Peter I of Aragon and Navarre - Reconquista and War With The Almoravids

Reconquista and War With The Almoravids

The next year (1096) Peter travelled south to inspect his fortress at Castellón, though the Historia Roderici claims that he came to help Rodrigo. He met Rodrigo in Valencia and with a large force already assembled they decided to reinforce the southern frontier fort of Benicadell, rebuilt by Rodrigo in 1091. As they were passing by Játiva they were met by an Almoravid force under the command of Mohammed, the nephew of Almoravid leader Yusuf ibn Tashfin, and the commander whom Rodrigo had defeated at the Battle of Cuarte in 1095. They decided to hastily restock Benicadell and retreat to Valencia via the coast, but were met at the Battle of Bairén by Muhammad's forces encamped on the high ground that reached almost to the sea. A small Almoravid fleet had been assembled from the southern ports, including Almería, and the Christians were trapped between arrow fire from the ships and the cavalry perched atop the hill. Rodrigo roused the troops with a speech and the next day at midday the Christians charged. The Battle of Játiva ended in a rout, with many Almoravids killed or forced into the river or the sea, where many drowned. Peter and Rodrigo returned to Valencia in triumph and thanking God for the victory, as the Historia records.

In 1099, in preparation for the fall of Barbastro, Peter sent Pons, then Bishop of Roda, to Rome to ask Pope Urban to transfer the see of Roda to Barbastro. The pope complied and endowed the transferred diocese with all the re-conquered lands of the Diocese of Lleida. Peter's motive in this action was probably to curtail any expansion of the Diocese of Urgell in the direction of Lleida. In any case, Barbastro fell in 1100.

According to what is probably a legend, at the urging of the monks of San Juan de la Peña Peter planned to join on the Crusade of 1101 and make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but Pope Paschal II refused to allow it and ordered him to make war on Zaragoza instead. Peter, probably aided by knights from France and Catalonia, certainly did make war on Zaragoza in 1101, in a campaign that lasted the whole year. He may have been inspired by the First Crusaders, since contemporary accounts of the 1101 campaign call him a "cross-bearer" (crucifer). The size of his forces so impressed a contemporary scribe in León that he remarked in the dating formula of a document of 12 February that "Peter, Aragonese king, with his infinite multitude of armed men, the city of Zaragoza, with Christ's banner, fought". By June Peter had begun the siege of Zaragoza itself. For the siege he had a fortress built named Juslibol (a corruption of the Latin slogan Deus lo volt used by the First Crusaders) and ringed the city with banners bearing the cross. In August he was conducting a razzia (raid) as far south as Alpenes and the river Ebro, but the campaign was eventually aborted due to insufficient cavalry. By the end of the year he had expanded Aragon and Navarre in the west almost as far as the walls of Zaragoza and Tudela, though the cities both remained in Muslim hands.