accession and the Banu Ghaniya troubles, with the kind of detail (coinage, public works at Fez and Rabat, prices, plagues) that a Fez compiler cared about, and the annals of Fez supply the city's governors and markets. Read online
• The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
• Deeds of Philip Augustus, Rigord (about 1186 to 1206, in stages). The French court's own chronicle for the year, from the monk of Saint-Denis who called himself the king's chronographer. Read online

13 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.