• Examines the most significant phase of Spanish mainland development
• Considers the profound intellectual consequences of Christian advances into Islamic Spain
• Explores the varying fortunes of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, and focuses on the reign of the learned Alfonso X of Castile
• Utilizes the vast body of primary and secondary source material published over the past 30 years

"As the author of a survey of Spanish history in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, Peter Linehan is a natural choice. His expertise in both the history and the historiography of that period provides a complex, multifaceted perspective on an era that demands nothing less."

English Historical Review

"The work presents a valuable scholarly addition that details medieval Spain through a large primary source body of evidence, and offers valuable insight into the multifaceted reality that was medieval Spain between 1157 and 1300."

CHOICE

"Peter Linehan's remarkable scholarly productivity richly qualifies him to be the author of such a book."

The American Historical Review

"The balance of the book represents in essence a study of the course and impact of Alfonso X's long and problematic reign, in the context of peninsular, European and Mediterranean politics and culture. The book is written in Linehan's trademark style, which readers will either find entertaining, frustrating or both. It is dense and detailed, written in breathless prose, peppered with ironies and inside jokes."

The Medieval Review

The years 1157 to 1300 constitute one of the most significant periods of Spain's own development as well as of its relationship with the wider world. While the Christian reconquest of most of the part of the peninsula occupied by Spanish Islam proceeded further and faster than ever before, the cultural and intellectual consequences of its contact with 'the other' resonated throughout the schools and universities of Northern Europe. Yet despite this, the underlying weaknesses of a society disorganized by war and overstretched by its endeavours could neither be disguised nor remedied.

Spain 1157-1300 examines this fascinating period of medieval history, focussing on the reign of Alfonso the Learned - the ruler of Castile who ultimately failed in his attempt to bring Spain into Europe - and his Aragonese contemporaries in the Mediterranean. While questioning the assumption that the history of this period foreshadowed the unified Spain of the still far-distant Golden Age, Spain 1157- 1312 draws on a vast body of primary and secondary source material to provide a balanced overview of a crucial period of Spanish as well as of European history.

Peter Linehan is Fellow and Dean of St John's College, Cambridge, Fellow of the British Academy, and Corresponding Member of the Spanish Academy of History.