The Gibraltar Crusade: Castile and the Battle for the Strait (review)

Joseph F. O'Callaghan continues to build on his impressive body of work over the last two decades, taking on the subject of the Guerra del Estrecho (War for the Strait of Gibraltar), which concerned Castile, Aragon, Portugal, Granada, and Morocco between 1250 and 1350. Although this is familiar terrain for Iberian specialists, the subject has received far less attention from other researchers, especially in the Americas. In a style that is now familiar, O'Callaghan begins with a geographical and political overview of the principal actors in the struggle for control of the Strait of Gibraltar before starting his accounts of the manifold conflicts during the reigns of Alfonso X the Learned (1252-84), Sancho IV (1284-95), Fernando IV (1295-1312), and Alfonso XI (1312-50). As such, he demolishes the notion, still current in some circles, that the Reconquest had stalled after the first half of the thirteenth century and only awaited its final resolution in the late-fifteenth century. In fact, the southern part of Spain—with the port cities of Cadiz, Tarifa, Algeciras, Gibraltar, Malaga, and Almeria, among others—was one of the most conflicted areas of the time, drawing constant attention and massive resources from all the kingdoms surrounding it and exposing the local populations to the constant threat and trauma of warfare. The author also covers in detail the tangled diplomatic web accompanying this conflict. Each of the rulers, as well as significant factions within each kingdom, pursued their self-interests regardless of religion and ideology, creating a complicated and ever-changing set of alliances that always defied easy explanation or categorization.

This study, however, succeeds in both presenting the struggle, weaving in its manifold characters, circumstances, and elements—especially the issue of religion and crusading—in a way that is accessible to the reader, but never oversimplified. In addition to detailing how the Moroccan Marinid regime's peninsular ambitions were finally demolished through their defeat at the battle of Salado (1340) and the capture of Algeciras (1344) under Alfonso XI, how Granada slowly became more isolated, and how Castile assumed an ascendant role in the area, he is also careful to cover the many Christian initiatives that failed such as the concurrent siege of Algeciras and Almeria respectively by Fernando IV and James II of Aragon (1291-1327) in 1309; Castile's loss of Gibraltar in 1333 and its inability to recover it; and the civil wars that enveloped Castile, Granada, and Morocco at various stages of this century-long struggle. If anything, this will undoubtedly stimulate interest and debate among specialists and nonspecialists alike.

Another of this work's particularly important contribution is the chapter "Waging the Crusade of Gibraltar," which, until a full-length study of the subject is published, is one of the best outlines in English of the Castilian military system in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It takes into account the latest research and delves into areas as diverse as the sinews of warfare, but also its social and ideological aspects and the ever-present element of the crusade, with its religious, ideological, and financial dimensions. This should provoke excitement among military historians and help stimulate new research on the subject.

With the breadth of his knowledge and ability to harness so many diverse sources, O'Callaghan has again highlighted yet another important period of Iberian history, and the fields of Hispanic and medieval studies are richer for it.