Battle of the Puig

Battle of El Puig de Santa Maria
Part of the Reconquista (Aragonese conquest of Valencia)
The Battle of the Puig de Santa Maria by Andrés Marzal de Sas
Date 15 August 1237 Location El Puig, Province of Valencia, Spain Result Decisive Aragonese victory and conquest of Valencia.
Belligerents
Crown of Aragon	Taifa of Valencia
Commanders and leaders
Bernat Guillem d'Entença (DOW)	Zayyan ibn Mardanish
Strength
50 knights and 1,000 foot soldiers	600 knights and 11,000 foot soldiers

The Battle of the Puig of 1237, also known as the Battle of the Puig de Santa Maria, the Battle of the Puig de Enesa, or the Battle of the Puig de Cepolla was a battle of the Spanish Reconquista and of the Aragonese Conquest of Valencia. The battle took place in August 1237, pitting the forces of the Crown of Aragon, under the command of Bernat Guillem d'Entença, against the forces of the Taifa of Valencia, under the command of Zayyan ibn Mardanish. The battle resulted in a decisive Aragonese victory and the conquest of Valencia by the crown of Aragon.

The Almohades had successfully integrated the Emirates of the Iberian Peninsula together with those in North Africa into a somewhat unstable political entity. The Almohad governors of Balansiya, Zayd Abu Abd Allah Muhammad and Zayd Abu Zayd were able to act with complete autonomy, including giving titles of kingship. They never exercised this right by coined money or renouncing their fealty to the Almohad Caliphate or to its emperor. After the Almohad defeat at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, the empire disintegrated and fractured in smaller kingdoms called taifas. The most important of these were the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada or Emirate of Granada, the Hafsid Taifa of Tunisia, the Banu Zian Taifa of Algeria, and Marinid controlled Morocco.

In 1224, James I of Aragon called on his nobles from Aragon and Catalonia to initiate the conquest of Muslim controlled Balansiya, entering the area through Teruel. Zayd Abu Zayd promptly asked the Aragonese monarch for a truce which he accepted in return for one fifth of the income from Balansiya and Mursiyya. During the summer of 1225, James I attempted to take the castle at Peñíscola by laying siege to it. That siege was ultimately unsuccessful as the Aragonese nobles abandoned it.

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