Siege of Lisbon
The siege began on 1 July. The Christians soon captured the surrounding territories and besieged the walls of Lisbon itself, although the Muslim defenders were able to destroy their siege engines. After four months, the Moorish rulers agreed to surrender (21 October), primarily due to hunger within the city, which was sheltering populations displaced from Santarém as well as "the leading citizens of Sintra, Almada, and Palmela."[10] After a brief riotous insurrection the Anglo-Norman chronicler attributes to "the men of Cologne and the Flemings", the city was entered by the Christian conquerors, on 25 October. The terms of the surrender indicated that the Muslim garrison of the city would be allowed to keep their lives and property, but as soon as the Christians entered the city these terms were broken.[5]
According to the Expugnatione Lyxbonensi,
| “ | The enemy, when they had been despoiled in the city, left the town through three gates continuously from Saturday morning until the following Wednesday. There was such a multitude of people that it seemed as if all of Hispania were mingled in the crowd.[8] | ” |
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Aftermath
Most of the crusaders settled in the newly captured city, and Gilbert of Hastings was elected bishop, but some of the crusaders set sail and continued to the Holy Land.[5] In spite of the contractual nature of the city's surrender, a legend arose that the brave Portuguese warrior and nobleman, Martim Moniz, sacrificed himself in order to keep the city doors open to the conquering Christian armies. Lisbon eventually became capital city of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1255. The victory was a turning-point in the history of Portugal and the wider Reconquista, which would be completed in 1492.[11]
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See also
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Notes
- ^ The traditional start of the Reconquista is identified with the defeat of the Muslims at Covadonga in 722, see Riley-Smith (1990) p.32.
- ^ Riley-Smith (1990) p.48
- ^ Cologne was allied with London in the incipient wool trade: see Steelyard.
- ^ This is the expression consistently used in the eye-witness chronicle of the siege, De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, attributed in the sixteenth century to "Osbernus". The ms, titled "Historia Osberni" by a sixteenth-century annotator, is in the form of a letter, with a superscription "Osb. de Baldr. R salutem" that C. R. Cheney read as to "Osberto de Baldreseie" i.e. Bawdsley, Suffolk, from a certain "R."; see Cheney, The Authorship of the De Expugnatione Lyxbonensi Speculum 7.3 (July 1932:395-397).
- ^ a b c d e Runciman (1951) p.258.
- ^ Henry was a kinsman of Ranulf de Glanvill of Suffolk, Chief Justiciar of England under Henry II; the Norman name derives from Glanville, near Lisieux (DNB, s.v. "Ranulf de Glanvill").
- ^ Phillips (2007) p.143.
- ^ a b Brundage (1962) pp.97-104
- ^ The prominence of Henry Glanvill has suggested to some readers that Osbernus was an Anglo-Norman cleric with special attachment to him and his house.
- ^ Osbernus, who adds "As a result the basest element from every part of the world had gathered there, like the bilge water of a ship, a breeding ground for every kind of lust and impurity."
- ^ Riley-Smith (1990) p.126.
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References
- Runciman, Steven (1952) A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100–1187. Cambridge University Press.
- Brundage, James (1962) The Crusades: A Documentary History. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press.
- Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1990). Atlas of the Crusades. New York: Facts on File.
- Phillips, Jonathan (2007). The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom. Yale University Press.
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Further reading
- Odo of Deuil. De profectione Ludovici VII in orientem. Edited and translated by Virginia Gingerick Berry. Columbia University Press, 1948.
- Kenneth Setton, ed. A History of the Crusades, vol. I. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958.
- Osbernus De expugnatione Lyxbonensi or The Capture of Lisbon On-line excerpt, in English.
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