There is, of course, a story behind every Medal of Honor awarded, and there is also the story of the medal itself. And those two stories intertwine in the story of the nation’s only chief executive to have been awarded the nation’s highest and most prestigious military decoration.
The Reconquista, or Christian reconquest of Iberia, took nearly 800 years. The fighting did not come without great attempts by Muslim powers across the strait trying to reestablish their presence in mainland Europe. The last gasp of that effort came in the 1330s, when the powerful Marinid sultanate of what is modern Morocco invaded in an attempt to reverse Christian gains and secure the perilous position of the Sultanate of Granada.