Esfuerzo, caballería y cruzada¿un modelo medieval de liderazgo militar proyectado a las Indias?

Abstract

This papers aims to study the features of the military command that was exerted by the kings of Cas-tile in Late Middle Ages with respect to its performance during the campaigns against the Muslims from the king Alfonso XI’s reign to the conquest of Granada. These military traits were strongly bound to the notions of ‘resto-ration of Spain’ (restauratio Hispaniae, ‘Reconquista’), Crusade and Chivalry. The discourse of service to God and the Church, the King and the realm was taken over and adapted by the Catholic Kings and the monarchs of the House of Austria in service of the Spanish expansionist designs in Europe and, the Mediterranean as well as in the Indias. Thanks to its analysis on 14th-15th centuries chronistical texts, we wonder if this medieval model of monarchical military command, linked to the mentioned ideological framework, could have been assumed by the captain of the Conquest in America and was reflected in the narrative of the ‘Crónicas de Indias’.