ON THIS DAY · 16 JULY 1212

Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

16 Jul 1212 — In the Sierra Morena, a combined Christian army shatters the Almohads. The battle marks a turning point on the peninsula: al-Andalus never recovers, and within forty years only Granada remains.

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Map: Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, 16 July 1212 — 16 JULY 1212 · THE CRUSADES, 1095–1291

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1 — historical political boundaries · Simon Barton — Crusading in Iberia, c. 1060–1212 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art — The Crusades (1095–1291) · Natural Earth — physical reference geography · OpenStax — The Crusading Movement

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY 4.0 · Dated polygons selected; local transfers and shared frontier edges derived with documented historical event corrections.
Simon Barton, The Cambridge History of the Crusades. Published summary consulted for dated conquests; no map copied
Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2014. Facts consulted; no prose or image copied
Natural Earth. Public domain
OpenStax, World History Volume 1. CC BY 4.0

At some ports, source coastlines have offsets of several kilometers at their resolution. The original polygons are preserved, and the review record gives explicit coastal anchor tolerances.

reconstruction: 1028–1325 · reconstruction: 1040–1235 · reconstruction: 1099–1235 · reconstruction: 1202–1219 · reconstruction: 1202–1249 · reconstruction: 1206–1215 · reconstruction: 1206–1226 · reconstruction: 1210–1215 · reconstruction: 1210–1219 · reconstruction: 1210–1226 · reconstruction: 1210–1240 · reconstruction: 1212 · vector: 1072–1235 · vector: 1072–1249 · vector: 1072–1325 · vector: 1094–1235 · vector: 1099–1226 · vector: 1139–1226 · vector: 1177–1259 · vector: 1188–1215 · vector: 1188–1219 · vector: 1188–1235 · vector: 1188–1259 · vector: 1188–1271 · vector: 1192–1235 · vector: 1192–1362 · vector: 1202–1215 · vector: 1202–1219 · vector: 1202–1235 · vector: 1202–1240 · vector: 1202–1249 · vector: 1202–1259 · vector: 1202–1284 · vector: 1206–1215 · vector: 1206–1219 · vector: 1206–1235 · vector: 1206–1240 · vector: 1206–1259 · vector: 1206–1271 · vector: 1206–1304 · vector: 1210–1215 · vector: 1210–1219 · vector: 1210–1249 · vector: 1210–1304 · vector: 1212

Layer records and reconstruction methods

The moment in context

The wars of Iberia, the Baltic and southern France had different enemies and purposes. What made them crusades was an arrangement the Church could carry from one campaign to another. A participant took a vow; preaching recruited fighters, Church-authorized fundraising supported them, and an indulgence and legal privileges rewarded their service. The destination no longer had to be Jerusalem.

From Crusades beyond the Holy Land, chapter 9 of The Crusades, 1095–1291 (1212).

The place: Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa — map and full story →

Teach this in 5 minutes

Why it happened — The indulgence, generalized. The indulgence Urban offered for the Jerusalem expedition became available for other campaigns. Popes extended crusading rewards to wars against…
The turn — Las Navas de Tolosa, 16 July 1212. At Las Navas de Tolosa on 16 July 1212, a coalition of Christian kings defeated the Almohads and badly weakened their power in Iberia. Within four…
What it changed — Iberia reconquered. The advance continued with Córdoba’s fall in 1236 and that of Seville in 1248, shown by the arrow. Granada survived as a tributary emirate until…

Then ask the room: By 1220, crusades were being called against Muslims in Spain, pagans in the Baltic and heretics in France. What did “crusade” mean? The argued answer is on the chapter page →

The atlas that shows it

The Crusades, 1095–1291

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