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Siege of Lisbon

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The Siege of Lisbon, from July 1 to October 25 of 1147, was the military action that brought the city of Lisbon under definitive Christian (Portuguese) control and expelled its Moorish overlords, in a pivotal moment of the Reconquista, which eventually eliminated Islamic control in the Iberian peninsula. The Siege of Lisbon was the only success of the Second Crusade for the Christian crusaders.

Several attempts to conquer Lisbon from the Moors had been made over the centuries and sometimes the city had been sacked. These attempts became more frequent, as Lisbon emerged as a central objective for Afonso I of Portugal, who had proclaimed himself King in 1139 and had tried and failed to conquer Lisbon more than once prior to 1147. With the help of the crusaders of the Second Crusade the conquest of Lisbon was achieved.

The Fall of Edessa in 1144 led to a call for a new crusade by Pope Eugene III in 1145 and 1146. The Pope also authorized a crusade in the Iberian peninsula, where the war against the Moors had been going on for hundreds of years. At the beginning of the First Crusade in 1095, Pope Urban II had urged Iberian crusaders (Portuguese, Castilians, Leonese, Aragonese and others) to remain at home, where their own warfare was considered just as worthy as that of crusaders travelling to Jerusalem. Eugene repeated this, and also authorized Marseille, Pisa, Genoa, and other Mediterranean cities to fight in Iberia as well.

On May 19 the first contingents of crusaders left from Dartmouth in England, consisting of Flemish, Frisian, Norman, English, Scottish, and some crusaders from Cologne, who collectively considered themselves "Franks". According to Odo of Deuil there were 164 ships, and there may have been as many as 200 by the time they reached Portugal. No prince or king led this part of the crusade; England at the time was in the midst of The Anarchy. The fleet was commanded by Arnold III of Aerschot (nephew of Godfrey of Louvain) Christian of Ghistelles, Henry Glanvill (constable of Suffolk), Simon of Dover, Andrew of London, and Saher of Archelle.

They arrived at the northern city of Porto on June 16, and were convinced by the bishop, Pedro II Pitões, to continue to Lisbon. King Afonso, who had reached the Tagus River and conquered Santarém in March, was notified of the arrival of a first party and hastened to meet them in Lisbon. The undisciplined multi-national group agreed to help him there, with a solemn agreement that offered to the "Franks" the city's "goods of whatever kind" and the ransom money for expected prisoners. For the city, "they shall have it and hold it until it has been searched and despoiled, both of prisoners for ransom and of everything else. Then, when it has been as thoroughly searched as they wish, they shall turn it over to me," Afonso stipulated, promising to divide the conquered territories as fiefs among the leaders, reserving the power of advocatus and releasing those who were at the siege and their heirs trading in Portugal from the commercial tax called the pedicata The English crusaders were at first unenthusiastic, but Henry Glanville convinced them to participate. Hostages were exchanged as sureties for the oaths.

The siege began on July 1. 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 (October 21), 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. 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, preceded by cross-bearing Archbishop and the bishops accompanying the forces, on October 25. The terms of the surrender indicated that the Muslim garrison of the city would be allowed to retire, but as soon as the Christians entered the city these terms were broken.

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."

Some of the crusaders settled in the newly captured city, and Gilbert of Hastings was elected bishop, but most of the crusaders' fleet continued to the east in 1148.

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 Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago wrote a novel about the history of the siege História do Cerco de Lisboa (1989) (English: The History of the Siege of Lisbon (1996)), wherein a character imagines the implications of the Crusaders electing not to aid King Afonso Henriques.

Sources

  • Odo of Deuil. De profectione Ludovici VII in orientem. Edited and translated by Virginia Gingerick Berry. Columbia University Press, 1948.
  • Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100–1187. Cambridge University Press, 1952.
  • Kenneth Setton, ed. A History of the Crusades, vol. I. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958.
  • De expugnatione Lyxbonensi ("The Capture of Lisbon") , as traditionally attributed to "Osburnus."

See also

Notes



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