The Impact of Crusading Ideology in Iberia, 1095–c.1120

In the preceding four chapters it has been argued that the idea of Christo-mimetic Jerusalem pilgrimage was central to contemporary understandings of crusading to the East in the twelfth century. However, it is now accepted by most historians that crusading activity was by no means limited to the Levant, and was in fact extended to include a number of other theatres of war both within and without western Europe. In order to establish how important pilgrimage was to the broader development of the crusade ideal, the following two chapters will now consider how crusading evolved when introduced to one of those other theatres.

There can be little doubt that in terms of both chronology and local conditions, the Iberian peninsula presents itself as a suitable candidate for a case study of this kind. The preaching of a crusade in Iberia can be identified within thirty years of the proclamation of the First Crusade, and the peninsula was therefore established as a crusading frontier some time before crusades were launched in the Baltic or against schismatics, heretics or western secular powers. Indeed, the fact that Iberia presented opportunities for warfare against an Islamic foe also meant that, until recently, the peninsula was often regarded as playing a pivotal role in the genesis of crusade ideology. Scholars such as Carl Erdmann characterised the eleventh-century conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Iberia as proto-crusades, and Derek Lomax argued that ‘although the first crusaders were Frenchmen fighting in Spain, there was no reason why their status should not later be extended to those fighting for Jerusalem’.