Infanta Urraca of Reino di Iberia (Basque/Spanish)

A poor attempt at conceptual drawing for Iberian/Spanish or specifically, Basque Woman Warrior as part of the Historically Wrong Sketch Series: Medieval Revisited which aims to portray Women Warriors of various cultures in a fictitious historical settings based on AD 800s - AD 1400s era of warfare. Although her origin is Basque, she represents the christian medieval kingdoms that ruled medieval Iberian Peninsula which succeeds the previous Kingdom of Asturias, mainly being Kingdom of Leon, Kingdom of Castile and Kingdom of Navarra.

Inspired by the Music: Merchant of Novgigrad - The Witcher 3 OST

Disclaimer: I am by no means expert in History, just a humble man with passion for learning history. Also, English is not my first language so if you do find any errors or would like to make a correction/feedback, please feel free let me know



The Spanish may have been famous for conquering the new world, whose influenced could be seen in pretty much most of the corners of the World; but during the middle ages, It was a divided land of rivalries feuding against each other. The Iberian peninsula was indeed home to to a multi-cultural, multi-religious society who contested each others rule in the region, where small enclave of Christian Kingdoms fought for their survival against the mighty Andalusian Muslims. However, with the disintegration of Andalusian Muslim's stronghold, the light of reconquista could finally shine. Before long, the united Christian Army of Iberia managed to expel the last of the Muslims in Spain and established their united Kingdom that would later embark on a journey to conquer the new world.


In this drawing, Infanta Urraca Alfonzez di Ibarra, is depicted in typical surcoat over mail, with a head padding as well as a rather small Great Helm (of inaccurate size). Initially i wanted to draw her in mail with plated surcoat, but somewhere along the way I made an irreversible mistake, hence the very simple design of her attires. Probably the only equipments which are distinct to the warriors/knights/soldiers of the Iberian Kingdom would be the man that stood behind her smiling, derived from the Illustration done on an Aragonese Knight.

After revising some of the drawings I have made over the busy period this month, I wanted to see if i can try to focus less on details and environment, but more on the expressiveness of the characters being portrait here. It was pretty challenging to start with, because most of the women warriors I have depicted only have one expression which rarely interacts with the surroundings, and for the most part, made worst because I have always put less emphasize on the background. This time, I wanted to see if i could make a drawing which is "less serious", showing less of the "warrior" side or the "women"side of the characters, but more on the "human" side of the women warriors.....and somehow, it turned way less than what i expected, especially with her expression....

I have included some small children playing to give the "lighter mood" of the drawing, and In my opinion, looking at children playing is always heartwarming. Perhaps Urraca looks surprised, but i suppose looking at these children would remind her of her home where her family and siblings reside, somewhere far from her home during military campaign.

Definitely need more practice in this field as it's something worth to get into.




Spain was famous for their conquest of the new world and setting up one of the word's largest empire in conjunction to the Portuguese empire in the history of the world. With over 400 million Spanish speakers in the world, it is the second most spoken native language in the world globally today, whose legacy of political, societal and religious impact have left long lasting impact even till today. On the other hand, The history of medieval Spain, and for the matter, Christian Hispania in the medieval era was pretty different.

The existence of Iberian peninsula had been recorded at the earliest period by the Phoenicians as well as the Greeks since ancient time. During the Roman Era, the inhabitants of these peninsula consisted of "Iberians" who occupied most of the region, as well as the "Celtiberians", a group of celtic speaking people that migrated from the celtic world and adopted the local Iberian culture and lifestyle. Though in early ancient times they remained somewhat independent, the area was often targeted by foreign powers, like that of the Carthaginian and the Romans, both of which sought to reign supreme over the vast resources of valuable metals and other important commodities. These resulted in the Hispanic/Iberian Wars that lasted for decades, and ended with the total conquest by the Romans in 19 BCE. From then on, the local people began to gradually adopted the Roman culture into their life, or in other terms, became "romanized"

With the fall of the Roman Empire, came another invader that sought to control the land, and by this time, it was the Germanic and Asiatic People. Romanized Visigoths, Vandals, Suebi, and Alans (technically, Alans are samartians, not Germanic) came into the land and established several independent kingdoms and fought against each other for supremacy. Eventually, the Visigoths won, and established major control over the Iberian peninsula. What was interesting during the rule of Visigothic Spain was that, the Visigoths remained less influential in their impact on the society. Most of the Visigothic aristocracy were uninterested in developing the local economy and cultural advancement, hence the reason why little literature works remains about the period. Nevertheless, they did spread Christianity to the region. It was not until the arrival of the Muslims in the early 8th century that everything changed.

The Arabs who had just recently converted to Islam in the late 7th century, had already carving a major Islamic empire that stretched from Persia and far indus, have penetrated most of the maghrebi world as well as North Africa. In the early 8th century, the Visigothic rule in the Iberian peninsula was in turmoil and plagued by civil war. The Muslims sent a raiding party to intervene in the civil war, led by Tariq Ibnu Ziyad in 711, Berber and Arab raiders crossed the Gilbraltar strait and won a decisive battle against the Visigothic force. With more reinforcement coming from Africa, the Muslims were now in control for most part of the Peninsula, calling their dominion as "Al-Andalus". Their effort for further expansion and consolidation was halted by the Frankish Carolingian at the Battle of Tours, as well as the remnants of the rebellions Visigoths who defeated the Muslims at the battle of Covadonga, lead by King Pelagius (Pelayo) of Asturias. With the Galicians joining in the rebellion, the Asturias eventually set up their independent Kingdom of Asturias which became the base for Christian power of the peninsula in their fight against the Muslims power, marking the beginning of Reconquista.

Few independent Kingdoms succeeded the Asturias in establishing Christian dominions over the Iberian peninsula in the wake of weakening Muslim rule of Andalusia, Like that of Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, Galicia, Aragon, Catalan counties as well as the Portugal Counties. They fought constantly over control of the land against the Muslims rule throughout most of the latter medieval era. In this period, Portugal became a recognized separate independent entity after coronation of King Afonso I Henriques, and his recognition by the pope in 1179. Although, most Portuguese could traced their nation's origin from the Battle of Sao Mende in 1128. As for the Spanish, the dynastic union between the crown of Castile and the crown of Aragon in the 15th century, consolidated the christian power and united them together in the final effort of expelling the remnants of the Muslim rule in the peninsula, whom by this time, consist only of the Emirate of Grenada.

With the completion of reconquista, the world saw the birth of one of the most ambitious nation, that would eventually conquer much of the New world and beyond, a nation we know today as the Spanish Empire.