Books: Medieval Spain

The Unconquered Knight: A Chronicle of the Deeds of Don Pero Niño, Count of Buelna by Gutierre Diaz de Gamez

The heroic exploits of the 15th-century Count of Buelna, including tournament glories, knightly romance and the bitter hardships of life on campaign.

Gutierre Diaz de Gamez entered the service of Pero Niño, count of Buelna, in 1402, when they were both about 23, and served as head of his military household for nearly fifty years. He began a chronicle of his master's deeds in about 1431, and it is this eyewitness account of the life of a knight, both in war and peace, which is translated here. 

It is written in praise of his master, but beneath the veneer of hero-worship a good deal of the reality of a knight's existence shows through: even in the prologue, Diaz de Gamez gives a bitter picture of the hardships of a military campaign: 'Knights who are at the wars eat their bread in sorrow; their ease in weariness and sweat... Mouldy bread or biscuit, meat cooked or uncooked, water from a pond or a butt, poor sleep with their armour still on their backs, the enemy an arrow-shot off...' On the other hand, he can evoke the glories of a tournament, in which his master excelled, and his triumphs as a military commander both by sea and land. It is a story full of colour, adventure and romance, and one which deserves its place in the chronicles of chivalry.

The Duke of Alba by Henry Kamen

Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo, the third duke of Alba (1507–82), is known to history as “the butcher of Flanders.” The general who carried out Philip II’s repressive policies in the Netherlands, he was responsible for the massacre of thousands of men, women, and children, considering it better to lay waste an entire country than leave it in the hands of heretics. Alba came to represent for contemporaries as well as for future generations the unacceptable face of Spanish imperialism.

In this intriguing re-evaluation, Henry Kamen narrates the duke’s personal history, looking beyond the conventional image to reveal motives and to explain rather than simply to condemn. Kamen examines the early years of Alba’s life, his travels over the whole of Europe, and the complex military and political career that made him Spain’s leading general of the imperial age. Drawing on the duke’s rich and expressive surviving correspondence, Kamen explores Alba’s beliefs and considers his infamous actions within the contexts of his time and of the monarchs—Emperor Charles V and King Philip II of Spain—whom he served.

Phillip II by Henry Kamen

Philip II of Spain—ruler of the most extensive empire the world had ever known—has been viewed in a harsh and negative light since his death in 1598. Identified with repression, bigotry, and fanaticism by his enemies, he has been judged more by the political events of his reign than by his person. This book, published four hundred years after Philip's death, is the first full-scale biography of the king. Placing him within the social, cultural, religious, and regional context of his times, it presents a startling new picture of his character and reign.

Drawing on Philip's unpublished correspondence and on many other archival sources, Henry Kamen reveals much about Philip the youth, the man, the husband, the father, the frequently troubled Christian, and the king. Kamen finds that Philip was a cosmopolitan prince whose extensive experience of northern Europe broadened his cultural imagination and tastes, whose staunchly conservative ideas were far from being illiberal and fanatical, whose religious attitudes led him to accept a practical coexistence with Protestants and Jews, and whose support for Las Casas and other defenders of the Indians in America helped determine government policy. Shedding completely new light on most aspects of Philip's private life and, in consequence, on his public actions, the book is the definitive portrayal of Philip II.

Commander of the Armada: The Seventh Duke of Medina Sidonia by Peter Pierson

The seventh Duke of Medina Sidonia is best known as the man who led to defeat the Spanish Armada of 1588. This book by Peter Pierson is the first complete biography in any language of this important figure. Based on previously inaccessible documents from the Medina Sidonia archives, it offers fascinating material on sixteenth-century Spain and new and exciting details about the armada campaign.

Pierson begins by describing the Duke’s youth and his close ties to the court of Philip II. He discusses the Duke’s lifelong involvement with the shipping that navigated the treasure route from Spain to the Indies, his significant role in Philip’s successful quest for the Portuguese Crown, and his appointment as Captain General of the Ocean-Sea. Spain’s war with England dominates the central chapters of the book. Pierson relates how Medina Sidonia embargoed ships and recruited men for the armada, the largest fleet yet concentrated in early modern Europe, and he analyzes Philip’s choice of the Duke to command the armada. 

Pierson provides a radical reinterpretation of the armada campaign, and with the aid of ten superb maps and diagrams he reconstructs the positions of the two navies, the number and names of ships, and their movements from the fleet’s departure for England to the surviving vessel’s arrival home. Pierson continues with Medina Sidonia’s life after the armada campaign and discusses his second appearance on the world stage, as the unsuccessful defender of Cádiz against a major Anglo-Dutch attack in 1596. 

The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline by JH Elliott

A masterful biography of Don Gaspar de Guzmán, Count Duke of Olivares—righthand advisor to Spain’s Philip IV, archrival of Cardinal Richelieu, and a central figure in seventeenth-century Europe. Written by the eminent historian J. H. Elliott and based on many original sources, this elegant book is a landmark in the study of a man and an age.

The Catalan Rule of the Templars: A Critical Edition and English Translation from Barcelona, Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, `Cartas Reales', MS 3344 translated by J.M. Upton-Ward

The Knights Templar, part monastic order, part military force, lived by a firm code, or rule, which exists in differing versions. This Spanish version is a follow-up to J.M. Upton-Ward's highly successful edition of the French Rule. 

The introduction to this Catalan Rule, Barcelona Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Cartes Reales, MS 3344, discusses the content, language and dating of the manuscript. It also provides background information derived from the French Rule (which the reader may require for a fuller appreciation of the text - see author note below) on the circumstances of the Knights Templar.

There is a brief description of the provincial organisation of the Order with particular reference to the houses in Aragon, where it is most likely that the manuscript was used; a summary of clauses; and a concordance with de Curzon's 1886 edition of the French Rule. Compared to de Curzon's edition, the Barcelona text is incomplete, but it contains important clauses not found in other manuscripts. 

A partial transcription claiming to represent all the clauses without equivalents in de Curzon's edition was published in 1889, but it omitted several clauses now published here for the first time. 

Footnotes to the English translation elucidate the text; give biographical information on the named officers of the Order where possible; and indicate significant differences compared with the French Rule.

The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050–1300 by Brian A Catlos

This is a revisionary study of Muslims living under Christian rule during the Spanish 'reconquest'. It looks beyond the obvious religious distinctions and delves into the subtleties of identity in the thirteenth-century Crown of Aragon, uncovering a social dynamic in which sectarian differences comprise only one of the many factors in the causal complex of political, economic and cultural reactions. 

Beginning with the final stage of independent Muslim rule in the Ebro valley region, the book traces the transformation of Islamic society into mudéjar society under Christian domination. This was a case of social evolution in which Muslims, far from being passive victims of foreign colonisation, took an active part in shaping their institutions and experiences as subjects of the Infidel. Using a diverse range of methodological approaches, this book challenges widely held assumptions concerning Christian-Muslim relations in the Middle Ages, and minority-majority relations in general.