The Emirate of Granada maintains its Iberian…

The Emirate of Granada maintains its Iberian bastion while the Iberian Christians cross into Africa for the first time in 1415, in the person of the Portuguese King John and his sons, who live in an era where honor is as much earned as inherited; the medieval concept of chivalry still holds sway in European courts.

A "baptism of blood" is a tradition by which nobles prove their valor.

Given this worldview, it is not surprising that John I leads his sons and their assembled forces in an attack on the Moroccan stronghold of Ceuta.

Strategically located on the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta is one of the terminal ports of the trans-Saharan gold and slave trades.

In addition, the expedition feeds the crusading spirit of the warriors, as there is no greater glory for Iberian Christians of the Reconquista than that attained through the defeat of Moorish forces.

In an effort to curry favor with the pope and the Castilian king by a Christian crusade against the Muslims, John sails on July 25 from Lisbon with his sons and a naval fleet to seize the fortified port city, left undefended by the collapsing Marinids while their sultan is occupied with the suppression of a revolt in the Maghrib.

Anchoring at Tarifa, the Portuguese fleet moves on to attack Ceuta, but fails in its first assault.

The city’s residents place candles in their windows to appear as if their population is much higher then it actually is, and Moorish mountain-dwellers descend to aid the city’s defense, but the second assault ends in a Portuguese victory on August 24.

The Portuguese leave a small force at Ceuta that will withstand repeated assaults over the next three years, notably by the Moors of Granada.

The Portuguese victory over the forces of Islam rekindled dreams of a unified Christendom that could subdue Islam in a multi-pronged assault.

The prospect of a triumphant military and religious unification with distant Christian empires thus increases in its attraction to European leaders.

This military success marks one of the first steps in Portuguese expansion beyond the Iberian Peninsula, but it will prove costly to defend against the Muslim forces that soon besiege it.

The Portuguese will be unable to use it as a base for further expansion into the hinterland, and the trans-Saharan caravans will merely shift their routes to bypass Ceuta and/or use alternative Muslim ports.