RECONQUISTA

Reconquista has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the People, Dates, Places and Events category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the entire history of european integration and the future of Europe.

The Reconquista is one of the most important event in the history of european integration and will probably have influence on the future of United europe, principally because its result had been the formation of the iberic states of Portugal and Spain of nowadays. In the second place, at the end of Reconquista the Christianity won definitely against Islam and Jewish, that had spreaded for centuries in the ex-diocesi of Hispania of the Christian empire. Then, it contributed to define the national character of the Iberians just before they became protagonists of the long epoch of discovering and colonization of the whole Earth.

When the Muslims started their conquest of the "known world" to convert it to Islam (Jihad"), they occupied the Ibieric region and the regna ibericos of Westgoths in VII century A.D., then crossed the Pyrenees and gradually took control of Septimania in 719 A.D. with the conquest of Narbonne. So when they attacked Aquitania, Charles Martel was called for help and led the Frankish armies against the Umayyad armies, defeating them at the Battle of Poitiers in 732 A.D.. Years after his son Pepin "the Short", now king of all Franks and messiah of the Roman Church, expelled Muslims from Aquitaine while his son Charlemagne appointed his loyal cousin William of Gellone dinasty as Marquis of Septimania (Gothia), Duke of Narbonne and Count of Toulouse, making that city his base for expeditions against the Islamic spanish dominion. Meantime the frankish emperor decided to organize the Spanish March (Pamplona, Navarra, Aragon, Barcelona, Andorra, etc.), then agreed upon an expedition and crossed the Pyrenees in 778 A.D. to reconquest the city of Zaragoza that caused the dead of his Paladine chevalier Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass dealing with the Iberian Saracens (retelled in the "Chanson de Roland").

Then what is the Reconquista? It had been the long war driven by the visigoths, frankish, iberians and European peoples to free the Hispania diocesi from the Islamic invaders. When was the Reconquista battled? This event started in 711 and ended in 1492 of the vulgar era: the new dynasty first ruled in the mountains of Asturias started by Pelagius, who led the Covadonga battle in 718 A.D., concerned with securing the territory and settling the christian monarchy, inherited by his son-in-law Perez founder of the homonimous royal dinasty of Asturias, who fought aside Carolingians and others northern overlords of northern Spain. With Alphonse III had been emphasised the nature of the new kingdom as heir of the Visigothic nation and the kingdom was firmly established by transfering the capital to Oviedo: he conquered the ciudades of Zamora, Coimbra and Lisbon and began the repopulation of the region over all the lands north of the Douro river, then reorganised the territories into the major duchies of Galicia and Portugal and the County of Castile and fortified the borders with many castles (alcazar). At his death the shift in regional power was completed with the evolution in Kingdom of León.

During the recognition up to Lisbon in 798 A.D. (asked by Charlemagne and the Pope), the king of Asturias Alphonse II declared to have found the bones of St. James the Great Apostol in Compostela, so christian pilgrims from all over Europe opened a channel of communication between the isolated Asturias and the Carolingian lands passing through Roncevaux Pass: time later King Ramiro, in alliance with Fernán González Count of Castile and his retinue of caballeros villanos, defeated the Caliph in Simancas (939 A.D.) who barely escaped with his guard and the rest of the army was destroyed, because it was said that the Apostol Santiago had been fighting aside the christians and since then called "matamoros". By the end of the XI century A.D., King Afonso VI of León reached the Tagus river, repeating the same policy of alliances and developing collaboration with Frankish/Westgoths knights and lords of Castile, Navarra and Aragona and their ruling dinasties of Lara, Jimenez and Galindez allied in the Reconquista, one of the most important step of the whole history of european integration.

Within that context, the territory between the Douro and the Tagus had been repopulated and a western nucleus was formed in Portugal, that asked for independence: this marks the beginning of the Portuguese Repovoação ou Repovoamento occurred during the reigns of the House of Burgundy (cadet of the Capetingian dinasty): in 1139 A.D., after an overwhelming victory in the Battle of Ourique against the Almoravids, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed the first King of Portugal by his troops, while up to the middle of the XIII century A.D. Portugal had been completely free with the conquering of the city of Faro by king Alphonse III. Meeantime, Alphonse VI king of Castile-y-Leon gave more power to the fueros and repopulated Segovia, Ávila and Salamanca, then conquered the powerful Taifa kingdom of Toledo in 1085 A.D.. When he died left the crown to his nepew Alphonse VII who adopted the title Imperator totius Hispaniae ("Emperor of all Hispania", referring to all the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, and not just the modern country of Spain), son of Raymond of Burgundy, a chevalier member of the frankish dinasty of Anscarici, and started the new age of the Reconquista.

The Reconquista had been an extraordinary event for the rule of the christian chevaliers, especially when in 1059 A.D. the First Council of the Lateran declared it as part of the Crusades and its participants having an equal spiritual standing with those in the Holy Land. So they had been involved Normans troops sent by Pope with the flag of Saint Peter in 1063 A.D., while the king Ferdinand I of Castile underponed the whole event to the patronage of the Cluny Congregation and the roman liturgy defined by the Popes managing the gregorian reform. He was son of Sancho III Garces of Jimenez dinasty who had joined in his hands all the north christian regna giving the Reconquista a sense of national fight for freedom. When Pope Innocent III declared a crusade and persuaded warriors from many parts of Europe in and outside the Iberian peninsula to assist the war against the Almohad Caliphate army, the campaign culminated in a resounding victory at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1215 A.D.), effectively turning the tide of war in favour of the Christians. Most of them were hidalgos from the fueros, that must provide auxilium—aid or troops—for when requested by kings, the military force of the towns became the caballeros villanos, among whom emerged Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, a Castilian knight who fought both with Christian and Muslim armies, earning the Arabic honorific as-Sayyid ("the Lord" or "the Master"), translated in spanish El Çid or honorific El Campeador ("the Champion"): he conquered the Taifa of Valencia from Moorish control, ruling the Principality of Valencia until his death in 1099 A.D.. At that point several knight-monks orders of Calatrava, Alcantara, Santiago, Montesa/Militia de Cristos, Ala de San Miguel, Montjoue, San Jordi and Aviz had been established, all devoted to the spanish kings and reinforced by Templars and feudal lords members, by heroes like Rodrigo de Sarria, Don Suero or the master of the Aviz order John, became king of Portugal and founer of the new royal dinasty.

The coordinated action of the christian regna of Castile-y-Leon, Navarra, Aragona and Portugal, ruled by the frankish european genealogies crowned by marriage with the Jimenez dinasty, brought on the Reconquista against the Califf of Granada (al-Andalus) committing all their resources and energies together with the mozarabs (the iberian christians who had refused the conversion to Islam) and the network of knight orders (in particular the Templars after their dissolution at the beginning of XIV century A.D.) and the Roman Church instituion of Hispania, until the final victory caught after more than 700 years! The medieval christian chevalier and monks idelism, typical of the Reconquista age, as defensor of the "true faith" had been inherited by the emperor Charle V first king of Spain and into the tradition of iberian hidalgos preserved until XIX century A.D. in the spanish society and culture, as narrowed by the famous literary opera "Don Quichotte" written by Cervantes, a milestone of the history of european integration that will enlight the future of Europe.

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