Second Siege of Gibraltar

The Second Siege of Gibraltar was an abortive attempt in 1315 by the Nasrid Moors of the Emirate of Granada to recapture Gibraltar, which had fallen to the forces of Ferdinand IV of Castille four years previously in 1309. The siege was precipitated by the overthrow in 1314 of Nasr, Sultan of Granada by his nephew Ismail. The new sultan declared jihad against the Christian rulers of the Iberian Peninsula in 1315 and moved to establish a siege against Gibraltar.

While Ismail's forces were digging in around Gibraltar, Castillian forces under the Prince Regent Peter of Castile – who exercised authority in the name of the infant king Alfonso XI of Castile – undertook a raid deep into Granada to plunder and destroy the emirate's rich agricultural lands. When news of the siege reached Peter at Cordoba, he left his army where it was and went to Seville to organise naval and land forces to lift the Nasrid blockade. The siege appears to have ended without a fight when the Nasrids retreated at the sight of the approaching Castillian forces. Peter paid off and disbanded the relieving force, granting his soldiers grandes quittances – loosely speaking, double pay – and returned to his army at Cordoba to continue the harrying of Granada.