Rhythms in the Process of Drawing up Crusading Proposals in the Peninsula

Abstract

This study presents some of the traits of the new Christian proposals for the legitimation of the war against the Muslims. These elements appeared somewhat earlier in the kingdom of Aragon than in León. This promptness is linked not only with a greater opening to European influences, but also to the need to attract foreign contingents for the conquest. Meanwhile, the Leonese kingdom had assembled a theory of legitimation, based on its claims to links to the Visigoth monarchy, so that it resorted to a greater extent to the crusading register when difficulties arose in the epoch of Alfonso VI, especially from 1086 on.