Kingdom of Toledo
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Toledo retained its aura of being centre of Visigothic glory and the Arabs, after conquering it, continued to call it 'madinat al-muluk' (meaning:city of the kings). Independence of Toledo as a taifa kingdom was a result of the Al Andalus civil wars of the early eleventh century. Possibly the Toledians, unhappy with disagreements between them, decided to offer the government to the lord of the Taifa Santaver, Abd al-Dul Rabman Bin-Nun (of the The Banu Dil-Nun), who sent them his son Ismail al-Zafir to take over power around 1035.
The Banu Dil-Nun were a family of the Berber tribe Hawwara, that arrived in the peninsula during the Islamic conquest. They settled in the area of Santabariyya or Santaver in the process of Arabization of the eighth to the tenth centuries. Throughout that time Banu Dil-Nun kept on rising up against the Emirate. They regained their autonomy with the decline of the Caliphate during the first decade of the eleventh century: then, possibly, Abd al-Rahman Bin-Nun Dil reached the Caliph Sulaiman al-Mustain (1009 - 10 and 1013 - 16) and recognised him as lord of Santaver, Huete, Uclés and Cuenca, carrying the title of Nasir al-Dawla. This Abd al-Rahman entrusted in 1018 to his son Ismail's government Uclés and then, as has already been said, sent him to Toledo.
[edit] Mamun of Toledo
In April 1065 Emir Al-Muqtadir of Zaragoza besieged Barbastro, aided by 500 Sevillian knights. The governor, Count Ermengol II of Urgel, was killed in a sortie, and a few days later the city fell, whereupon the Iberian and French garrison was put to the sword, thus bringing an end to Pope Alexander II's prototype crusade.
At around the same time Emir Al-Muqtadir broke off relationships with Castile, and Ferdinand I lead a punitive expedition into Zaragoza - taking Alquezar - and then into Valencia. Despite being a tributary of Castile, emir Al-Mamun of Toledo lead a force in support of his son-in-law Emir Abd al-Malik. Mamun subsequently dethroned Abd al-Malik and incorporated Valencia into the Kingdom of Toledo. Ferdinand fell dangerously ill and retired from the field. King Ferdinand died in León on 28 December 1065, and his empire was divided between his three sons: Sancho II in Castile, Alfonso VI in León, and Garcia in Galicia.
In May 1085, Alfonso VI entered the city of Toledo, and the kingdom was incorporated with Castile and the city was made the capital of León and Castile.
In 1093 Raymond of Burgundy and Henry of Burgundy signed a treaty whereby Henry promises to recognize Raymond as king upon the death of Alfonso VI of Castile, receiving in exchange the Kingdom of Toledo or of Portugal.
[edit] Alfonso VIII
In 1174, Alfonso VIII of Castile ceded Uclés to the Order of Santiago and afterwards this became the order's principal seat. From Uclés, he began a campaign which culminated in the reconquest of Cuenca in 1177. The city surrendered on 21 September, the feast of Saint Matthew, ever afterwards celebrated by the citizens of the town.
Alfonso took the initiative to ally all the major Christian kingdoms of the peninsula — Navarre, León, Portugal, and Aragon — against the Almohads. By the Treaty of Cazorla of 1179, the zones of expansion of each kingdom were defined.
After founding Plasencia (Cáceres) in 1186, he embarked on a major initiative to unite the Castilian nobility around the Reconquista. In that year, he recuperated part of La Rioja from the Kingdom of Navarre.
In 1195, after the treaty with the Almohads was broken, he came to the defence of Alarcos on the river Guadiana, then the principal Castilian town in the region. At the subsequent Battle of Alarcos, he was roundly defeated by the caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf al-Mansur. The reoccupation of the surrounding territory by the Almohads was quickly commenced with Calatrava falling first. For the next seventeen years, the frontier between Moor and Castilian was fixed in the hill country just outside Toledo.
Finally, in 1212, through the mediation of Pope Innocent III, a crusade was called against the Almohads. Castilians under Alfonso, Aragonese and Catalans under Peter II, Navarrese under Sancho VII, and Franks under the archbishop Arnaud Amalric of Narbonne all flocked to the effort. The military orders also lent their support. Calatrava first, then Alarcos, and finally Benavente were captured before a final battle was fought at Las Navas de Tolosa near Santa Elena on 16 July. The caliph Muhammad an-Nasir was routed and Almohad power broken.
Alfonso was claimed as the King of Toledo[1] and since then the Kingdom of Toledo became part of the Crown of Castile
