Portuguese participation in the Reconquista occurred from when the County of Portugal was founded in 868 and continued for 381 years until the last cities still in Muslim control in the Algarve were captured in 1249. Portugal was created during this prolonged process and largely owes its geographic form to it.
The initial stages of the Portuguese Reconquista were marked by the participation of the upper aristocracy, but as the frontier was steadily pushed further south initiative was yielded to minor nobles, town militiamen and peasant knights willing to go on lengthy campaigns. The final stages of Portuguese military effort in the south were mostly undertaken by the military Orders, most notably the Knights of Santiago and the Templars, but also the Order of Calatrava and Hospitallers to a lesser degree. The threat of Muslim raids also prompted the creation of the Portuguese Navy, the oldest in the world still in operation. The Portuguese Reconquista involved the participation of north European crusaders passing through Portuguese coasts en route to the Holy Land, such as Englishmen, French, Flemings, Normans, Danes and Germans, most notably at the conquest of Lisbon in 1147, but also in 1142, 1154, 1189, 1191 and 1217. Many settled in Portugal at the invitation of king Afonso I or his son and successor Sancho I.Disney, volume I, 2009, p. 83.
While the Count of Portugal was a major vassal of León, at the time of independence, the economy of Portugal was relatively underdeveloped, and there was no mint in the country. The capture of spoils or extraction of tribute provided momentary income but it was largely unreliable. Defensive needs motivated the settlement and economic development of the territory and this in turn provided the means for further expansion. Religious Orders such as the Cistercians led the way in agricultural development through a system of granges worked by lay brothers who enabled them to maintain agricultural and cattle enterprises of a sophistication and scale previously unheard of in Portugal.Disney, 2009, p. 85. The military Orders later adopted similar economies of scale and introduced notably sophisticated methods of production, irrigation and fortification. As Islam receded, Portuguese cities became steadily more prosperous and larger, with signs of an international Portuguese maritime trade appearing by the thirteenth century.Anthony Disney: A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, volume I, Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 86.António Henriques: "The Reconquista and Its Legacy, 1000-1348" in Dulce Freire, Pedro Lains: An Agrarian History of Portugal, 1000-2000: Economic Development on the European Frontier, Brill, 2016, pp. 34-35. "In 1194, a Portuguese ship loaded with wine, honey and wood sank off Nieuwpoor, in Flanders. A Flemish text from the same period informs us that "the realm of Portugal provides honey, leather, wax, rawhides, grain, grease, oil, figs, raisings, and whale products. In the 13th and 14th centuries, England, Flanders and Normandy imported wine, olive oil, honey, salt, figs, raisings, wax and fruit from Portugal."
The expansion of Portugal was vital to the legitimization of Afonso I as an independent sovereign, with the Papal decree Manifestis Probatum acknowledging Afonso's efforts in the reconquest of territory back to Christendom as "manifestly proven" and his claims to the title of king as worthy of recognition.Rosamond McKitterick, David Abulafia, C. T. Allmand: The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 4, C.1024-c.1198, Part 2, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 499.
Background In 711, a Muslim army commanded by Tariq ibn Ziyad, belonging to the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus, invaded the Iberian peninsula then controlled in its entirety by the Visigothic Kingdom. The Visigoths and their king, Roderic, were defeated at the Battle of Guadalete and from that moment on the peninsula was quickly captured by Muslim forces, which included Arabs and Berbers, in about two years thereafter.
Eleven years later Pelagius revolted against the Muslim occupation in Asturias and in 722 defeated a Muslim force at the Battle of Covadonga, expelled the Muslim governor Munuza from the region and founded the Kingdom of Asturias.
This kingdom gradually expanded across the mountainous north of the Iberian peninsula, capturing Leon and Galicia among other territories and it would be under the aegis of its kings that 146 years later Christian rule would reach the banks of the Douro River, where the city and region of Portucale, now Porto, was located.
Important events took place in al-Andalus before the founding of the county of Portugal. Around the emir of Cordoba grew an expensive bureaucratic apparel manned by slaves, freemen and berbers as well as an army of mercenary slave or Berber troops, which drew the hostility of both the Arab aristocracy as well as recent converts to Islam. Converts in particular complained of excessive taxation as if they were still Christian. A revolt sparked in Toledo but it was violently suppressed in 854. Another revolt against the central government took place in Mérida in 868 led by the muladi Ibn Marwan and although Mérida was recaptured and almost razed, the revolt moved to Badajoz.Bernard F. Reilly: The Medieval Spains, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 81. For half a century, the west of Iberia corresponding to the old Roman province of Lusitania elluded Cordoban control. Instability in al-Andalus would provide the Christian kingdoms with an opportunity to advance at its expense.
Establishment of the counties of Portugal and Coimbra, 868-977 Alfonso III succeeded on the throne in 866.H. V. Livermore: The Origins of Spain and Portugal, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1971, p. 388. He envisioned the restoration of the Gothic monarchy in Iberia and hoped to achieve it in his lifetime, but this depended on securing several great frontier strongholds. He has been considered "the greatest ruler of the Asturian monarchy".
Founding of the County of Portugal 868
157 years after the invasion of the Iberian peninsula by Muslims, the nobleman Vímara Peres seized Porto and its territory, then called Portucale, or Portugal, at a time when the head of royal guard of the Emir of Cordoba had revolted. Acting on orders of Alfonso III, Vímara Peres was granted broad privileges and the territory began to be settled by families belonging to the high nobility, few in number and related to royalty.
The capture and occupation of territory continued and in 870 Braga was settled and its territory was organized under the personal guidance of Vímara Peres. In the same year, São Miguel do Paraíso was taken over by Lucídio Vimaranes, son of Vimara Peres. Still in 870, São Tomé de Negrelos was occupied by Flomarico and his wife Gundila, as well as by Scelemondo with his wife Astragundia.José Alexandre Ribeiro de Sousa: In finibus Gallecie: A Reconquista no actual território português. O contexto de um processo dinâmico, 868-1064, 2016, p. 53.
Count Odoário seized Chaves in 872, and from this city the process of capture and resettlement of the mountainous Trás-os-Montes began, first in and around the fertile lands of the Chaves valley.
Count Vímara Peres died the following year and he was succeeded in office by his son, Lucídio Vimaranes.
Founding of the County of Coimbra 878
The city of Coimbra was seized by Count Hermenegildo Guterres in 878.Barroca, 2004, p. 183. Other locations south of the Douro were then taken and resettled by order of Alfonso III of Asturias, such as Viseu, Lamego, and Anégia. Lardosa was seized in 882 by Muzara and Zamora, two Mozarabs most likely coming from the south.Mário Jorge Barroca: Fortifications and Settlement in the North of Portugal (9th to 11th centuries), 2004, article in Portugália, National Scientific Magazine, University of Porto, p. 182.
The Christian border progressed nearly 200 km south along the coast, passing from the Douro River to the Mondego valley but inland the border ran northeast along the Estrela mountain range on the northern slope but probably did not exceed the Côa River to the east.Barroca, 2004, p.184.
Campaigns in the west, 878-977
King Alfonso III died in 910 and his kingdom was divided between his three sons.Livermore, 1947, p. 37. León fell to his eldest son Garcia, followed by second oldest Ordonho II, who inherited Galicia with the counties of Portugal and Coimbra, while his third oldest Fruela II received Asturias.
Count Hermenegildo Guterres of Coimbra died in 912 and he was succeeded by his son Aires Mendes.
King Ordonho II carried out a major raid into al-Andalus in August 913 and he managed to sack the poorly fortified city of Évora, from where he returned laden with spoils.Flood, Timothy M. Rulers and Realms in Medieval Iberia, 711-1492, 2018, McFarland, p. 40 Since Ordonho knew Caliph Abd al-Rahman III to be busy elsewhere in al-Andalus, he expected little retaliation. The Cordobans led an attack on León the following year however, but it was repulsed. King Garcia of León died in 914 with no heirs to succeed him and Ordonho II inherited the throne of León.
Count Lucidio Vimaranes died in 924 and he was succeeded not by his son, but by Hermenegildo Gonçalves, a galician noble espoused to Mumadona Dias.
Ordonho II died in 924 and his kingdoms were inherited by Fruela of Asturias, who thus reunited his fathers divided kingdom.Flood, 2018, p. 42. Yet Fruela ruled only for fourteen months and he died in 924. The three sons of Alfonso III must have struck an agreement between themselves as to who succeed in each of their kingdoms when they passed, as both Ordonho II and Fruela II left behind three sons each who all vied for control and a succession dispute ensued.Flood, 2018, pp. 42-43.
Count Gonçalo Mendes succeeded on the county of Portugal in 950. Ordonho III succeeded on the throne of León the following year.Flood, 2018, p. 49. Ordonho III withstood Muslim attacks nearly every year. In 955, he led another major raid into al-Andalus that reached as far as Lisbon, which was sacked, and he subsequently signed a truce with Caliph Abd al-Rahman III in 956.Díez, Gonzalo Martínez (2005). El Condado de Castilla, 711-1038: La Historia Frente a la Leyenda, Marcial Pons Historia, p. 406 In Portugal, Mumadona Dias ordered the castle of Guimarães to be built to protect the local inhabitants and the monks of a nearby monastery from Muslim or Viking attacks, and by 968 the castle was finished.
Cordoban campaigns 977–1008
On October 1, 976, Hisham II succeeded Al-Hakam II on the throne of Cordoba. The following week, he appointed Ibn Abi Amir, later known as Almanzor, to the position of hajib or prime minister. Almanzor continued the military reforms previously begun by Al-Hakam II and he instituted a policy of destructive campaigns against the Christian kingdoms of the north the following year, usually twice a year, to collect tribute or sack them if they refused to pay. This policy would continue beyond his death until 1008. These were 31 years of Cordoban hegemony imposed on the Christian kingdoms with brutality and the most chaotic since the beginning of the Reconquista.Reuter, Timothy (1992). Warriors and Churchmen in the High Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Karl Leyser, A&C Black. p. 134.