Jaen Pact

The Pact of Jaén was an agreement signed in 1246 between the King of Castile, Ferdinand III, and the first Nasrid king of Granada, Alhamar. Through this pact, the borders separating the Christian and Nasrid kingdoms were established.

Background to the Pact, sieges of Jaén by Ferdinand III

The King of Castile, Fernando III, after attacking some towns like Íllora or Alcalá la Real, decided to attack the city of Jaén, totally isolated after the Christians conquered the three access routes from Granada: The Old Way (through Otíñar and the river Valdearazo), the New Way (through Pegalajar) and the Alcalá Way (through Martos).

In the third campaign of Ferdinand III of Castile, he decided to attack the city of Jaén. After the failed attempts to conquer the city in the sieges of 1225 and 1230, Ferdinand III relied on Pelayo Pérez Correa, Grand Master of the Order of Santiago de León. Unlike the rest of the sieges, this one focused on launching heavy attacks against the crops of the city of Jaén and nearby villages.

The siege of Jaén lasted a long time (some historians speak of up to eight months). Seeing that the Christian army was not going to surrender, and having suffered heavy defeats after the Battle of Navas de Tolosa, Alhamar, the Nasrid king, presented himself before Fernando III, declared himself his vassal and handed over the city to him by means of the Pact of Jaén.

The Pact of Jaén of 1246 and the border between the Christian and Nasrid kingdoms

According to the writings of the time, the Nasrid king Alhamar presented himself before King Ferdinand III of Castile, kissed his hand and knelt before him, declaring himself his vassal. The Christian king, for his part, set a few terms.

King Alhamar was to give the Castilian king 150,000 maravedis (old Spanish currency) per year and was to attend the courts of the King of Castile whenever the latter requested it. In addition, he was to provide military support to Ferdinand III whenever he required it. In this way, and after the surrender of the city of Jaén to the kingdom of Castile, a truce was established between the two kingdoms.

The Pact of Jaén served to fix the borders between the two kingdoms, which remained (almost) intact until the arrival of the Catholic Monarchs, two and a half centuries later.

In the Kingdom of Jaén, the border with Granada was located in the sierras of the Subbetic System, to the south of the present-day province of Jaén. Thus, the boundary was as follows:

- The lands belonging to the Order of Calatrava, located in Martos, were Christian territory, while Alcaudete and Alcalá La Real belonged to the Muslim side.

- The mountain range of La Pandera served as a dividing line between both kingdoms in the area of Valdepeñas de Jaén, continuing along the present-day dividing line of Pegalajar and Cambil.

- Sierra Mágina separated the Christian dominions of Baeza, Úbeda and Jódar from the Muslim lands of Huelma.

- The River Guadiana Menor, in the east of the province, formed the border until it reached the Sierra de Cazorla, where Tíscar was Nasrid.

- At the eastern end, the southern face of the present-day sierras of Cazorla, Segura and Castril fixed the northern end of the kingdom of Granada, opposite the Christian lands belonging to the Archbishopric of Toledo, which we can nowadays locate in the Adelantamiento de Cazorla.

As we have said, this border remained almost intact until 1492, a key year in the Spanish Reconquest, when the Catholic Monarchs conquered the city of Granada, marking the end of the Nasrid kingdom.

Until that date, the frontier was only modified as soon as the Christian border was expanded to the towns of Moclín, Íllora and Montefrío, thanks to the conquest by Fernando III of Alcaudete and Alcalá la Real (in 1340 and 1341, respectively).

In 1348, the Christian kingdom conquered Huelma. In the following century, in 1410, the city of Antequera was conquered and, in 1433, the Castle of Xiquena. Huéscar, conquered in 1435, was the last change made to the borders of the Pact of Jaén.