Editing Alfonso VI of León and Castile (section)

====Almoravid invasions (1086{{ndash}}1109)====
The conquest of the extensive and strategic Taifa of Toledo, the control of Valencia and the possession of Aledo, which isolated [[Murcia]] from the rest of [[Al-Andalus]], worried the Muslim sovereigns of the [[Iberian Peninsula]].{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=87}} The military and economic pressure on the Taifa kingdoms led the rulers of the Taifas of Seville, Granada, Badajoz, and Almeria to seek help from [[Yusuf ibn Tashfin]], the [[Almoravid dynasty|Almoravid]] Emir who ruled the Maghreb.{{Sfn|Guichard|1989|p=500}} At the end of July 1086, Almoravid troops crossed the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] and landed in [[Algeciras]].{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=88}}

In Seville, the Almoravid army joined the troops of the Taifa kingdoms, and together they marched to [[Extremadura]]. There, on 23 October 1086,{{Sfn|Huici Miranda|1954|p=42}} they faced the troops of Alfonso VI (who had to abandon the siege of Zaragoza) in the [[Battle of Sagrajas]].{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|pp=88, 110}} Álvar Fáñez, who had been called from Valencia, came and joined the king's forces.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=88}} The battle ended with the defeat{{Sfn|Huici Miranda|1954|p=41}} of the Christian troops,{{Sfn|Guichard|1989|p=500}} who returned to Toledo to defend themselves. The Emir, however, did not take advantage of the victory since he had to rush back to Africa because of the death of his son.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=89}} The defeat marked the beginning of a new era in the Iberian Peninsula that lasted about three decades, in which the military initiative was taken by the Almoravids and Alfonso VI had to remain on the defensive. Nevertheless, he was able to retain Toledo, the main target of the Almoravid attacks.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=89}}

Alfonso VI asked the Christian kingdoms of Europe to organize a Crusade against the Almoravids, who had recovered almost all the territories he had conquered, with the exception of Toledo, where the king remained strong. To reinforce his position, he reconciled with [[El Cid]], who came to Toledo in late 1086 or early 1087.{{Sfn|Huici Miranda|1954|p=41}} As a consequence of the serious defeat, the Andalusian taifas stopped paying the ''parias''.{{Sfn|Huici Miranda|1954|p=41}} The Cid, however, succeeded in re-subjugating the rebel Taifas over next two years.{{Sfn|Huici Miranda|1954|p=49}}

Even though the crusade did not finally materialize, a large number of foreign knights came to the Iberian Peninsula. They included [[Raymond of Burgundy|Raymond]] and [[Henry, Count of Portugal|Henry of Burgundy]], who married Alfonso VI's daughters [[Urraca of León|Urraca]] (1090) and [[Teresa of León, Countess of Portugal|Teresa]] (1094), respectively, which led to the establishment of the [[Anscarid]] and [[House of Burgundy|Capetian]] dynasties in the peninsular kingdoms.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=90}} Some of the crusaders unsuccessfully besieged [[Tudela, Navarre|Tudela]] in the winter of 1087, before withdrawing.{{Sfn|Huici Miranda|1954|p=41}}{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|pp=89–90}} That same year, the king crushed a revolt in Galicia aimed at releasing his brother García II.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|pp=90–91}}

In 1088 Yusuf ibn Tashfin crossed the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] for the second time, but was defeated at the siege of Aledo and suffered the desertion of many of the rulers of the taifas. When the emir came again to the peninsula, he decided to depose all the taifa rulers and became the sole king of the entire Al-Andalus territory.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=91}} Thanks to the Muslim defeat in Aledo, Alfonso VI had been able to resume the collection of the ''parias'' by threatening the ruler of the city that he would chop all the trees in the territory of Granada and then went to Seville to subjugate the city again.{{Sfn|Huici Miranda|1954|p=45}} [[Abdallah ibn Buluggin]] of Granada had distanced himself definitively from Yusuf ibn Tashfin and Alfonso VI promised to help him in exchange for his submission.{{Sfn|Huici Miranda|1954|pp=45–46}}

In June 1090, the Almoravids launched a third attack, deposed the king of Granada, defeated the governor of Córdoba, and after the Battle of [[Almodóvar del Río]], entered Seville and sent King al-Mutamid into exile.{{Sfn|Huici Miranda|1954|p=42}} In the second half of the year, all the southern taifas had been conquered by the Almoravids and Alfonso was not able to fulfill his promise to help the king of Seville.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=91}} The king suffered setbacks on all fronts: in the east he failed to seize [[Tortosa]] due to the late arrival of the Genoese fleet that was to take part in its capture; further south, Al-Qádir was deposed in a revolt; in the south, his relation with Zaida, daughter-in-law of the king of Seville failed to enhance his image as the champion of the Muslims of the peninsula against the Almoravids; and, finally, in the west, the alliance with the king of Badajoz did not stop the North Africans from conquering this territory.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=92}} As the price for this alliance, Alfonso VI had obtained [[Lisbon]], [[Sintra]], and [[Santarém, Portugal|Santarém]], but lost them in November 1094 when his son-in-law Raymond of Burgundy, responsible for defending these cities, was defeated by the Almoravid army that had taken Badajoz shortly before.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=92}} The only good news for Alfonso VI was the recovery of Valencia in June by El Cid, who had defeated the Almoravid army that had advanced against him in the [[Battle of Cuarte]] on 21 October. This victory set the eastern border for about a decade.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=92}}

According to some historians, Alfonso VI later defeated a conspiracy of his sons-in-law Raymond and Henry who had plotted to divide the kingdom at his death.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=93}} To turn them against each other, he gave Henry and Teresa the government of the [[County of Portugal]],{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=93}} until then ruled by Raymond, which comprised the lands from the [[Minho (river)|Minho]] river to Santarém, while the government of Raymond was limited to Galicia.{{Sfn|Martínez Díez|2003|pp=170–171}} Other scholars, however, have shown that the pact could not have been made before 1103,{{Sfn|David|1948|pp=275–276}}{{Sfn|Bishko|1971|pp=155–188}} suggesting instead that Henry's appointment was made in response to the military defeat of 1094.

[[File:AlfonsoVIsign.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Signature of Alfonso VI, from a 1097 charter.]]
In 1097, there was a fourth Almoravid invasion.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=93}} Alfonso received the news when he was on his way to Zaragoza to assist his vassal [[Al-Mustain II]] in his confrontation with King [[Peter I of Aragon and Navarre]]. Once again, the Almoravid objective was Toledo,{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=93}} and they defeated the Christian forces at the [[Battle of Consuegra]] on 15 August, thus confirming the decline of the reign of Alfonso VI that had begun in 1086 with the defeat at Sagrajas.

In 1099, the Almoravids conquered a large number of the castles that defended Toledo and the surrounding areas and, in the following year, they tried unsuccessfully to seize the city.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=94}} Henry of Burgundy, Alfonso's son-in-law, was in charge of defending Toledo since the king, at that time, was in Valencia inspecting its defenses. El Cid had died the previous year and his widow, Jimena, was governing the city.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=94}}

In 1102, Alfonso VI sent troops to help Valencia against the Almoravid threat.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=94}} The battle took place in [[Cullera]] and ended without a clear winner, although Valencia fell into Almoravid hands regardless because Alfonso decided it was too expensive to defend.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=94}} Alfonso VI supervised the evacuation of Valencia in March and April and set fire to it before leaving; in May, the Almoravids took possession of the remains.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=94}} The same year, he undertook the repopulation of Salamanca, which protected Coria, and Ávila, which defended the mountain pass that was more accessible from Guadarrama, trying to prepare for an eventual loss of Toledo.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|pp=94–95}} To protect the area from the east, in 1104 he besieged and conquered [[Medinaceli]], a key location from which the region of Toledo could be attacked from the east along the valley of the [[Jalón (river)|Jalón River]].{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=95}} In 1104, 1105, and 1106, the king made several incursions into Andalusian territory, reaching [[Málaga]] in 1106, and returned with many [[Mozarabs]], who settled in his kingdom.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=95}}

In 1108 the troops of the Almoravid Tamim, governor of Córdoba and son of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, attacked Christian territories, but this time the chosen city was not Toledo but [[Uclés]].{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=97}}{{Sfn|Guichard|1989|p=528}} Alfonso VI was in [[Sahagún]], recently married, elderly and with an old wound that prevented him from riding. Álvar Fáñez, governor of the lands of the Banu Di-l-Nun, was the commander of the army. He was accompanied by [[Sancho Alfónsez]], the king's only son and heir.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=97}}{{Sfn|Guichard|1989|p=528}} The armies clashed in the [[Battle of Uclés (1108)|Battle of Uclés]] on 29 May 1108 and the Christian troops suffered another defeat. The young Sancho Alfónsez, heir to the throne, was killed in battle. As a consequence, the ''reconquista'' came to a 30-year standstill, and the County of Portugal eventually became an independent kingdom.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=97}}{{Sfn|Guichard|1989|p=528}} The military situation was also serious since the Almoravids almost immediately seized the entire defensive border of the Tagus valley from [[Aranjuez]] to [[Zorita de los Canes|Zorita]] and there were uprisings of the Muslim population in this region.{{Sfn|Reilly|1992|p=97}}