Reconquest historiography framed conquest as restoration of Gothic rule

Evidence

This vision of history, legitimizing the Christian (re)conquest of Spain, is clearly laid out in Rodrigo’s De rebus Hispaniae, completed between 1243 and 1246. Where Lucas of Tuy follows and perpetuates the historiography of Leonese imperium, Rodrigo is a partisan of Castile, which becomes the main actor in the reconquest. He describes the steady progression of the conquest as a restoration of Christian and Gothic rule, town by town. A good example is his description of how Córdoba, “the noble city, was purged of the filth of Muhammad.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 955

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels how colonial-era historiography reframed conquests as restorations in other contexts — e.g. English claims over Ireland and Anglo-Saxon ‘reconquest’.