The history of Plasencia, a municipality of Spain in the province of Cáceres, an autonomous community of Extremadura, began in 1186 when King Alfonso VIII of Castile founded the city following the conquest of the area from the Almohad Caliphate. However, there are several indications of occupation of the area since prehistoric times. Various peoples frequented and inhabited the region until the arrival of the Romans, whose legions set up a military camp there. At the time of the Alandalus (Islamic occupation of the Iberian Peninsula), there would have been a Kasbah on the site where the city stands today.
The city prospered between the 12th and 17th centuries, reaching its apogee in the 16th century, as attested by its historic center and the various civil, military, and religious buildings. From the end of the 17th century on, the city went into decline, from which it would only recover in the second half of the 20th century.
Prehistory and Antiquity
In the vicinity of Plasencia, there is an archaeological site from the Neolithic or Bronze Age: the Cave of Boquique ("Cueva de Boquique" in Spanish), which, in addition to traces of habitation, has a necropolis. The cave gave its name to a type of prehistoric pottery from the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, the Boquique Pottery ("Cerámica de Boquique").
Its location on the Via de la Plata, an ancestral route linking the Iberian south and north, whose existence is supposed to date back at least to the Tartessos period (10th to 6th centuries BC), at a crossing point in the mountains of the Central System (the Jerte Valley), contributed to the city being frequented and inhabited by various pre-Roman peoples, such as the Celts, Vettones and Vaccaei, among others. This is evidenced, for example, by the remains of a hilfort near what is now the city. During the Roman Empire there was a military camp of the Roman legions, connected to the Vía de la Plata, then transformed into a Roman road.
Middle Ages
Muslim Period and Christian Reconquest During the Muslim period, it was likely that a Kasbah (castle) existed on the site where the city stands today.
The area was conquered in 1186 by Alfonso VIII of Castile, who founded the present city, the Muy Noble, Leal y Benéfica Ciudad de Plasencia, with the motto "Ut placeat Deo et Hominibus", which in Latin means "So that it pleases God and Men". That same year, the construction of the defensive wall began. Conceived from the beginning as a fortress, even today a pronounced military character can be seen in the old part of the city, which is structured around the Plaza Mayor, from which streets lead to the city gates. Merchants and artificers grouped themselves by branches of activity, each occupying a street or part of it.
The creation of the city was part of a strategy of the Castilian king to strengthen the Tagus line, creating a base to support the Reconquista of the southern Iberian Peninsula and restrict the expansion of the Kingdom of León west of the Vía de la Plata, in military, political, and ecclesiastical terms. As the region was relatively close to Toledo, then the capital of Castile, the inclusion of the area in the archdiocese of Toledo would translate into less influence from León, which was avoided by including Plasencia in the archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela.In 1195, following the Battle of Alarcos, Plasencia was recaptured by the Almohad Caliphate. According to some, Ibne Iúçufe, Yaqub al-Mansur's military chief, commanded the capture of the city; according to others, it was taken by al-Mansur himself, and returned to the possession of Alfonso VIII of Castile a year or two later. To ensure defense, the king ordered the walls to be completed, which would not be done until 1201. The walls were built as a double defense system, with a thick wall and a barbican, having a moat between them. The defense was reinforced by the presence of 70 semicircular turrets, 4 defensive towers leaning against the alcazar, seven main gates, and two wickets (minor gates).
In 1188, Pope Clement III created the diocese of Plasencia, and a year later the first bishop, Bricio, was appointed. The diocese had jurisdiction over Béjar, Medellín, and Trujillo. On the initiative of the bishop and cardinal Juan Carvajal, the diocese created Estudos de Humanidades in 1446, which constituted the first university-level school in Extremadura.
15th century
Plasencia was a city of realengoRealengo is a Spanish word referring to the legal status of certain regions whose administration fell directly to the crown, instead of a lordship. See the article "Realengo" on Wikipedia in Spanish. from its foundation until 1442. This meant that it was under the direct jurisdiction of the crown, rather than a landlord. The city's foral expressly determined which powers were to govern the municipality, which was divided between a corregedor and several regidores, as representatives of the monarch and the canon of the diocese.
During the Late Middle Ages, Plasencia experienced a flourishing period, in which the city council and the lay and religious nobles promoted various constructions. Several convents, churches, hospitals, fortress houses, and the completion of the cathedral, later called the "Old Cathedral", date from this period. The city then had the right to vote in the cortes (parliament) of Castile - as proof of this is the report that two proxies were sent to the courts held in Madrid in 1391.
The 15th century was a key period in the city's history, during which the feudalizing behaviors of the Middle Ages led to the end of the realengo status and the establishment of a lordship jurisdiction. In 1442 King John II of Castile gave the city to the family of Estúñigas (or Zúñigas), granting Pedro de Zúñiga y Leiva the title of Count of Plasencia. Upon becoming a lordship, Plasencia lost its right to vote in the cortes.
On April 27, 1465, King Henry IV of Castile was deposed in Plasencia. A few weeks later, the Count of Plasencia, Álvaro de Zúñiga y Guzmán, participated in the Farce of Ávila, taking the sword, a symbol of justice, from the wooden statue that represented the Castilian king and proclaiming the infante Alfonso king. In 1475, after the death of Henry IV, the Count of Plasencia sided with Joanna (nicknamed Beltraneja by her detractors, who said she was the daughter of Beltrán de La Cueva and not Henry) in the succession to the throne of Castile, against the other pretender, Henry's half-sister, Isabella, who would become known as "the Catholic". This succession crisis degenerated into the War of the Castilian Succession, in which France and Portugal also participated.
Joanna married her uncle Afonso V of Portugal in Plasencia, but the marriage was not recognized as the pope did not give the necessary authorization required due to the degree of kinship. A few days after the wedding, the city became the stage for the coronation of the couple as monarchs of Castile. Joanna addressed a manifesto to all the towns and cities of the kingdom, in which she informed of her marriage and justified her right to the throne. Later, as the conflict progressed, Álvaro de Zúñiga switched to the party of Isabella, who rewarded him in 1476 with the title of Duke of Plasencia. After the victory of the Catholic Monarchs in 1479, the duke became one of the leading nobles of the kingdom.
In June 1488, the duke died and was succeeded by his grandson, Álvaro de Zúñiga y Pérez de Guzmán. The nobility of Plasencia took advantage of the moment to rise up in arms against the Zúñiga and thus regain the power they had previously held in the city and over the lease of the lands that depended on it. The uprisings received the support of the Catholic Monarchs, who revoked John II's grant, arguing that it had been excessive and against his will. The revolt triumphed and the realengo was reinstated, being ratified on October 20, 1488, at the cathedral gates, in the presence of Ferdinand II, who swore to always defend the foral and Plasencia's freedom.
Modern Age
16th century
At the beginning of the 16th century, most of the territory of Extremadura was included in the province of Salamanca, a situation that would only change in 1653, when the towns of Plasencia, Badajoz, Mérida, Trujillo, Cáceres, and Alcántara joined to buy a vote in the cortes, forming for the first time the province of Extremadura, to which other territories would be added.
The prosperity of Plasencia continued throughout the 16th century and part of the 17th century, with a remarkable increase in population. The Renaissance building of the Casa Consistorial (Town Hall), designed in 1523 by Juan de Álava, dates from this period, as does the completion of the New Cathedral, which began in 1498 and ended in 1578. Numerous other monuments, such as the aqueduct and the palace of the marquess of Mirabel were also built. The city had by then universities dependent on the Dominicans and Jesuits.
In 1515, Ferdinand the II went to live in Plasencia on the advice of his doctors. He died in Madrigalejo while traveling from Plasencia to Guadalupe, where he was to attend a chapter of the military orders of Calatrava and Alcántara. It was in Plasencia that Bartolomé de las Casas first met with Ferdinand to present him with his views on the situation of the indigenous people of America.
In 1520, the city was involved in the popular rebellion that is known as the Revolt of the Comuneros, first on the side of the comuneros, and then on the opposite side of those loyal to the king. In 1540, Alfonso Camargo led the expedition organized by the bishop of Plasencia designed to explore and evangelize the New World. This expedition began the conquest of Argentine Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. One of his ships was the first European vessel to reach the Beagle Channel at the southern tip of South America.
The library of the royal palace of the El Escorial was created, in part, with the books belonging to the episcopal palace, which were transferred to the Madrid monastery by order of Philip II. Later, the placentine bishop Pedro Ponce de León donated to the Escorial part of his library, among whose works was the codex Glosas Emilianenses, from the late 10th or early 11th century (coming from the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla), until recently considered the oldest document where words written in Castilian are found.
17th century
During the 17th and 18th centuries, Plasencia went through a decline in population, like most of Spain, with the number of inhabitants dropping from approximately 10,000 in the most prosperous period to only 4,852 in the 1876 census.
Among the factors that influenced such decline, is the expulsion of the Moriscos, decreed in 1609 by Philip III, which caused many people, who lived mostly outside the walls, to leave Plasencia. The wars of the 17th and 18th centuries also had a very negative impact, especially the uprising of Portugal against the Spanish king, which gave rise to the Restoration War between 1640 and 1668, and the War of the Spanish Succession, between 1702 and 1714. During the latter, the city was the scene of fights between the two pretenders to the Spanish throne, Philip V, and the Archduke of Austria (who would ascend to the Austrian throne as Charles VI). Plasencia's role was significant, with Charles' multinational troops occupying the city in 1706. The effort required to meet the needs of the army, such as housing, supplying recruits, animals, feeding soldiers, etc., had a very negative effect on the squalid local economy.