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The Battle of Clavijo was a legendary battle, supposedly fought in 844 near Clavijo between the Christians led by Ramiro I of Asturias and the Muslims led by the Emir of Córdoba. Saint James the Great, known to Spaniards as Santiago Matamoros (the Moor-slayer), is reputed to have aided the vastly outnumbered Christian army. Some aspects of the historical Battle of Monte Laturce (859) were incorporated into this legend, as Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz demonstrated in 1948.[1]
The legend as it survives was first written down in the twelfth century. A forged grant to the Church of Santiago de Compsotela by which Ramiro reportedly surrendered a part of the annual tribute owed him by all the Christians of Spain also dates from the mid-twelfth century.
Gallery
Saint James' appearance at Clavijo has been a major theme in art. Among those artists who portrayed him there are Aniello Falcone, Paolo de San Leocadio, Evaristo Muñoz, Mateo Pérez de Alesio, Martin Schongauer, Corrado Giaquinto, and Antonio González Ruiz.
 Late medieval engraving of the battle of Clavijo by Martin Schongauer |
 Gable of the Palacio de Rajoy |
 Battle of Clavijo by Corrado Giaquinto |
 Scenes from the life of Saint James, including the battle of Clavijo |
 Saint James appeating at Clavijo, by Antonio González Ruiz |
References
- Sources
- Pérez de Urbel, Justo. 1954. "Lo viejo y lo nuevo sobre el origin del Reino de Pamplona". Al-Andalus, 19:1–42, especially 20–6.
- Fletcher, Richard A. 1984. Saint James's Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Compostela. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Notes
- ^ "La auténtica batalla de Clavijo", Cuadernos de Historia de España, 9:94–139, reprinted in Orígenes de la nación española, III (Oviedo: 1975), 281–311. Cited in Fletcher, 67.
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