Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 16 July 2012

Las Navas de Tolosa


Today is the eighth centenary of the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa when, on July 16th 1212, the coalition of the Iberian Christian Kings decisively defeated the Almohads and opened the south of the peninsula to the Reconquista. That process was to take another 280 years until 1492 and the conquest of Granada. There is an online account of this significant battle here .

The battle of Los Navas together with the battles of Muret on 12 Sept 1213 and Bouvines on 27 July 1214 and such contemporary events as Lateran IV and the issuing of Magna Carta in 1215 established in a short period the contours of thirteenth century, and indeed of subsequent developments in European history - so these events are not as remote and far away as modern people might be tempted to think. Through the wonders of the Internet I have found a video about the battle which I am including in this post:



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