Cuenca had been captured by the King of Seville, Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, after the defeat of Alfonso VI of León and Castile in the battle of Sagrajas (1086), .

However, when his lands were attacked by the Almoravids, he had sent his daughter-in-law Zaida to Alfonso, offering him Cuenca in exchange of military support.

The first Christian troops had entered the city in 1093.

However, the Almoravids had captured it in 1108.

Their governor in the city had declared himself independent in 1144, followed by the whole of Murcia the following year.

Muhammad ibn Mardanis, elected King of Cuenca, Murcia and Valencia in 1147, had had to defend his lands from the Almohad invasion until his death 1172, after which his son had to sign a pact of tributes with the newcomers.

The seventeen-year old Alfonso VIII of Castile had tried to conquer the city, but after five months of siege, had had to retreat after the arrival of troops sent by the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf.

Alfonso had signed a seven-years truce but when, in 1176, the Cuencans occupied some Christian lands in Huete and Uclés, Alfonso had intervened at the head of a coalition including also Ferdinand II of León, Alfonso II of Aragon and the Military Orders of Calatrava, Santiago and Montegaudio, besieging Cuenca for months starting from 1177's Epiphany.

The city's commander, Abu Bakr, sued again the support of Yaqub Yusuf, but the latter was in Africa and did not send any help.

After an unsuccessful Cuenca sortie against the Christian camp on July 27, the besieged city is conquered by Alfonso's troops on September 21, 1177, while the Muslim garrison takes refuge in the citadel.

The latter falls in October, putting an end to the Arab domination in Cuenca.

Alfonso VIII grants the city a title, and it is considered to be "Muy noble y muy leal" (Very noble and very loyal).

It is given a set of laws, the Fuero, written in Latin, that rule Cuenca's citizens, and it is considered one of the most perfectly written law codes in this period.