Historical Essay: Role of Charlemagne in Fighting with Muslims

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When the Franks attacked the Muslim kingdoms in Spain it was clearly done for power and to take control of Christian lands which they desired. As when the Frankish arrived under Pepin the younger his son Charlemagne would follow his fathers wishes and desires to take control over the Spanish kingdoms and to convert them to Christianity, the Franks saw their god as the only one true god. As when Charlemagne attacked the Spanish kingdoms his plans were to make them part of the Frankish empire, which he would do by implementing his nobles into ruling over land in Spain, as one of his most trusted friends William of Gellone, was put in charge of the kingdoms Charlemagne created, which were called subkingdoms, these were to help root his family into the nobility of Spain, as he crowned his three year old son, of the subkingdom, which main purpose was to have a sort of border zone, a buffer between the Islamic caliphates, to help him control power over his part of Spain, and eventually expand into all of Spain.

One of the major conflicts in the Reconquista was the battle of Roncevaux pass in 778, it was an attack on the franks by the Basques and the emirate of Cordoba. This attack would later lead to Charlemagne taking revenge on the Muslim kingdoms of Spain by sacking them and forcing their people to convert to Christianity, which if they did not were met with cruel punishment’s. This battle ultimately helped the Christians to legitimize their revenge attacks against the Muslim states of Spain. The revenge was for the 3,000 Christian Frankish men which were killed, who were most of Charlemagne’s nobles, one of the most important one was Roland, who was believed to of been Charlemagne’s nephew from his sister, who some believed he cared about deeply through all of the monuments which were built to honour his and the other Frankish nobles, as the battle was to wipe out the whole of the regard of the Franks as revenge for them attacking their city when they refused Charlemagne access to the city. This event would eventually lead to Charlemagne creating Aquitaine as a subkingdom to cut off the Muslim caliphates and to restrict their power, which would eventually help him to attack all of Spain, as all of his nobles were made lords in these areas, like his son Louis who was made king of Aquitaine at the age of 3.

During the Reconquista between the Christian and Islamic forces, despite having opposite religions, would at times create peace agreements between each other, these times would be short lived, but sometimes marriages could occur. One of the most important of these peace agreements was when Al-Mansur Ibn Aamir was joint in marriage with the Christian princess Abda from Navarra, she was the daughter of a Christian king Sancho Garces 2nd, from this marriage a very important individual would be born, Abd AL-Rahman Sanchuelo. Another marriage which came about due to a peace agreement was when the king of Castile, who, married a Muslim princess Zaida of Seville, there son would be named after Sancho.

During the Reconquista, there were times of peace, but religious tolerance was never accepted, during this time a lot of the Christian kingdoms made non-Christians pay a tax called the Jizya, its aim was to prosecute those who were not of the same religion. Its purpose was to either imprison or exile those who could not or would not pay the tax, this law was most likely created in the hope it would make the Jews and Muslims to convert to Christianity. Eventually the taxes were not enough, so the rulers of the kingdoms decided to force the Jews and Muslims out of their kingdoms or for them to convert to Christianity. The two big rulers that did this were queen Isabella 1st, and Charles v, who ordered all remaining Jews and Muslims to convert to Christianity or were to be expelled from their kingdoms, which resulted in many of them converting over the fear of exile or imprisonment.

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