Battle of Teba

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Battle of Teba
Part of the Reconquista

View of Teba from the Castillo de la Estrella
Date August, 1330
Location Teba, Andalusia
Result Castilian victory
Belligerents
Castile Granada
Commanders
Alfonso XI of Castile
James Douglas, Lord of Douglas†		 Muhammed IV, Sultan of Granada
v • d • e
Reconquista

The Battle of Teba took place on the 25th August 1330, below the Castello de la Estrella, Teba, a small settlement in Andalusia. The encounter was part of the war being conducted by Alfonso XI of Castile, against Muhammed IV, Sultan of Granada between 1312 and 1350.

Contents

[edit] Scottish Knights errant

King Alfonso had given an open invitation to foreign knights to join his army with a view to crushing the Kingdom of Granada. Sir James Douglas, friend and lieutenant of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots had been entrusted with that king's enbalmed heart, following his death in 1329. This, with the charge to take it on the Crusade that King Robert had been unable to make in his lifetime. Douglas set off from Berwick upon Tweed in the spring of 1330 and journeyed to Sluys, with one Knight banneret seven ordinary Knights, twenty-six esquires and a retinue in proportion.[1] These included Sir Simon Lockhart of Lee, Sir Kenneth Moir, Sir William de Keith, Sir William de St. Clair and his brother, John de St. Clair of Rosslyn, Sir Alan Cathcart, and the brothers Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig and Sir Walter Logan. At Sluys they remained for twelve days to allow Knights from all over Europe to join the party. Edward III of England had provided a safe conduct for the knights and a letter of recommendation to King Alfonso. The group arrived in Seville at the end of July, and were well received by the Castilians and others gathered there.

[edit] The Battle

On the morning 25th of August the Nasrid army had assembled underneath the Castle of the Star held by them, opposing them the international force of King Alfonso. The Castilian trumpets sounded, Douglas in command of one of the flanks of the army, led his troops forward believing that a general advance order had been given. The Scottish contingent charged the Andalusians, but were not fully supported by the rest of the army, and quickly became surrounded. The Moorish king had ordered a body of three thousand cavalry to make a feigned attack on the Castilians, while, with the great body of his army, he made a circuitous route, unexpectedly, to fall upon the rear of Alfonso's camp. Alfonso, however, having received intelligence, kept the main force of his army in the rear, while he resisted the assault made on the front division of his army.

While the battle was brought to a successful conclusion in one quarter of the field, Douglas and his companions, who fought in the van, proved themselves less fortunate. The Moors, not long able to withstand the furious encounter of their assailants, fled. Douglas, unacquainted with their mode of warfare, followed them until, finding himself almost deserted by his followers, he turned his horse, with the intention of rejoining the main body. Just then, however, he observed Sir William St. Clair, of his own company surrounded by a body of Moors who had suddenly rallied. With the few knights who attended him, Douglas turned hastily to attempt rescue. He soon found himself hard pressed by the numbers who thronged upon him. Taking from his neck the silver casket which contained the heart of Bruce, he threw it before him among the enemy, saying, "Now pass thou onward before us, as thou wast wont, and I will follow thee or die." Douglas, and almost all of the men who fought by his side, were here slain including Sir William St. Clair of Rosslyn and Sir Robert and Sir Walter Logan.

[edit] Aftermath

The Castilian forces were able to finally overpower the Moorish army and take the Castle of the Star, and King Alfonso installed the Order of Santiago there to defend it. Douglas' body was recovered and returned to Scotland, along with the heart of his King. It had been suggested that the Moors' lack of knowledge of European heraldry had a part to play in the death of Douglas and his companions. Noblemen on both sides were valued as hostages but the crusading knights that the Moors had come across, had borne the Cross on their arms. The three stars on Douglas' Harness meant nothing to them. Douglas was buried at St Bride's Kirk, at Douglas, South Lanarkshire.

The battle did not prove decisive but it had important consequences. Muhammed IV concluded from his defeat that he could no longer defend his realm against the Castilians and he sought aid from the Marinid sultan of Morocco Abu Hasan. This led to the last concerted attempt to maintain an independent Islamic state in the Iberian Peninsula. Abu Hasan's intervention led to his disastrous defeat at Rio Salado.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Maxwell, Vol I p62

[edit] Bibliography

  • Balfour Paul, Sir James, The Scots Peerage IX Vols. Edinburgh 1906
  • Maxwell, Sir Herbert, History of the House of Douglas II Vols. London 1902
  • Hume of Godscroft, David, The History of the House of Douglas and Angus. London 1820
  • Brown, Michael, The Black Douglases-War and Lordship in Late Medieval Scotland. East Linton 1998
  • Wallace-Murphy, Tim; Hopkins, Marilyn, Templars In America, From the Crusades to the New World. New York 2004

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