On 1 March 1143 the Battle of Montiel was fought between

Muño Alfonso Munio or Muño Alfonso (died 2 August 1143) was a Galician nobleman and military leader in the '' Reconquista'', the governor of Toledo under Alfonso VII. He is the hero of the second book of the anonymous '' Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris'', a con ...

and an army of knights from

Ávila Ávila (, , ) is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila. It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m ab ...

Segovia Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is in the Inner Plateau ('' Meseta central''), near the northern slopes of t ...

, and Toledo on one side and a force of

Almoravids The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that s ...

on the other. The Christians were accompanied by priests. It was a decisive victory for Muño. Early in 1143 Muño set out with a hand-picked troop of 900 knights and 1,000 infantrymen of the local militias to raid the area around Córdoba. On his return through the Muradal Pass he caught sight of a pursuing Almoravid army, also composed of cavalry and infantry. Just past the castle of Calatrava on the road to Toledo, at Montiel in

La Mancha La Mancha () is a natural and historical region located in the Spanish provinces of Albacete, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, and Toledo. La Mancha is an arid but fertile plateau (610 m or 2000 ft) that stretches from the mountains of Toledo to th ...

, Muño turned to face the Muslims. The '' Anales toledanos primeros'' locate the battle on the ''rio que dicen Adoro'' (river called Adoro), which may be either the Azuer near Montiel or the

Algodor Algodor is a small settlement between Toledo and Aranjuez, Spain. The locality is within the municipal limits of Aranjuez and is in the Community of Madrid. It has a population of 14, but in its heyday in the 1920s there were more inhabitants a ...

near Mora. The

emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...

s of

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...

and

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

were both killed, as well as several other Almoravid commanders. A large booty that included gold, silver, precious garments, livestock, weapons, and prisoners was taken. After the battle the victorious army returned to Toledo with the infantry carrying the booty. The heads of the two emirs and the other commanders were impaled on spears and marched about the city as trophies. Muño then ordered them hung from the towers, but Empress Berenguela had them taken down and given to some Jewish and Muslim physicians to be anointed with myrrh and aloes and sent to Córdoba, to their widows.''CAI'', II, 79.

References

;Primary sources *

Enrique Flórez Enrique or Henrique Flórez de Setién y Huidobro (July 21, 1702August 20, 1773) was a Spanish historian. Biography Flórez was born in Villadiego. At 15 years old, he entered the order of St Augustine. He subsequently became professor of theol ...

, ed. 1767. "Anales toledanos I". ''España Sagrada''
XXIII.
Madrid, 381–400. *Glenn Edward Lipskey, ed. 1972

PhD dissertation,

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. ;Secondary sources *Simon Barton. 1997. ''The Aristocracy in Twelfth-Century León and Castile''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *James F. Powers. 1987
''A Society Organized for War: The Iberian Municipal Militias in the Central Middle Ages, 1000–1284''.
Berkeley: University of California Press.

Notes

{{coord, 39, 0, N, 4, 0, W, display=title Montiel Montiel Montiel 1143 1143 in Europe 12th century in Castile Montiel 12th century in Al-Andalus History of the province of Ciudad Real