Siege of Lisbon
Siege of Lisbon | |||||||
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Part of the PortugueseReconquista and theSecond Crusade | |||||||
![]() TheConquest of Lisbonpainting byAlfredo Roque Gameiro(1917) | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
![]() ![]() | Taifa of Badajoz | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Afonso I of Portugal Hervey de Glanvill Arnout IV, Count of Aarschot Christian of Ghistelles Simon of Dover Andrew of London Saher of Archelle William Longsword | Muhammad ibn Hakam | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
20,000
| ~15,000 |
TheSiege of Lisbon,from 1 July to 25 October 1147, was the military action against the Muslim-ruledTaifa of Badajozthat brought the city ofLisbonunder the definitive control of the new Christian power, theKingdom of Portugal.
The siege of Lisbon was one of the few Christian victories of theSecond Crusade—it was "the only success of the universal operation undertaken by the pilgrim army", i.e., the Second Crusade, according to the near contemporary historianHelmold,[2]although others have questioned whether it was really part of that crusade.[3]It is seen as a pivotal battle of the widerReconquista.
Thefall of Edessa in 1144led to a call for a new crusade byPope Eugene IIIin 1145 and 1146. In the spring of 1147, the Pope authorized the crusade in theIberian Peninsula.He also authorizedAlfonso VII of León and Castileto equate his campaigns against the Moors with the rest of theSecond Crusade.In May 1147, a contingent of crusaders left fromDartmouth, Devonin theKingdom of England.They had intended to sail directly to theHoly Land,but weather forced the ships to stop on the Portuguese coast at the northern city ofPortoon 16 June 1147. There they were convinced to meet withAfonso I of Portugal,who had in 1139 declared himself king of the new Kingdom of Portugal.
The crusaders agreed to help the King attack Lisbon, with a solemn agreement that offered to the crusaders the pillage of the city's goods and the ransom money for expected prisoners. The siege began on 1 July. The city of Lisbon at the time of arrival consisted of sixty thousand families, including the refugees who had fled Christian onslaught from neighbouring cities ofSantarémand others. Also reported by theDe expugnatione Lyxbonensiis that the citadel was holding 154,000 men, not counting women and children; as the medieval account put it, after 17 weeks of siege "the inhabitants were despoiled and the city cleansed".
The rulers of Lisbon agreed to surrender on 24 October, four months later, primarily because of hunger within the city. Most of the crusaders settled in the newly-captured city, but some of the crusaders set sail and continued to the Holy Land. Lisbon eventually became the capital city of the Kingdom of Portugal in 1255.
Second Crusade
[edit]The traditional start of the Reconquista is identified with the defeat of the Muslims in theBattle of Covadongain 722.[4]After theFirst Crusadein 1095–1099,Pope Paschal IIurged Iberian crusaders (Portuguese,Castilians,Leonese,Aragonese,and others) to remain at home, where their own warfare was considered just as worthy as that of crusaders travelling toJerusalem.[5]
In 1142, during thesiege of Lisbon (1142),Afonso Henriques, taking advantage of the passage of a group of Anglo-Norman crusaders on their way to the Holy Land, attempted to use them to take the Muslim-ruled city of Lisbon. Although this attempt ultimately failed leaving some distrust among the crusader forces, it showed the Portuguese monarch the usefulness of such force in future attempts.[6]
Thefall of Edessain 1144 led to a call for a new crusade byPope Eugene IIIin 1145 and 1146. In the spring of 1147, the Pope also authorized a crusade in theIberian Peninsula,where "the war against theMoorshad been going on for hundreds of years. "[7]Pope Eugene encouragedMarseilles,Pisa,Genoa,and other Mediterranean cities to fight in Iberia. He also authorizedAlfonso VII of León and Castileto equate his campaigns against the Moors with the rest of theSecond Crusade.[8]
On 19 May 1147, a contingent of crusaders left fromDartmouthin England, consisting of crusaders fromFlanders,Frisia,France,England,Scotlandand someGermanpolities[9][10][11][12][1]who collectively considered themselves "Franks".[13]No prince or king was in charge of the expedition, and its participants seem to have been largely made up of townsmen, who organised themselves using a sworn oath.[3]Leadership was provided byHervey de Glanvill,Constable of Suffolk.[14][15]Other crusader captains includedArnout IV, Count of Aarschotleading the Rhinelanders,Christian of Gistelleading the Flemish and Boulogne forces, and the Anglo-Norman forces led bySimon of Dover,Andrew of London,andSaher of Archelle.[16]Important decisions were made collectively by the commanders.
Redirected efforts
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/AfonsoI-P.jpg/180px-AfonsoI-P.jpg)
According toOdo of Deuilthere were 164 ships bound for theHoly Land,and there may have been as many as 200 by the time they reached the Iberian shore. Bad weather forced the ships to stop on the Portuguese coast, at the northern city ofPortoon 16 June 1147. There they were convinced by the bishop of Porto,Pedro II Pitões,to meet with King Afonso. The king, who had reached theTagusandconquered Santarémon 15 March, had also been negotiating with the pope for the recognition of his title of King. He was notified of the arrival of a first party and hastened to meet them.[14]
The undisciplined multi-national group agreed to help him there, with a solemn agreement that offered to the crusaders the pillage of the city's goods and the ransom money for expected prisoners. For the city,"they shall have it and hold it until it has been searched and despoiled, both of prisoners for ransom and of everything else. Then, when it has been as thoroughly searched as they wish, they shall turn it over to me..."[17]
King Afonso promised to divide the conquered territories asfiefsamong the leaders. He reserved the power ofadvocatusand released those who were at the siege and their heirs trading in Portugal from the commercial tax called thepedicata.
The English crusaders were at first unenthusiastic at this change of plan, but Hervey de Glanville convinced them to participate.[18]Some led by William Viel and his brother, however, refused to take part[clarification needed]on account on an earlier joint attempt to capture Lisbon 1142. Hostages were exchanged as sureties for the oaths.[14]
Fall of Lisbon
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Siege_of_Lisbon_-_Muslim_surrender.jpg/300px-Siege_of_Lisbon_-_Muslim_surrender.jpg)
The siege began on 1 July. The Christians soon captured the surrounding territories and besieged thewalls of Lisbonitself. After four months, the rulers agreed to surrender on 21 October because the Crusaders'siege towerreached their wall (thus causing a one-day standstill) and because of hunger within the city, which was sheltering populations displaced from Santarém as well as "the leading citizens ofSintra,Almada,andPalmela."[19]
After a brief riotous insurrection the Anglo-Norman chronicler attributes to"the men ofCologneand theFlemings",[20]the city was entered by the Christian conquerors, on 25 October. The terms of the surrender indicated that the Muslim garrison of the city would be allowed to keep their lives and property, but as soon as the Christians entered the city these terms were broken.[14]According to theDe expugnatione Lyxbonensi,
The enemy, when they had been despoiled in the city, left the town through three gates continuously from Saturday morning until the following Wednesday. There was such a multitude of people that it seemed as if all of Hispania were mingled in the crowd.[17]
Furthermore, according to theDe expugnatione Lyxbonensi,the Flemish and those from Cologne were the ones who broke their oath but even according to this they were more concerned with plundering than killing any of the inhabitants:
They ran hither and yon. They plundered. They broke down doors. They rummaged through the interior of every house. They drove the citizens away and harassed them improperly and unjustly. They destroyed clothes and utensils. They treated virgins shamefully. They acted as if right and wrong were the same. They secretly took away everything which should have been common property. They even cut the throat of the elderly Bishop of the city, slaying him against all right and justice.… The Normans and the English, however, for whom faith and religion were of the greatest importance, contemplating what such actions might lead to, remained quietly in their assigned position, preferring to stay their hands from looting rather than to violate the obligations of their faith and their oathbound association.[21]
Aftermath
[edit]Some of the crusaders set sail and continued on their journey around the Iberian Peninsula and were invited byCount Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelonato help him capture the city ofTortosaon theEbro.[14]However, most of the crusaders settled in the newly captured city, thus boosting the number of Christian supporters in Iberia.
Gilbert of Hastingswas electedbishopmarking the beginning of the historic relationship between England and Portugal which would later form theAnglo-Portuguese Alliance.
In spite of the contractual nature of the city's surrender, a legend arose that the Portuguese warrior and nobleman,Martim Moniz,sacrificed himself in order to keep the city doors open to the conquering Christian armies.[22]
Lisbon eventually became the capital city of the Kingdom of Portugal in 1255. The victory was a turning-point in thehistory of Portugaland the widerReconquista,which would be completed in 1492.[23]
See also
[edit]- Saint George's Castle
- Portugal in the Middle Ages
- Timeline of Portuguese history
- De expugnatione Lyxbonensi,a contemporary eye-witness account.
- The History of the Siege of Lisbon,a modern novel about the siege and of the unreliability of historical memory.
Notes
[edit]- ^abH. V. Livermore (2 January 1966).A New History of Portugal.Cambridge University Press Archive. p. 57. GGKEY:RFTURZQG9XA.
- ^C. W. David,"The Authorship of theDe Expugnatione Lyxbonensi",Speculum,7:1 (1932), 50, citing Helmold'sChronica SlavoruminMGH,Scriptores, 11, 58:Hoc solum prospere cessit de universo opere, quod peregrinus patravit exercitus.
- ^abWest, 2013
- ^see Riley-Smith (1990) p. 32.
- ^Helen J. Nicholson,The Crusades(2004) "After the First Crusade (1095–99) Pope Paschal II decided that those who fought the Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula should have their penance remitted, just as if they had gone to Jerusalem."p. 26
- ^Villegas (2013), p. 19
- ^Douglas L. Wheeler, Walter C. Opello (2010) "In 1147, after a long, bloody siege, Muslim-occupied Lisbon fell to Afonso Henrique's army. Lisbon was the greatest prize of the 500-year war."p. 7
- ^Riley-Smith (1990) p. 48
- ^Cologne was allied with London in the incipient wool trade: seeSteelyard.
- ^Jonathan Phillips (2008).The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom.Yale University Press.p. xiv.ISBN978-0-300-16836-5.
- ^Avner Falk (2010).Franks and Saracens: Reality and Fantasy in the Crusades.Karnac Books. pp. 129–.ISBN978-1-85575-733-2.
- ^Olivia Remie Constable; Damian Zurro, eds. (2012).Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources(2nd ed.).University of Pennsylvania Press.p. 180.ISBN978-0-8122-2168-8.
- ^This is the expression consistently used in the eye-witness chronicle of the siege,De expugnatione Lyxbonensi,attributed in the sixteenth century to "Osbernus". The ms, titled "Historia Osberni" by a sixteenth-century annotator, is in the form of a letter, with a superscription "Osb. de Baldr. R salutem" thatC. R. Cheneyread asto"Osberto de Baldreseie" i.e. Bawdsley, Suffolk, from a certain "R."; seeCheney, C. R. (1932). "The Authorship of theDe Expugnatione Lyxbonensi".Speculum.7(3): 395–397.doi:10.2307/2846677.ISSN0038-7134.JSTOR2846677.S2CID162571944.
- ^abcdeRunciman (1951), p. 258.
- ^Henry was a kinsman ofRanulf de Glanvillof Suffolk, Chief Justiciar of England underHenry II;the Norman name derives from Glanville, nearLisieux(DNB,s.v."Ranulf de Glanvill" ).
- ^Phillips (2007), p. 143.
- ^abBrundage (1962) pp. 97–104
- ^The prominence of Hervey de Glanvill has suggested to some readers that Osbernus was an Anglo-Norman cleric with special attachment to him and his house.
- ^Osbernus, who adds "As a result the basest element from every part of the world had gathered there, like the bilge water of a ship, a breeding ground for every kind of lust and impurity."
- ^Attributed to Osbernus, probably written by Raol, a Norman-French priest and crusader; translated by Charles Wendell David (1936).De expugnatione Lyxbonensi.The conquest of Lisbon.New York:Columbia University Press.p. 177.Retrieved16 April2017.
{{cite book}}
:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^"Internet History Sourcebooks Project".sourcebooks.fordham.edu.Retrieved2022-06-04.
- ^Paul Buck,Lisbon: a cultural and literary companion(2002) "At its base is the Martim Moniz (in tribute to the soldier who held the city gate open at the cost of his life during the siege)..." p. 118
- ^Riley-Smith (1990) p. 126.
Sources
[edit]- L. Wheeler, C. Opello, Douglas, Walter (2010).Historical Dictionary of Portugal.Scarecrow Press.ISBN978-0-8108-6088-9.
{{cite book}}
:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Runciman, Steven(1952).A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100–1187.New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Brundage, James (1962).The Crusades: A Documentary History.Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Marquette University Press.
- Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1990).The Atlas of the Crusades.New York: Facts on File.ISBN978-0-8160-2186-4.
- Phillips, Jonathan (2007).The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom.New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.ISBN978-0-300-11274-0.
- Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas,"Norman and Anglo-Norman Participation in the Iberian Reconquista",Ph.D Thesis, Nottingham, 2007, pp. 146–85.
- Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas,"Revisiting the Anglo-Norman Crusaders' Failed Attempt to Conquer Lisbon c. 1142",Portuguese Studies29:1 (2013), pp. 7–20.
- West, Charles (2013),"All in the same boat? East Anglia, the North Sea world and the 1147 expedition to Lisbon",in D. Bates and R. Liddiard (eds.)East Anglia and its North Sea World in the Middle Ages,pp. 287–300,ISBN9781843838463
Further reading
[edit]- Odo of Deuil.De profectione Ludovici VII in orientem.Edited and translated by Virginia Gingerick Berry. Columbia University Press, 1948.
- Kenneth Setton, ed.A History of the Crusades,vol. I.University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958.
- OsbernusDe expugnatione LyxbonensiorThe Capture of LisbonOn-line excerpt, in English.
- Wilson, Jonathan (2016): "Enigma of theDe Expugnatione Lyxbonensi",
- Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies,doi:10.1080/17546559.2016.1166257