Forging collective memory: Las Navas and Bouvines

Abstract

The importance of historical events is measured by the time they endure in the memory of those who experienced them directly, or of those who transmitted or received that memory as part of an historical inheritance. These are not insignificant or neutral matters; a central pillar of the construction of medieval social and cultural identities was the formation of collective memory. Using this premise as a starting point, this brief essay highlights two aspects that allow a general discussion of the battle of Las Navas in 1212. The first of them affects the modes of transmission of the single events that quickly become crucial moments in the historiography. The second, by taking the Battle of Bouvines in 1214 as a point of comparison, focuses on its articulation in the broader context of those unique events and the various interpretations that may result from their polysemy.