Military Stress, Central Power and Local Response in the County of Castile in the Tenth Century’, in Landscapes of Defence in Early Medieval Europe, Ed
This text is a pre-print. Paging and layout may differ from the final published version. For the purpose of citation, please use the publisher’s version: Escalona, Julio, ‘Military stress, central power and local response in the county of Castile in the tenth century’, in Landscapes of Defence in Early Medieval Europe, ed. by John Baker, Stuart Brookes and Andrew Reynolds (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), pp. 341-67 MILITARY STRESS, CENTRAL POWER AND LOCAL RESPONSE IN THE COUNTY OF CASTILE IN THE TENTH CENTURY Julio Escalona1 This chapter aims to explore the role of fortifications in the southern fringes of the county of Castile bordering the river Duero, a region well known for its intense military activity during the tenth-century. The region and period provide an excellent case study to address some of the issues addressed by other chapters in this volume, including the construction and function of defence systems, the role of central power therein, or the impact on, and response of local society to those developments. The Duero border is particularly interesting because of the suddenness of the processes that turned a distant, much fragmented periphery into a major military frontier of the Asturian kingdom against the Caliphate of Córdoba. In the following, I will argue that tenth-century fortifications in this region are the result of a variety of inputs, some of which derive from centralised operations, while others respond to local initiatives, in a context of intense social change, largely triggered by military stress and incorporation into a larger-scale, more complex political system. The Duero Basin in the Early Middle Ages: From Post-Roman Fragmentation to the Asturian Expansion The ending of the effective control exercised by the Roman state in the north-western quadrant of Iberia was abrupt.
[Show full text]