Conquest of Cuenca

Conquest of Cuenca
Part of Spanish Christian–Muslim War of 1172–1212
Gorge de Huécar on its way through Cuenca
Date 6 January – 21 September 1177 Location Cuenca, Almohad Caliphate Result Christian victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Castile Supported by: Crown of Aragon	Almohad Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
Alfonso VIII of Castile Nuño Pérez de Lara † Alfonso II of Aragon Berenguer de Vilademuls	Abu Bekaa

The conquest of Cuenca was a siege led by Alfonso VIII of Castile and Alfonso II of Aragon to the city of Cuenca in 1177.

Background

The border of the Tagus had been overwhelmed in the second half of the 12th century because Alfonso VIII of Castile was advancing towards the Xúquer. He besieged Cuenca in 1172, but after five months of siege the caliph Abu-Yaqub forced the Castilian to lift the siege by attacking Huete. The caliph Yaqub, the philosopher Averroes, the historian Sahib as-Sala (who gives a detailed description of Cuenca) and other notable Almohads entered the city and helped the besieged. Abu-Yaqub Yússuf and Alfonso VIII signed a truce for seven years.

The truce was broken in the summer of 1176 when the Muslims of Cuenca, together with those of Alarcón and Moya, attacked the Christian lands of Huete and Uclés, breaking the pact. Alfonso VIII summons the Castilian counts Nuño Pérez de Lara, Pedro Gutiérrez, Àlvar Fáñez, Tello Pérez, Nuño Sánchez, the lord of Albarrasí Pedro Ruiz de Azagra, the king of León Ferdinand I and the King of Aragon Alfonso II and the orders soldiers of Saint John, Calatrava and Alfama and laid siege to the city on January 6, 1177.

The siege

Faithful to the friendship with the kingdom of Castile, Alfonso II, went to the siege of Cuenca with a group of armed peons identified with the Almogavers in aid of the Castilian monarch. After arriving to Cuenca, he went to Provence and other points. In July or later, he must have returned to Cuenca. The archbishop of Tarragona, Berenguer de Vilademuls, accompanied him with soldiers from the city and from Camp de Tarragona.

Cuenca, considered impregnable, suffered a long and very tough siege (for nine months) by the combined armies of Castile and Aragon, swelled by the large number of foreigners who came from the crusade that the Holy See had raised and that preached the cardinal legate Giacinto Bobone, who later became pope under the name of Celestine III.

The leader Abu Bekaa asks for help from the caliph Abu-Yaqub but he was in Africa attending to other matters and denied him help. On July 27, the besieged made an exit attacking the Christian camp with the aim of delivering a coup d'état against the king, but they only managed to kill Count Nuño Pérez de Lara. Hunger, disease and the dead from the continuous attacks of clubs and blunderbuss forced them to surrender and liberate the city on September 21, the day of Sant Mathew. The Christian army takes the citadel and the castle and, after the Muslim abandonment of the city, Alfonso VIII and his retinue triumphantly enter the city of Cuenca in October, becoming part of Castile.

Consequences

In that same year, according to Jerónimo Zurita, Alfonso II went on a military expedition to Llorca, so that the king of Murcia, who was his vassal, would ensure the tribute. On returning from this victorious expedition and being in Teruel, he gave the church of Saint Vincent to the Royal Monastery of San Juan de la Peña "pro servitio quod mihi fecisti in illa hoste de Valencia".

As a reward for Alfonso II participation in the capture of Cuenca, he and his successors were freed in perpetuity from the vassalage to Castile that had its origin in the Serón de Nágima Agreement (1158). However, this vassalage, purely nominal and circumstantial with regard to the kingdom of Aragon, never existed in truth with regard to the county of Barcelona.

Bibliography

• Rovira i Virgili, Antoni (1929). "Vol. IV: La Catalunya Nacional". Història Nacional de Catalunya (1a ed.). Edicions Pàtria. p. 416-7.
• J.A. Almonacid Claveria, De Huete a Cuenca con los Almohades en 1172