1452
The Battle of Los Alporchones
In 711 Muslim Arab and Berber raiders from North Africa crossed the straits to Spain where they conquered the Christian Visigoth kingdom and occupied all of the Iberian peninsula except for a small part of the mountainous northwest. Islamic armies took the religion of Muhammed across the Pyrenees and got as far north as Tours in France before being pushed back. Moorish Spain with its capital in Cordoba became an ornament of civilization but it could never eradicate the independent Christian states who began a 700-year fight-back known as the Reconquisita. After the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 Muslim power was gradually reduced to the emirate of Granada in southeastern Spain.
The history of Spain in the late Middle Ages is often told as the tale of an inevitable decline in the presence of Islam. Though Granada paid a monetary tribute to the Kingdom of Castile it remained independent and prosperous, a thriving trade link between Africa and Europe. The glorious Alhambra Palace was built for the last dynasty of Granadan emirs. Granada also continued to conduct aggressive wars against its Christian neighbours, raiding for slaves and loot in Murcia and Castile.
During one such incursion in 1452 a Christian army ambushed the raiders who were returning home. In the subsequent battle, the Grenadans suffered heavy losses and the emirate would never again venture across the border. In honour of the saint on whose day the battle was fought the city of Murcia named Patrick their patron and built the church of San Patricio.
In a scarcely related note, a unit of Irish-American deserters and immigrants fighting on the side of Mexico in the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 called themselves the San Patricios or St Patrick Battalion. They had a distinguished combat record but, after the American victory, 50 of them were hanged for desertion. In Mexico, they are still regarded as patriotic volunteers.
