Reconquista - Christians v Muslims in Europe

Tony Blair's latest call to war against Islam reminded me of the history of La Reconquista. The Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula took place in a long series of battles led by Christian kings. It is a complicated story. Several Christian kingdoms emerged (Asturias, Castille, Catalonia, Navarre, Leon, and Portugal). King Sancho of Navarre united most of the Christian kingdoms, but they did not stay united. The Iberian Peninsula at the time was very different than the intolerant regime later dominated by the Inquisition. Iberia was the most tolerant and progressive area of Europe where people lived in close contact with one another. Spanish universities were rare centres of learning in the European medieval Dark Age. The Reconquista was not a simple, straightforward matter. Not only were their wars between Moors and Christians, but both Moors and Christians sought allies from their co-religionists as well as princes and nobles of the other faiths. Finally, with the growing power of Castille, Christians moved south and one Muslim principality after another fell. The last Muslim kingdom to fall was Granada (1492).

Interesting that the Catalonian colours of the knight and horse in the painting come down to the present day in the form of the Catalan flag and the colours of Barcelona FC.

 The Battle of the Puig (1237) by Andrés Marçal de Sax