| Battle of Los Alporchones | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the SpanishReconquista | |||||||
 The Church of St. Patrick in Lorca, named thus because of the date the battle was fought on | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Emirate of Granada | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| John II of Castile Alonso Fajardo el Bravo | Muhammad IX of Granada  Malik Anes (POW)  | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 400–700 knights 1,700–2,000 foot soldiers[1][2] | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 40 killed 200 injured[1] | High 400 captured[1] | ||||||
TheBattle of Los Alporchones was a battle of the SpanishReconquista that took place on 17 March 1452. The battle was fought between the troops of theEmirate of Granada and the combined forces of theKingdom of Castile and its client kingdom, theKingdom of Murcia. TheMoorish army was commanded byMalik ibn al-Abbas[3] and the Castilian troops were commanded byAlonso Fajardo el Bravo, the head of theHouse of Fajardo and theAlcalde ofLorca Castle. The battle was fought in the area around the city ofLorca and resulted in a victory for theKingdom of Castile.
After recapturing theEmirate of Granada from his uncle,the SultanMuhammed X in 1447,Muhammed IX continued his bellicose policies with regards to theKingdom of Castile. His predecessor (Muhammad X) had managed to retake a few frontier towns from theKingdom of Murcia through regular raids orRazzis which terrorized the region'sChristian population. Most of these incursions into Christian territory took advantage of squabbles within the Kingdom of Murcia's ruling family, theHouse of Fajardo. In 1448, Muslim forces captured andsacked the town ofCieza, and soon defeated Christian forces at theBattle of Hellín.[citation needed]
The continued Muslim incursions into Murcia obliged the Castilian monarch,John II of Castile to ask for a truce in 1450 in order to concentrate his own forces in a separate war againstJuan Pacheco, theMarquis of Villena. However, Muhammad IX refused the truce, preferring to take full advantage of the disunity amongst Castilian nobles. The Granadan Sultan's fresh incursion into Murcia brought back much plunder in 1451. Muhammad IX then planned a large scaleAlgara (Arabic for incursion: الغارة) against the area ofCampo de Cartagena. This raid captured 40,000 heads ofcattle and around 40 prisoners, mostly herdsmen.[1]
The immensity of this raid incursion forced Castile's Christians to put aside their internal squabbles and form a united front against theKingdom of Granada. TheAlcalde ofLorca Castle,Alonso Fajardo, nicknamedel Bravo (English:The Brave) sentheralds to various towns within theKingdom of Murcia. The resulting army fromAledo,Caravaca de la Cruz, andMurcia totaled around 300 knights and 2,000 infantry soldiers. They encamped outsideLorca, in a field called Los Alporchones, knowing that the Muslim raiders would have to pass through the area when returning from their pillaging expedition.[1]
On 17 March 1452, the Moorish army finally arrived at Los Alporchones and an action was fought between the two parties. The Castilian attack came initially as a surprise and the Christian forces were able to get an early advantage over the Granadan army. The Castilian army was nearly immediately victorious; however the Granadan commander,Malik ibn al-Abbas who was renowned for his courage and competence, succeeded in reforming his line twice during the engagement. The chronicles recount that the Alcalde,Alonso Fajardo, arriving at the conclusion that the fight could go either way, decided to enter into single combat with the enemy captain. The pair fought until Fajardo managed to unhorse al-Abbas, taking him prisoner.[1]
The capture of the Granadan captain broke the morale of the Muslim army who were routed from the field. They were pursued by the Castilian forces all the way toVera in theProvince of Almería where it is mentioned that only 300 managed to escape. The Granadan casualties were very high with around 400 captured, whilst the Castilian casualties were around 40 dead and 200 wounded.[1]
The battle had many lasting consequences. Incursions into the territory of theKingdom of Murcia stopped altogether as theKingdom of Granada asked for a five-yeartruce. Future conflicts would remain on Granadan territory until theGranada War.[4] The prestige of Lorca and in particular theHouse of Fajardo rose significantly. It was one of the branches of this noble house that would eventually go on to form the powerfulHouse of los Vélez.[citation needed]
In homage toSt Patrick ofIreland, whose saint's day is celebrated on 17 March, the same day as the battle, he was named thepatron saint of the city ofMurcia. A church was built in Lorca which would later house theColegiata de San Patricio.[1][5]
Malik ibn al-Abbas was executed by his captors shortly after the battle whilst the victor,Alonso Fajardo el Bravo would go on to be slain in a battle inCaravaca de la Cruz against soldiers under the command of his cousin,Pedro Fajardo, theAdelantado in the service ofHenry IV of Castile.[1][6]
The battle, as many battles of theReconquista, was the subject of poetical works. The followingSpanish language text is an excerpt from the beginning of a shortpoem describing the events of the battle. Of note, the Arabic names have all been used with their Spanish equivalents, the names that they would have been known by to their Spanish enemies. For example,Malik ibn al-Abbas was known asAlabez de Vera.[citation needed]
Allá en Granada la rica (Over there, in Granada, the rich one)
instrumentos oí tocar (I heard instruments being played)
en la calle Gomeles (at the street of Gomeles)
a la puerta de Abidvar (at Abdivar Gate)
el cual es moro valiente (who is a valiant Moorish)
y muy fuerte capitán (and a very strong Captain)
Manda juntar muchos moros (he orders to bring together many Moors)
bien diestros en pelear (well versed in fighting)
porque en el Campo de Lorca (because at the Lorca field)
se determinan de entrar (they are decided to invade)
con él salen tres alcaides (with him depart three Mayors)
aquí los quiero nombrar: (here I want to give their names:)
Almoradí de Guadix (Almoradi of Guadix)
éste es de sangre real (he is from royal blood)
Abenaciz es el otro (Abenaciz is the other one)
y de Baza natural (born in Baza)
y de Vera es Alabez (and from Vera is Alabez)
de esfuerzo muy singular (who is a singularly hard fighter)
y en cualquier guerra su gente (and in any war his people)
bien la sabe acaudillar (he knows well how to lead)
[2]|Ginés Pérez de Hita
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