Reconquista - Christian In-fighting

Christian In-fighting

The quest against the Moors did not keep the Christian kingdoms from battling among themselves or allying with Muslim kings. Some Moorish kings had Christian-born wives or mothers.

Also some Christian champions like El Cid were contracted by Taifa kings to fight against their neighbours. Indeed, El Cid's first battle experience was gained fighting for a Muslim state against a Christian state, at the Battle of Graus in 1063, where he and other Castilians fought on the side of al-Muqtadir, Muslim sultan of Zaragoza, against the forces of Ramiro I of Aragon. There is even an instance of a Crusade being declared against another Christian king in Iberia. Following the disastrous defeat of Alfonso VIII, King of Castile, at Alarcos, Kings Alfonso IX, of Kingdom of León, and Sancho VII, of Navarre, entered an alliance with the Almohads and invaded Castile in 1196. By the end of the year Sancho VII had dropped out of the war under Papal pressure. Early in 1197, at the request of Sancho I, King of Portugal, Pope Celestine III declared a Crusade against Alfonso IX, and released his subjects from their responsibilities to the king, declaring "the men of his realm shall be absolved from their fidelity and his dominion by authority of the apostolic see." Together the Kings of Portugal, Castile, and Aragon invaded León. In the face of this onslaught combined with pressure from the Pope, Alfonso IX was finally forced to sue for peace in October 1197.

In the late years of Al-Andalus, Castile had the might to conquer the remains of the kingdom of Granada, but the kings preferred to claim the tribute of the Muslim parias. The trade of Granadan goods and the parias were a major means by which African gold entered medieval Europe.