Antiquity Toro is an ancient town, possibly the
Arbukala of the Vaccai tribe which was conquered by
Hannibal in 220 BC but survived to trouble the
Romans. The Roman town was called
Albucella. The modern name may derive from the bull totem of that
Celtiberian people. In the 8th century it was
conquered by the Moors. After the Muslims had been partially rolled back,
Alfonso III repopulated the town in about 910.
Medieval Ferdinand III was crowned King of
León in Toro in 1230 and his wife
Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen (Beatriz) died here.
Enrique II, first of the
Trastámara line, summoned his first
Cortes here in 1369.
Juan II of Castile was born here in 1404, but the town was to have greater significance for his daughter
Isabella I of Castile. Isabella (married with Ferdinand) had a rival for the succession in
Juana la Beltraneja, supposedly the daughter of her half-brother
Enrique IV, but allegedly the daughter of the queen's lover, the courtier
Beltrán de la Cueva. La Beltraneja's supporters arranged her betrothal to
Alfonso V of Portugal who was feeling upset over his earlier rejection by Isabella. Alfonso invaded
Castile in May 1475, backed by a number of dissident Castilian nobles. Isabella made
Tordesillas her headquarters, while Ferdinand moved to secure the loyalty of
Salamanca, Toro, and
Zamora. Alfonso reached
Arévalo in July and both Zamora and Toro went over to him, a serious blow for the young monarchs. Intrigue seethed as troops marched. Zamora swung back to Isabella's cause. The Portuguese crown prince arrived with reinforcements and on March 1, 1476, the rival armies met at
Peleagonzalo, a few kilometres southwest of Toro. Ferdinand was victorious in this battle decided by light cavalry. The Portuguese under Alfonso broke and the king took refuge in
Castronuño. However, the result was uncertain since the forces under the Portuguese crown prince defeated the Castilian right wing and remained in possession of the battle field - and thus both sides claimed victory. But the fortress of Zamora surrendered to Ferdinand soon thereafter (March 19, 1476) while Toro remained in Portuguese hands during more than half a year (until September 19, 1476). After that Alfonso gave up the fight and la Beltraneja retired to a
Lisbon convent where she died in 1530, aged sixty-eight. In January 1506, after Isabella's death, Ferdinand summoned a Cortes at Toro. Isabella's legal successors in Castile were her daughter
Joanna the Mad and her husband
Philip the Handsome, who at the time stayed in the Netherlands. The Cortes took the oath to Ferdinand as temporary ruler and agreed that if Juana be deemed incurably ill, he should become regent. Ferdinand and Philip later seized power from Juana. After Philip's death in September 1506, Ferdinand had himself declared regent and Juana retired to
Tordesillas.
1500 to present When in 1520 the towns of
Castile, the
Comuneros, rose against her son
Charles I, who had succeeded his Spanish grandfather in 1516, Toro sided with them. Charles defeated the Comuneros at
Villalar de los Comuneros, east of Toro, the next year. During the
Peninsular War, in the bitter cold of December 1808,
Sir John Moore began his retreat from Toro in the face of superior French forces. The ghastly ordeal ended in Moore's death before
A Coruña (
Galicia) in January. In May 1813, 100,000 British troops gathered in Toro under
Wellington's command and from here Wellington launched the final campaign which expelled
Napoleon's armies from Spanish soil after five terrible years. English traveller
Richard Ford (English writer) visited Toro in 1831 and reported a population of 9,000; it has just under 10,000 now. In 1838 it lost its status as a provincial capital, its province being merged with Zamora. Toro also featured as a notable stop on English writer Laurie Lee’s journey across Spain in his celebrated book ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’, published in 1969. ==Main sights==