Crusading Beyond the Holy Land: Iberia, the Baltic, Languedoc, and the Movement's Legacy

The Christian struggle against al-Andalus progressively received, from the eleventh century onward, papal recognition similar to that granted to the crusades in the Holy Land: Pope Alexander II granted indulgences to participants in the siege of Barbastro in 1064, and the conquest of Lisbon (1147) and Almería (1147) were both framed within the crusade proclaimed alongside the Second Crusade. Pope Innocent III formally proclaimed as a crusade the campaign that culminated in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, granting a plenary indulgence equivalent to that offered for the Holy Land, and the Iberian military orders — Calatrava, Santiago, Alcántara — were organized on the model of the Temple and the Hospital. The Granada War (1482-1492) was likewise recognized by the Papacy as a crusade, financed through specific bulls, and crusade bulls became a recurring fiscal instrument in Spain long after the struggle against al-Andalus had ended.