Europe in 1300

Iberia

The Iberian Peninsula today is comprised of Portugal and Spain. In 1300 it was comprised of a number of Christian kingdoms, plus Muslim emirates in the southern parts, with the Nasrid dynasty in Granada being the most influential. The leading Christian kingdoms were Portugal, Aragon, Navarre, and Castile. In addition, Aragon had influence or direct control over the Balearic Islands (Kingdom of Mallorca) and Sicily, while Navarre included some regions north of the Pyrenees Mountains in what today is part of France.

Portugal

Relatively new kingdom, created as a result of the Second Crusade. Portugal had a long-running border war with Castile.

Castile

This kingom occupied the central parts of Spain and included the old kingdom of Leon. While the 13th century was a time of great victories for Castile (against Muslim emirates), our two centuries were a time of civil war and endless border disputes.

Navarre

Navarre was a small kingdom in northern Spain that shared part of its borders with France and, indeed, was for a time actually part of France. This was Basque country. Then as now, its people valued their independence above all. Even so, Navarre, because of its French ties, became heavily involved in the Hundred Years War and in the politics of France generally. This involvement lasted well into the Reformation era.

Aragon

The Kingdom of Aragon was on the eastern side of Spain, along the Mediterranean. Its people were great merchants and so Aragon tended to look eastward. Aragon became involved in Majorca, Sardinia, and Sicily. The Aragonese also had a long tradition of crusading, and one portion of this kingdom, Catalonia, was heavily involved in Greece in the 1300s.

Islamic Spain

At one time, in the 8th century, Muslims from North Africa had overrun and destroyed the old kingdom of the Visigoths and ruled all of Spain. The tales of Charlemagne and Roland relate to the efforts by Christians to recover those lands. The 12th and 13th centuries were the glory years of the Reconquista, when Castile and Aragon pushed the Muslims into southern Spain. By the time our course begins, though, those years were over, and the emirates of Granada and Andalusia were secure and prospering.

Even so, the borderlands between the Christian kingdoms and the Muslim emirates were a place of more or less constant conflict. You should not, however, picture the lines as clearly drawn. Both sides had their internal rivalries as well (king against king, emir against emir), and Christians did not hesitate to ally with Muslims against a Christian rival, and vice versa.

With so many players, the history of Iberia in the late Middle Ages is every bit as convoluted and local as is the history of Italy or of Germany. The main thing to keep in mind is that there was really no such thing as Spain or of Spaniards. There were Catalans and Aragonese and Portuguese and Castilians and ... well, you get the idea. The main points of contact outside of Iberia were these: Aragonese and Catalan merchants trading in the Mediterranean; Navarrese involved with France (especially southern France); Portuguese (in the 15th century) along the coast of Africa; and Catalan mercenaries involved in Greece. That's not an exhaustive list, but it covers the main points. In addition, those Muslim emirs were heavily involved with politics in northwestern Africa, especially Morocco.