Siege of Algeciras (1278)

Battle of Algeciras
Part of the Reconquista
Alfonso X of Castile "El Sabio, King of Castile.
Date July 1278 – 5 August 1279 Location Algeciras, Emirate of Granada, Spain Result Moroccan victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Castile Order of Santa María de España	Marinid dynasty Emirate of Granada
Commanders and leaders
Alfonso X of Castile Infante Pedro de Castilla y Aragón Sancho IV of Castile Alfonso Fernández de Castilla	Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr

The Siege of Algeciras was the first of many sieges on the city by Christian forces in the lengthy period of Spanish Reconquista. The siege, ordered by King Alfonso X of Castile also known as "el Sabio", was a fruitless military campaign initiated by the Kingdom of Castile with the objective of removing the Moroccans from Algeciras. The siege on Algeciras, then known to the Muslims as Al-Jazira Al-Khadra, was strategically important because Algeciras had been at the time the main fortress and landing place for African reinforcement troops in the Iberian Peninsula. Castile, which had a powerful armada of ships anchored in the Bay of Gibraltar to blockade such reinforcement, had a few days previously to the siege, seen that fleet obliterated by the Muslim admiral, Abu Yusuf Yaqub at the Naval Battle of Algeciras.

Since the middle of the 13th century, the Marinid Dynasty was emerging as a new power in Morocco, ruled by Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq. The Marinids had established contact with the Muslims of Al-Andalus and offered soldiers to the King Muhammed II in his bitter struggle against the Reconquista of the Christian kingdoms to the north. On April 12, 1275, a massive Moroccan army disembarked in Algeciras and commenced marching towards the cities of Sevilla, Jaén and Córdoba. From Castile, Ferdinand de la Cerda, who circumstantially governed the kingdom in the absence of his father, Alfonso X, found himself being interviewed by the pope in Beaucaire, could do no more than contain the invasions.
Nuño González de Lara, who controlled the frontier of Córdoba, left from the city and gave battle against the Moroccans, dying in the action, but also forced the Muslims to withdraw from their advance. Due to the constantly threatened nature of the Castilian borderlands, the infante Fernando left Burgos in August to gather an army but became deathly ill and died a little while later at Ciudad Real. His brother, the infante Sancho, who would later become Sancho IV eventually marched to Córdoba to finally counter the Marinid threat. After strengthening their positions in the area, Sancho marched to Sevilla from where he planned to command future operations and troop movements in the campaign. The son of King James I of Aragon, also named Sancho, the Archbishop of Toledo, went to join the fight in Jaén, but not wanting to wait for Lope Díaz de Haro, Lord of Biscay, died in combat shortly thereafter. His body was beheaded and his right hand cut off. The next day, the Lord of Biscay, together with a young Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, defeated a coalition of African-Andalusian forces and obliged them to withdraw.

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