| Conquest of Cuenca | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofReconquista andAlmohad wars in the Iberian Peninsula | |||||||||
 Panoramic view of Cuenca | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Kingdom of Castile Crown of Aragon |  Almohad Caliphate | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Alfonso VIII of CastileNuño Pérez de Lara †Alfonso II of AragonBerenguer de Vilademuls | Abu Beka | ||||||||
TheConquest of Cuenca was a siege led byAlfonso VIII of Castile andAlfonso II of Aragon to the city of Cuenca in 1177. The siege lasted for almost a year until it finally fell on Castilian hands in 21 September.
The border of theTagus had been overwhelmed in the second half of the 12th century becauseAlfonso VIII of Castile was advancing towards theJúcar.[1] Hebesieged Cuenca in 1172 but, after five months of siege, the caliphAbu Yaqub forced the Castilian to lift the siege byattacking Huete.[2] The caliph Yaqub, the philosopherAverroes, the historian Sahib as-Sala (who gives a detailed description ofCuenca) and other notableAlmohads entered the city and helped the besieged.[3][4] However, the Almohads also failed to take Huete and signed a seven-year truce with Alfonso.[5]
The truce was broken in the summer of 1176 when the Muslims of Cuenca, together with those ofAlarcón andMoya, attacked the Christian lands ofHuete andUclés, breaking the pact.[6] Alfonso VIII summoned the Castilian countsNuño Pérez de Lara,Pedro Gutiérrez,Àlvar Fáñez,Tello Pérez,Nuño Sánchez, thelord of AlbarracínPedro Ruiz de Azagra, the king of LeónFerdinand II, the King of AragonAlfonso II and the orders soldiers ofSaint John,Calatrava and Alfama and laid siege to the city on 6 January 1177.[7]
Faithful to the friendship with thekingdom of Castile,Alfonso II, went to the siege ofCuenca with a group of armed peons identified with theAlmogavars in aid of the Castilian monarch.[8] After arriving to Cuenca, he went toProvence and other points. In July or later, he must have returned to Cuenca. Thearchbishop of Tarragona,Berenguer de Vilademuls, accompanied him with soldiers from the city and fromCamp de Tarragona.[7]
Cuenca, considered impregnable, suffered a long and very tough siege (for nine months) by the combined armies ofCastile andAragon,[9] swelled by the large number of foreigners who came from the crusade that theHoly See had raised and that preached the cardinal legateGiacinto Bobone, who later became pope under the name ofCelestine III.[10]
The leader Abu Beka asked for help from the caliphAbu Yaqub but he was inAfrica attending to other matters and denied him help.[11] On 27 July, the besieged made an exit attacking the Christian camp with the aim of delivering acoup d'état against the king, but they only managed to kill CountNuño Pérez de Lara.[7] Hunger, disease and the deaths from the continuous attacks of clubs and blunderbuss forced them to surrender and liberate the city on 21 September,[12][13] the day ofSaint Matthew.[14] The Christian army took thecitadel and thecastle and, after the Muslim abandonment of the city, Alfonso VIII and his retinue triumphantly entered the city in October, becoming part of theKingdom of Castile.[15]
In that same year,Alfonso II went on a military expedition toLorca, so that theking of Murcia, who was hisvassal, would ensure the tribute.[16][17] On returning from this victorious expedition and being inTeruel, he gave the church of Saint Vincent to theRoyal Monastery of San Juan de la Peña "pro servitio quod mihi fecisti in illa hoste de Valencia".[18]
As a reward for the participation of Alfonso II in the capture of Cuenca, he and his successors were freed in perpetuity from the vassalage toCastile[19] that had its origin in theTreaty of Serón de Nágima (1158) [es].[20]