The Story of the Nations: PortugalStephens, H. Morse (Henry Morse)
History
The Story of the Nations: Portugal
Stephens, H. Morse (Henry Morse)
Portugal -- History
During these years, in which he had been fighting the Moors, Affonso
Henriques had observed the terms of the Treaty of Zamora, and had
prudently avoided all interference in the affairs of Spain; but the
death of his cousin, the Emperor Alfonso, in 1157, which left him the
oldest and most famous warrior in the peninsula, seems to have tempted
him to abandon this prudent policy. The Emperor had divided his
kingdoms, leaving Castile to his son Sancho, and Leon and Gallicia to
his son Ferdinand, a division which also seems to have tempted Affonso
to believe he could play a part in Spanish affairs. His alliance was
sought on all sides, and in January, 1160, he betrothed his eldest
daughter, Donna Matilda, to Raymond Berenger, heir to the throne of
Aragon; and a little later in the same year he promised his second
daughter, Donna Urraca, to King Ferdinand; and concluded the Treaty of
Cella Nova, by which it was agreed that each monarch should prosecute
his wars against the Moors independently, and that the course of the
Guadiana should be the limit between their respective lines of conquest.
This treaty was, undoubtedly, caused by the fact that the Moors in
Africa had again become united under the rule of the Almohade caliph,
Abd-el-Mumin, and that a great invasion of Spain by the Mohammedans was
to be expected.
This invasion occurred in the very next year, 1161. Abd-el-Mumin crossed
the straits of Gibraltar with eighteen thousand tried Almohade soldiers,
and after subduing the independent Mohammedan emīrs, inflicted upon
Affonso Henriques his first real defeat, and drove him back to Lisbon
and Santarem. The death of Abd-el-Mumin in 1163 again changed the aspect
of affairs. A disputed succession kept the Almohade warriors busy in
Africa, and independent bands of “salteadors,” who were little better
than brigands and free lances, began to establish themselves as petty
feudal princes in the various cities and districts of the Alemtejo, the
province south of the Tagus, which now became the battle-ground between
the Christians and the Moors. Affonso Henriques let them do as they
liked; he had a greater ambition, and as he had formerly schemed and
planned to take Santarem, Lisbon, and Alcacer do Sal, he now cast his
eyes upon the great city of Badajoz, although it lay upon the eastern
side of the Guadiana which he had agreed to leave to the King of Leon.
With this object in view he took Beja in 1162, Truxillo and Evora in
1165, and Caceres in 1166, thus gradually working up to the city which
he coveted. King Ferdinand was not the man to allow these breaches of
treaty to pass unnoticed, and founded the city of Ciudad Rodrigo, to
command and threaten the north-eastern districts of Portugal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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