Centenary Paper: The Celestial Knights of San Millán: Forgery and Allegory in Twelfth-Century Spain

Abstract

In the Votos de San Millán , the prologue to the Becerro Galicano cartulary, two saints –Millán and Santiago– appear to inspire a combined Leonese and Castilian host to victory over a Moorish army at the legendary Battle of Hacinas. The Votos was in all probability composed between May 1194 and July 1195, i. e., just after the Treaty of Tordehumos established a ten-year truce between León and Castile brokered by the papal legate Gregory of St Angelo on behalf of his uncle Celestine III, intended to smooth the way for a victorious Christian alliance against the Almohads. We contend that the legendary account of battle that appears in the Votos is intended as an allegory for the prospective alliance, before this was shattered at the Battle of Alarcos in July 1195.