Restoration, recovery or reconquest? the Idea of territorial recovery from Islam in Late Medieval Castile

Abstract

Over the course of the 15th century numerous chronological texts were written that revisited and reconsidered the discourse on the recovery of the Hispano Christian kingdoms from Islam, each in accord with their own particular political, cultural and historiographical contexts. This article aims to analyze the way in which the Crown of Castile’s border expansion was viewed by some of the most important authors of that century. An analysis of the different terms used to refer to the same historical process and the political project of territorial expansion has made possible an in-depth analysis of the religious, political and linguistic elements with which the Castilian expansion was legitimized during the 15th century