King Alfonso VIII of Castile
Government, Family, and War
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King Alfonso VIII of Castile: Government, Family and War brings together a diverse group of scholars whose work concerns the reign of Alfonso VIII (1158–1215). This was a critical period in the history of the Iberian peninsula, when the conflict between the Christian north and the Moroccan empire of the Almohads was at its most intense, while the political divisions between the five Christian kingdoms reached their high-water mark. From his troubled ascension as a child to his victory at Las Navas de Tolosa near the end of his fifty-seven-year reign, Alfonso VIII and his kingdom were at the epicenter of many of the most dramatic events of the era.
Contributors: Martin Alvira Cabrer, Janna Bianchini, Sam Zeno Conedera, S.J., Miguel Dolan Gómez, Carlos de Ayala Martínez, Kyle C. Lincoln, Joseph O’Callaghan, Teofi lo F. Ruiz, Miriam Shadis, Damian J. Smith, James J. Todesca
The essays in this collection are of an impeccable scholarly standard; the book offers valuable contributions to the scholarship on twelfth-century Iberia, and on a reign that has received little attention in the Anglophone world.---Simon R. Doubleday, Hofstra University
King Alfonso VIII of Castile brings together an impressive collection of top notch papers that offer fresh perspectives on the reign of Alfonso VIII. This will be very useful not only to scholars of Iberian studies but to medievalists and royal studies scholars as well who are interested in the monarch and the wide variety of topics covered such as crusading, royal-church relations, religious practices in the period and queenship.---Elena Woodacre, University of Winchester
Anyone who has edited a collaborative volume knows how challenging and time-consuming these projects tend to be, and it is to these editors' credit that they persevered to bring this impactful, well-crafted, and unusually cohesive collection to light... Taken together, these collected studies make a powerful case for viewing Alfonso VIII's reign as one of the most important turning points in the history of Castile, and, by correlation, of the greater Peninsula and Western Mediterranean region.---The Medieval Review
This collection, a melding of Spanish and American research, is one of the finest gatherings of articles on one of medieval Castile’s greatest rulers. The authors and editors are to be congratulated for the thoroughly professional product they have brought to both general and academic readers.---Mediterranean Studies
...give[s] a new readership a fine sense of the complexities and significance of the period in Castilian (and therefore Mediterranean and European) history.---Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures
Miguel Gómez is Lecturer in History at the University of Dayton, and is finishing a manuscript on the crusade of Las Navas de Tolosa. His articles have appeared in the Anuario de la Historia de la Iglesia, and in 2012 he edited a special volume of the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies about the campaign of Las Navas de Tolosa.
Kyle C. Lincoln (Edited By)
Kyle C. Lincoln is Visiting Assistant Professor at Kalamazoo College. His articles have appeared in the Anuario de la Historia de la Iglesia and the Revista Chilena de Estudios Medeivales. His doctoral thesis investigated the Church in the Kingdom of Castile during the reign of Alfonso VIII of Castile.
Damian J. Smith (Edited By)
Damian J. Smith is Professor of History at Saint Louis University. His works include Innocent III and the Crown of Aragon (Aldershot, 2004), Crusade, Heresy, and Inquisition in the Lands of the Crown of Aragon (Leiden, 2010), and the English-language translation, with Helena Buff ery, of the Llibre dels Feits of James I of Aragon (Aldershot, 2003).
List of Abbreviations
Alfonso VIII: An Introduction
Teofilo F. Ruiz
1. Ideas of Kingship in the Preambles of Alfonso VIII’s Charters
Joseph F. O’Callaghan
2. Selling Castile: Coinage, Propaganda, and Mediterranean Trade in the Age of Alfonso VIII
James J. Todesca
3. The Infantazgo in the Reign of Alfonso VIII
Janna Bianchini
4. “Happier in Daughters than in Sons”: Th e Children of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonor Plantagenet
Miriam Shadis
5. A Wall and a Shield: Alfonso VIII and the Military Orders
Sam Zeno Conedera, S.J.
6. Holy War and Crusade during the Reign of Alfonso VIII
Carlos de Ayala Martínez
7. Alfonso VIII and the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
Miguel Gómez
8. Alfonso VIII and the Papacy
Damian Smith
9. “Si Possides Amicum, in Temptatione Posside”: Alfonso VIII and Peter the Catholic
Martín Alvira Cabrer
10. A Prosopography of the Castilian Episcopate in the Reign of Alfonso VIII
Kyle C. Lincoln
11. Via impugnandi in the Age of Alfonso VIII: Iberian-Christian Kalām and a Latin Triad Revisited
Thomas Burman
Acknowledgments
List of Contributors
Index
