Battles, art and the cause of a controversial pizza

It is a day of the cross country. We will possibly take an old railway line - the broken bridge suggests it.  We will see snow fences by the road and the sharp contrast of green irrigated fields and scrub land.  Apart from that we better look at the date. 30th October.

The 30th is a key day in the History of Iberia. A Castilian-Portuguese force defeated the Marinids at the Battle of Salado. The Almohads had been kicked out of Iberia and then fallen to the Berber Banu Marin [aka Marinids] tribe. The Marinids invaded and were brought to battle by the Alfonsos - XI of Castile and IV of Portugal. The home teams won.

In 1520 Hernan Cortes wrote his Second Letter of Relation.   He began by saying he was sorry he hadn’t written from some time. He reported the  sinking of the ships to prevent desertions by Velázquez's followers. He describes the riches of the State of Culúa -, whose subjugation to the Spanish Crown is the main objective. He reported on the expedition sent by Francisco de Garay , the alliance with the Totonacs , the battles and subsequent alliance with the Tlaxcalans , the massacre of Cholula as a preemptive military action, the entry into and reception at Mexico-Tenochtitlan , the Battle of Nautla, the sentencing of Cuauhpopoca , the arrest of Moctezuma Xocoyotzin , and the attempted uprising of Cacama.

In 1813 the Spanish War of Independence ended with the surrender of French troops in Pamplona.

Juan Carlos, future king of Spain, became temporary head of state in 1975 when Franco became ill. He got the gig for keeps in November.

In 2007 the Prado opened its new expansion - the largest in the museum’s history.

Not Spanish, except by distant connection, but in 2022 Daylight Saving was ended in Mexico.

Botanist Francisco de Paula y Marin died today in 1837. He was 63. He went went off to Hawaii in 1793 - good choice really - and stayed there. He planted the first pineapple in Hawaii, in 1813, and this can be credited with the Hawaiian pizza.  Some people will be outraged by this. They are to be pitied more than condemned.

More tomorrow.