Spain, 1157-1300

Peter Linehan is Fellow and Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge, Fellow of the British Academy, and Corresponding Member of the Spanish Academy of History.

"This is a masterly revisiting of the period, every clause of Linehan's sentences embodying not only that eloquence of rhetorical style he so admired in the work of another Fellow of St. John's, Prof. John Cook (see the obituary by Lineham in The Independent, 15 September 2007), but a freshness and vitality of vision that find their fullest expression in his portrait of King Alfonso el Sabio." (Speculuma Medieval Studies, April 2011)

• Preface ixChronology xiiList of Abbreviations xvTree showing some of those mentioned in these pages xviiMap of Spain in the thirteenth century xviii1 1157–79 Past and Present 1After the Emperor 7Two Royal Minorities 242 The Age of Las Navas Life, Law and Memory 36Three Battles 40Implications of the Vernacular 46Castile Victorious 533 1214–48Doña Berenguela and Son 57‘The Gate is Open and the Way is Clear’ 60Towards Valencia 62Conquest and Colonization 69Toledo and Seville 75After Valencia 80The Mediterranean Dimension 834 Some Permanent Features Jews 87Moors 95Hunger, Kings and Capitals 1005 1252–9 Alfonso X: Promising Beginnings 104A Command Economy 114The Law 121Implications of Empire 1296 1259–74Toledo and Translations 133International Complications 145The Mudéjar Rising 149The Alfonsine Histories 1627 1275–84A Reign in Ruins 169France and Aragón 1751282 185Aragón Alone 199The Learned King 2048 The Changed Balance Castile after 1284 210A Question of Alliances 215‘Neither Truth nor Faith’ 229Epilogue 233Bibliography 235Glossary 268Index 270