Historical research suggests that the populated place did not exist before 1240. A
commandery () centre of the
Order of Calatrava was created in Manzanares in the second half of the 13th century. The Calatravan holding remained contiguous to the lands of the
Order of Santiago throughout the late middle ages. Population took off in the 14th century, and walls were built. The village of
Llanos del Caudillo, established by the
Instituto Nacional de Colonización in the 1950s and formerly depending from Manzanares, became a municipality in its own right in the 1990s. ==References==