“In Scotland the small dark Highlander, and in Ireland the black Celts to the west of the Shannon, still preserve the Iberian characteristics in more or less purity, crossed with Celtic, Danish, Norse, and English blood ). From this outline of evidence of history and ethnology it will be seen that the Iberic tribes occupied an important position in Europe in ancient times, and are still amply represented in the present population. When we consider the many invasions of strangers, and the oscillations to and fro of different peoples, it is impossible not to realize the strange persistence of the race.” (p. 331)
“The Iberic Element in the present Populations of Spain. The physical characters of the races defined in the preceding pages are still possessed by the present inhabitants of Spain, France, and Britain. The Iberic element in the population of Spain has mainly contributed to the long headedness of the modern Spaniard, although the character may be partially derived from Gothic and Moorish invaders. The Basques on the north-west, protected from attack by their inaccessible country, have preserved the race-characters, as might be expected, in their greatest purity. With regard to the rest of the peninsula, sufficiently accurate observations have not yet been made to justify any conclusions as to the exact areas now occupied by the descendants of Iberian aborigines and Celtic invaders.”
“The problem is rendered almost hopeless from the great changes which must have resulted from the conquest of the Goths and Moors, for if the former contributed their fair or “xanthocroic” characters to the modern Spaniard, it is no less certain that the latter have equally handed down to him their dark complexions and lithe active forms. I do not know that any important physical difference has been observed between the Moor and the Iberian; and it is very probably that the two are closely allied together, and connected with the Berbers of northern Africa, considered by Professor Busk to belong to the same stock as the Iberians.”
Source: Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period By Boyd Dawkins
“The Moors too, on their side, had cantoned out their conquest, and we find among those Barbarians the kings of Toledo, Cordova, Murcia, and Granada. The one was every day in action the other, and for several ages, there was continual war between them. Some Spanish gentlemen, in imitation of the Templars and Hospitallers, and for the defense of religion, formed hereupon several societies and military orders, composed only of the nobility and gentry of that nation: of the order of Calatrava is reckoned the most ancient. Don Sanchez, the third king Castile, having won from the Moors the city of Calatrava, a strong place and frontier of the kingdoms of Castile and Toledo, committed the government and defense of it to the Templars but these knights having afterward advice, that the kings of the Moors had joined their forces to besiege it, and finding themselves to few to defend it, they delivered the place back again to the king.”
“Sanchez had need of all his forces to keep the field and make head against the Moors, who threatened, at the same time, to break into Castile. That prince, in this distress, declared, that if anyone was able and brake enough to undertake the defense of Calatrava, he would give it to him in property, to be held under the immediate sovereignty of his crown. But the formidable power of the Moors had so intimidated the most of the grandees of his court, that there was not who offered to throw himself into a place which was going to have at the foot of its wall the whole forces of the infidels.” 