Geraldo sem Pavor

Geraldo with the severed head of a Moor , monument in Évora

Geraldo in the city arms of Évora

Geraldo Geraldes , also called Geraldo sem pavor or Geraldo, O Sem Pavor (= "Geraldo Fearless"), was an adventurer who during the reconquest ( reconquista ) of the south of Portugal as the leader of urban militias in Alentejo several cities of Moorish rule freed.

Historical background

In 1161 the Christian offensive began in the areas of the Alentejo , which lasted until 1167. During this period, the attacks were not led by the first Portuguese king Afonso Henriques (r. 1139–1185) or his military, but by urban troops led by local leaders such as Fernando Gonçalves from Santarém , who took Beja in 1162, were cited. At the same time, the Leonese King Ferdinand II undertook attacks along the not clearly defined Portuguese border, so that there was friction and conflict between the various parties.

Deeds

Around the year 1162 Geraldo Geraldes put together a private army (mesnada) and raided castles and places in the Alentejo held by the Moors , specializing in attacks at night or in bad weather, according to an Arab source. In November 1165 he recaptured the city of Évora and thus made a major contribution to the expansion of the young Portuguese Empire. What is certain is that the tactic of constant surprise attacks on the castles occupied by the Moors was extremely successful.

In 1166 he moved into the Castell de Juromenha , from where he directed constant attacks on Badajoz , the most important military center in the west of the Arabian Al-Andalus . The siege of the city turned out to be a military disaster in 1169, because Ferdinand II allied himself with the Almohad leader and caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf I against the Portuguese invaders. As a result, Geraldo himself and the Portuguese king Afonso Henriques, who hurried to his aid, lost all the possessions in the southeast of the empire that had been conquered in the years before.

Ibn ʿIdhārī († around 1313) still claims that Geraldo allied himself with the Almohads in 1171/72 and was sent by them with an army of 350 men to Morocco, where he conquered the Souss plain , which he conquered however offered the Portuguese king as a base. After all, he was executed in Ceuta around 1173 .

rating

Geraldo Geraldes is a controversial figure in Portuguese history. On the one hand he is celebrated as the hero of the Portuguese Reconquista and important helper of the first king of Portugal , Afonso Henriques , even as a kind of Portuguese cid , on the other hand some Portuguese historians suspect that he must be seen as the leader of a gang of robbers and adventurers, who had decided one day to rehabilitate themselves and fight less for the Portuguese cause and more on their own and for their own benefit. The historian José Hermano Saraiva, on the other hand, claims that Geraldo only superficially worked for himself, but in reality did a great service to King Afonso Henriques by fighting in areas where political compromises (including with the King of Castile ) the monarchs from operating on their own.

As a central figure in the iconography of the city of Évora , he was immortalized in the city ​​coat of arms as a rider with drawn sword.

literature

• Charles Julian Bishko: The Spanish and Portuguese Reconquest, 1095-1492. In: A History of the Crusades, vol. 3: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Ed. Harry W. Hazard, University of Wisconsin Press Madison 1975.
• Simon Barton: Traitors to the Faith? Christian Mercenaries in al-Andalus and the Maghreb, c. 1100-1300. In: Medieval Spain: Culture, Conflict, and Coexistence: Studies in Honor of Angus MacKay. Edited by Roger Collins and Anthony Goodman. Palgrave Macmillan 2002.
• Armando de Sousa Pereira: Geraldo sem Pavor. To guerreiro de fronteira entre cristãos e muçulmanos, c. 1162-1176. Fronteira do Caos Ed. Postage 2008, ISBN 978-9898070166