Battle of Clavijo
Clavijo Castle
| date | May 23, 844 (or 834) |
|---|---|
| place | Clavijo , La Rioja |
| output | Asturian victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| losses | |
|
70,000 men |
|
The Battle of Clavijo is one of the famous battles of the Reconquista because of the legend associated with it . It allegedly took place on May 23, 844 (according to other sources, 834) on the Campo de la Matanza near Clavijo in the La Rioja region between the army of King Ramiro I of Asturias and an army of the Emir Abd ar-Rahman II . instead of. Ramiro is said to have won. According to modern research, the battle is either fictitious or it was actually a battle that only took place after Ramiro's death.
Lore
The account of the battle comes from a document allegedly issued by King Ramiro after the victory on May 25, 844, the Privilegio de los Votos . This document was forged around the middle of the 12th century by the clergyman Pedro Marcio in Santiago de Compostela and is therefore of no value as a source for the 9th century. The representation of the forged document was taken over in the 13th century by the chroniclers Lucas von Tui and Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada and thus found its way into later historical works via the De rebus Hispaniae , in particular the Estoria de España ( Crónica General ).
In the forged document, King Ramiro is assumed to have the following statements. Some of his predecessors (not named) would not have fought against the Muslims out of laziness and neglect, but bought peace with an annual tribute. This tribute, the tribute of the one hundred virgins mentioned here for the first time, consisted of a hundred Christian virgins, 50 from the nobility and 50 from the people, who were given to the Muslims. He, Ramiro, refused to pay tribute and chose to fight. First his army was routed and then gathered again at Clavijo. There the holy apostle James (Santiago) appeared to him in a dream as the patron saint of Spain and promised him help for the coming battle. The next morning the Christian troops went into battle with the cry “Help us, God and holy Jacob!” And won, with the apostle himself appearing as a knight on a white horse. 70,000 enemies had fallen. As a thank you Ramiro had afterwards granted the Church of St. James in Santiago an annual payment, which was to be paid as a general tax by all Christians in the empire.
Since none of the older sources, which are much closer to the epoch of Ramiros I, mention the battle, although this would have to have been a spectacular event if it had happened in the manner described, it can be assumed that it was an invention of the forger. This belonged itself to the Jakobskirche, which should benefit from the forged document.
Representation in art
Allegedly, James the Elder is said to have achieved the victory of the Christians through his intervention in the battle of Clavijo; The numerous paintings and sculptures by Santiago Matamoros , known since the 15th century, can be traced back to this legend (see also Battle of Clavijo (Notre-Dame-en-Vaux) ). Further representations of this battle: the ceiling painting created by Cosmas Damian Asam in 1714 in the church of Ensdorf Abbey in Upper Palatinate and the ceiling painting painted by Johann and Otto Gebhard in 1750 in the parish church of St. Jakob (Cham) , Upper Palatinate.
literature
- Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz: La auténtica batalla de Clavijo. In: Cuadernos de Historia de España. 9, 1948, ISSN 0325-1195 , pp. 94-139.
- Paulino García Toraño: Historia de el Reino de Asturias. 718-910. Count. Summa, Oviedo 1986, ISBN 84-398-6586-4 , pp. 249-254.