• Source: Battle of Los Alporchones

The Battle of Los Alporchones was a battle of the Spanish Reconquista that took place on 17 March 1452. The battle was fought between the troops of the Emirate of Granada and the combined forces of the Kingdom of Castile and its client kingdom, the Kingdom of Murcia. The Moorish army was commanded by Malik ibn al-Abbas and the Castilian troops were commanded by Alonso Fajardo el Bravo, the head of the House of Fajardo and the Alcalde of Lorca Castle. The battle was fought in the area around the city of Lorca and resulted in a victory for the Kingdom of Castile.




Context


After recapturing the Emirate of Granada from his uncle, the Sultan Muhammed X in 1447, Muhammed IX continued his bellicose policies with regards to the Kingdom of Castile. His predecessor (Muhammad X) had managed to retake a few frontier towns from the Kingdom of Murcia through regular raids or Razzis which terrorized the region's Christian population. Most of these incursions into Christian territory took advantage of squabbles within the Kingdom of Murcia's ruling family, the House of Fajardo. In 1448, Muslim forces captured and sacked the town of Cieza, and soon defeated Christian forces at the Battle of Hellín.
The continued Muslim incursions into Murcia obliged the Castilian monarch, John II of Castile to ask for a truce in 1450 in order to concentrate his own forces in a separate war against Juan Pacheco, the Marquis of Villena. However, Muhammad IX refused the truce, preferring to take full advantage of the disunity amongst Castilian nobles. The Granadan Sultan's fresh incursion into Murcia brought back much plunder in 1451. Muhammad IX then planned a large scale Algara (Arabic for incursion: الغارة) against the area of Campo de Cartagena. This raid captured 40,000 heads of cattle and around 40 prisoners, mostly herdsmen.
The immensity of this raid incursion forced Castile's Christians to put aside their internal squabbles and form a united front against the Kingdom of Granada. The Alcalde of Lorca Castle, Alonso Fajardo, nicknamed el Bravo (English: The Brave) sent heralds to various towns within the Kingdom of Murcia. The resulting army from Aledo, Caravaca de la Cruz, and Murcia totaled around 300 knights and 2,000 infantry soldiers. They encamped outside Lorca, in a field called Los Alporchones, knowing that the Muslim raiders would have to pass through the area when returning from their pillaging expedition.




Battle


On 17 March 1452, the Moorish army finally arrived at Los Alporchones and an action was fought between the two parties. The Castilian attack came initially as a surprise and the Christian forces were able to get an early advantage over the Granadan army. The Castilian army was nearly immediately victorious; however the Granadan commander, Malik ibn al-Abbas who was renowned for his courage and competence, succeeded in reforming his line twice during the engagement. The chronicles recount that the Alcalde, Alonso Fajardo, arriving at the conclusion that the fight could go either way, decided to enter into single combat with the enemy captain. The pair fought until Fajardo managed to unhorse al-Abbas, taking him prisoner.
The capture of the Granadan captain broke the morale of the Muslim army who were routed from the field. They were pursued by the Castilian forces all the way to Vera in the Province of Almería where it is mentioned that only 300 managed to escape. The Granadan casualties were very high with around 400 captured, whilst the Castilian casualties were around 40 dead and 200 wounded.




Consequences


The battle had many lasting consequences. Incursions into the territory of the Kingdom of Murcia stopped altogether as the Kingdom of Granada asked for a five-year truce. Future conflicts would remain on Granadan territory until the Granada War. The prestige of Lorca and in particular the House of Fajardo rose significantly. It was one of the branches of this noble house that would eventually go on to form the powerful House of los Vélez.
In homage to St Patrick of Ireland, whose saint's day is celebrated on 17 March, the same day as the battle, he was named the patron saint of the city of Murcia. A church was built in Lorca which would later house the Colegiata de San Patricio.
Malik ibn al-Abbas was executed by his captors shortly after the battle whilst the victor, Alonso Fajardo el Bravo would go on to be slain in a battle in Caravaca de la Cruz against soldiers under the command of his cousin, Pedro Fajardo, the Adelantado in the service of Henry IV of Castile.




Legacy


The battle, as many battles of the Reconquista, was the subject of poetical works. The following Spanish language text is an excerpt from the beginning of a short poem describing the events of the battle. Of note, the Arabic names have all been used with their Spanish equivalents, the names that they would have been known by to their Spanish enemies. For example, Malik ibn al-Abbas was known as Alabez de Vera.




See also


Emirate of Granada
Kingdom of Castile
House of Fajardo




References






= Footnotes

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= Bibliography

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Hita, Ginés Pérez de (1610). Historia de los Vandos de los Zegries y Abencerrages Cavalleros Moros de Granada, de las Ciuiles Guerras Que Vuo en Ella, y Batallas Particulares que Vuo en la Vega Entre Moros y Christianos, Hasta Que el Rey don Fernando Quinto la Ganò (in Spanish). Emprenta de Sebastian Mateuad y Lorenço Déu, a costa de Raphael Vives, in the Library of Catalonia. pp. 8–15. ISBN 978-84-338-2569-8.
Delgado, Santiago (1990). "Relación Apócrifa de la Famosa Batalla de los Alporchones (English: Apocryphan Revelations of the Famous Battle of Los Alporchones)". Monteagudo: Revista de Literatura Española, Hispanoamericana y Teoría de la Literatura (in Spanish) (8). Murcia: Universidad de Murcia: 69–73. ISSN 0580-6712. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
Molina Molina, A. Luis; Torres Fontes, Juan (1981). "Un Reino de Frontera". Historia de la Región Murciana (in Spanish). Vol. IV. Ediciones Mediterráneo. pp. 14–15. ISBN 84-858-5601-5.

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