The Treaty of Cazola partitioned future Reconquista conquests between Aragon and Castile to prevent conflict over Al-Andalus territories.
Key Facts
- Date signed
- 27 March 1179
- Signatories
- Alfonso II of Aragon and Alfonso VIII of Castile
- Aragon's designated zone
- Xàtiva, Denia, Biar to Calpe towards Valencia
- Aragon's loss vs. Treaty of Tudilén
- Right to annex Murcia
- Successor treaty
- Treaty of Almizra (1244)
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
As the Reconquista advanced, both Aragon and Castile risked destabilizing Christian progress through competing territorial claims over Al-Andalus. An earlier agreement, the Treaty of Tudilén, had not prevented ongoing rivalry, creating a need for a clearer, binding division of future conquests between the two kingdoms.
On 27 March 1179, Alfonso II of Aragon and Alfonso VIII of Castile signed the Treaty of Cazola in Soria. The pact allocated specific zones of conquest: Aragon received territories from Biar to Calpe including Xàtiva and Denia, while Castile took all lands beyond Biar. The agreement was declared perpetual and binding on successors, with clauses forbidding either king from undermining the other's designated zone.
The treaty temporarily defined the boundary between Aragonese and Castilian spheres of conquest in Al-Andalus. However, both parties eventually violated its terms, necessitating a new negotiation that culminated in the Treaty of Almizra in 1244, which more durably settled the division of southeastern Iberia between the two crowns.
Political Outcome
Al-Andalus was divided into separate zones of Reconquista conquest for Aragon and Castile, with Aragon receiving the Valencia coast and Castile the remaining territories beyond Biar.
Overlapping and contested claims between Aragon and Castile over future Moorish territories
Formally delineated spheres of conquest binding on both kingdoms and their successors