"La Reconquista" ("The Reconquest") - Spanish song about the Battle of Covadonga

This song is about the Battle of Covadonga of 722 AD, in which King Pelagius of Asturias (Don Pelayo) defeated the invading army of the Umayyad Caliphate under Munuza and his general, Alqama, in the Picos de Europa mountain range.

Munuza's army had lost a battle in Aquitaine at Toulouse the previous year, and decided that conquering Asturias would help raise his troops' faltering morale. H tried to get Pelagius to surrender - in a few years he had conquered almost the entirety of the Iberian peninsula - to which Pelagius responded by releasing stones and loosing arrows at his forces, before taking them by surprise by charging at them from the cave they had been hiding in.

Alqama was killed in the battle, and his army retreated. In the aftermath of Pelagius' victory the people of Asturias rose up and killed hundreds of the retreating Umayyads. Munuza organised another force and he met Pelagius again, this time near the modern town of Proaza, there Pelagius won once again, and Munuza was killed in the fight.

Covadonga is widely regarded as the start of the 800-year long Reconquista by the Christian kingdoms of Iberia. Covadonga was the first victory of the local Christians over the invading Muslims, Pelagius' victory ensured Asturias' survival as a free Christian realm. Setting the stage for the later kingdoms and struggle to reclaim Hispania.

For this reason, Covadonga is one of the most important battles in Spanish history, and is heavily venerated in Spanish nationalism. The cave in which Pelagius is traditionally held to have sought refuge is now a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary - "Our Lady of Covadonga" - Pelagius is said to have prayed to the Virgin Mary, a statue of her having being hidden in the cave to protect it, to give him victory. A shrine was later built to honour this divine intervention.