Como algunos/as ya sabíais, Fernando Arias Guillén, Fernando o Fer más brevemente para los amigos va a dar una conferencia/ponencia en la Universidad de St Andrews hoy 22 de Octubre. Dado que la facultad ha anunciado tal evento abriéndole las puertas nosotros no vamos a ser menos y vamos a incluir aquí la breve descripción en forma de esquema que se repartirá hoy allí, hecha por él mismo. Deseamos que tengas muchísima suerte, un abrazo Fernando.
HONOUR AND WARFARE IN FOURTEENTH CENTURY CASTILE
Fernando Arias Guillén. Instituto de Historia, CSIC (Madrid)
Alfonso XI´s reign (1312-1350)
- 1312-1325 Minority period.
- Important military succeses.
- Strengthening of the royal power.
- Shortage (almost absence) of Public Records. ¿Damnatio memoriae?
- Royal Chronicles.
Alfonso XI´s main campaigns
-1333. Marinids seized Gibraltar. Alfonso´s army did not manage to recover the town.
-1340. Battle of Salado. Castilian and Portuguese monarchs defeated their Marinid and Granadian counterparts and dismantled the siege over Tarifa.
- 1342-1344. Castilian´s siege of Algeciras. The town was conquered.
- 1349-1350. Castilian´s siege of Gibraltar. Black Death caused Alfonso XI´s death and his army retreated to Castile.
There were also succesful campaings in 1326, 1327, 1330 and 1341 with many territorial gains along the Frontier (borderline with Granada) and a defensive counter-attack after a Muslim raid in 1339. Abu Malik, son of Marinid´s emperor died in that clash.
Honour and warfare: a few ideas.
- Great importance of aspects related to warfare in the Chronicles.
- Military duties conferred an enormous prestige.
- Chronicles confronted the real situation and considered warfare as an activity limited to the elite group.
- Chronicles considered that defending king´s honour was a fair reason to justify a conflict (Just War).
- Sometimes it was difficult to combine the defence of king´s honour with other royal qualities such as prudence or other pragmatic attitudes.
Abu l-Hasan. Sultan of the Marinid Empire (1331-1348). From 1275 Marinids occupied some key towns in the south of the Iberian Peninsula such as Tarifa, Gibraltar, Algeciras and Ronda until the middle of the XIVth century.
Álvaro Pelayo or Pelagius (¿1280?-1352). He was bishop of Silves (Portugal). When he wrote Speculum regum he had Alfonso´s court in his mind.
Juan Manuel (1282-1348). He was a king’s relative and one of the most powerful noblemen in Castile. He lead many rebellions against Alfonso XI but in 1338 he was subdued and joined the king’s side. He was also a prolific writer. In his texts, among other topics like prince´s mirror, he described his contemporary society and elaborated an ideal model of knighthood.
Partidas. This code was elaborated in the second half of the XIIIth century by Alfonso X and looked forward legal uniformity in the kingdom. Although it was never legally established as a whole, its spirit was still present during the reign of Alfonso XI and many of their regulations became legal in the Ordenamiento of 1348.
Poema de Alfonso XI. This poem was made in the middle of the XIVth century. It is supposed to be written by a Portuguese author, Rodrigo Yáñez. The text focused on chivalric and military deeds and reflected a positive image of Alfonso XI.
Sancho IV. He was king of Castile from 1284 to 1295 and Alfonso XI´s grandfather. The chronicler described him in a much more positive way than Alfonso´s father and great-grand father, Fernando IV (r. 1295-1312) and Alfonso X (r. 1252-1284), who were considered weak kings controlled by the aristocracy.
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