Warrior Neighbors: Alfonso el Sabio and Crusader Valencia, an Archival Case Study in His International Relations

• Published in: Viator (Berkeley) 1990-01, Vol.21, p.147-202
• Main Author: Burns, Robert I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0083-5897; 2031-0234
• DOI: 10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.301335

"Warrior Neighbors: Alfonso el Sabio and Crusader Valencia, an Archival Case Study in His International Relations," Alfonso X the Learned (1221-1281), crusader and patron of culture, was the "Father of Castile"; James I the Conqueror (1208-1276) was the "Father" of Aragon-Catalonia. Companions in the wars against Islam, they were rivals on both the peninsular and international scenes, Domestic confrontation often centered on the Kingdom of Valencia, newly conquered from Islam; abroad each struggled to succeed to the imperial mantle of Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Search through the archives of James and his son Peter the Great (1276-1285) has turned up some six dozen documents for the untold Valencian story, fifty-one transcribed here in full, Placed carefully in the context of recent revisionary scholarship, including the recent theses of Carlos Ayala Martínez, these illumine such themes as border tensions, commerce, justice, diplomacy, piracy/brigandage and reprisals, grievance management, the role of Muslim, Jewish, Pisan, and French merchants, and Alfonso's elaborately ceremonial visits to Valencia as rivalry gave way to lasting friendship. King Peter's machiavellian policies continued to echo these themes, though he later used Valencia's wealth to seize Frederick's vacated Sicilian realm, replacing the now-dead Alfonso as the Ghibellines' champion.