How the kings of Spain and Portugal defeated three heathen kings who had entered Spain and were besieging a great city.

As it would be wrong to forget the adventures that took place in distant lands while these wars were being waged, I don't want to overlook the great adventure and good fortune that befell the King of Spain in his battle in Castile against the Saracens, and all Christendom should forever thank Our Lord for the wondrous power He manifested then. Know, then, that in the year of grace 1340, in the month of September, three Saracen kings were besieging a fine and mighty city in the kingdom of Castile named Tarifa, which stood beside the sea or very near. These three kings were the King of granada, the great king of the Benimerines and his son King Abu Umar; they had an immense army, estimated at sixty thousand mounted men-at-arms and three hundred thousand men on foot, armed with pikes, bows, crossbows and weapons of their own kind – not counting their commanders, and not to mention their queens and wives which they always take to war with them. They'd been encamped before the city for a long while, much to the fury of the King of Spain.

At last, unable to endure this affront any longer, he summoned all the great lords of his land and all the men and elders of his cities and his other chief towns to meet on a certain day to discuss how they could defend and purge their country of these people bent on ruining and destroying them in their thirst for conquest.