Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages

by Dan Jones

In Spain and Portugal, Innocent urged the Christian kings of the region to band together and fight against the Almohads. They duly did so, and in 1212, reinforced by members of the Templars and Hospitallers, as well as other crusaders from across the Pyrenees, they crushed the Almohad caliph al-Nasir at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa—a milestone in the Reconquista that began a rapid drive southward by the Christian powers, who pushed the Almohads steadily back toward the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, far away in northern Europe, Innocent was also wholeheartedly encouraging Danish, German, and other Scandinavian lords to attack pagans in the unconverted northeast of Europe—a campaign known as the Livonian Crusade, in which all Christian warriors, including the newly formed Teutonic Knights, could claim forgiveness for their sins in return for colonizing new lands around the Baltic.