Kingdom of Castile

Who rules

Name

Alfonso VIII (Alfonso el Noble, 'el de las Navas' to later writers)

Title

King of Castile and Toledo

Since

31 August 1158, on the death of his father Sancho III; personal rule from 1169-1170

Born

11 November 1155 at Soria; aged 44 on 1 January 1200

Family

Son of Sancho III of Castile and Blanca of Navarre; grandson of Alfonso VII; nephew of Ferdinand II of León and first cousin of Alfonso IX, who is therefore his daughter Berenguela's first cousin once removed: the consanguinity Rome objects to. Sancho VII of Navarre is his maternal uncle's son, so also his first cousin.

Confidence

high

Standard chronology (Julio González, El reino de Castilla en la época de Alfonso VIII; Martínez Díez 2007).

What the realm holds

• Old Castile north of the Duero: Burgos, the Bureba, the Rioja, the Cantabrian coast, the Tierra de Campos east of the León line
• The Extremaduras south of the Duero and the kingdom of Toledo (the Castile South agent's area)
• Overlordship of the hereditary lordships of Vizcaya, Cameros and Molina
• Most of Álava and Guipúzcoa, taken from Navarre in 1199 (drawn by the Navarre agent)

How it was acquired

Inherited at the age of two in 1158; the minority was a civil war between the Laras and the Castros. Cuenca taken on 21 September 1177. Treaty of Cazola with Alfonso II of Aragon, 20 March 1179: Valencia, Xàtiva, Biar and Denia to be Aragon's to conquer, Murcia Castile's. Treaty of 1179 with Navarre (Henry II of England had arbitrated in 1177) returned Logroño, Navarrete, Entrena, Autol and Ausejo to Castile. Treaty of Tordehumos with León, 20 April 1194: Castile returned Alba, Luna and Portilla, but kept Valderas, Bolaños, Villafrechós, Villarmenteros, Siero de Riaño and Siero de Asturias for Alfonso VIII's life.

Peace with León in 1197 sealed by the marriage of Berenguela and Alfonso IX at Valladolid.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Peter II of Aragon; Archbishop Martín of Toledo; the Laras (Álvaro at court, Fernando and Gonzalo serving Queen Berenguela in León); Gonzalo Rodríguez Girón and his brothers; the house of Meneses. Rivals: Sancho VII of Navarre (at war); the Almohad caliph al-Nasir (truce); Alfonso IX of León (peace, uneasy); Diego López II de Haro (estranged since May 1199). The Castilian Castros are in León's service: Pedro Fernández de Castro fought with the Almohads at Alarcos and became Alfonso IX's mayordomo; no Castro holding in northern Castile is pinned for 1200.

The realm that morning

The crown is strong and at war on one front only. The host has held most of Álava and Guipúzcoa since the autumn of 1199 (a document of 27 September 1199 already places Álava, Guipúzcoa and San Sebastián under Alfonso), while Vitoria, defended by its tenant Martín Ttipia (Chipia), holds out. Sancho VII is away in the Almohad lands. The León marriage stands but is condemned by Rome. The court balance has tipped from Haro to Lara.

Wealth

Royal rents and tolls along the Camino de Santiago (Burgos, Castrojeriz, Carrión, Belorado, Nájera, Logroño), the salt of Poza and Añana's neighbourhood, the wool and hides of the meseta, wine of the Rioja and the Duero, the Cantabrian ports (Santander, Castro Urdiales, soon Laredo), the gold maravedí, and parias and plunder in good years. The queen's arras rents run beside the king's.

Military

See host. Frontier against the Almohads runs from the Tagus to the Sierra Morena (Castile South agent). In the north the war with Navarre is fought by the king, the Haros and the Riojan and Bureba tenants.

Threats

• Rome dissolving the León marriage and with it the peace (it is dissolved in 1204)
• The Almohads under the new caliph al-Nasir once the truce ends
• Sancho VII returning from the Almohad lands with money or allies
• Diego López II de Haro taking Vizcaya and his following over to Navarre (he does in 1201)
• Rivalry between Lara and Haro at court

Consort

Queen Leonor (Eleanor of England), daughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, sister of King John. Born at Domfront; the day and year differ between sources (13 October 1160 in Spanish reference works, about 1161 in English ones, 1162 in others). Betrothed at Tarazona in September 1170 and married at Burgos in 1170. Her arras of 1170 gave her the castles of Burgos, Castrojeriz, Amaya, Avia, Saldaña, Monzón, Carrión, Dueñas, Tariego, Cabezón, Medina del Campo, Astudillo, Aguilar and Villaescusa; rents of the port of Santander, Santillana, Calahorra, Arnedo, Viguera and others; Nájera, Logroño, Grañón, Belorado, Pancorbo, Poza, the monastery of Rodilla, Atienza, Osma, Peñafiel, Curiel, Hita and Zorita; for her chamber the city of Burgos and the town of Castrojeriz; and half of later conquests.

So many northern castles were held by tenants who were also bound to the queen. She founded and keeps Las Huelgas at Burgos with its Hospital del Rey, and patronizes troubadours and Becket's cult. Her claim to Gascony: Castile later said Gascony was her dowry, due on her mother's death. No document supports it (at most it was pledged as security). On 1 January 1200 Eleanor of Aquitaine is alive (she dies 1 April 1204), so the claim is dormant; Alfonso VIII invades Gascony in her name in 1205 and gives the claim up in 1208.

Children in 1200

Name

Berenguela (Berengaria)

Born

1179 or 1180 (1 June 1179 at Segovia in Spanish works; Burgos, 1 January or June 1180 in English ones)

Status

Queen of León since her marriage to Alfonso IX at Valladolid in 1197; the marriage is under papal attack. Her daughter Leonor was born 1198 or 1199. Her son Ferdinand (the future Ferdinand III) was born in 1199 or 1201: the date is disputed, with 1201 now usual, so he may not yet exist on 1 January 1200.

Name

Urraca

Born

1186 or 28 May 1187

Status

Unmarried, about 13. Passed over for the French marriage in 1200; married Afonso of Portugal in 1206.

Name

Blanca (Blanche)

Born

4 March 1188 at Palencia

Status

Unmarried, 11. Her marriage to Louis of France is on 23 May 1200 at Port-Mort, a term of the Anglo-French settlement: NOT YET on 1 January.

Name

Fernando, the heir

Born

29 September 1189 at Cuenca (Spanish works give 29 November)

Status

Heir to the throne, aged 10. Dies of fever 14 October 1211.

Name

Mafalda

Born

1191 at Plasencia

Status

About 8. Dies 1204.

Name

Constanza

Born

not pinned (about 1195 in some works, about 1202 in others)

Status

Later a nun and lady of Las Huelgas. May not yet be born.

Name

Leonor

Born

1200, day not pinned

Status

Probably not yet born on 1 January 1200; the queen may be with child. Married James I of Aragon in 1221.

Name

Enrique (Henry I)

Born

14 April 1204 at Valladolid

Status

Not yet born.

Name

Dead in infancy

Status

Sancho (born 5 April 1181, died that July), Sancha (1182, died 1184 or 1185), an Enrique and a Fernando of the early 1180s.

Court officers in 1200

Alferez

Álvaro Núñez de Lara, royal standard-bearer since May 1199, when the king took the office from Diego López II de Haro; he holds it until 1201, when it passes to his brother Fernando (Sánchez de Mora 2003; Martínez Díez 2007). Confidence high.

Mayordomo

Gonzalo Rodríguez Girón, mayordomo of the king's household from 1198 until 1214 (Barón Faraldo 2006; Sánchez de Mora 2003). Confidence high.

Chancellor

Diego García (identified with Diego García de Campos, author of the Planeta), royal chancellor from 1192. Whether he signs every charter of 1199-1200 is not pinned. Confidence medium.

Archbishop

Martín López de Pisuerga, archbishop of Toledo since 1191-92, the king's close ally and claimant to the primacy of all Spain (campaign notes).

Where the court is this winter

Not pinned for 1 January. The king led the host into Álava in 1199 and the siege of Vitoria was still running on 1 January. On 25 January 1200 he is at Belorado, granting Laredo its fuero. Eleanor of Aquitaine reaches his court in mid January.

Treaties in force

• Truce with the Almohads, agreed in 1197 after the Almohad raids of 1196-97 that followed Alarcos; its length is reported differently (often ten years) and is not pinned here. The caliph Yaqub al-Mansur died in January 1199; his son Muhammad al-Nasir now rules. The truce holds through 1200.
• Peace with León (1197), resting on the marriage of Berenguela and Alfonso IX. In the usual account, the castles Castile held in León under Tordehumos, with its gains of 1196-97, were made over to Berenguela as her dowry and held for her by her own castellans (the list is not pinned here); on 8 December 1199 Alfonso IX added a great arras of about thirty castles, seven of them in Asturias held for her by Fernando Núñez de Lara (Barton 1997). Exactly which castles were Castilian dowry and which Leonese arras is not pinned here (the León agent covers them).
• Alliance with Peter II of Aragon against Navarre, usually dated to a meeting at Calatayud in 1198 (a partition of Navarre was planned; place and terms not checked in this pass). Cazola (1179) still governs future conquests in the east.
• War with Navarre, open since 1198-99. No truce on 1 January 1200.

Relations with rome

Burgos is exempt, directly under Rome; Toledo claims the primacy of Spain against Braga, Santiago and Tarragona; Calahorra belongs to the province of Tarragona (campaign notes). Innocent III demands that Berenguela and Alfonso IX part; excommunication and interdict hang over the king and queen of León, pressed through the legate Rainier. Castile and León both want the marriage, because the peace rests on it.

Coinage

The gold maravedí alfonsí (morabetino), struck at Toledo since 1172 on the model of the Almoravid dinar, with Arabic legends; billon dineros for daily use. The maravedí is the unit of account for royal grants and for parias.

The host

The king's household knights; the magnates' mesnadas, paid by the crown in tenancies and money fiefs (soldadas); the town militias (milicias concejiles), above all those of the Extremadura and Toledo towns south of the Duero, which do most of the frontier fighting; the military orders (Calatrava, driven from Calatrava after Alarcos and now at Salvatierra; Santiago at Uclés; the Hospital at Consuegra; the Temple). The northern towns and the coast send fewer troops but supply ships and men from the Cantabrian ports. Alarcos (18 July 1195) cost a royal army; the Almohads raided to Toledo, Madrid, Talavera and Cuenca in 1196-97.

No figures in the sources used here.

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

1. December 1199 to mid January 1200Eleanor of Aquitaine, nearly 80, crosses Poitou and the Pyrenees to Castile (seized on the way by Hugh IX of Lusignan, she buys her release with La Marche) and reaches Alfonso VIII's court in mid January to choose a granddaughter for Louis of France.Depends on: The Anglo-French truce of January 1200 and the plan to marry Louis to John's niece. Stopped by: A breakdown between John and Philip, or Alfonso refusing.
2. 25 January 1200At Belorado, Alfonso VIII grants Laredo its fuero, making it a royal town with its own jurisdiction.Depends on: The king's will and his presence in the north. Stopped by: Any change the king makes in play.
3. Early 1200, after 28 January if the Vasconia study's dating holds (Spanish Wikipedia says before 25 January): not pinnedVitoria surrenders after Bishop García Fernández of Pamplona and a knight of the garrison bring Sancho VII's leave from the Almohad lands. Alfonso grants Vitoria freedom from toll (portazgo) soon after taking it; A truce exchange of Treviño and Portilla for Inzura and a 'Miranda' (not Miranda de Ebro, which is Castilian; perhaps Miranda de Arga in Navarre) may fall in the same year; its direction is unclear in the study cited.Depends on: Sancho VII not relieving the town and granting leave to yield. Stopped by: A Navarrese relief, Sancho refusing leave, or Castile lifting the siege.
4. About March 1200Eleanor of Aquitaine leaves with Blanca (chosen over Urraca), escorted through Álava and Guipúzcoa; they are at Bordeaux for Holy Week (Easter is 9 April 1200), where Mercadier is killed on 10 April. Alfonso may ride with them into Gascony.Depends on: As above. Stopped by: As above, or war on the road.
5. 23 May 1200Blanca marries Louis, son of Philip Augustus, at Port-Mort in Normandy (France being under interdict), the day after the Treaty of Le Goulet.Depends on: Le Goulet (22 May 1200): John and Philip both willing to settle. Stopped by: No treaty, in which case the marriage falls with it.
6. First half of 1200Tello Pérez de Meneses dies; his sons give for his soul in June 1200.Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Play changing his circumstances.
7. 1200, day not pinnedQueen Leonor gives birth to a daughter, Leonor (later queen of Aragon).Depends on: Natural course. Stopped by: Play.
8. 30 September 1200Marino Maté, bishop of Burgos, dies; an election at the exempt see follows (campaign notes).Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Play.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201Diego López II de Haro breaks with the king and appears in Navarre governing Estella; Álvaro Núñez de Lara hands the standard to his brother Fernando; Rodrigo Díaz takes over the lordship of Cameros.Depends on: The Haro-Lara rivalry left unresolved. Stopped by: The king restoring Diego López's honour.

Where the sources disagree

• Vitoria's surrender: Spanish Wikipedia (via Kiddle) gives 'before 25 January 1200'; the Vasconia study says the town was still besieged on 28 January 1200. The siege had begun by June 1199 (some say 5 June) and was in place on 31 August 1199. Neither contradicts the campaign notes, which only name the bishop's mission.
• Queen Leonor's birth year is given as 1160, 1161 or 1162; Berenguela's as 1179 (Segovia) or 1180 (Burgos); the heir Fernando's birthday as 29 September or 29 November 1189.
• A Calahorra municipal booklet says Alfonso VIII 'incorporated the lordship of Vizcaya into Castile in 1200'; Baury (2011) instead treats Vizcaya as tied to Navarre in 1183 and notes Alfonso's promise of 1204 to restore all Vizcaya to Diego López. On 1 January 1200 Diego López serves Castile, so the lordship is drawn as Castilian.
• campaign notes (Part 6 F) agree with everything found here: the bishop of Pamplona's mission, Marino Maté at Burgos, the León marriage under threat, Calahorra in the province of Tarragona.

Evidence: Thick for the royal family, the court officers and the big treaties; fair for the Navarre war's chronology (the surrender month is disputed); thin for which tenants held which district in January 1200, because the full tenancy lists (Álvarez Borge, Cambios y alianzas, 2008, annexes) were not available in this pass.

On the map: The realm record draws nothing. Its ground is the sum of the lord, town and tenancy records and the anchors.

Primary sources for this realm

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
• Deeds of Philip Augustus; The Philippide, William the Breton (Guillaume le Breton) (Gesta about 1214 to 1220; Philippide 1214 to 1224). William abridged Rigord for the years before 1207 and then continued him, so for 1200 the Gesta is a shortened Rigord with a few added touches: the Le Goulet settlement, Blanche's marriage, and the interdict. Read online
• History of the Affairs of Spain, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada (completed 1243). The archbishop's history of the peninsula, written forty years on by a Navarrese who served Castile. Read online
• The Book of Examples: the History of the Berbers and of the Muslim Dynasties of North Africa, Ibn Khaldun (1375 to 1379 at Qal'at Ibn Salama and Tunis, revised until 1406). Ibn Khaldun's tribal histories are the standard account of the powers that Almohad chronicles treat as background: the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym in Ifriqiya and Tripolitania and their alliances with the Banu Ghaniya and Qaraqush; the Zenata of the central Maghreb (Banu Marin, Banu Abd al-Wad, Tujin, Maghrawa) before their rise; the Sanhaja and the veiled peoples of the Sahara; the Masmuda and the Almohad tribes. Read online
• The Gift of the Imamate, Ibn Sahib al-Sala (Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad al-Baji) (late twelfth century; the surviving part covers 1159 to 1173). The only Almohad court chronicle written from inside the administration, by a chancery secretary who travelled with the caliphs Abd al-Mu'min and Abu Yaqub Yusuf.

9 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.