Siege of Calatayud

Siege of Calatayud
Part of the Reconquista

The castle of Ayyub, in Calatayud
DateMay – 24 June 1120
Location
Calatayud, Taifa of Zaragoza
41°21′0″N 1°38′0″W / 41.35000°N 1.63333°W / 41.35000; -1.63333
Result Aragonese victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Aragon
Duchy of Aquitaine		 Almoravid Empire
Commanders and leaders
Alfonso I the Battler
William IX of Aquitaine		 Unknown
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown

The Siege of Calatayud occurred in 1120 when Alfonso the Battler in conjunction with William IX of Aquitaine successfully besieged and captured the Amoravid city of Calatayud in the former Taifa of Zaragoza.

Background

In 1118, Alfonso accompanied by Gaston IV of Béarn and Centule II of Bigorre, began a campaign with the objective of conquering the city of Zaragoza.[1] The city fell on 18 December,[2] after an 8 month siege.[3] In 1119, shortly after this victory, Alfonso conquered Tudela and Tarazona.[4][5] Following those conquests, Alfonso then encouraged Christian settlers to move into the territory near the city of Soria to secure the Ebro Valley and the surrounding highlands against the Almoravids.[6] At the beginning of 1120, Alfonso began to prepare for the conquest of Calatayud, the second largest city of the former Taifa of Zaragoza.[7]

Siege

Alfonso arrived at Calatayud with the Duke of Aquitaine in May 1120.[8] With the possibility of a battle looming, some Aragonese knights began to make their testaments, including Lope Garcés, who donated his assets to the Holy Sepulchre and the Knights Hospitaller.[9]

At the beginning of June, after Alfonso received the news that an Almoravid army was heading to relieve the siege, he decided to confront the Muslim force in the field. He left a small detachment at Calatayud to continue the siege of the city and departed with the preponderance of his army.[9] On 17 June 1120, Alfonso and the Duke of Aquitaine defeated the Almoravid relief force at the Battle of Cutanda. With no further hope of reinforcements, Calatayud surrendered along with Daroca, another Almoravid Zaragozan city under siege by the Christians.[10]

Aftermath

Calatayud surrendered without resistance from the local Muslims. After the capture of the city, Alfonso appointed Jimeno Sanz as lord of the city. Two years later he was replaced by Íñigo Jiménez.[11] Alfonso also granted the city a charter, which he ratified and extended in December 1131.[12]

In 1122, Alfonso captured Borja.[13]. Two years later he captured Medinaceli.[14] During the next two years, Alfonso launched a campaign against Granada and Valencia where he successfully encouraged many Mozarabs to repopulate cities conquered by him previously, including Calatayud despite not obtaining territorial changes,[15][16]

Legacy

Each year on the weekend closest to 24 June, the inhabitants of Calatayud celebrate a festival called Las Alfonsadas, which commemorates the capture of the city by the Aragonese forces.[17]

Citations

References

  • Asociación "Alfonso I El Batallador" (2025). "Las Alfonsadas" (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  • Hooper, Nicholas; Bennett, Matthew (26 January 1996). The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages, 768-1487. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-44049-3.
  • Jiménez-Duque, Baldomero (1977). La espiritualidad romano-visigoda y muzárabe (in Spanish). Universidad Pontificia. ISBN 978-84-7392-013-1.
  • Kaufmann, J. E.; Kaufmann, H. W. (30 July 2019). Castle to Fortress: Medieval to Post-Modern Fortifications in the Lands of the Former Roman Empire. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-5267-3688-8.
  • Lafuente, José Luis Corral (20 July 2020). "Alfonso I el Batallador y la conquista de Calatayud" (PDF). Institución Fernando el Católico (in Spanish). University of Zaragoza.
  • Lafuente, José Luis Corral (2012). La comunidad de Aldeas de Calatayud en la Edad Media (in Spanish). Institución Fernando el Católico. ISBN 978-84-9911-186-5.
  • Ledesma, María Luisa (1977). Aragón en la Edad Media: Homenaje a la Profesora EméritaMaría Luisa Ledesma Rubio (in Spanish). Universidad de Zaragoza, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Departamento de Historia Medieval. ISBN 978-84-7733-383-8.
  • Llorente, Félix Martínez; Rodríguez, Ignacio Ruiz (20 June 2022). La Historia y el Derecho de España: Visiones y pareceres. Homenaje al Dr. Emiliano González Díez (in Spanish). Dykinson. ISBN 978-84-1122-398-0.
  • Martín, Luis Vicente Díaz; Iriarte, Cándido Aniz (1995). Santo Domingo de Caleruega: Contexto cultural (in Spanish). Editorial San Esteban. ISBN 978-84-8260-000-0.
  • Obradó, María del Pilar Rábade; Vaquero, Eloísa Ramírez; Utrilla, Juan F. Utrilla (January 2005). La dinámica política (in Spanish). Ediciones AKAL. ISBN 978-84-7090-433-2.
  • O'Callaghan, Joseph F. (12 November 2013). A History of Medieval Spain. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-6871-1.
  • Rabal, Nicolas (1889). España: Sus monumentos y artes, su naturalez é historia (in Spanish). University of Chicago.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Reilly, Bernard F. (11 November 2016). The Kingdom of León-Castilla Under King Alfonso VII, 1126-1157. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-1-5128-0612-0.
  • Setton, Kenneth Meyer; Hazard, Harry W. (1975). The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Univ of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-06670-3.
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