Crusade and Commerce in the Western Mediterranean, ca. 1113-1200

Sponsoring Organization(s)

American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain (AARHMS)

Organizer Name

James J. Todesca

Organizer Affiliation

Armstrong Atlantic State Univ.

Presider Name

Miguel Gomez

Presider Affiliation

Univ. of Tennessee-Knoxville

Paper Title 1

Exstirpetur Invidia: Wealth and Warfare in the Conquest of Lisbon

Presenter 1 Name

Sam Zeno Conedera, SJ

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Santa Clara Univ.

Paper Title 2

And to Think That It Happened on Mulberry Street: The Almeria Crusade, ca. 1146-48

Presenter 2 Name

James J. Todesca

Paper Title 3

"Time Loves a Hero": Alfonso IX of Leon and the Crusade of 1197

Presenter 3 Name

Kyle C. Lincoln

Presenter 3 Affiliation

St. Louis Univ.

Start Date

9-5-2013 1:30 PM

Session Location

Valley I 103

Description

Any textbook account of the Crusades to the east will likely mention the role played by the Italian maritime communes. Far less attention has been paid to foreign fleets aiding the Christians of Spain in their wars against Islam. Nine hundred years ago, in 1113, the so-called Balearic Crusade was undertaken by the Count of Barcelona with the help of Pisa. This expedition marks the first large-scale involvement of an Italian maritime force in Iberia. By 1150, English and Flemish seamen had assisted the king of Portugal in two attacks on Lisbon while Genoa participated in both the Castilian assault on Almeria and the Catalan siege of Tortosa. These example, however, are only the most obvious reflections of Europe's growing commercial contact with Islam as Latin merchants sought to "open up" the Western Islamic world.

James J. Todesca