Siege of Oreja

Part of the Reconquista

Date	April – October 1139
Location	castle by Colmenar de Oreja on the river Tagus
Result	Christian victory

Belligerents

Castilians, Galicians, Leonese, and Toledans (Christians)

Almoravids (Muslims)

Commanders and leaders

Alfonso VII, Gutierre and Rodrigo Fernández

Ali

The Siege of Oreja was a siege by the forces of Alfonso VII, Emperor of Spain, on the Spanish town Colmenar de Oreja that lasted from April until October 1139 when the Almoravid garrison surrendered. It was the first major victory of the renewed Reconquista that characterised the last two decades of Alfonso's reign.

The main source for the siege of Oreja is the contemporary Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris, a narrative of Alfonso's reign in two books. According to this source, at the time it was "the largest campaign that had been conducted in the combined regions of Toledo and Extremadura." Historian Bernard Reilly has succinctly explained the "virtues and vices" of the Chronica as a reliable historical account: ". . . the second book of the [Chronica] is made up largely of a series of popular tales originally composed separately and only subsequently tacked together in a literary, Latin text appended to the more traditional and staid annals that form most of its first book. The compiler has often scarcely bothered to reconcile his materials, much less treat them critically."

Nineteen royal charters were issued from Alfonso's camp during the siege (nos. 334–52), and another two (nos. 353–54) are important for its dating. The dating and chronology of the siege can be most reliably established from an examination of the documents.

The town of Oreja (Aurelia), with its castle, lay on the Tagus about 50 kilometres (31 mi) upstream from Toledo. It was of strategic importance for the defence of Toledo. It is today represented by Colmenar de Oreja, then the small settlement of Apis Aureliae. In 1113, at the height of the civil war between Queen Urraca, the supporters of her son, the future Alfonso VII, and the supporters of her husband, Alfonso the Battler, while it was being guarded by the duke of nearby Toledo, Álvar Fáñez, Oreja fell to the Muslims. According to the Chronica:

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