🗡️ Meet Geraldo Sem Pavor, the fearless warrior who scaled walls, spoke Arabic...

�️ Meet Geraldo Sem Pavor, the fearless warrior who scaled walls, spoke Arabic, and struck terror in the Moors during Portugal’s Reconquista. Discover his insane tactics and epic conquests!

When we think of the Portuguese Reconquista, it’s common to imagine grand medieval armies fighting epic battles for every inch of land conquered. However, what few know is that a significant part of these conquests was achieved through secret operations led by a man who spoke Arabic, scaled walls, and had no fear of death. Why did this man have such little attachment to life? What was his attack style? Which Portuguese cities did he conquer from the Moors, and what was his legacy for the Reconquista of Portugal? Today, we’ll explore the story of Geraldo Sem Pavor, the most audacious warrior of the Portuguese Reconquista.

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The origin of Geraldo Geraldes is shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. According to some historians, he was likely born around 1130 in the Portucalense County, but there are very few records of his youth. Some believe he was the son of a large noble family, and, inheriting nothing, he entered the world of arms at a young age to build his own fortune. However, as a teenager, Geraldo was captured and enslaved by the Almohads, taken to Al-Andalus, and left waiting for a ransom from his family that never arrived.

As a captive in Muslim lands, Geraldo learned to speak Arabic and was forced to fight in the Moorish armies as a slave. The Muslims had a custom of sending slaves to the battlefield, sometimes even chained, often in the front lines, making them the first to die. This practice was famously immortalized in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. However, some slaves were incorporated as elite units in Islamic warfare, fighting alongside free men on the battlefield. As a slave, Geraldo not only faced death frequently but also learned the Arabic language early on. Beyond the language, he mastered the tactics and thought processes of the Moors, as well as their main weaknesses. Fighting side by side with them, he came to know them like no one else.

By around 1160, chronicles document Geraldo back in Portuguese lands, likely after escaping Muslim control or being rescued by the Portuguese. He quickly placed himself in the service of the Crown, leveraging his extensive knowledge of the Moors. Hired as a sort of mercenary, he was promised rewards for each action that served the kingdom’s expansion. Leading a militia, he began undertaking missions independently of the Crown, marked by ferocity, brutality, and unexpected, almost suicidal strategies.

Geraldo was a master of the razia, a concept he had learned from the Moors. Razias were surprise attacks to raid convoys, livestock, and villages in an extremely fast and violent manner, disappearing soon after. Geraldo adopted this tactic against the Moors but perfected it. Beyond carrying out rapid surprise attacks, he personally led his troops with little armor, being the first to scale Moorish fortresses and taking on the most dangerous missions. This inspired his men, who, in admiration, gave him the nickname Sem Pavor—meaning “without fear” of anything. Tasks that seemed impossible or extremely difficult to others, Geraldo accomplished with great ease, always putting his own life at risk.

This ease can be partly explained by the political context of the Iberian Peninsula at the time. The 11th century was a period of great volatility in the Iberian kingdoms, where cities were frequently conquered and, years later, besieged by the kingdom that lost them in an attempt to recover them. Amid this constant territorial instability at the border, Geraldo learned to master the art of war. He knew exactly where the weaknesses of Moorish fortresses lay and used them to his advantage. This is how he decided to besiege Trujillo, a significant Moorish city, which he later conquered and handed over to the Portuguese Crown. After fortifying it, he plundered the surrounding areas, consolidating his authority through force and fear.

During one of these incursions, Geraldo noticed that the great city of Évora was poorly defended. He ordered part of his men to distract the Moorish guards, luring them down from the walls to pursue them, while the others assaulted the watchtowers. Thus, Geraldo entered Évora and conquered it with astonishing speed and ease after personally scaling and seizing the watchtower, killing the city’s governor and his wife. This event is depicted in the coat of arms of Évora, which shows Geraldo in armor holding the heads of the Moorish governor and his wife.

Geraldo did not adhere to the strict codes of conduct of the nobility. Often acting as a mercenary, his conquests were not necessarily made in the name of the king but for himself. Only after conquering a stronghold would he offer it to the king in exchange for compensation, which could be money or, as in the case of Évora, the position of city governor, granted directly by Dom Afonso Henriques in recognition of his feat. The speed and agility of these events, catching everyone unprepared, left many unsure of how to react when they saw Geraldo inside the city. Unlike the armies of the time, which planned attacks weeks in advance and prepared for large battles, Geraldo and his militia often decided which cities to attack at the last minute based on convenience, catching everyone by surprise. This caused tremendous terror in the Moorish border cities.

Much of what we know about him today comes from Moorish chroniclers who wrote warnings to other cities about how to protect themselves against this Portuguese warrior. Ibn Sahib al-Sala, a contemporary of Sem Pavor, describes his deeds with an almost cinematic tone. According to the Moorish chronicler, “the dog walked on rainy and very dark nights, with strong wind and snow, toward the cities. He had prepared his instruments—very long wooden ladders that surpassed the city walls. He applied those ladders to the side of the tower and climbed them personally at the front of his men. He seized the sentinel and told him in the Muslim language: ‘Shout as you usually do so the people don’t notice.’ When his entire wretched group completed the climb to the top of the wall, they shouted in their language with a great, execrable uproar, entered the city, fought, and robbed everyone they encountered, capturing all the inhabitants as prisoners.”

This passage highlights Geraldo’s intelligence in his approaches. His band had prior knowledge of the size and configuration of the walls to bring the appropriate means. They approached in winter, during rain or snow, when no one expected an attack. Geraldo’s use of the Arabic language was even employed to confuse the guards on the battlements. Another habit of his was to study in advance the nights of the new moon to take advantage of the darkness for attacks. On full moon nights, it was easy to keep watch and see enemy movements, especially if they wore shiny armor, but on new moon nights, it was not.

After conquering Évora, Geraldo and his men went on to conquer localities such as Cáceres, Montánchez, Alconchel, Serpa, and Juromenha. These places, relatively distant from one another, with some now in Spain and others in Portugal, demonstrate how unpredictable Geraldo was. When the Moors thought he followed a pattern and fortified one fortress expecting an attack, he attacked another, more distant fortress. When they went to aid the attacked fortress, he was already mobilizing a second army to attack the main one. Thus, it was extremely difficult for his enemies to guess his next move, and in truth, it was challenging even for his allies. This was because he maneuvered his armies and attacks completely independently of the Portuguese king. Even if the Moors watched the roads to intercept messengers and discover Geraldo’s next moves, it was simply impossible since not even the Portuguese king knew his movements.

However, not everything was glory in Geraldo’s military life. In one of his attacks against the great city of Badajoz, he managed to surround the Moors and breach the city walls. In desperation, the Moors called for the King of León, a Christian king who had a duty to protect that Muslim taifa. Geraldo, thinking he was close to conquering the city, called for King Dom Afonso Henriques, who quickly arrived with some troops to assist. But Ferdinand I of León took longer to arrive, as he brought a huge army to rescue his Almohad vassals. As a result, both Geraldo and Afonso Henriques ended up as hostages of the Leonese king. In the confusion, Afonso Henriques’ horse crashed against the fortress gate, pinning the Portuguese king and causing him to break his femur. In this situation, Afonso was forced to yield to Leonese and Almohad control, not only of Badajoz but also of the cities of Trujillo, Cáceres, and Montánchez, which today belong to Spain. Had they remained under Portuguese control, the kingdom’s map might have looked quite different.

Shortly after the Badajoz disaster, the partnership between Geraldo and the Kingdom of Portugal came to an end. Portugal signed a truce with the Almohads, rendering Geraldo’s services as a mercenary unnecessary. Leading 350 men, he decided to offer his services to Abu Bakr to help pacify the Almohad territories in North Africa. He was sent to Marrakech, Morocco, where he acted with great efficiency while also observing the weaknesses of the region. Consequently, Sem Pavor wrote a letter to Dom Afonso Henriques, detailing how the Portuguese could conquer North Africa, outlining the main Moorish deficiencies in the area and identifying local leaders they could ally with to dominate the Almohads.

However, the letter was intercepted by the Moors, who promptly killed Geraldo. According to legend, Geraldo died in Morocco, but not before slaying 20 guards with his sword. Some argue that Geraldo pretended to be loyal to the Portuguese king to serve the Moors and spy on African lands, ensuring even more future conquests for Portugal. His letter to Dom Afonso Henriques may have been motivated by this intent. Regardless of whether he acted as a spy, Geraldo was a crucial figure in the Portuguese Reconquista. He cannot be seen as a model of moral conduct for a Christian knight, but he was a man who understood and exploited his enemies’ weaknesses like no one else, using them to his advantage in the most efficient and often insane ways.

In a scenario of fragmented taifas, Geraldo moved through border territories with terrifying freedom, instilling immense fear in his enemies. With cunning, observation, and courage bordering on insanity, he secured many territories for the Portuguese Crown that are now among the country’s most important cities, significantly contributing to the speed of the Portuguese Reconquista. Did you know about the deeds of Geraldo Sem Pavor? What surprised you the most? Leave your comment to support our work and subscribe to the channel to dive deeper into the fascinating history of Iberia.