Battle of Alarcos

July 18, 1195

The Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur destroyed Alfonso VIII of Castile's army on the plain south of Toledo in a disaster that pushed the Reconquista backward by decades. Christian chroniclers compared it to Hattin. Toledo itself was briefly imperiled before the caliph turned south to besiege lesser castles. The defeat galvanized the Iberian Christian kingdoms into the alliance that would produce the decisive victory at Las Navas de Tolosa seventeen years later.