¿Reconquista or Reconquistas? The Legitimation of Holy War in Medieval Iberia

Abstract

Reconquista has long been, and continues to be, a much discussed term. Definitely, there are reasons to criticize its use, especially when that use is inappropriate, ideologized or even manipulated. However, there are also reasons that justify its use as long as we are able to identify it with the discourse that served to legitimize the expansive processes of the northern Christian kings in Medieval Iberia. In this sense, as an ideology of legitimation, the Reconquista does not fit in a single discursive model. According to the periods, the geographical areas and those responsible for its elaboration, the "reconquest" discourse adopted very different formulas and natures. In this paper, I try to offer a typology of these discourses of "reconquest", or, perhaps, of the different Reconquistas that can be identified in the Iberian Middle Ages.