Spain, 1157–1300: A Partible Inheritance

The years 1157 to 1312 constitute one of the most significant periods of Spain s own development as well as of its relationship with the wider world. While the Christian reconquest of most of the part of the peninsula occupied by Spanish Islam proceeded further and faster than ever before, the cultural and intellectual consequences of its contact with the other resonated throughout the schools and universities of Northern Europe. Yet despite this, the underlying weaknesses of a society disorganized by war and overstretched by its endeavours could neither be disguised nor remedied.

Spain 1157–1312 examines this fascinating period of medieval history, focussing on the reign of Alfonso the Learned the ruler of Castile who ultimately failed in his attempt to bring Spain into Europe and his Aragonese contemporaries in the Mediterranean. While questioning the assumption that the history of this period foreshadowed the unified Spain of the still far–distant Golden Age, Spain 1157–1312  draws on a vast body of primary and secondary source material to provide a balanced overview of a crucial period of Spanish as well as of European history.

Preface.

List of Abbreviations.

1 1157–1179.

Past and Present.

After the Emperor.

Two Royal Minorities.

2 The Age of Las Navas.

Life, Law and Memory.

Three Battles.

Implications of the Vernacular.

Castile Victorious.

3 1214–1248.

Doña Berenguela and Son.

′The Gate is Open and the Way Is Clear′.

Towards Valencia.

Conquest and Colonization.

Toledo and Seville.

After Valencia.

The Mediterranean Dimension.

4 Some Permanent Features.

Jews.

Moors.

Hunger, Kings and Capitals.

5 1252–1259.

Alfonso X: Promising Beginnings.

A Command Economy.

The Law.

Implications of Empire.

6 1259–1274.

Toledo and Translations.

International Complications.

The Mudéjar Rising.

The Alfonsine Histories.

7 1275–1284.

A Reign in Ruins.

France and Aragón.

1282.

Aragón Alone.

The Learned King.

8 The Changed Balance.

Castile after 1284.

A Question of Alliances.

′Neither Truth nor Faith′.

Epilogue.

Bibliography.

Glossary.

Peter Linehan is Fellow and Dean of St John s College, Cambridge, Fellow of the British Academy, and Corresponding Member of the Spanish Academy of History.

"This is a masterly revisiting of the period, every clause of Linehan′s sentences embodying not only that eloquence of rhetorical style he so admired in the work of another Fellow of St. John′s, Prof. John Cook (see the obituary by Lineham in The Independent, 15 September 2007), but a freshness and vitality of vision that find their fullest expression in his portrait of King Alfonso el Sabio." (Speculuma Medieval Studies, April 2011)

"His expertise in both the history and the historiography of that period provides a complex, multifaceted perspective on an era that demands nothing." (English Historical Review, 1 August 2010)

"As the author of a survey of Spanish history in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, Peter Linehan is a natural choice. His expertise in both the history and the historiography of that period provides a complex, multifaceted perspective on an era that demands nothing less." (English Historical Review, August 2010)

The work presents a valuable scholarly addition that details medieval Spain through a large primary source body of evidence, and offers valuable insight into the multifaceted reality that was medieval Spain between 1157 and 1300. (Choice Reviews, May 2009)

Peter Linehan′s remarkable scholarly productivity richly qualifies him to be the author of such a book. (The American Historical Review, February 2009)

The balance of the book represents in essence a study of the course and impact of Alfonso X′s long and problematic reign, in the context of peninsular, European and Mediterranean politics and culture. The book is written in Linehan′s trademark style, which readers will either find entertaining, frustrating or both. It is dense and detailed, written in breathless prose, peppered with ironies and inside jokes. (The Medieval Review, February 2009)