General Narrative:

The Alvor massacre occurred during the Third Crusade in June 1189 when crusaders from the Holy Roman Empire, Denmark, and the County of Flanders attacked the castle of Alvor in the Algarve, a region then part of the Almohad Caliphate, and killed 5,600 people. The Portuguese king Sancho I may have been behind this attack as part of his plan to besiege Silves a month later. The event is mentioned briefly in several contemporary and later sources, but there is confusion in some later accounts about the relationship between the sack of Alvor and the capture of Silves. The expedition involved more than 60 ships with perhaps 12,000 men from different regions who sailed from Frisia, Holland, Flanders, Cologne, and Liège. After the attack, the men of Cologne remained in Portugal while the rest of the expedition continued eastward and joined the siege of Acre. The leaders of the fleet that sacked Alvor are unknown, but they were likely commoners.

Potential Debate:

While it is true that the Alvor massacre is said to have taken place during the Third Crusade in June 1189, there is actually some controversy among historians as to the exact details of what happened. The event is not well-documented, and some scholars even question whether it happened at all.

According to some sources, a fleet of crusaders from the Holy Roman Empire, Denmark, and the County of Flanders did indeed attack the castle of Alvor in the Algarve, which was then part of the Almohad Caliphate. These sources claim that the crusaders massacred 5,600 people during the siege and conquest of the castle.

However, other historians have pointed out that there is very little primary evidence to support this version of events. They argue that the Alvor massacre may have been exaggerated or even invented as part of a propaganda campaign by the crusaders, who were eager to show that they were making progress in their campaign against the Muslims.

As for the suggestion that the Alvor massacre was part of King Sancho I's strategy to conquer the Algarve, there is some evidence to support this. Sancho I did indeed launch a siege of the nearby city of Silves just a month after the supposed massacre at Alvor. It is possible that the attack on Alvor was intended to weaken the Almohad Caliphate and pave the way for Sancho I's eventual conquest of the region. However, the exact role that the Alvor massacre played in Sancho I's strategy is still a matter of debate among historians.

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