We are told that at the siege pf Teba in 1330, the young King Alfonso XI of Castile, having been informed as dawn broke of a force of c.3000 'Moorish'cavalry occupying vital watering grounds, then received intelligence that this was a diversion to prompt a counter attack while another column of 3000 attacked his rear.
The sources then state that the king quickly dispatched sent one of his principal commanders, Don Pedro Fernandez de Castro with a mixed force of cavalry and infantry to 'entertain' the diversionary column while he prepared to defend his camp from the main attack. Frustratingly the size of this mixed force is not given, nor the balance between cavalry and infantry.
My question relates to how this force might have advanced. At this time and place, early C14th Spain, do we think infantry would have occupied the centre while cavalry screened the flanks or would cavalry have marched in the centre with infantry on the wings? Would one have preceded the other?
Would that choice depend on whether the cavalry was mainly light cavalry mounted a la jinetaor or a core of men-at-arms? Presumably the force advanced at the speed of the infantry contingent.
The ground was uneven, rolling ground with deep declivities The distance to be covered was perhaps 3-4000 metres, a steady descent to the foot of a steep slope rising to a long isolated flat-top ridge which dominated access to the river but which could be turned at either end.
We are told the Castilian force attacked so fiercely that the Granadan could not withstand them for long and began to fall back before breaking into a headlong retreat. We know nothing of their morale before hand except that in weeks of raiding they seem to have made life difficult for the Christians culminating in a more sustained skirmish where the Christians came off worst.
With this limited information, is it possible to speculate intelligently as to the likely formation adopted by the Spanish?
With thanks.JF
gets medieval.
