The Battle of Ourique, 1139

[Music] welcome to rope Crusades history today we're going to be talking about a pivotal moments in the Reconquista of Portugal the Battle of Eureka in 1139 the county of Portugal was ruled by Afonso Henriques the son of Henry of Burgundy and Teresa daughter of King Alfonso the sixth of león and Castile at the time of his assumption to power Afonso sport ago extended from the menial River eastward to Braganza and southward to claim breh on its southern reaches Portugal bordered territory controlled by the powerful almoravid Caliphate of North Africa in 1137 the AMA Rabbids attacked the castle of larrya which Afonso had recently erected on the road from Queen breh to Santa rim Afonso quickly strengthened the fortifications of larrya and prepared to carry the war into almoravid territory in 1139 he mustered his arm be at quayne breh and struck south on a raid deep into almoravid territory which at one point may have even reached as far as Sevilla the extent of Afonso strayed is striking but Afonso had planned his route well avoiding the well fortified city of Santarem and scouting the region meticulously also the Moorish city of Aroha was under siege by King Alfonso the seventh of Leone and so considerable Alma rabbit forces were diverted to defend or aheh against the Leone's it's possible that Alfonso the seventh and Afonso and wreak had acted in concert with this mission to maximize damage to the Moors meanwhile the governor of cordova abu mohammed azu buyer even whom are mobilized an enormous army to check Afonso Strayed drawing on troops from both North Africa and al-andalus Afonso met the Almoravids near the village of Eureka southwest of bahia far to the south of Portugal's holdings Afonso had with him just under a thousand Portuguese nights including contingents of the Templars with roughly twice that number of infantry the almoravid army was much larger eight to ten thousand troops five important Andalusian governors were present the Emir's of sevilla elvis Avera and bahia including eben omar of cordova leading the operation the moors intercepted the Portuguese on July 24th with his numerical superiority even Omar cut off Afonso path of retreat and the two armies prepared for battle the next morning both sides arrayed their lines for combat Afonso arranged his knights into a vanguard to flanks and a rearguard the vanguard would have contained several hundred of the Army's best Knights while each flank had around two hundred knights and four to five hundred infantryman the rearguard contained a remainder of the cavalry and infantry' the almoravid divisions contained light cavalry infantry and both mounted and unmounted archers they would have been arranged with a vanguard before a central column with this entire formation augmented by two flanks a rearguard was arranged behind this with a reserve behind the rearguard be confident in his superior numbers even Umar ordered his Vanguard to make the initial charge the Portuguese responded by delivering a heavy cavalry charge and the superiority of the Latin cavalry had a major impact the Christian Knights held their formation against the Alma Ravan attacks and delivered wave after wave of punishing cavalry charges the superior armor and big well-trained horses of the Latin Knights as well as their use of the couched Lance tactic which allowed their Lance flows to carry the full weight of their charging stallions devastated the almoravid lines as ebony mars formations broke up the portuguese rear guard charged through them causing further devastation and the christian infantry cut down the survivors as they tried to flee by midday it was over Afonso and his forces had won the Moors fled although we don't know if even Umar was able to effect an orderly retreat or his forces fled in disorder the Portuguese remained for a further three days pillaging the almoravid camp Afonso then returned to Coimbra it may have been Afonso victory at URI game that prompted him to declare Portugal no longer a County but now a kingdom from here onward Afonso wood-style himself rx4 de Galan seeum king of Portugal thus by this great victory of the Reconquista the kingdom of Portugal was truly born as an entity thanks for watching I'd like to give a special thanks to my friend Gonzalo Palmyra who helped me a lot with the research of this video and provided me with smart work Gonzalo is part of a group called Nova Ortega a dad that promotes Portuguese culture and history they have a Facebook group online that you can visit I am linking to it in the information box below I'd like to also say thanks to my two new patreon supporters Nicolas who pledged $5 monthly and Sean who also pledged $5 monthly thanks for the support guys to anyone interested in supporting real Crusades history click on the link to our patreon below if you pledge $5 monthly or more you'll get access to exclusive podcasts on our patreon feed not available to the public [Music] walk in [Music] right nothing 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