The Reconquest - 11th - 12th centuries - Display number 2

1. The Expansion in the 11th
– 12th
centuriesTaifa kingdoms.
1031 was the end of the caliphate of
Cordoba. This was the end of their
supremacy, and the Christian kingdoms
started to conquer more territories.
Conquests by Castile
Ferdinand I conquered Coimbra and
territories at the South of Duero valley.
Alfonso VI, son of Ferdinand I occupied
Toledo.(Alfonso VI was married to a
Moorish princess called Zaida. And “El Cid
Campeador” was one of his best knights).
Alfonso VI was accused of killing his own
brother Sancho II in order to inherit the
kingdom of Castile.
His male descendants didn’t survive and
Castile and Leon were inherited by Doña
Urraca.
Portugal
Alfonso VI gave the county of Portugal to one of his daughters,
Doña Teresa.
Her son Alfonso I Enríquez was the first king of Portugal in 1139. In
that date Portugal gained the independence from Castile and
Leon.
Portugal conquered the territories at the South of Duero valley
(Coimbra in 1109, Lisbon in 1149).
Alfonso I, de
Portugal
Conquests by Aragon
Alfonso I, the Battler conquered the city of
Zaragoza.
Alfonso I was married to Doña Urraca, the
daughter of Alfonso VI, but they finally
divorced.
Almoravids and Almohads
First the Almoravids and later the Almohads entered the
Iberian Peninsula in order to stop the advance of the
Christian armies.
How were the territories conquered?
The new territories were conquered in a military way.
The king was the owner of these territories and he gave
it to his vassals (nobles, knights, monasteries, military
orders and free peasants).
The king gave to the free peasant a “settlement letter”
(carta puebla), that was a document signed by the king
and gave to the peasants personal freedom and
exemption from taxes.