Battle of Aljubarrota

Battle of Aljubarrota

Part of: Portuguese Revolution of 1383
Hundred Years War

The battle of Aljubarrota; on the right the victorious Portuguese (from the Chronicle of Great Britain by Jean de Wavrin )

date	August 14, 1385
place	at Aljubarrota
output	decisive victory for the Portuguese

Parties to the conflict
Castile and Leon Kingdom of France	Kingdom of Portugal Kingdom of England
Commander
Johann I.	Johann by Avis Nuno Álvares Pereira
Troop strength
approx. 30,500 men	approx. 7,300 men
losses
4,000 killed 5,000 prisoners 4,000 killed on the run	Less than 1,000 fallen

The Battle of Aljubarrota was a decisive battle that took place on August 14, 1385 between the armies of King John I of Castile and John of Avis , who later became John I of Portugal , and secured Portugal's independence. It is named after the town of Aljubarrota , which was part of the Alcobaça Abbey at the time and near which it took place.

prehistory

The reconquest of the northern parts of today's Portugal from the Moors ( Reconquista ) was first carried out by the kings of Asturias-León. In the territories of what will later become Portugal, the "first" county of Portucale (Condado Portucalense) developed in the area around Porto from 868 onwards with dynastic succession under the Kingdom of Asturias-León, which lasted until 1070.

In 1095 Henry of Burgundy , a younger descendant of the Capetian dukes of Burgundy and son-in-law of Alfonso VI. , King of Asturias - León , the county of Portucale again as a hereditary fief . A process began in which Portugal slowly broke away from the feudal dependence of Asturias-León, or later from Castile, the successor state of Asturias-León, and thus gained its independence. This process ended with the Treaty of Zamora in 1143, which allowed the last Count of Portugal, Alfons Henriques , to assume the title of king. Henry of Burgundy and his son Alfons Henriques also founded the first Portuguese royal house, the house of the Portuguese Burgundian kings , which ruled the country until 1383. The kings of neighboring Castile nevertheless endeavored to restore the old suzerainty and waited for a favorable opportunity to do so.

One such opportunity arose for Castile in 1382/1383. The then Portuguese King Ferdinand I, the Handsome , had no legitimate male descendants after the death of his sons . With his death, the House of Burgundy would become extinct in Portugal. At that time, the Castilian royal family was closely linked to the Portuguese royal family through family ties. The father of King John I of Castile and the grandmother of King Ferdinand of Portugal were siblings, and King Ferdinand's mother was a Castilian princess. In this respect, the Castilian king had legitimate hopes that the Portuguese crown would also go to him. Ferdinand, who had been at war with Castile since 1380 , tried unsuccessfully to marry his only daughter Beatrix with an inheritance right to an English prince in order to maintain Portugal's independence from Castile even after his death. In 1382 the war against Castile was lost for the Portuguese. After the defeat, King Ferdinand in the Treaty of Badajoz had no choice but to make peace by marrying his daughter Beatrix to King John I of Castile. The marriage of Beatrix to the Castilian king, which took place on May 13, 1383, cemented the Castilian hereditary claims to the Portuguese throne. Ferdinand I got the promise that after his death Portugal would initially be ruled by a regent until a future son of Beatrix would be old enough to ascend the throne. Should Beatrix have no children, Portugal should fall to Castile, but enjoy permanent self-government. Nonetheless, the question remained whether a Castilian occupation would ultimately result in the end of Portuguese independence. Portugal would have become a Spanish province - perhaps with a certain cultural independence, comparable to today's Galicia .

Ferdinand I died on October 22, 1383. The regency was initially led by Ferdinand's widow, Leonore Teles de Menezes , and her lover, the pro-Castilian Galician Count of Ourém . But the Portuguese people mistrusted Castile and the promise of autonomy made by the Castilian side. After only six weeks there was an uprising, the so-called Portuguese Revolution of 1383 . Ferdinand's widow was chased out of Lisbon and her lover killed. Johann von Avis , Grand Master of the Knightly Order of Avis and half-brother of the late Ferdinand, took over the leadership of the uprising. Although Johann von Avis was, through his father, King Peter I , also a descendant of the Burgundian kings, he could not formally raise any inheritance claims to the throne because he was born out of wedlock.

John I of Castile assessed the overthrow of Ferdinand's widow as an immediate threat to his claims to power. He marched into Portugal with a large army. He got support from France because Portugal was an ally of England. Johann von Avis was then declared by the Portuguese aristocratic parliament, the Cortes , in Coimbra to be the “ruler and defender of the Kingdom of Portugal” (regedor e defensor do reino de Portugal). He received the support of England, which tried again through this war to drive the France-friendly House of Trastámara from the Castilian throne and thus to neutralize the Castilian fleet, which supported France and threatened England.

The battle

The Battle of Aljubarrota on August 14, 1385 fell into a decisive phase in the Castilian-Portuguese conflict. After he had to break off the siege of Lisbon in 1384 , King John I of Castile again gathered his troops in the following year to conquer Portugal and assert his claims to the Portuguese throne. He received military help from the French, who made their cavalry available to him. However, the Portuguese became aware of what John I intended. They were preparing for the impending invasion. They received help from the English, who made their archers available to the Portuguese.

On the evening of August 13, 1385, the Castilian troops reached the city of Leiria . The next day there was a battle. It lasted little more than half an hour. The Castilians were numerically far superior to the Portuguese, and the Castilian army was better equipped. Nevertheless, the Portuguese managed to crush the Castilians during the battle, thanks in particular to the military-tactical genius of Nuno Álvares Pereira and the military aid of England. Again the defensive English tactics, which had already been successfully tried out during the Battle of Crecy and the Battle of Poitiers and which Nuno Alvares Pereira now used on the battlefield of Aljubarrota, proved to be superior to the offensive French tactics.

When the Castilian flag was captured by the Portuguese troops, the Castilian troops withdrew, sometimes in panic. As many Castilian soldiers were killed while fleeing as during the battle. In addition, around 5,000 Castilians were captured. Among the dead were numerous members of the high nobility of Castile, including the Admiral of Castile Juan Fernández de Tovar . As a result of this catastrophe, the Kingdom of Castile was in mourning for two years.

Schematic order of battle in the military confrontation of Aljubarrota

meaning

With the Portuguese victory, Portugal's independence was permanently secured; the Castilian claims against Portugal were fended off until further notice. It cleared the way for Johann von Avis to be crowned king as Johann I. He established the rule of the House of Avis , which ruled Portugal until 1580. In memory of the battle, Johann founded the Batalha monastery near the battlefield . It has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List .

The battle also contributed to the temporary peace after the first phase of the Hundred Years War:

• Portugal was exhausted from the wars.
• Castile, too, had become tired of war because of the defeat in Portugal.
• The battle showed France the limits of its offensive possibilities against England.
• Despite this victory, the English king had made no headway in his quest to gain the Castilian throne due to past defeats. The continuation of the war against France and Castile after the battle of Aljubarrota was therefore unfavorable for England. Therefore, in 1386, until further notice - until 1415 - England abandoned further attempts to regain the lost possessions in France.

Commemoration

The former battlefield has been archaeologically explored in several excavation campaigns since 1958. Today it is designed as a park-like area. On its edge are the Capela de São Jorge (Chapel of St. George) and the Museu Militar da Batalha de Aljubarrota (Military Museum of the Battle of Aljubarrota).

See also

• History of Portugal
• Timeline Portugal
• Ferdinandic Wars
• Portuguese Revolution of 1383
• Portugal under the house of Avis
• Hundred Years War

source

• Fernão Lopes : Crónica de D. João I . Edited by Manuel Lopes de Almeida and Artur de Magalhães Basto ( Biblioteca histórica de Portugal e Brasil. Série régia series ). Vol. 1. Civilização, Porto 1983 (written by Fernão Lopes in 1443).

literature

in order of appearance

• Crispín Ximénez de Sandoval: Batalla de Aljubarrota. Monografía histórica y estudio crítico-militar . Rivadeneyra, Madrid 1872.
• Jorge Campos Tavares: Aljubarrota. A batalha real (14-VIII-1385), Lello & Irmão, Porto 1985.
• Sociedade Histórica da Independência de Portugal (ed.): Aljubarrota 1385–1985 . Editorial Minerva, Lisbon 1987.
• João Gouveia Monteiro: Aljubarrota revisitada . Imprensa da Universidade, Coimbra 2001, ISBN 972-8704-00-3 .
• João Gouveia Monteiro: Aljubarrota, 1385: a batalha real . Tribuna da História, Lisbon, 2nd edition 2003, ISBN 972-879904-7 .
• Luís Miguel Duarte: Aljubarrota. Crónica dos anos de brasa, 1383-1389 (series Guerras e campanhas militares da história de Portugal ). Quidnovi, Matosinhos 2007, ISBN 978-972-8998-87-5 .
• Vinício de Sousa: A vitória de Aljubarrota. O contexto, os protagonistas e os segredos da batalha que consolidou a independência de Portugal . Esfera do Caos, Lisbon 2010, ISBN 978-989-680-003-1 .
• Alexandre Borges: As Vitórias Impossíveis na História de Portugal . Casa das Letras, Alfragide 2014, ISBN 978-972-46-2218-7 , pp. 17–40.
• João Gouveia Monteiro: Nuno Álvares Pereira. Guerreiro, senhor feudal, santo. Os tês rostos do condestável . Manuscrito, Lisbon, 2017, ISBN 978-989-8871-24-4 , pp. 108-115.

Web links

Commons : Battle of Aljubarrota  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Alexandre Borges: As Vitórias Impossíveis na História de Portugal . Casa das Letras, Alfragide 2014, p. 18.
2. ↑ Alexandre Borges: As vitórias Impossíveis na História de Portugal . Casa das Letras, Alfragide 2014, p. 22.
3. ↑ Alexandre Borges: As vitórias Impossíveis na História de Portugal . Casa das Letras, Alfragide 2014, p. 24.
4. ↑ Alexandre Borges: As vitórias Impossíveis na História de Portugal . Casa das Letras, Alfragide 2014, p. 27.
5. ^ Jorge N. Ferro: La batalla desastrada: la reiteración de un esquema narrativo en la cronística de Ayala . In: Antonia Martínez Pérez, Ana Luisa Baquero Escudero (eds.): Estudios de literatura medieval: 25 años de la Asociación hispánica de literatura medieval . Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 2012, ISBN 978-84-15463-31-3 , pp. 357-364, here p. 364.
6. ↑ ^{a b} La Batalla de Aljubarrota in the Geo-Historia portal . Retrieved August 29, 2018 (Spanish).
7. ^ João Gouveia Monteiro: Aljubarrota revisitada . Imprensa da Universidade, Coimbra 2001, pp. 7-10.