The Papacy and the Financing of the Spanish Reconquest in the Thirteenth Century

This article seeks not only to examine the measures taken by the papacy to provide financial support for the Spanish Reconquest, but also to assess how much importance it attached to war in the Peninsula in comparison with other conflicts that had papal support. The Spanish clergy were expected to contribute to papal taxes and subsidies for the Holy Land, the Latin Empire, and other purposes. Popes were, however, on several occasions prepared to agree that Holy Land taxes collected in the Peninsula should be used there; but similar diversions were also made elsewhere for various purposes. The papacy was reluctant to impose new mandatory taxes for warfare against Muslims in Spain, although it did seek some subsidies from the clergy in the Peninsula for this purpose. Yet it was more ready to impose mandatory taxes for some other conflicts, such as the struggle against heretics and warfare against papal enemies in the West. Subsidies were also granted for these undertakings. Whereas taxes and subsidies for other purposes were often collected over a wide area, the money assigned by the papacy for the Spanish Reconquest came only from the Peninsula; and Iberian rulers could, of course, demand their own taxes from both clergy and laity. At times popes did seek to further the Reconquest by providing other financial assistance, including money derived from the redemption of crusading vows and the profits of usury. They also occasionally allowed tercias to be used, and made only half-hearted attempts to stem the appropriation of these by Iberian rulers. Yet only the Baltic region was less favored than the Iberian Peninsula.