The Oxford History of Medieval Europe by George Holmes

Author:George Holmes [Holmes, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, History, Medieval, Europe, Civilization; Medieval, Europe - History - 476-1492, Middle Ages, Европа, Evropa
ISBN: 9780192852724
Google: fKGRAAAAMAAJ
Amazon: 0192801333
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1992-09-03T04:00:00+00:00

medium-sized estates predominated. Their owners, far from being restricted in their activities by feudal controls, often chose their own lords. The demand for grazing land in the predominantly pastoral economy of the meseta gave a further impetus to territorial expansion and the inhabitants had a vested interest in keeping them safe from attack. The establishment of safe refuges in the towns was also vital. The newly captured cities, such as Salamanca, Guadalajara, and Avila-with its great granite walls and eighty-eight towers--were controlled by their own inhabitants and their fueros reflected the importance of organization for both offensive and defensive warfare. They usually contained detailed instructions on the organization of urban militias, on the command structure of the forces of the town, on the duties of service relating to the nobility and on the distribution of booty. In frontier society such as this, fortunes could be made from the profits of raiding, and those of humble origin could easily aspire to join the company of the mounted knights--the caballeros--a group which owed its status to military prowess, not birth, or the hidalgos--men of often obscure birth enjoying the same esteem as those born into the lower ranks of the nobility.

The resilience of this Christian settler society was put to serious test at the end of the eleventh century. Events after the capture of Toledo in 1085 by the forces of Alfonso VI of Castile ( 1065-1109) reveal a fundamental change in the attitudes of the victors to the conquered Muslims. At the instigation (it was said) of his queen, the chief mosque of Toledo was converted into a cathedral and the pleas of the Mozarabs for the toleration of the faith of their Muslim fellow townsmen went unheard. Now all land north of the Tagus was in Christian hands but the forces from beyond the Pyrenees which had helped to make the conquests possible brought their own attitudes and prejudices with them. Under Cluniac encouragement, the native Mozarabic liturgy was condemned in favour of the Roman rite and the Spanish kings were encouraged to consider themselves loyal vassals of the pope and thus ready both to eradicate religious practices which were deemed to be improper, and also to do their duty as leaders in wars which

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