The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville & the Age of Chivalry Read Online Free
Author: Christopher Wilkins
Tags: nonfiction, History, Biography & Autobiography, Medieval, England/Great Britain, 15th Century, Military & Fighting
arrived in time for the spring campaign of 1486. Spring was the time when campaigns were launched against the Moors, and Edward Woodville rode in to Cordoba with ‘a beautiful train of household troops three hundred in number, armed after the fashion of their land with longbow and battle-axe’.2
The War of the Reconquista had been a testing ground for young warriors since the legendary battle of Covadonga that confirmed Christian independence in the northern mountains of Asturias. This victory by ‘Pelayo’, traditionally a Visigoth nobleman, was the first check to the Muslim expansion in Spain and so marks the start of the Reconquista, somewhere between ad 718 and 722.
Over the next 300 years or so, Moorish Spain flourished and grew into the glory of the Cordoban Caliphate, but then it dissolved into a series of petty states that were no more than ‘cats puffed up to look like lions’. By the second half of the eleventh century the Christians were already picking off these taifa kingdoms, Toledo being captured in 1085.
There was a crucial Muslim defeat in 1212 at Las Navas de Tolsa. The defeat was so complete that the emir retreated to Fez which he started refortifying. As a masterpiece of bad timing, it was at this point that King John of England, searching for help against the barons, is reported to have sent an embassy to the emir offering in return, homage and conversion to the law of Mohammed, as well as pledging future support against the Spanish. The emir was unable to help and, moreover, disapproved of the offer.3 The victory of 1212 was followed by a series of successes, with Castile capturing Cordoba and Seville while Aragon took Valencia; the fighting swayed back and forth but the Moors were effectively confined to the kingdom of Granada.4
The Nasrids ruled Granada with moderate success until the fifteenth century when the politics became bewilderingly complicated. The emirate with a population of around 200,000 was torn by tribal differences, economically weak and its treasury further depleted by paying tribute to the kings of Castile. But it survived because of the weakness of its enemies. However, when Ferdinand of Aragon married Isabella of Castile in 1469 and they subsequently succeeded to their separate thrones, the threat to Moorish Granada gained teeth. The demise of the emirate seemed probable, provided, of course, that there was no solid Muslim victory or a nasty upheaval in Christian Spain.
The War of the Reconquista began as a struggle for survival coupled with the natural inclination of mountain men to plunder the plains; it was later presented as a crusade. Now that its end seemed to be in sight, the campaign captured the imagination of Christian Europe and also offered prospects of pay and loot for the less devout. Swiss mercenaries were recruited while volunteers from France, England and other parts of Europe flocked to Spain. It was at this stage that Edward and his company arrived.
They had sailed with some merchants. The ships had called at Lisbon and then sailed down the coast to Seville where Edward’s arrival was reported to King Ferdinand in a letter dated 1 March 1486. Edward and his troop disembarked at Seville5 which was at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. It had been captured from the Moors in 1248, was one of Spain’s important cities and would be a good place to gather news of when and where the Christian army was assembling. The answer was Cordoba, 85 miles upriver, where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were due on 28 April.
By March the rains have stopped in the Guadalquivir valley where Cordoba sits, the sun is bright, the orange trees heavy with fruit and, in the fifteenth century, the hills were covered with ilex interspersed with almond and apple blossom. Riding along those white tracks was Edward, all the way from England, with his banner of the silver scallop and his ‘beautiful train’.
Edward brought at least six chargers and also pack animals to carry
The War of the Reconquista had been a testing ground for young warriors since the legendary battle of Covadonga that confirmed Christian independence in the northern mountains of Asturias. This victory by ‘Pelayo’, traditionally a Visigoth nobleman, was the first check to the Muslim expansion in Spain and so marks the start of the Reconquista, somewhere between ad 718 and 722.
Over the next 300 years or so, Moorish Spain flourished and grew into the glory of the Cordoban Caliphate, but then it dissolved into a series of petty states that were no more than ‘cats puffed up to look like lions’. By the second half of the eleventh century the Christians were already picking off these taifa kingdoms, Toledo being captured in 1085.
There was a crucial Muslim defeat in 1212 at Las Navas de Tolsa. The defeat was so complete that the emir retreated to Fez which he started refortifying. As a masterpiece of bad timing, it was at this point that King John of England, searching for help against the barons, is reported to have sent an embassy to the emir offering in return, homage and conversion to the law of Mohammed, as well as pledging future support against the Spanish. The emir was unable to help and, moreover, disapproved of the offer.3 The victory of 1212 was followed by a series of successes, with Castile capturing Cordoba and Seville while Aragon took Valencia; the fighting swayed back and forth but the Moors were effectively confined to the kingdom of Granada.4
The Nasrids ruled Granada with moderate success until the fifteenth century when the politics became bewilderingly complicated. The emirate with a population of around 200,000 was torn by tribal differences, economically weak and its treasury further depleted by paying tribute to the kings of Castile. But it survived because of the weakness of its enemies. However, when Ferdinand of Aragon married Isabella of Castile in 1469 and they subsequently succeeded to their separate thrones, the threat to Moorish Granada gained teeth. The demise of the emirate seemed probable, provided, of course, that there was no solid Muslim victory or a nasty upheaval in Christian Spain.
The War of the Reconquista began as a struggle for survival coupled with the natural inclination of mountain men to plunder the plains; it was later presented as a crusade. Now that its end seemed to be in sight, the campaign captured the imagination of Christian Europe and also offered prospects of pay and loot for the less devout. Swiss mercenaries were recruited while volunteers from France, England and other parts of Europe flocked to Spain. It was at this stage that Edward and his company arrived.
They had sailed with some merchants. The ships had called at Lisbon and then sailed down the coast to Seville where Edward’s arrival was reported to King Ferdinand in a letter dated 1 March 1486. Edward and his troop disembarked at Seville5 which was at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. It had been captured from the Moors in 1248, was one of Spain’s important cities and would be a good place to gather news of when and where the Christian army was assembling. The answer was Cordoba, 85 miles upriver, where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were due on 28 April.
By March the rains have stopped in the Guadalquivir valley where Cordoba sits, the sun is bright, the orange trees heavy with fruit and, in the fifteenth century, the hills were covered with ilex interspersed with almond and apple blossom. Riding along those white tracks was Edward, all the way from England, with his banner of the silver scallop and his ‘beautiful train’.
Edward brought at least six chargers and also pack animals to carry
Readers choose
Lawrence Block
Rene Steinke
Paul Theroux
Christopher Wakling
Jennifer Chiaverini
Jamie Freveletti
George Griffith
E A Dineley
Sarah Mallory