Alvor massacre

[1] The place of the conquest and massacre of Alvor in the Portuguese Reconquista is unclear, but there are grounds for thinking that it was part of the strategy of King Sancho I, who launched a siege of Silves a month later.

[4] Another contemporary source, the Annals of Lambertus Parvus, is probably referring to the Alvor expedition when it recounts how a fleet of northerner crusaders gathered in England and "many battles … joined with the pagans" in the Iberian Peninsula on their way to the East.

"[6] There is confusion in some later sources, such as the Itinerary of the Pilgrims and Deeds of King Richard and the Chronicle of Robert of Auxerre, between the sack of Alvor and the capture of Silves.

[8] The memory of the Alvor massacre was erroneously transferred to the conquest of Silves in Robert's account, where "no age was spared, and both sexes equally were slaughtered."

A rumour spread that they intended to steal James's relics and there was fighting between the pilgrims and the townspeople resulting in fatalities on both sides before, "through wise men intervening," the crusaders agreed to return to their ships.

[12] The fleet then stopped in Lisbon before attacking Alvor, as recorded in the Seaborne Journey: The ships from our empire and from Flanders had arrived some four or five weeks before us [around 29 May – 6 June], and on their voyage beyond Lisbon they had stormed a fortified town named Alvor, subject to the lordship of Silves, and we were reliably informed that, sparing neither age nor sex, they slew some 5,600 people.

[13]To this account of the massacre, the Royal Chronicle adds the detail that they "captured endless amounts of silver and gold.

[4] The Itinerary of the Pilgrims records its arrival, but conflates it with the fleet that captured Silves and mistakenly transplants the massacre to that city.

The normal policy was to encourage Muslim populations to remain to keep the land under cultivation and to pay taxes to the king.