University of Virginia Library

10. CHAPTER X.
Royal Expedition against Loxa.

King Ferdinand held a council of war at Cordova,
where it was deliberated what was to be done with
Alhama. Most of the council advised that it should
be demolished, inasmuch as being in the centre of
the Moorish kingdom, it would be at all times liable
to attack, and could only be maintained by a powerful
garrison and at a vast expense. Queen Isabella
arrived at Cordova in the midst of these deliberations,
and listened to them with surprise and impatience.
“What!” said she, “shall we destroy the first fruits
of our victories? shall we abandon the first place we
have wrested from the Moors? Never let us suffer
such an idea to occupy our minds. It would give
new courage to the enemy, arguing fear or feebleness
in our councils. You talk of the toil and expense of
maintaining Alhama. Did we doubt, on undertaking
this war, that it was to be a war of infinite cost,
labor, and bloodshed? And shall we shrink from the
cost, the moment a victory is obtained, and the question
is merely to guard or abandon its glorious trophy?
Let us hear no more about the destruction of Alhama;
let us maintain its walls sacred, as a strong-hold granted
us by heaven, in the centre of this hostile land;
and let our only consideration be how to extend our
conquest, and capture the surrounding cities.”

The language of the queen infused a more lofty
and chivalrous spirit into the royal council. Preparations
were immediately made to maintain Alhama
at all risk and expense; and king Ferdinand appointed
as alcayde Luis Fernandez Puerto Carrero, Senior
of the house of Palma, supported by Diego Lopez
de Ayola, Pero Ruiz de Alarcon, and Alonzo Ortis,
captains of four hundred lances, and a body of one
thousand foot; supplied with provisions for three
months.

Ferdinand resolved also to lay siege to Loxa, a
city of great strength, at no great distance from Alhama.
For this purpose, he called upon all the
cities and towns of Andalusia and Estramadura, and
the domains of the orders of Santiago, Calatrava, and
Alcantara, and of the priory of St. Juan, and the
kingdom of Toledo, and beyond to the cities of Salamanca,
Tero, and Valladolid, to furnish, according to
their repartimientos or allotments, a certain quantity
of bread, wine, and cattle, to be delivered at the
royal camp before Loxa, one-half at the end of June,
and one-half in July. These lands, also, together
with Biscay and Guipiscoa, were ordered to send
reinforcements of horse and foot, each town furnishing
its quota; and great diligence was used in providing
bombards, powder, and other warlike munitions.

The Moors were no less active in their preparations,
and sent missives into Africa, entreating supplies,
and calling upon the Barbary princes to aid
them in this war of the faith. To intercept all succor,
the Castilian sovereigns stationed an armada of ships

and galleys in the Straits of Gibraltar, under the command
of Martin Diaz de Mina and Carlos de Valera,
with orders to scour the Barbary coast, and sweep
every Moorish sail from the sea.

While these preparations were making, Ferdinand
made an incursion, at the head of his army, into the
kingdom of Granada, and laid waste the vega, destroying
its hamlets and villages, ravaging its fields of grain,
and driving away the cattle.

It was about the end of June, that king Ferdinand
departed from Cordova, to sit down before the walls
of Loxa. So confident was he of success, that he
left a great part of the army at Ecija, and advanced
with but five thousand cavalry and eight thousand
infantry. The marques of Cadiz, a warrior as wise
as he was valiant, remonstrated against employing so
small a force, and indeed was opposed to the measure
altogether, as being undertaken precipitately and without
sufficient preparation. King Ferdinand, however,
was influenced by the counsel of Don Diego de
Merlo, and was eager to strike a brilliant and decided
blow. A vain-glorious confidence prevailed, about
this time, among the Spanish cavaliers; they overrated
their own prowess, or rather they undervalued
and despised their enemy. Many of them believed
that the Moors would scarcely remain in their city,
when they saw the christian troops advancing to assail
it. The Spanish chivalry, therefore, marched
gallantly and fearlessly, and almost carelessly, over
the border, scantily supplied with the things needful
for a besieging army, in the heart of an enemy's

country. In the same negligent and confident spirit,
they took up their station before Loxa.

The country around was broken and hilly, so that
it was extremely difficult to form a combined camp.
The river Xenil, which runs by the town, was compressed
between high banks, and so deep as to be
fordable with extreme difficulty; and the Moors had
possession of the bridge. The king pitched his tents
in a plantation of olives, on the banks of the river;
the troops were distributed in different encampments
on the heights, but separated from each other by deep
rocky ravines, so as to be incapable of yielding each
other prompt assistance. There was no room for the
operation of the cavalry. The artillery, also, was so
injudiciously placed, as to be almost entirely useless.
Alonzo of Arragon, duke of Villahermosa, and illegitimate
brother of the king, was present at the siege,
and disapproved of the whole arrangement. He was
one of the most able generals of his time, and especially
renowned for his skill in battering fortified
places. He recommended that the whole disposition
of the camp should be changed, and that several
bridges should be thrown across the river. His advice
was adopted, but slowly and negligently followed, so
that it was rendered of no avail. Among other over-sights
in this hasty and negligent expedition, the army
had no supply of baked bread; and, in the hurry of
encampment, there was no time to erect furnaces.
Cakes were therefore hastily made, and baked on the
coals, and for two days the troops were supplied in
this irregular way.

King Ferdinand felt, too late, the insecurity of his
position, and endeavored to provide a temporary
remedy. There was a height near the city, called
by the Moors Santo Albohacen, which was in front
of the bridge. He ordered several of his most valiant
cavaliers to take possession of this height, and to hold
it as a check upon the enemy and a protection to the
camp. The cavaliers chosen for this distinguished
and perilous post, were, the marques of Cadiz, the
marques of Villena, Don Roderigo Tellez Giron,
Master of Calatrava, his brother the count of Ureña,
and Don Alonzo de Aguilar. These valiant warriors,
and tried companions in arms, led their troops with
alacrity to the height, which soon glittered with the
array of arms, and was graced by several of the most
redoubtable pennons of warlike Spain.

Loxa was commanded at this time by an old Moorish
alcayde, whose daughter was the favorite wife of
Boabdil el Chico. The name of this Moor was
Ibrahim Ali Atar, but he was generally known among
the Spaniards as Alatar. He had grown gray in
border warfare, was an implacable enemy of the
christians, and his name had long been the terror of
the frontier. He was in the ninetieth year of his
age, yet indomitable in spirit, fiery in his passions,
sinewy and powerful in frame, deeply versed in warlike
stratagem, and accounted the best lance in all
Mauritania. He had three thousand horsemen under
his command, veteran troops, with whom he had
often scoured the borders; and he daily expected the
old Moorish king, with reinforcements.

Old Ali Atar had watched from his fortress every
movement of the christian army, and had exulted in
all the errors of its commanders: when he beheld
the flower of Spanish chivalry, glittering about the
height of Albohacen, his eye flashed with exultation.
“By the aid of Allah,” said he, “I will give those
pranking cavaliers a rouse.”

Ali Atar, privately, and by night, sent forth a large
body of his chosen troops, to lie in ambush near one
of the skirts of Albohacen. On the fourth day of the
siege, he sallied across the bridge, and made a feint
attack upon the height. The cavaliers rushed impetuously
forth to meet him, leaving their encampment
almost unprotected. Ali Atar wheeled and
fled, and was hotly pursued. When the christian
cavaliers had been drawn a considerable distance
from their encampment, they heard a vast shout behind
them, and, looking round, beheld their encampment
assailed by the Moorish force which had been
placed in ambush, and which had ascended a different
side of the hill. The cavaliers desisted from the
pursuit, and hastened to prevent the plunder of their
tents. Ali Atar, in his turn, wheeled and pursued
them; and they were attacked in front and rear, on
the summit of the hill. The contest lasted for an
hour; the height of Albohacen was red with blood;
many brave cavaliers fell, expiring among heaps of
the enemy. The fierce Ali Atar fought with the fury
of a demon, until the arrival of more christian forces
compelled him to retreat into the city. The severest
loss to the christians, in this skirmish, was that of

Roderigo Tellez Giron, Master of Calatrava. As he
was raising his arm to make a blow, an arrow pierced
him, just beneath the shoulder, at the open part of
the corselet. He fell instantly from his horse, but
was caught by Pedro Gasca, a cavalier of Avila, who
conveyed him to his tent, where he died. The king
and queen, and the whole kingdom, mourned his
death, for he was in the freshness of his youth, being
but twenty-four years of age, and had proved himself
a gallant and high-minded cavalier. A melancholy
group collected about his corse, on the bloody height
of Albohacen: the knights of Calatrava mourned him
as a commander; the cavaliers who were encamped
on the height, lamented him as their companion in
arms, in a service of peril; while the count de Ureña
grieved over him with the tender affection of a brother.

King Ferdinand now perceived the wisdom of the
opinion of the marques of Cadiz, and that his force
was quite insufficient for the enterprise. To continue
his camp in its present unfortunate position, would
cost him the lives of his bravest cavaliers, if not a
total defeat, in case of reinforcements to the enemy.
He called a council of war, late in the evening of
Saturday; and it was determined to withdraw the
army, early the next morning, to Rio Frio, a short
distance from the city, and there wait for additional
troops from Cordova.

The next morning, early, the cavaliers on the
height of Albohacen began to strike their tents. No
sooner did Ali Atar behold this, than he sallied forth
to attack them. Many of the christian troops, who

had not heard of the intention to change the camp,
seeing the tents struck and the Moors sallying forth,
supposed that the enemy had been reinforced in the
night, and that the army was on the point of retreating.
Without stopping to ascertain the truth, or to
receive orders, they fled in dismay, spreading confusion
through the camp; nor did they halt until they
had reached the Rock of the Lovers, about seven
leagues from Loxa.[1]

The king and his commanders saw the imminent
peril of the moment, and made face to the Moors,
each commander guarding his quarter and repelling
all assaults, while the tents were struck and the artillery
and ammunition conveyed away. The king,
with a handful of cavaliers, galloped to a rising
ground, exposed to the fire of the enemy, calling
upon the flying troops and endeavoring in vain to
rally them. Setting upon the Moors, he and his
cavaliers charged them so vigorously, that they put
a squadron to flight, slaying many with their swords
and lances, and driving others into the river, where
they were drowned. The Moors, however, were
soon reinforced, and returned in great numbers.
The king was in danger of being surrounded, and
twice owed his safety to the valor of Don Juan de
Ribera, Senior of Montemayor.

The marques of Cadiz beheld, from a distance, the
peril of his sovereign. Summoning about seventy
horsemen to follow him, he galloped to the spot,

threw himself between the king and the enemy, and,
hurling his lance, transpierced one of the most daring
of the Moors. For some time, he remained with no
other weapon than his sword; his horse was wounded
by an arrow, and many of his followers slain; but he
succeeded in beating off the Moors, and rescuing the
king from imminent jeopardy, whom he then prevailed
upon to retire to less dangerous ground.

The marques continued, throughout the day, to
expose himself to the repeated assaults of the enemy;
he was ever found in the place of the greatest danger,
and through his bravery a great part of the army
and camp was preserved from destruction.[2]

It was a perilous day for the commanders; for in
a retreat of the kind, it is the noblest cavaliers who
most expose themselves to save their people. The
duke of Medina Celi was struck to the ground, but
rescued by his troops. The count de Tendilla,
whose tents were nearest to the city, received several
wounds, and various other cavaliers of the most distinguished
note were exposed to fearful jeopardy.
The whole day was passed in bloody skirmishings,
in which the hidalgos and cavaliers of the royal
household distinguished themselves by their bravery;
at length, the encampments being all broken up, and
most of the artillery and baggage removed, the bloody
height of Albohacen was abandoned, and the neighborhood
of Loxa evacuated. Several tents, a quantity
of provisions, and a few pieces of artillery, were

left upon the spot, from the want of horses and mules
to carry them off.

Ali Atar hung upon the rear of the retiring army,
and harassed it until it reached Rio Frio; from thence
Ferdinand returned to Cordova, deeply mortified,
though greatly benefited, by the severe lesson he had
received, which served to render him more cautious
in his campaigns and more diffident of fortune. He
sent letters to all parts, excusing his retreat, imputing
it to the small number of his forces, and the circumstance
that many of them were quotas sent from
various cities, and not in royal pay; in the mean
time, to console his troops for their disappointment,
and to keep up their spirits, he led them upon another
inroad to lay waste the vega of Granada.