Siege of Alcácer do Sal
Siege of Alcácer do Sal | |
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Part of the al-Gharb 38°22′21″N 8°30′49″W / 38.37250°N 8.51361°W | |
Result | Portuguese–crusader victory |
Crusaders from northern Europe
The siege of Alcácer do Sal lasted from 30 July to 18 October 1217. The well fortified city of
Sources
There are two Latin eyewitness accounts of the siege. The anonymous Gesta crucigerorum Rhenanorum is written from the perspective of the German crusaders.[1] The Carmen de expugnatione Salaciae was written by Goswin of Bossut, a priest from the Duchy of Brabant, for Bishop Soeiro.[2]
The De itinere Frisonum is a contemporary record of the Frisian crusaders who sailed with the Germans to Portugal but did not partake in the siege of Alcácer. It was incorporated into the chronicle of Emo of Friesland.[3] A contemporary account of the Fifth Crusade by Oliver of Paderborn includes some information on the Alcácer expedition.[4]
There are three letters sent in the immediate aftermath of victory that are an important source for the siege. One was sent by Count William to Pope
The siege is briefly recounted by Roger of Wendover.[7]
The major sources from the Muslim side are in
Background
In the late 9th century, Alcácer do Sal (Qaṣr Abī Dānis in Arabic) was constructed at the mouth of the Sado by the Umayyads as a fortress against the Vikings.[9] In 1108, it was attacked by the Norwegian Crusade, but remained in Muslim hands.[10] After the conquest of Lisbon with the help of soldiers of the Second Crusade in 1147, Alcácer lay on the Almohad–Portuguese frontier. King Afonso I launched failed attacks on Alcácer in 1147, 1151 and 1157.[11] In 1158, he besieged and captured the town.[12] In 1191, the Almohads besieged and recaptured it.[9][13]
According to
Preparations
At the
On 29 May 1217, a fleet of almost 300 ships sailed from
Following an incident off
The bishop of Lisbon tried to persuade the crusaders to help him attack Alcácer do Sal. The Frisians refused. With about a third of the fleet, they took on supplies and went on their way. The remaining two thirds of the fleet under the counts agreed to cooperate in the attack. A Portuguese army of 20,000 was rapidly raised. The army marched overland to rendezvous with the fleet, which left Lisbon at the end of July and sailed up the Sado.[18] The bishop of Lisbon was with the army, as was Pedro, abbot of Alcobaça.[24]
King Afonso II may have played a role in preparations, but he did not participate in the attack on Alcácer.[20][25]
Siege
The Almohads prepared for the coming siege by destroying all the trees in the immediate vicinity so that they could not be used as fuel for fire or as building material for siege engines.[24] The siege began on 30 July. The besiegers attacked with towers, catapults and mines.[26] The crusaders cannibalized eight of their ships to make siege engines.[24] The Carmen describes poetically how the attackers attempted to fill in the moat with fig and olive trees, but the defenders set the infill on fire.[27]
According to the Rawḍ al-Qirṭās, the Caliph Yūsuf II ordered the governors of Córdoba, Jaén, Seville and other places in the Gharb al-Andalus to raise a relief army.[8] The clergy's letter to Honorius confirms the presence of the army of Badajoz as well.[28][29][30] On 8 September, the relief armies arrived in the vicinity of Alcácer. The author of the Gesta estimated the size of the relief force at 100,000 men. In response, the besiegers dug a defensive ditch around their position. They were reinforced by the arrival of 32 more ships, but were still outnumbered and short of horses.[26]
As the Muslim relief army arrived, Christian reinforcements, raised by several Portuguese and Leonese barons, were on the march. They included contingents of Hospitallers, Templars and the Order of Santiago. The Templars were led by Pedro Álvarez de Alvito, master of the order in Spain; the knights of Santiago by Martim Barregão, commander of Palmela; and the Hospitallers by the prior of Portugal.[31] The timely arrival of this army was later claimed as a miracle by the clergy in their letter to the pope.[32] In addition, Caesarius of Heisterbach reports that an eyewitness told him how "the galleys which [the Saracens] had brought over the sea against the Christians were put to flight by the terror of [a] celestial vision" of "a whiteclad host, wearing red crosses upon the breast."[33]
On 11 September, the two armies met in battle outside Santa Catarina on the banks of the Sítimos. The Christians were victorious.[31] The Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār reports that the Almohad army became terrified upon sighting a force of 70 knights. The Rawḍ al-Qirṭās blames this on the memory of the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. Many turned and fled, while the Christians pursued them "until killing them all". This is an exaggeration, since the Rawḍ al-Miʿṭār mentions prisoners.[8]
The defeat of the army in the field convinced the defenders in the fortress that victory was impossible.[8] On 18 October, the city surrendered.[31] Pope Honorius credited the victory to two siege towers.[24] Most of the defenders were taken captive.[31] The governor, ʿAbdallāh ibn Wazīr, accepted baptism.[15] The city was handed over to the Order of Santiago.[31]
Aftermath
After the victory, the bishops of Lisbon and Évora and the leaders of the three orders who were present wrote to Honorius III with three requests: that the pope order the crusaders to remain in Portugal for one year for mopping up operations; that the crusade indulgence be extended to those who took part and to those who would take part in Portuguese operations in the future; and that the Iberian proceeds of the tax of a twentieth (vicesima) levied on ecclesiastical incomes by Innocent III in the bull Ad liberandum (1215) for the Holy Land be set aside for operations in Iberia. These requests were based on the proviso in the bull Quia maior (1213) that "if perchance it were needed, we [the pope] would take care to give our attention to any serious situation that arises."[6] The clergy also reported to Honorius three miracles that vindicated the operation: the timely arrival of the reinforcements and the appearance in the sky of a cross and a heavenly army.[32] These three miracles are also mentioned in the Carmen and in the Chronica regia Coloniensis.[33]
At the same time, William of Holland wrote to the pope to ask whether he should continue to lead his army to the Holy Land or remain to fight in Portugal.
In January 1218, Afonso II formally placed Alcácer under the command of Martim Barregão, whose son-in-law,
Notes
- ^ Villegas-Aristizábal 2019, p. 4. Translation in Bird, Peters & Powell 2013, pp. 154–158.
- ^ Wilson 2021, p. 74, with an edition and translation at 141–152.
- ^ Villegas-Aristizábal 2019, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Villegas-Aristizábal 2019, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Villegas-Aristizábal 2019, p. 5.
- ^ a b Wilson 2021, pp. 88–89.
- ^ Wilson 2021, p. 90 n67.
- ^ a b c d Roser Nebot 2018, pp. 257–258.
- ^ a b c Picard 2004.
- ^ Lay 2009, p. 46.
- ^ Lay 2009, pp. 112–113.
- ^ Lay 2009, p. 127.
- ^ Lay 2009, p. 159.
- ^ Villegas-Aristizábal 2019, p. 12.
- ^ a b Khawli 1997, pp. 111–112.
- ^ Wilson 2021, p. 79.
- ^ Wilson 2021, pp. 80–81.
- ^ a b Wilson 2021, p. 87.
- ^ a b c Wilson 2021, pp. 86–87.
- ^ a b c Villegas-Aristizábal 2019, p. 10.
- ^ a b c Villegas-Aristizábal 2019, pp. 84–85.
- ^ Bird, Peters & Powell 2013, p. 155, and Villegas-Aristizábal 2019, pp. 84–85, but Powell 1986, p. 123, has George replacing William as leader at Dartmouth, with the latter demoted to the rearguard.
- ^ Bird, Peters & Powell 2013, p. 155.
- ^ a b c d e Wilson 2021, p. 133.
- ^ Lay 2009, p. 220.
- ^ a b Wilson 2021, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Wilson 2021, p. 149.
- ^ Claverie 2013, p. 255.
- ^ Villegas-Aristizábal 2019, p. 13.
- ^ Wilson 2021, p. 88, mentions Jerez.
- ^ a b c d e Wilson 2021, p. 88.
- ^ a b Wilson 2021, p. 90.
- ^ a b Wilson 2021, pp. 118–119.
- ^ Wilson 2021, p. 89.
- ^ Wilson 2021, p. 92.
- ^ Wilson 2021, pp. 93–94.
- ^ Wilson 2021, p. 94.
Bibliography
- Afonso, Carlos (2018). "Gosuini de expugnatione Salaciae carmen: Analysing a Source Through a Strategy Theoretical Corpus". Revista de Ciências Militares. 6 (1): 41–62.
- Barroca, Mário Jorge (2006). "Portugal". In Alan V. Murray (ed.). The Crusades: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 3: K–P. ABC-CLIO. pp. 979–984.
- Bird, Jessalynn; Peters, Edward; Powell, James M., eds. (2013). Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation from Innocent III to the Fall of Acre, 1187–1291. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Claverie, Pierre-Vincent (2013). Honorius III et l'Orient (1216–1227): Étude et publication de sources inédites des Archives vaticanes (ASV). Brill.
- Khawli, Abdallah (1997). "La famille des Banū Wazīr dans le Ġarb d'al-Andalus aux XII et XIII siècles" (PDF). Arqueologia Medieval (5): 103–116.
- Lay, Stephen (2009). The Reconquest Kings of Portugal: Political and Cultural Reorientation on the Medieval Frontier. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Mol, Johannes A. (2002). "Frisian Fighters and the Crusades" (PDF). Crusades. 1: 89–110. S2CID 161825224.
- Mol, Johannes A. (2006). "Frisia". In Alan V. Murray (ed.). The Crusades: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 2: D–J. ABC-CLIO. pp. 487–489.
- Picard, Christophe (2004). "Ḳaṣr Abī Dānis". In ISBN 978-90-04-13974-9.
- Powell, James M. (1986). Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213–1221. University of Pennsylvania.
- Roser Nebot, Nicolau (2018). "El declive del poder almohade en al-Andalus y la pérdida de Mallorca según la obra Taʾrīj Mayūrqa de Ibn ʿAmīra Al-Majzūmī de Alcira (582–658 H/1186–1260 M)". Anaquel de Estudios Árabes. 29: 241–261. .
- Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas (2018). "A Frisian Perspective on Crusading in Iberia as Part of the Sea Journey to the Holy Land, 1217–1218". Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History. 3rd. 15: 67–149.
- Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas (2019). "Was the Portuguese Led Military Campaign Against Alcácer do Sal in the Autumn of 1217 Part of the Fifth Crusade". Al-Masāq. 29 (1): 50–67. S2CID 165784582.
- Wilson, Jonathan (2014). "Tactics of Attraction: Saints, Pilgrims and Warriors in the Portuguese Reconquista". Portuguese Studies. 30 (2): 204–221. .
- Wilson, Jonathan, ed. (2021). The Conquest of Santarém and Goswin's Song of the Conquest of Alcácer do Sal: Editions and Translations of De expugnatione Scalabis and Gosuini de expugnatione Salaciae carmen. Crusade Texts in Translation. Routledge.