During the
Middle Ages,
Gibraltar was part of the
Moorish Taifa of
Málaga in
Al-Andalus. It was captured from Castile in 1333 by
Abu Malik Abd al-Wahid of the
Marinid dynasty. After an unsuccessful siege led by
Alfonso XI of Castile during the
Reconquista period, the local governor ‘Isa ibn al-Hassan proclaimed himself “King of Gibraltar and its lands” in 1355. This title remained in Muslim hands for the next century. Gibraltar was finally recaptured by Castile on 15 December 1462 when it fell to an army led by
Enrique Pérez de Guzmán y Fonseca, later 2nd
Duke of Medina Sidonia, who expelled
Moors from the territory. King
Henry IV of Castile, the brother of the later Queen
Isabella I of Castile, rewarded the Duke with the title of
Marquess of Gibraltar and added the kingship of Gibraltar to the list of titles of the Castilian crown. The title can thus no longer be used by his successors as the territory was ceded to the Crown of
Great Britain in perpetuity, under the terms of the
Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. The United Kingdom, by contrast, takes the position that the treaty transferred sovereignty as well as possession. When Gibraltar was captured by an Anglo-Dutch fleet on behalf of the
Archduke Charles, claimant to the Spanish throne, in 1704, the city council and most of the population left in 1706 to found the nearby town of
San Roque. The original royal warrant of 1502, which the city council took with it to San Roque along with Gibraltar’s standard and records, is now in the San Roque municipal archives. San Roque still uses a modified version of the original
coat of arms of Gibraltar to symbolise its connection to Gibraltar. As with the rest of the historic substantive titles pertaining to the Spanish monarchy, this title is not officially designated in the
1978 Constitution, but the constitution notes that the title of the monarch is “King of Spain” and further grants the right to use “the others pertaining to the Crown” (
los demás que correspondan a la Corona). This title is not “pertaining to the crown” of Spain. The Spanish Constitution has no competence to authorise the use of foreign titles belonging to other monarchs. == Modern usage in Gibraltar ==