The Battle of Jerez (1231)
The Primera Cronica General provides this account of a major victory by Christian forces against Ibn Hud, who ruled Mercia. The Castillian forces were under the command of Prince Alfonso de Molina, brother of King Ferdinand, and Alvar Perez de Castro
Even though the Christians were few in number, Ibn Hud
feared and did not belittle, them, so he drew up his men in seven battle-lines,
in the weakest of which there were upwards of 1,500 horsemen, and in others
2,000 and perhaps more., but the Christians all together could not make more
than a single line, equal in numbers to the weakest of the Moorish lines.
However, they had with them the son of the King of Baeza, for this ruler was the
vassal of King Ferdinand, and when he learned that Prince Alfonso was starting
the campaign, he sent his son with ,200 horsemen to accompany him, together with
300 infantry; also, knights of Santiago and Calatrava and the other military
orders came too.
After Don Alfonso had come forward from the
rear and a troop had been formed, Don Alvar went from side to side giving
everyone all possible encouragement and making them lose their fear. Then they
rode forward, with everyone shouting in unison. 'St James!', and at times
'Castile!'. They began to pierce the Moorish ranks, shattering the first, then
the second and third, and then all one after the other, killing and rolling back
the enemy and causing great loss of life. Then they started to fight to each
side, the Moors being unable to make any sort of stand. It was said - and the
Moors themselves averred the same afterwards - that St James appeared there on a
white horse with a white banner in one hand and a sword in the other, together
with a regiment of knights dressed in white; also that angels were seen to fly
through the air above them; and that it seemed as though these white knights
were causing greater havoc than any other body of men. Many of the Christians
saw this vision too. Then the Moors began to scatter and flee, turning their
backs as quickly as they could and confessing defeat. The Christians started to
pursue them, killing some and capturing others. The slaughter was so great, that
the infantry in their pursuit could not go forward after a time because they
found the piles of the dead an obstacle to their progress. Eventually the
Christians forced the enemy back against the gates of Jerez, where the slaughter
was also very great: the press of men was so tight in the gateway, and so few
were able to enter compared with the huge mass that they formed that they were
killing each other. What more can one say? Our men whittled them down as a
carpenter whittles a beam of wood, and the Moors offered no kind of defence. The
field was quickly cleared of them, some being dead, others prisoners, the rest
fugitives. In the fray the leader of the Gazuls was killed, together with many
other Moors of high rank. The text
we are following says, in confirmation of what was stated by those present, that
the new knight Garci Ferez de Vargas, whom Alvar Perez had knighted before battle was
joined, did himself honour at the start of his career, for it was he who
unhorsed and killed that leader of the Gazuls. He it was who had come up with
the 700 Arab horsemen mentioned earlier; and even though our text calls them
'Arabs', they were earlier and still at that time called ‘Gazuls’,
and on account of that name the man was called 'leader of the Gazuls'. He had
come from overseas as it were on pilgrimage, in Muhammad's service. When he
arrived in al-Andalus, Ibn Hud gave him Alcala, the one now known as 'Alcala de
los Gazules' [province of Cadiz]. Ibn Hud, not daring to stay in Jerez while the
Christians were so strongly on the attack, made his way to the coast with as
many men as he had, and set sail for a place of safety. Who could ever manage to
tell how great was the booty taken that day, and the extent of the favours which
God heaped upon the Christians? Our men began to search the battlefield, and
found so much lying about that they wearied of picking it up. As for what they
found in the tents, it was uncountable and beyond any man's reckoning. After
they had searched the field they began on the Moorish tents, and found them so
richly stocked that they had no need to send elsewhere for what they needed; and
it is said that while they remained there they had all the wood they needed for
their fires from the shafts of shattered lances. And the nooses and the gallows
which had been prepared for them were filled with the bodies of the Moors who
had made them. [. . . ]
This text was first published in Christians and Moors in Spain,
edited by Colin Smith (Aris &
Phillips: 1989-92). This three volume set can be purchased through Oxbow
Books. We thank Aris &
Phillips for their permission to republish these texts.