Book Series Brepols Collected Essays in European Culture, vol. 2

Warrior Neighbours

Crusader Valencia in its International Context, Collected Essays of Father Robert I. Burns, SJ

Fr. Robert I. Burns (auth)
Mary Elizabeth Perry (ed)

  • Pages: 387 p.
  • Size:156 x 234 mm
  • Illustrations:7 b/w, 2 tables b/w.
  • Language(s):English, Latin, Spanish
  • Publication Year:2013

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  • ISBN: 978-2-503-53215-8
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  • ISBN: 978-2-503-53947-8
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This volume presents the impressive corpus of studies by Robert I. Burns, S.J., on the topic that he has spent a half-century exploring in meticulous detail: the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia.

Review(s)

"Étayés par la publication d’une centaine de documents inédits, les articles de Robert Burns, ici réunis, affinent les conclusions du maître-ouvrage de l’auteur et mettent en valeur l’histoire de la création du royaume croisé de Valence et les relations nouées entre conquérants chrétiens et conquis musulmans." (Michel Balard, dans: Francia-Recensio, 2014/2)

“(…) the rewards for the extra effort are well worth it” (Nicolás Agrait, in The Historian, 78/3, 2016, p. 587)

Summary

 

This volume presents the impressive corpus of studies by Robert I. Burns, S.J., on the topic that he has spent a half-century exploring in meticulous detail: the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia. These studies focus on one of Europe’s greatest medieval monarchs, James the Conqueror of Aragon-Catalonia, who made an enduring contribution to Western civilization.

James I ‘the Conqueror’ conquered Mediterranean Spain from Islam during fifty crusading years (1225–1276). Not only did he contend with ‘infidel’ powers around him, he frequently vied with warring Christian neighbours. This book presents a rich depiction of King James’s warrior neighbours, Muslim and Christian, from the king who was his greatest ally and greatest rival, Alfonso X the Learned (1212–1284), to the redoubtable and resourceful al-Azraq, a Muslim adventurer, rebel, and leader of one of the most formidable Islamic countercrusades in Spain. These studies illuminate such themes as cultural conflict and interchange, border tensions and frontier relations, medieval warfare and crusading, piracy, brigandage and reprisals, grievance management, medieval queenship and papal relations, the role of Jews in a pluri-ethnic kingdom, Mudejars and Moriscos, and the warrior heroes of Islam. King James presided over a society more complex than any in Christendom, and these studies unlock the details of this stunning achievement.

Robert I. Burns, S.J., Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University), Doc. es Sc. Hist. (Fribourg University, Switzerland), was Professor Emeritus of History at UCLA and Director of the Institute of Medieval Mediterranean Spain. He was an elected Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and of the Hispanic Society of America, and a Guggenheim Fellow. His distinctions include the Haskins gold medal of the Medieval Academy of America, seven national book awards, eight honorary doctorates, and the Order of the Cross of St George.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements and Editorial Comment - Mary Elizabeth Perry

Introduction - Paul Freedman

Chapter 1. Castle of Intellect, Castle of Force: The Worlds of Alfonso the Learned and Jaume the Conqueror

Chapter 2. Warrior Neighbours: Alfonso the Learned (El Sabio) and Crusader Valencia — an Archival Case Study in his International Relations

Chapter 3. The Many Crusades of Valencia’s Conquest (1225–80): An Historiographical Labyrinth

Chapter 4. How to End a Crusade: Techniques for Making Peace in the Thirteenth-Century Kingdom of Valencia

Chapter 5. Almohad Prince and Mudejar Convert: New Documentation on Abū Zayd

Chapter 6. Daughter of Abū Zayd, Last Almohad Ruler of Valencia: The Family and Christian Seigniory of Alda Ferrándis, 1236–1300

Chapter 7. Regalo para una madre: una muchacha esclava musulmana del nieto de Abū Zayd, el senor de Borriol (1301)

Chapter 8. The Crusade against al-Azraq: A Thirteenth-Century Mudejar Revolt in International Perspective

Chapter 9. A Lost Crusade: Unpublished Bulls of Innocent IV on al‑Azraq’s Revolt in Thirteenth‑Century Spain

Chapter 10. La guerra de al-Azraq de 1249

Chapter 11. A Medieval Earthquake: Jaume I, al-Azraq, and the Early History of Onteniente in the Kingdom of Valencia

Chapter 12. The Loss of Provence. King Jaume’s Raid to Kidnap its Heiress (1245): Documenting a ‘Legend’

Chapter 13. The Crusade against Murcia: Provisioning the Armies of Jaume the Conqueror, 1264–67