The Battle of Rueda (981) was a battle of the Spanish

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

between the Muslim forces of

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...

and a coalition of north-Iberian Christian states. Due to the difficulty in interpreting the various chronicles, historians are still debating the site of the battle. According to Reinhart Dozy, the battle was fought in Rueda in

Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...

, whereas Ruiz Asencio considers that it was Roa, in

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of ...

, a fortress that had been repopulated in 912. The Muslim forces were commanded by

Almanzor Abu ʿĀmir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Abi ʿĀmir al-Maʿafiri ( ar, أبو عامر محمد بن عبد الله بن أبي عامر المعافري), nicknamed al-Manṣūr ( ar, المنصور, "the Victorious"), which is often Latiniz ...

, while the Christian troops were a combined force and the combined from the kingdoms of León and Navarre, plus the

County of Castile The Kingdom of Castile (; es, Reino de Castilla, la, Regnum Castellae) was a large and powerful state on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region. It began in the 9th cent ...

, led by King

Ramiro III of León Ramiro III (c. 961 – 26 June 985), king of León (966–984), was the son of Sancho the Fat and his successor at the age of only five.Reinhart Dozy, ''Histoire des Musulmans d'espagne'' (1932). Family During his minority, the regency was in the ...

García Fernández of Castile García Fernández, called of the White Hands () (Burgos, Córdoba, 995), was the count of Castile and Alava from 970 to 995. In May 995, he was captured by a raiding party while out hunting. Wounded in the encounter, he was sent to Cordoba as a ...

and

Sancho II of Pamplona Sancho Garcés II ( Basque: ''Antso II.a Gartzez'', c. 938 – 994), also known as Sancho II, was King of Pamplona and Count of Aragon from 970 until his death in 994. He was the eldest son of García Sánchez I of Pamplona and Andregoto Galínd ...

. The battle ended in a disastrous defeat for the Christian kingdoms and resulted in the rebellion of the Galician nobles and the eventual abdication of King Ramiro III in favor of

Bermudo II of León Bermudo (or Vermudo) II (c. 953 – September 999), called the Gouty ( es, el Gotoso), was first a rival king in Galicia (982–984) and then king of the entire Kingdom of León (984–999). His reign is summed up by Justo Pérez de Urbel's desc ...

. The battle followed a similar defeat at the Battle of Torrevicente.

References

Sources

* Rueda Rueda Rueda 10th century in the Kingdom of León Province of Valladolid 981 Rueda Rueda Rueda {{Al-Andalus-stub