Campaign in Andalusia and The Battle of Jerez (1231)
In 1231, while he visited the main cities of León after having taken possession of it, Ferdinand reportedly sent his son Prince Alfonso, then nine years of age and living in Salamanca, to lay waste to the Almohad Caliphate territories around Córdoba and Seville, accompanied by Álvaro Pérez "the Castilian" de Castro and the magnate Gil Manrique. Nevertheless, various historians have indicated that the Prince Alfonso to which contemporary chronicles refer was not the king's son, but rather his brother, Alfonso of Molina. But according to the version which holds that the Prince Alfonso present at the Battle of Jerez was actually King Fernando III's son, "he sent Don Alvar de Castro, the Castilian, to go with him, to watch over the prince and as commander of the army, for the prince was very young and not yet so energetic, and Don Alvar Pérez was a respected and very energetic man."
From Salamanca, and passing through Toledo where they were joined by 40 knights, they made their way toward Andújar. From there, they began to devastate the countryside around Cordoba, and later the provincial town of Palma del Río. They exterminated all the inhabitants and seized the town, then proceeded toward Seville and Jerez de la Frontera, and camped there near the Guadalete River. Emir Ibn Hud, who had gathered a large army of seven divisions, positioned himself between the Castilians and Jerez, forcing them to give battle. During the subsequent engagement, known as the Battle of Jerez, the Castilians defeated Ibn Hud in spite of his numerical superiority. Later, King Alfonso X referred to the 1231 battle as follows: "It is fitting that you who are hearing this story know that the thing in the world that most broke the Moors, why they had to lose Andalusia and the Christians gain it from them, was this battle of Jerez. That is how the Moors were shattered. They could never again muster the daring nor the effort which they had previously against the Christians, such was the level of the shock and fear they experienced on that occasion."
After his victory in the Battle of Jerez, Álvaro Pérez de Castro the Castilian returned to Castile and handed Prince Alfonso over to his father the king, who was in Palencia.
Read more about this topic: Alfonso Of Molina
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