Christian Spain before the Crusades: Power and Pragmatism in Eleventh-Century Iberia

FAIN: FEL-267507-20

Simon R. Doubleday
Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY 11549-1000)

Research and writing leading to a book on relations between 11th-century Christian rulers of León and the Islamic states of al-Andalus.

The dangerous perception that medieval Europe was a theater of implacable holy war and that Spain was the arena of religiously-driven Reconquista is widespread. This project questions this perception through a study of the Iberian realms of León, Galicia, and Castile in the eleventh century, under Fernando I (1037-65) and Queen Sancha (d. 1067); it will be the first study of the reign in English. The period is often seen as one in which their Christian kingdom gained the upper hand over the weaker Islamic states of al-Andalus. Historians have generally believed that Fernando aspired to imperial authority in Iberia, developed a close relationship with the French monastic order of Cluny, and exerted dominance over the Islamic states to the south. This project challenges all these presumptions. Through an original analysis of royal charters and narrative sources, it traces the pragmatic nature of power and a geopolitical environment in which religious identity was by no means paramount.

Associated Products

Christian Spain before the Crusades: Power and Pragmatism in Eleventh-Century Iberia (Book)
Title: Christian Spain before the Crusades: Power and Pragmatism in Eleventh-Century Iberia
Author: Simon R. Doubleday
Author: Bernard F. Reilly
Abstract: Christian Spain before the Crusades is a study of the Iberian kingdom of León—which also included Galicia, Castile, and parts of modern Portugal—shortly before the First Crusade in the ‘Holy Land’. At this time, León was ruled by King Fernando I (1037-65) and his highly cultured queen, Sancha (d. 1067); this is the first study of their reign in English.
Year: 2023
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Type: Multi-author monograph

Galicia no tempo de Afonso X (Book)
Title: Galicia no tempo de Afonso X
Editor: José M. Andrade Cernadas
Editor: Simon R. Doubleday
Abstract: The traditional paradigm of later medieval Galician history is one of political and cultural decline: a decline that, if not as precipitous as the decline, defeat, and disappearance of Al-Andalus, shares at least some features in common. But as Galicia re-emerges again, in the twenty-first century, as a significant economic force whose geographically peripheral status paradoxically gives it renewed centrality in Spain and in the Iberian Atlantic, it is time for us to revisit clichés of decline and marginality. The contributors to this volume reassess the many ways in which Galicia played a significant role within the frame of thirteenth-century Iberia, particularly during the reign of Alfonso X.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: http://consellodacultura.gal/publicacion.php?id=4432
Primary URL Description: Consello da Cultura Galega
Access Model: Open Access
Publisher: Consello da Cultura Galega
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 978-84-17802-3
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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