On 1 March 1143 the Battle of Montiel was fought between Muño Alfonso and an army of knights from Ávila, Segovia, and Toledo on one side and a force of Almoravids on the other.

Early in 1143 Muño set out with a hand-picked troop of 900 knights and 1,000 infantrymen of the local militias to raid the area around Córdoba.

On his return through the Muradal Pass he caught sight of a pursuing Almoravid army, also composed of cavalry and infantry.

Just past the castle of Calatrava on the road to Toledo, at Montiel in La Mancha, Muño turned to face the Muslims.

[10] Muño then ordered them hung from the towers, but Empress Berenguela had them taken down and given to some Jewish and Muslim physicians to be anointed with myrrh and aloes and sent to Córdoba, to their widows.