00:00The Battle of Navas de Tolosa took place on Monday, July 16, 1212, around the eponymous castle, Navas
00:05of Tolosa, province of Rhaen, in Spain, between, on one side, a coalition of several Christian states of the peninsula
00:12Iberian, 8, supported by crusader troops from several European nations, and, on the other side, troops
00:18Muslim women from across the Maghreb and the territories of Al-Andalus, under the command of Muhammad in Asir
00:23of the Berber Almohad dynasty.
00:26Won by the Christian armies, the battle marked a decisive stage in the Reconquista and significantly accelerated the disintegration of
00:32the Almohad domination as well as the erasure of the Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula.
00:37Strategic situation
00:38Since the Almohads unified almost all of the Maghreb and the Andalusian territories that were under their control in 1147
00:44Their domination made the reconquest of the territory by the Spanish Christian kingdoms temporarily more difficult.
00:50From 1172 onwards, Almohad attacks against Christian territories intensified.
00:56From then on, war and truce alternated.
00:58The Castilians won a great victory with the occupation of Cuenca in 1177, but they lost Alarcos in 1195 to
01:05the Almohad caliph Yacoub ben Youssouf.
01:07This offensive temporarily undermines the defense system established by the military orders of Alcantara and Santiago.
01:13and Calatrava had established themselves in Castile-La Mancha.
01:17Now, the union of the Spanish Christian princes seems essential, especially since Yacoub ben Youssouf is benefiting from his advance.
01:23to retake the cities of Alarcos and Calatrava, and directly threaten Toledo.
01:28However, he did not besiege the city and agreed to sign a ten-year truce with the Christian kingdoms.
01:32Between 1206 and 1209, Don Rodrigo Jiménez de Radha, Archbishop of Toledo from 1208 to 1247, chronicler of this battle,
01:41works towards sacred unity between Christian kings through the Treaty of Guadalajara.
01:45Moreover, the archbishop obtained from Pope Innocent III, then representing the height of papal power, a decree
01:52a specific crusade against the presence of the Almohads in the Iberian Peninsula, with the same canonical indulgences for the crusaders of
01:58the Iberian Peninsula than those granted to the crusaders in the Holy Land.
02:01King Alfonso VIII, who was tenaciously preparing revenge for the loss of Alarcos, summoned all the sovereigns of Spain
02:07to join forces with him against the common enemy.
02:09Even the king of neighboring Portugal and knights, as well as mercenaries from all over Europe, soon flocked to
02:14the Iberian Peninsula, tributary of all Christendom.
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