Alfonso II (1–25 March 1157Benito Vicente de Cuéllar (1995)
«Los "condes-reyes" de Barcelona y la "adquisición" del reino de Aragón por la dinastía bellónida»
p. 630-631; in ''Hidalguía''. XLIII (252) pp. 619–632."Alfonso II el Casto, hijo de Petronila y Ramón Berenguer IV, nació en Huesca en 1157;". ''Cfr''. Josefina Mateu Ibars, María Dolores Mateu Ibars (1980)
''Colectánea paleográfica de la Corona de Aragon: Siglo IX-XVIII''
Universitat Barcelona, p. 546. , .Antonio Ubieto Arteta (1987)
''Historia de Aragón. Creación y desarrollo de la Corona de Aragón''
Zaragoza: Anúbar
pp. 177–184
§ "El nacimiento y nombre de Alfonso II de Aragón". . – 25 April 1196), called the Chaste or the Troubadour, was the

King of Aragon This is a list of the kings and queens of Aragon. The Kingdom of Aragon was created sometime between 950 and 1035 when the County of Aragon, which had been acquired by the Kingdom of Navarre in the tenth century, was separated from Navarre ...

and, as Alfons I, the

Count of Barcelona The Count of Barcelona ( ca, Comte de Barcelona, es, Conde de Barcelona, french: Comte de Barcelone, ) was the ruler of the County of Barcelona and also, by extension and according with the Usages of Barcelona, usages and Catalan constitutions, of ...

from 1164 until his death. The eldest son of Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Queen

Petronilla of Aragon Petronilla (29 June/11 August 1136 – 15 October 1173), whose name is also spelled Petronila or Petronella ( Aragonese: ''Peyronela'' or ''Payronella'', and ca, Peronella), was Queen of Aragon from the abdication of her father, Ramiro II, ...

, he was the first King of Aragon who was also Count of Barcelona. He was also Count of Provence, which he conquered from Douce II, from 1166 until 1173, when he ceded it to his brother,

Ramon Berenguer III Ramon Berenguer III ''the Great'' was the count of Barcelona, Girona, and Ausona from 1086 (jointly with Berenguer Ramon II and solely from 1097), Besalú from 1111, Cerdanya from 1117, and count of Provence in the Holy Roman Empire, from 1112, a ...

. His reign has been characterised by nationalistic and nostalgic Catalan historians as ''l'engrandiment occitànic'' or "the Pyrenean unity": a great scheme to unite various lands on both sides of the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

under the rule of the House of Barcelona.

Reign

Born at Huesca, Alfonso, called indistinctly from birth Alfonso and Ramon,Ubieto (1987:184–186)
/ref> ascended the united throne of Aragon and Barcelona as Alfonso, in deference to the Aragonese, to honour

Alfonso the Battler Alfonso I (''c''. 1073/10747 September 1134), called the Battler or the Warrior ( es, el Batallador), was King of Aragon and Navarre from 1104 until his death in 1134. He was the second son of King Sancho Ramírez and successor of his brother P ...

. For most of his reign he was allied with

Alfonso VIII of Castile Alfonso VIII (11 November 11555 October 1214), called the Noble (''El Noble'') or the one of Las Navas (''el de las Navas''), was King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. After having suffered a great defeat with his own army a ...

, both against

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

and against the Moorish

taifa The ''taifas'' (singular ''taifa'', from ar, طائفة ''ṭā'ifa'', plural طوائف ''ṭawā'if'', a party, band or faction) were the independent Muslim principalities and kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), re ...

s of the south. In his

Reconquista The ' ( Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the N ...

effort Alfonso pushed as far as Teruel, conquering this important stronghold on the road to

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

in 1171. The same year saw him capturing

Caspe Caspe is a municipality in the province of Zaragoza, part of the autonomous community of Aragon (Spain), seat of the comarca Bajo Aragón-Caspe. As of 2018 it had a population of 9,525 inhabitants (INE 2018) and its municipality, of 503.33&n ...

. Apart from common interests, kings of Aragon and Castile were united by a formal bond of vassalage the former owed to the latter. Besides, on January 18, 1174, in

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Province of Zaragoza, Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Ara ...

Alfonso married

Sancha is a district of Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. It is also known as Sancha (三茶) for short. It is home to many bars, cafes and restaurants. Some major streets include National Route 246, Setagaya-dori and Chazawara-dori. Education Setagaya Board o ...

, sister of the Castilian king. Another milestone in this alliance was the Treaty of Cazorla between the two kings in 1179, delineating zones of conquest in the south along the watershed of the rivers

Júcar left The Júcar () or Xúquer () is a river on the Iberian Peninsula of Spain. The river runs for approximately 509 km from its source at Ojuelos de Valdeminguete, on the eastern flank of the Montes Universales, Sistema Ibérico. Its most ...

and Segura. Southern areas of Valencia including Denia were thus secured to Aragon. Alfonso also reached an agreement, the

Treaty of Sangüesa The Treaty of Sangüesa between Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancho VI of Navarre was signed on 19 December 1168 at the church of San Adrián de Vadoluengo in Sangüesa on the Navarrese side of the river Aragón. It provided for a twenty-year truce an ...

(1168), with Sancho VI of Navarre dividing the territory of the

Taifa of Murcia The Taifa of Murcia () was an Arab '' taifa'' of medieval Al-Andalus, in what is now southern Spain. It became independent as a ''taifa'' centered on the Moorish city of Murcia after the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba (11th centur ...

between them. During his reign Aragonese influence north of the

reached its zenith, a natural tendency given the affinity between the Occitan, Catalan and Aragonese dominions of the

Crown of Aragon The Crown of Aragon ( , ) an, Corona d'Aragón ; ca, Corona d'Aragó, , , ; es, Corona de Aragón ; la, Corona Aragonum . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of ...

. His realms incorporated not only

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bo ...

(from 1166 or just before),Víctor Balaguer
§ "Muerte del Conde de Provenza. Guerras entre el Rey de Aragón y el Conde de Tolosa. Don Alfonso se apodera de la Provenza. (De 1166 a 1168)"
in ''Historia de Cataluña y de la Corona de Aragon''. Barcelona: Salvador Manero, 1861, vol. II, book V chap. 2, pp. 11–18. but also the counties of Cerdanya (1168) and Roussillon (inherited in 1172).

Béarn The Béarn (; ; oc, Bearn or ''Biarn''; eu, Bearno or ''Biarno''; or ''Bearnia'') is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three B ...

and

Bigorre Bigorre ({{IPA-fr, biɡɔʁ; Gascon: ''Bigòrra'') is a region in southwest France, historically an independent county and later a French province, located in the upper watershed of the Adour, on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, part of th ...

paid homage to him in 1187. Alfonso's involvement in the affairs of

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (; , ; oc, Lengadòc ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately ...

, which would cost the life of his successor,

Peter II of Aragon Peter II the Catholic (; ) (July 1178 – 12 September 1213) was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1196 to 1213. Background Peter was born in Huesca, the son of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile. In 1205 he acknowle ...

, for the moment proved highly beneficial, strengthening Aragonese trade and stimulating emigration from the north to colonise the newly reconquered lands in Aragon. In 1186, he helped establish Aragonese influence in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...

when he supported his cousin Agalbursa, the widow of the deceased

Judge of Arborea The Kings or ''Judges'' (from the Latin ''iudices'' and the Sardinian ', "judges," the title of the Byzantine officials left behind when Imperial power receded in the West) of the Arborea were the local rulers of the west of Sardinia durin ...

, Barison II, in placing her grandson, the child of her eldest daughter Ispella, Hugh, on the throne of

Arborea Arborea is a town and '' comune'' in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture and cattle breeding with production of vegetables, rice, fruit and milk (notably the local milk product Arborea). Hi ...

in opposition to Peter of Serra. Alfonso II provided the first land grant to the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint B ...

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedic ...

s on the banks of the Ebro River in the Aragon region, which would become the site of the first Cistercian

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

in this region. The Monasterio de Piedra was founded in 1194 with thirteen monks from

Poblet Monastery Poblet Abbey, otherwise the Royal Abbey of Santa Maria de Poblet ( ca, Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Poblet), is a Cistercian monastery, founded in 1151, located at the foot of the Prades Mountains, in the comarca of Conca de Barberà, in ...

, in an old castle next to the Piedra river, the

Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda Rueda Abbey or Rueda de Ebro Abbey ( es, Real Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Rueda, or the "Royal Monastery of Our Lady of the Wheel") is a former Cistercian monastery in Sástago in the Ribera Baja del Ebro comarca, province of Zaragoza, Arag ...

was founded in 1202 and utilized some of the first hydrological technology in the region for harnessing water power and river diversion for the purpose of building

central heating A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. It is a component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (short: HVAC) systems, which can both cool and warm interior spaces. ...

. He died at Perpignan in 1196.

Literary patronage and poetry

He was a noted

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

of his time and a close friend of King Richard the Lionheart. One

tensó A ''tenso'' (; french: tençon) is a style of troubadour song. It takes the form of a debate in which each voice defends a position; common topics relate to love or ethics. Usually, the tenso is written by two different poets, but several examples ...

, "Be·m plairia, Seingner En Reis", apparently composed by him and

Giraut de Bornelh Giraut de Bornelh (; c. 1138 – 1215), whose first name is also spelled Guiraut and whose toponym is de Borneil or de Borneyll, was a troubadour connected to the castle of the viscount of Limoges. He is credited with the formalisation, if not the ...

, forms part of the poetical debate as to whether a lady is dishonoured by taking a lover who is richer than herself. The debate had been begun by

Guilhem de Saint-Leidier Guilhem de Saint-Leidier, also spelled Guilhem de Saint Deslier, Guillem de Saint Deidier and Guilhèm de Sant Leidier was a troubadour of the 12th century, composing in Occitan. He was lord of Saint Didier-en-Velay, was born at some date before 1 ...

and was taken up by

Azalais de Porcairagues Azalais de Porcairagues (also ''Azalaïs'') or Alasais de Porcaragues was a trobairitz (woman troubadour), composing in Occitan in the late 12th century. The sole source for her life is her '' vida'', which tells us that she came from the count ...

and Raimbaut of Orange; there was also a '' partimen'' on the topic between Dalfi d'Alvernha and

Perdigon Perdigon or Perdigo (fl. 1190–1220Aubrey, p. 18.) was a troubadour from Lespéron in the Gévaudan.Egan, p. 83. Fourteen of his works survive, including three '' cansos'' with melodies.Aubrey, p. 19. He was respected and admired by contempo ...

. Alfonso and his love affairs are mentioned in poems by many troubadours, including Guillem de Berguedà (who criticized his dealings with Azalais of Toulouse) and Peire Vidal, who commended Alfonso's decision to marry Sancha rather than Eudokia Komnene that he had preferred a poor Castilian maid to the emperor Manuel's golden camel. Alfons2Aragona-Sancha Liber

Marriage and descendants

Wife, Sancha of Castile, daughter of king Alfonso VII of Castile, b. 1155 or 1157, d. 1208 * Peter II (1174/76 – 14 September 1213), King of Aragon and Lord of Montpellier. * Constance (1179 – 23 June 1222), married firstly King Emeric of Hungary and secondly

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (German: ''Friedrich''; Italian: ''Federico''; Latin: ''Federicus''; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jer ...

. * Alfonso II (1180 – February 1209), Count of Provence, Millau and Razès.Thomas N. Bisson, ''The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History'', (Oxford University Press, 1991), 199. *

Eleanor Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was intro ...

(1182 – February 1226), married

Raymond VI of Toulouse Raymond VI ( oc, Ramon; October 27, 1156 – August 2, 1222) was Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence from 1194 to 1222. He was also Count of Melgueil (as Raymond IV) from 1173 to 1190. Early life Raymond was born at Saint-Gilles, Gard, ...

. * Ramon Berenguer (ca. 1183/85 – died young). *

(1186 – aft. 1241), married Raymond VII of Toulouse, in March 1211. * Ferdinand (1190 – 1249), cistercian monk, Abbot of Montearagón. * Dulcia (1192 – ?), a nun at Sijena.

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Alfonso 02 Of Aragon 1157 births 1196 deaths 12th-century Aragonese monarchs House of Aragon Counts of Barcelona Counts of Provence Catalan-language poets 12th-century Spanish troubadours Medieval child rulers Burials at the Poblet Monastery Aragonese infantes House of Barcelona Spanish male composers