page_title: Spain in the Middle Ages
section_title: Medieval Christian Spain
hierarchical_section_title: Spain in the Middle Ages / Medieval Christian Spain
caption_attribution_description: English: Alfonso VIII of Castile andEleanor of Plantagenet delivering Castle of Uclés to the Master ("magister") of the Order of Santiago Pedro Fernández. This is a miniature of the Tumbo Menor de Castilla, found in the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid. It was found at three websites independently: http://www.castillosdejirm.com/alfonsoVIII.htm and http://www.sanjuandeduero.bravehost.com/ http://www.fundacionvillalarcyl.es/img/historia/c_59591.jpg Español: Alfonso VIII de Castilla, Leonor de Plantagenet entregan el castillo de Uclés al Maestre de la Orden de Santiago Pedro Fernández de Fuentencalada (Magister P. Ferrandi[z]). Miniatura perteneciente al ''Tumbo menor de Castilla'', que se encuentra en el Archivo Histórico Nacional de Madrid. Leyendas: ALIENOR : REGINA | ALFONSUS REX : | MAGISTER : P : FERRANDI[Z] | CASTELLUM DE : UCLES | QUIDAM FRATER
context_page_description: In many ways, the history of Spain is marked by waves of conquerors who brought their distinct cultures to the peninsula. After the passage of the Vandals and Alans down the Mediterranean coast of Hispania from 408, the history of medieval Spain begins with the Iberian kingdom of the Arianist Visigoths, who were converted to Catholicism with their king Reccared in 587. Visigothic culture in Spain can be seen as a phenomenon of Late Antiquity as much as part of the Age of Migrations.
  From Northern Africa in 711, the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate crossed into Spain, at the invitation of a Visigothic clan to assist it in rising against King Roderic. Over the period 711-788, the Umayyads conquered most of the lands of the Visigothic kingdom of Hispania and established the territory known as Al-Andalus. A revolt during the conquest established the Christian Kingdom of Asturias in the north of Spain.
  Much of the period is marked by conflict between the Muslim and Christian states of Spain, referred to as the Reconquista, or the Reconquest. The border between Muslim and Christian lands wavered southward through 700 years of war, which marked the peninsula as a militarily contested space.
context_section_description: An organizing principle of medieval Spain was the Reconquista, the Crusade by which territories that had once been Christian and Visigothic were recaptured and Christianized. Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar was mythologized as the virtuous El Cid and is remembered as instrumental in this effort.
  For Medieval Northern (Christian) Spain see individual kingdoms and polities such as:
  Kingdom of Asturias, Kingdom of Galicia, Marca Hispanica, Kingdom of Aragon, Catalan counties, Principality of Catalonia, Kingdom of Pamplona/Navarre, Kingdom of León, Kingdom of Castile, Lordship of Biscay, Kingdom of Valencia, Kingdom of Majorca, Crown of Aragon or Crown of Castile.
caption: Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England delivering the Castle of Uclés to the Master ("magister") of the Order of Santiago Pedro Fernández.
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