Battle of Alarcos Battle of Alarcos ( July 18 , 1195 ) , was a battle between the Almohad s led by Abu Yusuf Ya ' qub al - Mansur and King Alfonso VIII of Castile . It resulted in the defeat of the Castilian forces and their subsequent retreat to Toledo whereas the Almohads conquered back Trujillo , Montánchez and Talavera . Background . In 1189 the Almohad caliph Yaqub al - Mansur returned from Marrakesh to fight the Portuguese who , with the help of a Christian alliance , had taken over Silves . He successfully recaptured the city and went back to his capital . An armistice between the Almohads on the Christian kings of Castile and León ensued . At the expiration of the truce , and having received news that Yaqub was gravely ill in Marrakesh and that his brother Abu Yahya the governor of Al - Andalus crossed the Mediterranean to declare himself King and take over Marrakesh , Alfonso VIII of Castile decided to attack the region of Seville in 1194 . A strong host under the archbishop of Toledo Martín López de Pisuerga ) , which included the military Order of Calatrava , ransacked the province . Having successfully crushed his brother ' s ambitions , Yaqub al - Mansur was left with no choice other than to lead an expedition against the Christians , who were now threatening the northern province of his empire . On the first day of June , 1195 , he landed at Tarifa . Passing through the province of Seville , the main Almohad army reached Cordova on June 30 , reinforced by the few troops raised by the local governors and by a Christian cavalry contingent under Pedro Fernández de Castro , who held a personal feud against the Castilian king . On July 4 Ya ' qub moved out of Cordova ; his army crossed the pass of Muradal ( Despeñaperros ) and advanced through the plain of Salvatierra . A cavalry detachment of the Order of Calatrava , plus some knights from nearby castles , tried to gather news about the Almohad strength and its heading ; they were surrounded by Muslim scouts and almost exterminated , but managed to supply information to the Castilian king . Alfonso gathered his forces at Toledo and marched down to Alarcos ( al - Arak , in Arabic ) , near the Guadiana river , a place which marked the Southern limit of his kingdom and where a fortress was under construction . He intended on barring the access to the rich Tagus valley , and did not wait for the reinforcements the Kings Alfonso IX of León and Sancho of Navarra were sending . When on July 16 the Almohad host came in view , Yaqub al - Mansur did not accept battle on this day or the day after , preferring to give rest to his forces ; but early the day after that , Wednesday , July 18 , the Almohad army formed for battle around a small hill called La Cabeza , two bow - shots from Alarcos . Battle . Yusuf Ya ' qub al - Mansur gave to his vizier , Abu Yahya ibn Abi Hafs , command of a very strong vanguard : on the first line the Bani Marin volunteers under Abu Jalil Mahyu ibn Abi Bakr , with a big body of archers and the Zenata Tribe ; behind them , in the hill itself , the vizier with the Amir ' s banner and his personal guard , from the Hintata tribe ; to the left the Arab host under Yarmun ibn Riyah ; and to the right , the al - Andalus forces under the popular Caid Ibn Sanadid . Yusuf Ya ' qub al - Mansur himself held command of the rearguard , which comprised the best Almohad forces commanded by Yabir ibn Yusuf , Abd al - Qawi , Tayliyun , Muhammad ibn Munqafad and Abu Jazir Yajluf al - Awrabi and a strong guard of black slaves . It was a formidable army , whose strength Alfonso had badly underestimated . The Castilian king put most of his heavy cavalry in a compact body , about 8 , 000 strong , and gave its command to the fierce Diego López de Haro , Lord of Vizcaya . They were to shatter the enemy with an irresistible charge ; the king himself would follow with the infantry and the Military Orders , and complete the enemy rout . The Christian cavalry charge was somewhat disordered , but its impetus was still formidable . The knights crashed against the Zanatas and Bani Marin and dispersed them ; lured by the Amir ' s standard , they charged uphill : vizier Abu Yahya was killed , and the Hintatas fell almost to a man trying to protect themselves . Most of the knights turned to their left and after a fierce struggle they routed the al - Andalus forces of Ibn Sanadid . Three hours had passed ; just afternoon , in the intense heat , the fatigue and the missiles which kept falling on them took their toll of armoured knights . The Arab right under Yarmun had been enveloping the Castilian flank and rear ; at this point the best of the Almohad forces attacked , with the sultan himself clearly visible in the front ranks ; and finally the knights are almost completely surrounded . Alfonso advanced with all his remaining forces into the melee , only to find himself assaulted from all sides and under a rain of arrows . For some time he fought hand - to - hand , until removed from the action , almost by force , by his bodyguard ; they fled towards Toledo . The Castilian infantry was destroyed , together with most of the Orders which had supported them ; the Lord of Vizcaya tried to force his way through the ring of enemy forces , but finally had to seek refuge in the unfinished fortress of Alarcos with just a fraction of his knights . The castle was surrounded with some 3 , 000 people trapped inside , half of them women and children . The king ' s enemy , Pedro Fernández de Castro , who had taken little part in the action , was sent by the Amir to negotiate the surrender ; López de Haro and the survivors were allowed to go , leaving 12 knights as hostages for the payment of a great ransom . The Castilian field army had been destroyed . Those killed include three bishops ( from Avila , Segovia and Siguenza ) ; Count Ordoño García de Roda and his brothers ; Counts Pedro Ruiz de Guzmán and Rodrigo Sánchez ; the Masters of the Order of Santiago , Sancho Fernández de Lemus , and of the Portuguese Order of Évora , Gonçalo Viegas . Losses for the Muslims included the death of the vizier and Abi Bakr , commander of the Bani Marin volunteers , who died of his wounds in the following year . Aftermath . The outcome of the battle shook the stability of the Kingdom of Castile for several years . All nearby castles surrendered or were abandoned : Malagón , Benavente , Calatrava , Caracuel and Torre de Guadalferza , and the way to Toledo was wide open . Fortunately for the Christians , however , Abu Yusuf Ya ' qub al - Mansur moved back to Seville to make good his own considerable losses ; there he took the title of al - Mansur Billah ( ' The one victorious by God ' ) . For the next two years , al - Mansur ' s forces devastated Extremadura , the Tagus valley , La Mancha and even the area around Toledo ; they moved in turn against Montánchez , Trujillo , Plasencia , Talavera , Escalona and Maqueda . Some of these expeditions were led by the renegade Pedro Fernández de Castro . Most significantly , however , these raids did not lead to any territorial gains for the caliph , although Almohad diplomacy did obtain an alliance with King Alfonso IX of León ( who had been enraged when the Castilian king had not waited for him before the battle of Alarcos ) and the neutrality of Navarre . These alliances proved to be temporary only . But the caliph was losing interest in the affairs of the Iberian Peninsula ; he was in poor health , his objective of retaining a hold over al - Andalus appeared to be a complete success , and in 1198 he returned to Africa . He died in February 1199 . However , the success of the battle proved to be short - lived . When the Almohad caliph Muhammad an - Nasir attempted to build on it 16 years later with a new Iberian offensive , he was crushingly defeated in the more decisive Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa . This battle was to mark a turning - point that led to the end of Moorish rule in the Iberian Peninsula . The Almohad Empire itself collapsed a few years later .