Crowns, Plague & Pogroms explores one of the most dramatic and unsettling periods in the history of medieval Spain. From the permanent union of Castile and León under Fernando III the Saint to the Mediterranean expansion of Jaime I the Conqueror, the book follows the rise of stronger Christian monarchies and the transformation of the Iberian Peninsula after centuries of conflict.
The narrative examines the conquest of Seville, the submission of Murcia, the Mudéjar revolts, and the increasingly unequal position of Muslim communities living under Christian rule. It also enters the remarkable court of Alfonso X the Wise, where law, music, astronomy, and translation flourished through works such as the Cantigas de Santa María and the Siete Partidas.
The second half of this sixth book turns toward the crises that reshaped Iberian society: the devastation of the Black Death, the Castilian Civil War between Pedro I and Enrique of Trastámara, the horrific pogroms of 1391, and the rural struggle that culminated in the Sentencia de Guadalupe. Besides, it explores the rise of the Trastámara dynasty in Aragón through Fernando de Antequera and the Compromise of Caspe, a political decision that helped prepare the path toward the dynastic union of the late fifteenth century.