Battle Of Tamarón
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The Battle of Tamarón took place on 4 September 1037 between
Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "courage" or "ready, prepared" related to Old High German "to risk, ventu ...
, Count of Castile, and Vermudo III,
King of León In the reign of Ordoño I of Asturias (850–866), the kingdom began to be known as that of León. In 910, an independent Kingdom of León was founded when the king of Asturias divided his territory amongst his three sons. Below follows a ...
. Ferdinand, who had married Vermudo's sister Sancha, defeated and killed his brother-in-law near Tamarón, Spain, after a brief war. As a result, Ferdinand succeeded Vermudo on the throne. Ferdinand's father, Sancho the Great, who was ''
jure uxoris ''Jure uxoris'' (a Latin phrase meaning "by right of (his) wife"), citing . describes a title of nobility used by a man because his wife holds the office or title '' suo jure'' ("in her own right"). Similarly, the husband of an heiress could beco ...
'' Count of Castile, had entrusted his son with the county as early as 1029. In 1034 he had conquered the imperial city of León and forced Vermudo to take refuge in remote Galicia. After Sancho's death in 1035 Vermudo returned to León and launched a war for control of the Tierra de Campos, the territory between the Cea and
Pisuerga The Pisuerga is a river in northern Spain, the Duero's second largest tributary. It rises in the Cantabrian Mountains in the province of Palencia, autonomous region of Castile and León. Its traditional source is called Fuente Cobre, but it has ...
rivers, long disputed with Castile (which was nominally a Leonese
vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...
). The dispute dated back to the tenth century. Under Sancho the Great the region had been united to Castile, and Ferdinand considered it as his wife's
dowry A dowry is a payment such as land, property, money, livestock, or a commercial asset that is paid by the bride's (woman's) family to the groom (man) or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price ...
. Recently, Gonzalo Martínez Díez has disputed this thesis, first enunciated by the '' Historia silense'' in the 1110s. He finds no evidence for any discord between Castile and León in the years 1035–7, and the lands between the Cea and Pisuerga, controlled by his father, do not seem to have been controlled by Ferdinand. What is certain is that the war in which he lost his life was initiated by Vermudo. Ferdinand, who also had a claim to be the heirless Vermudo's successor through his wife, was forced to call on his brother García Sánchez III of Navarre, because the Leonese forces greatly outnumbered his own. In the ensuing battle, Vermudo fell from his horse, Pelayueol, and was surrounded and killed while trying to approach Ferdinand. Seven of his knights died with him. Autopsies performed in the twentieth century showed that he had received forty
lance The English term lance is derived, via Middle English '' launce'' and Old French '' lance'', from the Latin '' lancea'', a generic term meaning a wikt:lancea#Noun">lancea'', a generic term meaning a spear">wikt:lancea#Noun">lancea'', a generi ...
wounds, many in the lower abdomen, typical for dismounted knights. After the death of Vermudo his army probably evaporated; there is no further discussion of the battle in the sources: the king's body is said to have been carried off the field. After his victory Ferdinand took possession of León after a brief siege and was accepted as Vermudo's successor, though he was not crowned in León until 22 June 1038. Vermudo was buried in the Panteón de los Reyes in the Basilica of San Isidoro in his capital. According to the ''Historia silense'', '' Chronica naierensis'', and '' Chronicon mundi'', Vermudo "crossed the
Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...
n border" (''transiecto Cantabriensium limite''), i.e., the Pisuerga, and engaged Ferdinand ''super vallem Tamaron''. This is Tamarón, a suburb of
Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...
in the valley of the
Sambol Sambal is an Indonesian chili sauce or paste, typically made from a mixture of chillis with secondary ingredients such as shrimp paste (terasi), garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, and lime juice. ''Sambal'' is an Indonesian ...
. The location of the battle in Támara de Campos was first made in the thirteenth century by Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada. Támara has never been called Tamarón, nor is it in a valley, though Rodrigo placed the battle near the river Carrión probably out of a confusion between the two. The earliest source to explicitly date the battle is Pelagius of Oviedo, who writes that Vermudo died in his tenth year (which he incorrectly makes 1032, though it was in fact 1037). The last document in which Vermudo appears is a donation to the Monastery of Celanova on 9 June 1037. A document of 9 January 1038 refers to the reign of Ferdinand. These dates represent the ''termini post quem'' and ''ante quem'' of the battle (Vermudo's death). A certain
psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were ...
that once belonged to Ferdinand preserves the obituary ''Ovitum Veremudi regis in bello pugnator fortis die IV feria mensis septembris era TLXXV'' ("Vermudo, king of Oviedo, in war a strong fighter, the fourth day of the month of September in the Era 1075").Other sources date it to 30 August or 1 September.


Notes


References

*Bishko, Charles Julian. 1980
"Liturgical Intercession at Cluny For the King-Emperors of León."
''Spanish and Portuguese Monastic History, 600–1300''. London: Variorum Reprints. First published in ''Studia Monastica'', 7 (1961). *Bishko, Charles Julian. 1980

''Studies in Medieval Spanish Frontier History''. London: Variorum Reprints. Originally published in ''Cuadernos de Historia de España'', 47(1968):31–135, and 48(1969):30–116. *Martínez Díez, Gonzalo. 2005. ''El condado de Castilla, 711–1038: La historia frente a la leyenda''. Marcial Pons Historia. Cf. pp. 724–28. *Martínez Díez, Gonzalo. 2007. ''Sancho el Mayor: Rey de Pamplona, Rex Ibericus''. Marcial Pons Historia. Cf. pp. 197–202. *Reilly, Bernard F. 1982

Princeton: Princeton University Press. *Reilly, Bernard F. 1988

Princeton: Princeton University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Tamaron Conflicts in 1037 Tamaron Tamaron Tamaron 11th century in the Kingdom of León 1037 in Europe History of the province of Burgos