Geraldo Geraldes (died ), known as Geraldo the Fearless (, ),Owing to the non-standardisation of spelling in the twelfth century, his name may also be rendered Gerardo or Giraldo. The Spanish version of his patronymic is Geráldez. In medieval Latin he was described as Giraldus qui dicebatur sine pavore ("Gerald, who is called without fear"). was a Portuguese warrior and folk hero of the Reconquista whose theatre of operations was in the barren Alentejo and Extremadura regions of the lower Guadiana river. The city of Évora was the most lasting of his conquests and was never retaken. His success and independence have suggested parallels with the Castilian hero El Cid and Gerald has been called "the Cid of Portugal".Or the "Portuguese Cid", but not without some controversy. To certain Spanish scholars a mere guerilla fighter has no business consorting with El Cid (cf. Cillán Cillán, n9).

Reconquista in Alentejo and Extremadura

Around 1162 Gerald assembled a private army (a mesnada) and rapidly developed tactics that proved remarkably successful in seizing Muslim strongholds, though it was not adapted for siege warfare.Clemente Ramos, 653. He "perfected techniques of nocturnal surprise in wintry or stormy weather, stealthy escalading of walls by picked commando-like troops, cutting down of sentries and opening of town gates to the larger force stationed without."Bishko, 414–15. Among the primary sources for Gerald's methods the most important is the contemporary Arabic chronicler Ibn Ṣāḥib al-Ṣalā, whose Al-Mann bil-Imāma was incorporated into the history of al-Maqqarī in the seventeenth century. His opinion of Gerald and his tactics is very low: The dog [Gerald] marched on rainy and very dark nights, with strong wind and snow, towards the cities and, having prepared his wooden instruments of scaling [walls] very large, so that they would surpass the wall of the city, he would apply those ladders to the side of the tower and catch the sentinel [by surprise] and say to him: "Shout, as is your custom," in order that the people would not hear him. When the scaling of the group had been completed on the highest wall in the city, they shouted in their language with an abominable screech, and they entered the city and fought whom they found and robbed them and captured all who were there in [the city, taking] captive and prisoner all who were there.Clemente Ramos, 653 n14: El perro caminaba en noches lluviosas y muy oscuras, de fuerte viento y nieve, hacia las ciudades y había preparado sus instrumentos de escalas de madera muy largas, que sobrepasen el muro de la ciudad, aplicaba aquellas escaleras al costado de la torre y subía por ellas el primero, hasta la torre y cogía al centinela y le decía: "Grita como es tu costumbre," para que no le sintiese la gente. Cuando se había completado la subida de su grupo a lo más alto del muro de la ciudad, gritaban en su lengua con un alarido execrable, y entraban en la ciudad y combatían al que encontraban y le robaban y cogían a todos los que había en ella cautivos y prisioneros a todos los que estaban allí.

Of the places Gerald conquered the primary sources are in general agreement, also as to the order of their seizure, but as to the dating of events there is ambiguity. Ibn Ṣāḥib's version goes: In the second Jumada I [15 April–13 May] of the anno Hegirae 560 the city of Trujillo was surprised, and in Dhu'l-Qa'da the notable village of Évora. Also was the population of Cáceres in Safar 561 , and the castle of Montánchez in Jumada II and the strongholds of Serpa and Juromenha.Translated from the Spanish: En Yumada segundo de la hegira 560 fue sorprendida la ciudad de Truxillo, y en Diskada, la notable villa de Jeburah. También la población de Cáceres en Safar de 561, y el castillo de Muntajesh en Umada y los fuertes de Severina y Jelmaniyyah (in Cillán Cillán). The city of Évora honours Gerald with a place on its coat-of-arms. The central plaza, the Praça do Giraldo, is also named after him.The years 560 and 561 correspond roughly to the annos Domini 1165 and 1166, but here Ibn Ṣāḥib is almost certainly off in his dating by a year. The events rather took place in 1164 and 1165. A later Portuguese chronicle, the Crónica dos Godos ("Chronicle of the Goths"), dates the conquest of Évora to the year 1204 of the Spanish era, that is, 1166.Enrique Flórez, España Sagrada (Madrid: 1796), XIV:428: Æra 1204. Civitas Elbora capta, & depraedata, & noctu ingressa a Giraldo cognominato sine pavore, & latronibus sociis ejus, & tradidit eam Regi D. Alfonso (In the year 1166 the city of Évora was captured and depredated, for at night it was entered by Gerald called "the Fearless", and his associates entered by the latrines, and made over [the city] to the king Don Afonso). Trujillo was taken on 14 May 1164,Floriano Cumbreño, see note 10 in Cillán Cillán. or in June;Cillán Cillán. Évora in September 1164; and Cáceres in December 1164 or, on a later dating, in September 1166. These were the major conquests. The lesser conquests of Montánchez, Serpa, and Juromenha took place in 1165, based on Ibn Ṣāḥib's scheme, but Montánchez and Serpa may have gone in March 1167, as one historian has it. All the primary sources agree that Santa Cruz de la Sierra was the last of Gerald's successes, which may place it as late as 1169, though perhaps earlier (1167/8), along with Ureña. The conquest of these last two places left Gerald in a position to harass Beja. The date of the capture of Monfragüe,Variously spelled Mofra, Monfra, Monfrag, and Monsfragüe. which was certainly one of his conquests, cannot be established.Pavón Maldonado, 182.

Siege of Badajoz

So successful was Gerald by 1168 that his eastward expansion threatened the southward expansion of the Kingdom of León. These actions were in violation of the succession arrangements laid down by Alfonso VII at Sahagún, since they comprised lands whose conquest had been assigned to León.Powers, 42. A few of Gerald's conquests in the far east had even been assigned to Castile. The Leonese king, Ferdinand II, son of Alfonso VII, took action immediately after the taking of Cáceres, probably early in the spring of 1166, capturing Alcántara later that year and thus securing a crossing over the Tagus.Hernández Giménez (part III), 311–12. Subsequently he allied with the Almohad caliph Yusuf I, who had warned him of Gerald and the Portuguese's encroachments on his interests.

In the early summer of 1169, Gerald assaulted Badajoz with his men and broke into the city streets, but the garrison took refuge in the high citadel, the alcazaba, the siege of which continued. Seeing an opportunity to add to his domains the chief city of the region at the expense of both his Muslim and Christian enemies, Afonso I of Portugal came with an army to Badajoz to relieve his nominal vassal. This provoked the opposition of Ferdinand of León, who claimed Badajoz as his own and came south with an army at the request of Yusuf, who had already sent a contingent of 500 cavalry to assist the garrison. The besieging Portuguese were themselves besieged by the Leonese and fighting broke out in the streets. While trying to flee, Afonso was caught on the hinge of a gate and flung from his horse, breaking his leg. He was captured by Ferdinand's men, while Gerald was captured by the Leonese majordomo, Fernán Ruiz de Castro, called el Castellano ("the Castilian"). After the mêlée the Leonese had control of the town and the alcazaba, which they soon relinquished to their Muslim allies. Ferdinand succeeded in gaining the valley of the upper Limia and the regions of Toroño (around Tuy), Capraria (around Verín), and Lobarzana (around Chaves) from Afonso in exchange for his release.Fletcher, 134. Several of Gerald's conquests were ceded to purchase his freedom. Ferdinand retained Cáceres, but Trujillo, Montánchez, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Monfragüe he gave to Fernán Ruiz.Ibn Ṣāḥib states that three years after its conquest, between 17 October 1167 and 4 October 1168, Gerald was forced to cede Trujillo to a certain Ferdinand, called a brother-in-law of "Fernando el Baboso" (Ferdinand the Stupid), that is, the king of León. The gift to Fernán is also recorded in a Christian source, the Chronica latina regum castellae. The date given by Ibn Ṣāḥib conflicts with the dates of 1169 (cf. Bishko, 414–15) or 1170 (cf. Clemente Ramos, 649–50) found in other sources. Cf. Hernández Giménez (part I), 93.

Campaigns 1169-1173 The debacle at Badajoz did not break the determination of Geraldes and he resumed the raids on the region from Juromenha that same year in the Summer.Armando de Sousa Pereira: Geraldo Sem Pavor, Um Guerreiro de Fronteira Entre Cristãos e Muçulmanos, Fronteira do Caos Editora Lda, Porto, 2008, pp. 43-72. Months of raids followed but the new Almohad governor of Badajoz proved up to the task. With the aid of the knights-villein of Santarém, the Fearless lured the garrison of Badajoz into a gorge where he had left some companions in wait.Miguel Gomes Martins: Guerreiros Medievais Portugueses: De Geraldo O Sem Pavor ao Conde de Avranches, Treze Biografias de Grandes Senhores da Guerra (Séculos XII a XV), A Esfera dos Livros, pp. 31-49. The Almohads were ambushed and annihilated, with many having been taken prisoner. Among them was Abd ben Muhammad ben Sahib al-Salah, a member of one of the most important families of Beja, who was ransomed for 300 dinars and would later write a chronicle in which the actions of Geraldo would be recorded.

In April 1170, the constant raids on the surrounding fields of Badajoz, the blockade of the roads leading to the city and a crop failure brough famine upon the city. Seville dispatched a 5000 donkeys caravan loaded with food, weapons and fodder to supply the population and it was escorted by Berber and Andaluzi troops commanded by Abu Yahya Zakariya ben Ali. Geraldo was tipped of its departure and set up another ambushed in a mountain pass where the caravan would necessarily have to pass. On the 15 of May, the caravan was ambushed and captured at a place that henceforth became known as the Valle de Matamoros, or Moor-Slayer Valley.

Alarmed by the attacks on Badajoz, the Almohad Caliph then dispatched a large army to the Iberian Peninsula commanded by his own brother Abu Hafs Umar. Geraldo the Fearless and Crown prince Sancho sieged Badajoz once more in October, and from Seville Abu Hafs dispatched a relief force to the city commanded by Abu Said Uthman. Badajoz was once more saved by a joint Almohad-Leonese force but the Portuguese withdrew in good order this time. Abu Said Uthman pressed on into Portugal and captured Juromenha, but Geraldo the Fearless evaded capture and relocated to Lobón.

From Lobón, Geraldo continued to raid the territory of Badajoz, but in October 1171 a new caravan of 4000 mules reached the city, and the detachment in charge of escorting it then captured Lobón. Geraldo escaped once more, however.

Serving the Almohads