Cross vs. Crescent: The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, July 16, 1212

Following the Third Crusade the kings of Castile, Aragon and Portugal appealed to Pope Innocent III to call for another crusade against the Moors occupying the southern portion of the Iberian peninsula. This was granted and the monarchs assembled an army, launching an offensive in the spring of 1212. Almohad Caliph al-Nasr (called Miramamolín by Christian chroniclers) assembled a much larger army in response drawn from the occupied portions of Spain as well as North Africa to meet the infidels. However, the Christian force, thanks to the assistance of a local shepherd, marched through an unknown mountain pass emerging along the Almohad Army’s line of communications to their capital in Córdoba. What ensued was a huge and bloody battle that marked the start of the Spanish Reconquista. Can you do as well or better than your historical counterpart? —description from the designer