The legend of the "wild west" grew quickly, and the possibilities of the frontier allowed people in the west to press outrageous stories that were reported happily as fact in the East, which was ready to believe just about anything could happen in that uncivilized land.
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.