The raid on Silves was an attack by the German Crusade on the Almohad city of Silves in 1197.
| Raid on Silves (1197) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Crusade of 1197 | |||||
| |||||
| Belligerents | |||||
| Holy Roman Empire | Almohad Caliphate | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
|
Hartwig of Bremen Henry I of Brabant Henry V of the Rhine | Yaqub al-Mansur | ||||
| Strength | |||||
|
~44 ships ~3,000 troops | Unknown | ||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||
Background
editIn 1189, the Portuguese led by King Sancho I of Portugal, with the help of the crusaders from northern Europe who were joining the Third Crusade, captured Silves from the Almohads. The Almohads responded with a major campaign between 1190 and 1191, managing to retake Silves and other cities.[1] In 1197, the Emperor Henry VI launched a new crusade towards the Levant.[2]
Raid
editOne contingent of crusaders, approximately 3,000 strong, journeyed by sea towards the Holy Land. According to Arnold of Lübeck's Chronica Slavorum, the fleet had 44 ships.[3] It sailed in mid-May, stopping in Dartmouth and also in Normandy.[4][5][6] According to the Chronica of Roger of Howden, the crusaders were part of the emperor's army and came from Germany and "other lands".[5] They were led by Archbishop Hartwig of Bremen, Duke Henry I of Brabant and Count Henry V of the Rhine.[6] These crusaders may have preferred the sea route as preferable to crossing the Alps or else may have sought to distance themselves from the emperor.[7]
Arriving in Lisbon in mid-June, Hartwig was honorably received by Bishop Soeiro Anes.[8][9] After reaching the Gharb al-Andalus, the crusaders launched attack on Silves.[10] The only source for the raid on Silves is Roger of Howden, although the German sea crusade is also mentioned in the Chronica Regia Coloniensis and the Annales Stadenses.[5] There was no Portuguese involvement in the attack on Silves,[4] possibly because Sancho I had signed the peace treaty with Caliph Yaqub al-Mansur in 1196 following the battle of Alarcos.[9]
According to Howden, the crusaders completely destroyed the city, leaving no stone upon another, because they did not believe that the Portuguese could hold it.[5] There is no evidence, however, of any interruption in Almohad administration, so the claim is clearly an exaggeration.[5][11][12][13] The Almohad lands in al-Andalus had, however, not suffered such a temporary shock since 1189.[5] The crusaders stayed in Portugal no more than three weeks.[9] The raid can probably be considered an act of revenge for the crusaders of 1189, whose success had been so quickly undone.[14]
Aftermath
editFrom Silves, the crusaders continued their journey to the port of Messina, where they arrived in the first week of August.[6][14] There they joined with the emperor's forces, but the emperor fell ill before the fleet departed for the Holy Land on 1 September. It landed in Acre three weeks later.[6]
References
edit- ^ Slaughter 1968, p. 43.
- ^ Richard 1999, p. 237.
- ^ Loud 2014, p. 157.
- ^ a b Villegas-Aristizábal 2015, p. 118.
- ^ a b c d e f David 1939, p. 660.
- ^ a b c d Loud 2014, p. 156.
- ^ Loud 2014, pp. 163–164.
- ^ Annales Stadenses, in Lappenberg 1859, p. 353.
- ^ a b c Naumann 1994, p. 143.
- ^ Richard 1999, p. 234.
- ^ Barroca 2006, p. 980.
- ^ Cushing 2017, p. 52.
- ^ Villegas-Aristizábal 2015, p. 118, goes so far as to say that the emperor "attempted to retake Silves without Portuguese involvement but failed".
- ^ a b Naumann 1994, p. 144.
Bibliography
edit- Barroca, Mário Jorge (2006). "Portugal". In Alan V. Murray (ed.). The Crusades: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 3: K–P. ABC-CLIO. pp. 979–984.
- Cushing, Dana (2017). "The Siege of Silves in 1189". Medieval Warfare. 7 (5): 48–53. JSTOR 48578126.
- David, Charles Wendell (1939). "Narratio de Itinere Navali Peregrinorum Hierosolymam Tendentium et Silviam Capientium, A.D. 1189". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 81 (5): 591–676. JSTOR 985010.
- Lappenberg, J. M., ed. (1859). "Annales Stadenses auctore Alberto". Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores. Vol. 16. Hanover. pp. 271–379.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Loud, Graham A. (2014). "The German Crusade of 1197–1198". Crusades. 13: 143–172. doi:10.1080/28327861.2014.12220393.
- Naumann, Claudia (1994). Der Kreuzzug Kaiser Heinrichs VI. Peter Lang.
- Richard, Jean (1999). The Crusades, c.1071–c.1291. Translated by Jean Birrell. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62566-1.
- Slaughter, John E. (1968). "The Conquest of Silves: A Contemporary Narrative" (PDF). The Journal of the American Portuguese Cultural Society. 2: 25–44.
- Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas (2015). "Norman and Anglo-Norman Intervention in the Iberian Wars of Reconquest before and after the First Crusade". In Kathryn Hurlock; Paul Oldfield (eds.). Crusading and Pilgrimage in the Norman World. Boydell. pp. 103–124. doi:10.1484/J.NMS.5.111293.