LAS NAVAS DE TOLOSA 1212

Las Navas de Tolosa was a dramatical historic turning point as decisive as the battle of Gaugamela in 1st October 331 BCE, where Alexandre the Great had met and defeated the Persian vast army of Darius III. The confrontation between monolithic submissive rule against freedom has been a constant between Orient and Occident throughout all times. The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on 16 July 1212 was a crucial key point in the Reconquista and the medieval history of Spain and Europe. An invading even fiercer Muslim army crossed from Africa through Gibraltar to conquer the northern part of Spain, which had not been occupied yet. Such was the danger that four kings in the Iberian Penninsula joined forces to match the new threat. King Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, Peter II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal. It was an even brutal encounter where Santiago, Calatrava, Hospital and Temple orders joined nobles with their armed retinue and some forces that came from Europe to help. The Caliph al-Nasir (Miramamolín in the Spanish chronicles) led the Almohad army. Most of the men in the Almohad army came from the African side of the empire”.

The battle of Las Navas de Tolosa stopped Islamic troops from spreading further into Spain and topped their ambitions to conquer not only Spain but the whole of Europe riding from the Pyrenees up into France and the rest of Europe. Again, two radically different ways of life were at stake: perpetual serfdom vs. freedom. Had those Christian warriors failed in their quest, the whole of Europe would presumably be nowadays under the role of the Crescent Moon; even the new continent of America.

Vicente Jiménez