The Big Tent

I'm a Big Tent kind of guy.  The Big Tent, in case you aren't familiar with the term, refers to organizations which are very inclusive.  And I'm very inclusive.  Because, let's face it, viewed as a percentage of the world's population, there just aren't very many people who are interested in the study and recreation of material aspects of the 14th Century.  I have to be inclusive in order to have people to play with.

Which is why I focus on Spain in the late 14th Century.  Want to be an Indian?  They are documented in 14th Century Spain.  Syrian?  Yep.  Iranian?  Uh-huh.  Nubian?  Sure.  West African? Absolutely.  German?  Ja.  Just about everyone was in Spain in the late 14th Century.

To begin with the Emirate of Granada, the last vestige of al-Andalus, the Western-most portion of the Islamic world, was still clinging to power in Southern Spain.  Murcia and Valencia had fallen a hundred years earlier, but were still majority Muslim populations subject to the crown of Castile.  Granada was a place where outcasts and exiles went to disappear or find safety from vengeful rulers.  Where scholars went to study in what was a fading but still brilliant center of learning.  Where the religiously devout went to defend the faith and find a martyr's death.  It was, at the same time, the end of the earth and a center of power in its own right.

The 1360 Treaty of Bretigny had ended the open warfare between England and France.  But the two nations were still in contention and the conflict had shifted to Spain.  Enrique de Trastamara, the exiled half-brother of Pedro I, the Cruel, of Castile was seeking to displace his brother.  He'd found a reasonably comfortable exile in Aragon and had found employment as a mercenary leading a company of his retainers.  He found backing from the French who sought to displace Pedro for the crime of supporting the English.  These campaigns were also a way for the French to draw some of the marauding bands of ex-soldiers out of France.  Men from all over Europe were, thus, drawn to Spain.

Aragon declined to participate in this conflict because they were busy with their own war for control of the Mediterranean.  In this conflict they largely contested with Genoa and Muslim North Africa.  Aragonese raiders pillaged the coasts of Granada and North Africa like the Vikings of old taking plunder and slaves while they made war on Genoese traders and outposts.

Spain was arguably one of the most advanced places on Earth.  They grew bitter oranges (sweet oranges don't make it to Europe until the 17th Century), almonds, cotton, citron/lemons.  The leather of Cordova was justly famous and the paperworks in Valencia wouldn't be equaled anywhere in Europe for another hundred years.  A colony of potters imported from Baghdad produced pottery to equal the finest ceramic centers of the Islamic world and the Mudejar (Muslims living in Christian Aragon or Castile) potters were no slouches themselves.  The wines and pottery of Granada and Southern Spain were greatly in demand in Europe and particularly England.

It's tempting to think of Spain as being a place of peaceful coexistence and many people have attempted to paint it as such.  The fact of the matter is that Muslims, Christians, and Jews did live side by side without many major outbreaks of religious violence. But all was not sweetness and light.  Moors/Muslims living in Aragon, for example, were bond servants of the Crown, subject to many restrictions on their dress and behavior, and liable to the whims of the Crown.  A Muslim could be sold into slavery for a minor infraction of the sumptuary laws (restrictions on clothing).  Muslims were required by the Crown to run gambling establishments in their areas of town, the profits of which went to the Crown.  Muslims could also be high advisers to the Crown and the majority Muslim areas were ruled by Muslim rulers in fealty to the Crown.  The same applied to Christians in Muslim Granada and, in fact, at least one ruler was deposed because he was accused of letting Christians and Jews rise too high in society.

It was a time of turmoil and opportunity and that's why I study and recreate 14th Century Spain.  Because I'm a Big Tent guy.  And if you can't find a way to fit in in 14th Century Spain then you just aren't trying.