Siege of Tomar facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Siege of Tomar |
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| Part of Almohad campaign against Portugal (1190–1191) | |||||||
 Citadel of Tomar |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Almohad Caliphate | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Gualdim Pais | Yaqub al-Mansur | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 300 knights. | 12,000 men | ||||||
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The Siege of Tomar was an important battle in 1190. It happened in the town of Tomar, Portugal. The Almohad Caliphate, a powerful Muslim empire, attacked the town. But the Templar Order, a group of warrior monks, owned Tomar and bravely defended it. They successfully stopped the attack.
Contents
Why the Battle Happened
The Templars and Tomar Castle
The leader of the Templars in Portugal was a strong knight named Dom Gualdim Pais. He had spent five years in a faraway land called the Holy Land. When he came back to Portugal, he started building the castle of Tomar.
Dom Gualdim Pais founded Tomar on March 1, 1160. It became the main base for the Templar Order in Portugal. Pais was very smart about how he designed the castle. It was the first Templar castle in Portugal built to be their headquarters.
The castle had new military features. These included a strong central tower, called a keep, and walls built at an angle. These ideas were different from other castles in Portugal at the time. Some of the design ideas even came from Muslim architecture.
Almohad Attacks in Portugal
King Sancho I of Portugal had captured a big city called Silves in southern Iberia. This made the Almohad leader, Yaqub al-Mansur, very angry. He decided to launch many strong attacks against Portugal.
First, Silves was attacked. Then, the Almohad leader made a peace deal with King Alfonso VIII of Castile. This allowed al-Mansur to move freely through the Alentejo region of Portugal.
The Almohads captured several towns like Alcácer do Sal, Palmela, Almada, and Abrantes. They moved north across the Tagus river and took Torres Novas. Then, the caliph split his army into two groups. One group attacked Tomar and the other attacked Santarém at the same time. Some Almohad soldiers even went as far north as Coimbra, destroying the town of Leiria along the way.
The Fight for Tomar
Tomar was known as one of the strongest castles in Portugal at that time.
Dom Gualdim Pais led 300 knights out of the castle to fight the Almohad army. This kind of attack, where defenders rush out, is called a sally. The Almohads managed to capture the main city gate. But the Templars fought back fiercely. The fighting was so bloody that the gate became known as Porta do Sangue, which means "Blood Gate".
Some Templars found a secret underground tunnel. They used it to sneak into the Almohad army's camp. This surprise attack caused a lot of confusion among the attackers.
Meanwhile, some ships carrying crusaders from England and France arrived in Silves and Lisbon. King Sancho was in Lisbon at this time. With these new soldiers, the king refused Yaqub's offer for peace. Yaqub had wanted the king to give up Silves. Instead, King Sancho marched his army to help Santarém.
The Almohad leader, Yaqub al-Mansur, faced stronger resistance than he expected. He ordered all his forces to retreat. The Muslim army was only able to damage the parts of Tomar that were outside the castle walls. They could not capture the strong castle itself.
What Happened Next
The Templars' successful defense of Tomar stopped the Almohad army's big attack. This victory showed how skilled the Templars were in battle. It also proved that the Templar Order was very important for defending Portugal.
The battle was relatively short, but the Templars remembered it as a great victory. After this, the Templar Order became even more active in helping Portugal take back land from the Muslims.
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