[FONT="]From ‘The History of the Kingdom of Leon, Chapter 2: The Early Reconquista’ by Absalo Capcir, 1862[/FONT]
[FONT="]Bermudo’s later reign was notable, and indeed quite prosperous by the standards of the time, but not entirely due to Bermudo’s own actions, despite the assertions of many Leonese historians and indeed historical sources such as the notoriously unreliable Chronicle de San Pedro de Eslonza.[/FONT]
[FONT="]It is true that there was an upsurge in trade and economic growth (such as it was) during this period, but this was mainly due to the inherent stability that came from having a ruler last almost four decades with healthy heirs (especially compared to the instability and decline of leon over the century before he took power) and due to an increase in pilgrimages along St James’ Way which, despite the assertions of many historians, had nothing to do with Bermudo’s own actions but was a logical consequence of the stability his rule brought. It was certainly safer to journey to Santiago than to take the long and dangerous pilgrimage routes to Jerusalem or Rome, and even so Santiago did not truly become a centre for Christian pilgrimage until the reigns of his sons and grandsons, who took a more active role in drawing in pilgrims. The transfer to money as the primary method of trade was also a consequence of this stability and more general Europe-wide trends.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Indeed, for a King who reigned for over three and a half decades after the death of Sancho el Mayor, he accomplished surprisingly little. He launched two major campaigns against the Moors of the taifa of Badajoz to the south, the first in 1046 and the second in 1057. He was to have the bad luck or poor judgment (it is hard to tell how much he knew of court politics in Castille, Navarre and Aragon) to launch these campaigns just before large conflicts broke out between the other Christian kingdoms, also involving the taifas of Toledo and Zaragoza, which he could have used to his advantage to expand at the expense of either Toledo or Castille. Instead, he was forced to watch from Leon and Lusitania as his opportunities for significant expansion passed him by, his consolation being the birth of his second son Pelayo [date] and his daughter Urraca [date, detail of marriage], ensuring the continuation of his line.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The first campaign in 1046 was not a campaign of conquest, but rather a large raid on the taifa of Badajoz. Bermudo made preparations for war in 1045 and in the March of 1046 summoned his forces and marched south, crossing the Duero in early April. By the end of May he had removed all resistance north of the Mondego River, and crossed the river, bypassing Coimbra. After three months of marauding around the Lusitanian countryside, fighting two minor battles along the way, he forced the taifa of Badajoz to pay a large parias to him.[/FONT]
[FONT="]This parias was used for a number of purposes. Firstly, a great deal was donated to various churches, including financing the rebuilding of the Monastery of San Pedro de Eslonza in Gradefes. The monastery was completely rebuilt by the time of Bermudo’s death in 1071, and in remembrance of him the abbot of the time began the writing of what would become the Chronicle de San Pedro de Eslonza, which is filled with a great deal of praise, most of it undeserved, for Bermudo and his works.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The parias was also used in the development of the royal palace in Leon and in the improvement of a number of roads, but these were minor uses compared with the significant funds used to try and encourage settlement in the Duero Valley. This was mainly a failure; Bermudo’s initially considered the victory of his raid enough to ensure that there would be no Muslim attacks on settlers, while his subjects thought differently on the matter, forcing Bermudo to launch his second campaign against Badajoz in 1057.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The second campaign against Badajoz was just as ill-timed, but featured far more permanent success. After a year of preparations, he marched out with his forces after he received the parias in the winter. His forces, thanks to the steady influx of coin from the parias, were far more numerous than they had been in his previous campaign, and of a far higher quality.[/FONT]
[FONT="]He followed his previous route, passing through the Duero River valley, before laying siege to Coimbra. Despite a relief force arriving sometime in August (which was beaten back) he managed to capture the city by autumn, foring out a number of Muslim citizens as he did so, and set about securing his rule over the surrounding countryside. With the campaign season over, he wintered in Coimbra. Then, in the spring, he and his forces headed south out of the Mondego river valley, leaving a small garrison behind in Coimbra.[/FONT]
[FONT="]He met a much larger force from Badajoz, led by its ruler Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abdallah al-Muzzaffar [/FONT][FONT="]at Casalinho in the Tejo River Valley, and handily defeated them in May, killing Abu Bakr in the process. Abu Bark’s son, Yahya, was captured in the battle, and Bermudo forced him into a peace deal that would see all the lands of Badajoz north of the Tagus down to the confluence with the Zezere, and all lands above a line that ran roughly east-west from the confluence to the sea. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Although he had won a military victory, Bermudo knew he could not hope to conquer Badajoz entirely, so he settled for this significant portion of it. This was the greatest success of Bermudos reign, and he spent the rest of his life attempting to secure his hold on these regions, which still contained a large number of Muslims, so that it would not be lost when his sons inherited his land.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Bermudo was gifted with an extroadinarily long life for the time period; he died in 1074 at the age of 57, outliving all the other monarchs of his generation. He divided his lands up among his sons after he died, granting the eastern half (as the Kingdom of Leon) to his firstborn Goncalo and the western half to Pelayo as the kingdom of Galicia, as was customary at the time, not knowing how significant an impact on history this would have.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The judgment on Bermudo is that he was a king of moderate success. His reign saw no major failures after Sancho el Mayor died and he reclaimed the throne, and he did expand significantly into Muslim territory, but considering his superior geographic and demographic position in Iberia, his extraordinarily long reign and his obvious military skill, he was far less successful than he should have been. For all the praise heaped upon him by the Leonese, he was not a great king, but merely a competent one.[/FONT]
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