Date of Award
Spring 2020
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Historical & Political Studies; College of Arts & Sciences
First Advisor
Dr. Geoffrey Haywood
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to recount the historiography and literature of the Crusades and the Reconquista and then offer some commentary on their relationship in Spain in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Both of these fields have a tremendous amount of scholarship to understand these phenomena in medieval history. Therefore, the scope of this project is to compile the main scholarly debates surrounding the connection between the Crusades and the Reconquista and consider the evidence for the various approaches. The relevant background history of the Reconquista contextualizes the literature of the two fields. The main debates within the scholarship of the Crusades and the Reconquest of Iberia will be considered in order to set up each field and their literatures. The final section will consider the scholarship on the relationship between the Crusades and the Reconquista. Defining a Reconquista as a crusade or a crusade as a form of Reconquest ignores too much of the vast literature that highlights both events as evolving historical events wrought with complexities and ever-changing characteristics. Rather, it will be argued the Crusades and the Reconquista share a complicated history and a relationship that the most respected scholars of the period have grappled with. This work will show how these two medieval events have become interlaced and developed into large scale narratives of the past, which should continue to be evaluated by medieval scholars.
Recommended Citation
Hill, Catherine, "The Reconquista and Crusading in the Late 11th and Early 12th Century" (2020). Capstone Showcase. 8.
https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/showcase/2020/hist_pol_studies/8
The Reconquista and Crusading in the Late 11th and Early 12th Century
The purpose of this project is to recount the historiography and literature of the Crusades and the Reconquista and then offer some commentary on their relationship in Spain in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Both of these fields have a tremendous amount of scholarship to understand these phenomena in medieval history. Therefore, the scope of this project is to compile the main scholarly debates surrounding the connection between the Crusades and the Reconquista and consider the evidence for the various approaches. The relevant background history of the Reconquista contextualizes the literature of the two fields. The main debates within the scholarship of the Crusades and the Reconquest of Iberia will be considered in order to set up each field and their literatures. The final section will consider the scholarship on the relationship between the Crusades and the Reconquista. Defining a Reconquista as a crusade or a crusade as a form of Reconquest ignores too much of the vast literature that highlights both events as evolving historical events wrought with complexities and ever-changing characteristics. Rather, it will be argued the Crusades and the Reconquista share a complicated history and a relationship that the most respected scholars of the period have grappled with. This work will show how these two medieval events have become interlaced and developed into large scale narratives of the past, which should continue to be evaluated by medieval scholars.