Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II of Aragon nicknamed "the Chaste" or "the Troubadour" (Huesca, March 1-25, 1157-Perpignan, April 25, 1196), was King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona between July 18, 1164 and April 25, 1196 and Marquis of Provence from 1166. After the death of his father Ramón Berenguer IV at the beginning of August 1162, Alfonso II received royal power, but it was not until 1164 when his mother, Queen Petronila, donated the kingdom in his favor.
Name
Eldest son of Ramón Berenguer el Santo, Count of Barcelona since 1131, and since 1137 also Prince of Aragon, and of Petronila, Titular Queen of Aragon, he reigned under the name of Alfonso in honor of Alfonso I the Battler, brother of his grandfather. The documentation of the time confirms that from his birth he was designated by the names of Alfonso and Ramón interchangeably.
Both in the Haxama pact (1158) and in his sacramental testament (1162), the Count of Barcelona Ramón Berenguer IV called his eldest son Ramón. In turn, in the testament of Queen Petronila I of Aragon, his mother calls his heir Alfonso and points out that her husband called him Ramón. In the two known diplomas personally signed by the future Alfonso II during the life of his father Ramón Berenguer IV, he used "Alfonso" as his name; once he was king, all the documents were signed with the name of Alfonso and there is no documented case in which he signed as Ramón.
The names of the children of the marriage were already those that the lineage of the House of Aragon would use: Alfonso and Pedro.
The succession of Ramiro II of Aragon
In August 1162 Ramón Berenguer IV died, and in his will he conferred royal authority on his eldest son, that is, the ability to reign and exercise command in Aragon and Barcelona. So, the power to govern it came to Alfonso from his father, who in turn had received it from Ramiro II. After his father's death, the first act that Alfonso carried out was to give his confirmation to the fueros of Zaragoza. Aragonese and Catalan notables. Then, like his grandfather Ramiro II and his father Ramón Berenguer did, he began to travel through the kingdom of Aragon to receive the fidelity homage of the vassals of that kingdom. His presence in Calatayud is dated September 1, 1162, together with the Archbishop of Tarragona and the Bishops of Barcelona, Zaragoza and Tarazona, as well as the Count of Pallars and other Catalan and Aragonese magnates, such as Guillermo Ramón de Moncada (seneschal), Blasco Romeo (butler), Guillermo de Cervera, Ponce de Mataplana and Guillermo de Castellvell, surely who were going to constitute the council of regency that would govern during his minority. At the end of the year he is also recognized in Tarazona, Alcañiz, Huesca and Jaca. On September 27, King Ferdinand II of León was accepted as guardian of Afonso and his kingdom by Aragonese and Catalan notables, and in turn the King of Leon recognized Alfonso as King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona. But in October, Petronila As queen owner, she convened a Curia in Huesca where the last wills of Ramón Berenguer were made public. In them it was revealed that King Henry II of England had been appointed as guardian, which allowed the magnates freedom of action to establish a regency. In January 1163 he was named King of Aragon, Marquis of Lleida and Tortosa, despite the fact that the oath of the people of Tortosa would not take place until the end of April. Later he obtained the oath of the inhabitants of Barcelona as his subjects on February 24; from then on he had to travel all over the so-called "Old Catalonia" obtaining the fidelity of his vassals in these lands. On April 25 of that year it is the inhabitants of Tortosa who swear vassal homage to him.
Nevertheless, Petronila was still queen, and Alfonso II could not have full legal control of his mother's kingdom, until June 18, 1164, when the queen resigned from the crown in her son. In said document Petronila, who appears as Queen of Aragon and Countess of Barcelona, made a donation to her son, whom she mentions as King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, of the entire Kingdom of Aragon, entirely as Ramiro II owned it. After Petronila's resignation, Alfonso II was sworn in as King of Aragon in Zaragoza on November 1 of that same year.
This was the legal solution to the inheritance problem, and from then on Alfonso was king with full rights and was recognized as such by the Pope. His domains, after the subsequent incorporation of the Kingdom of Valencia, and since the last decade of the XIII century, they began to receive the name of Crown of Aragon, although between the XII century and the xiv the most widespread expression to refer to the lands and towns of the king of Aragon was that of "Casal d'Aragó".
Reign
Alfonso II ruled as King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Marquis of Provence; Iglesias Costa points out that the title corresponding to Sobrarbe and Ribagorza was already omitted. These were former counties attached to the Kingdom of Aragon in the time of Ramiro I. Counties that had been attached to the county of Barcelona for several generations, such as those of Girona, Osona and Besalú.
He married Sancha de Castilla (aunt of Alfonso VIII of Castilla) in Zaragoza on January 18, 1174, at the age of 16, at which, according to Canon Law, a married man reached the age of majority. In addition, with this he was knighted and was able to act at the head of his kingdom without the tutoring of the magnates who had exercised it since 1162.
He incorporated the Occitan lands of Provence, Roussillon and Pallars Jussá into his kingdom. He signed with his nephew, the Castilian king Alfonso VIII, the treaty of Cazola in 1179, but years later and through the treaty of Huesca (1191), he allied himself with the monarchs of León, Portugal and Navarra against hegemony Castilian. His son Pedro II succeeds him in the peninsular possessions.
He supported the arts and the norms of courtly love and he himself practiced poetry, exchanging writings with important troubadours of the time, such as Giraut de Bornelh.
Occitan politics
In 1166, Ramon Berenguer III of Provence died during the siege of the rebellious city of Nice, leaving only one daughter, Dulce. The Aragonese regency, alleging the lack of male offspring, got the county of Provence to end up in the hands of Alfonso el Casto, first cousin of Ramón Berenguer III. In order to preserve Provence, it became necessary to fight the uprisings in the Camargue area by supporters of Ramón V de Tolosa. In 1167, with the support of the viscounts of Montpellier, the Provençal episcopate and the House of Baux, the regents managed to consolidate their dominance over Provence. Despite this, the house of Tolosa continued to operate in the area, until in 1176 Alfonso the Chaste concluded the Peace of Tarascón with Ramón V.
In this treaty it was established that, in exchange for the payment of thirty thousand silver marks, the count of Tolosa relinquished his claims on Provence, as well as the regions of Gavaldá and Carladés. This peace meant the strengthening of Alfonso's position in Occitania. Between 1168 and 1173, Alfonso took advantage of the conflict between Ramón and Enrique II of England to obtain the vassalage of numerous Occitan lords, thanks to his status as an ally of Enrique II.
After the peace of Tarascon was signed, Alfonso II was able to dedicate himself to putting down a new revolt in Nice and to prevailing in the eastern part of Provence. In addition, realizing that the county was a region far from Aragon and Catalonia, and surrounded by possessions of the Count of Tolosa, Alfonso II entrusted the government of Provence to his brother Pedro, henceforth Ramón Berenguer IV of Provenza, granting him the title of count. Alfonso did not renounce his rights, since Ramón Berenguer IV of Provenza governed the county only as a delegate of his brother.
Once his positions in Occitania had been secured, Alfonso II made the decision to annul the vassalage of Provence to the Emperor Federico Barbarossa, admitted in 1162 by Ramón Berenguer III in the imperial assembly of Turin. Thus, in 1178, the act of coronation of Federico as King of Burgundy was attended by Ramón V of Tolosa but not Alfonso or his brother Ramón Berenguer IV of Provence. On the other hand, during the crisis of the Holy See, King Alfonso unequivocally supported Pope Alexander III against the antipopes promoted by the imperial faction.
In 1181 the position of the House of Aragon in Occitania entered into crisis: the count of Tolosa invaded the lands of the viscount of Narbonne and Ramón Berenguer IV of Provence was assassinated near Montpellier. Alfonso II named his brother Sancho the new count of Provence, but had to dismiss him in 1185 for having made illegal deals with Toulouse and Genoa. However, the situation took a turn favorable to the interests of Alfonso. On the one hand, in 1189, King Richard the Lionheart, son and successor of Henry II of England, had allied himself with the Count of Tolosa; on the other, Ramón V could not defeat the communal revolt of Tolosa, which became a municipal republic governed by consuls. At this juncture, Alfonso II of Aragon managed to arrange a peace with Ramón V of Tolosa on the same terms as that of 1176 and consolidate his domain from Nice to the Atlantic with his own possessions (Provence, Milhau, Gavaldá and Roerga), vassalage over the the Marquises of Busca in Piedmont and the lords of Montpellier, as well as the recognition by the Counts of Rasez, Carlat, Foix, Bigorra and the Viscounts of Nimes, Beziers, Carcassonne and Bearne of having their domains in the fiefdom of the King of Aragon.
In 1192, after returning from the crusade, Richard the Lionheart allied with Ramón V of Tolosa against Alfonso II. King Alfonso managed to strengthen his positions in Languedoc, by arranging the marriage of his son Alfonso with Gersenda de Sabrán, daughter of William VI of Forcalquier, former ally of Ramón V of Tolosa. The peace of 1195, signed between Alfonso and Ramón VI of Tolosa, son and successor of Ramón V, put an end to this conflict without altering the correlation of forces between the powers constituted in Occitania.
Peninsular policy
The Iberian Peninsula occupied a secondary political position compared to Occitania during the reign of Alfonso II. The King of Aragon was involved in the political game of the Christian kingdoms in order to achieve the re-annexation of Navarre, separated from Aragon since the death of Alfonso I of Aragon in 1134. On the other hand, Alfonso II also directed attacks against Al -Andalus, either to obtain tributes or territorial gains.
In 1162 the Aragonese regency entered into an alliance between Alfonso II and Fernando II de León to divide up Navarre. However, in 1168, a truce was established with Sancho VI of Navarre. The Navarrese front being then free, an attack against Castile began. The attack failed and led to the Perpetual Peace of Sahagún in 1170, signed by Alfonso VIII of Castile and Alfonso the Chaste. In addition, putting into practice an agreement stipulated by the Treaty of Lleida of 1157, the King of Aragon had to marry Sancha, Alfonso VIII's aunt.
King Ibn Mardanis of Murcia, who dominated all of Xarq al-Andalus or eastern part of al-Andalus, besieged by the Christians and the Almohads, had become a tributary of Aragon. Despite this, in 1169 the regency began the conquest of Matarraña followed by the occupation of the territories to the south of Aragon in 1171. Teruel was founded, the base for possible attacks against Valencia. In Catalonia, between 1169 and 1170, a Saracen revolt in the Sierra de Prades had to be seriously suppressed.
In 1172, with Ibn Mardanis already dead, Alfonso II besieged Valencia, where he entered into an alliance with the new Saracen king in exchange for doubling the tribute to be paid; Thus, the King of Aragon, in agreement with the Emir of Valencia, attacked Játiva and Murcia, from where he had to withdraw as a result of an incursion by Navarre on the borders of Aragon.
The peace of Sahagún in 1170, as well as the greater territorial power of Castile, subjected the peninsular action of Alfonso II to the designs of Alfonso VIII; In this way, in exchange for having collaborated in the conquest of Cuenca (1177), annexed to Castile, which blocked the expansion possibilities of Aragon, Alfonso II only obtained from the King of Castile the resignation of Aragonese vassalage for Zaragoza, imposed by Alfonso VII of Castile to Ramón Berenguer IV. On the other hand, in the negotiation of the future expansion by al-Andalus to the Treaty of Cazola (1179), Alfonso II ceded the conquest of Murcia to Castile, in exchange for Alfonso VIII suppressing the vassalage of the kings of Aragon by Valencia, once they conquered it.
In 1175, the Aran Valley became part of the Crown of Aragon, through the Treaty of Amparanza (de amparo or Emparança, in Catalan) signed by King Alfonso II with the inhabitants of the valley, which separated from the county of Comminges.
In 1177 he probably participated in the siege of Cuenca, later heading towards Murcia in order to force its taifa king to pay him the tributes he owed him as a vassal.
Between 1181 and 1186, Alfonso II concentrated all his efforts in Provence and the Mediterranean where, in addition to unsuccessfully negotiating with the King of Sicily to organize an expedition against Majorca, he helped the House of Baus to acquire in Sardinia the domain of the court of Arborea.
When he resumed his participation in peninsular affairs, Alfonso II distanced himself from Alfonso VIII; the King of Castile had abandoned an alliance agreed with the King of Aragon to divide up Navarre, once La Rioja had been annexed. In addition, he maintained territorial claims on the Aragonese borders and, finally, had made deals with Federico Barbarossa.
For this reason, in 1190, Alfonso II reached an understanding with Navarre, León and Portugal, who were at enmity with Castile. After the defeat of Alfonso VIII in the Battle of Alarcos (1195), the consistency of the Almohad advance as a common danger in all the peninsular Christian kingdoms, as well as the indications of Pope Celestino II, pushed Alfonso II to negotiate a joint operation with Alfonso VIII of Castile against the Muslims, an operation that, however, was never carried out.
Within the Crown of Aragon, during the reign of Alfonso II, the legal and territorial structure of what would become Catalonia was consolidated: the veguerías were established as a regional division, the limits of the territory were defined in the Peace and Truce assembly from 1173 as "from Salses to Tortosa and Lérida" (a Salsis usque ad Dertusam et Ilerda), and promoted the preparation of the inventories of county rights (Liber Feudorum Maior, around 1194).
Burial in Poblet
Having to choose to be buried in the paternal mausoleum in the Monastery of Ripoll, or to be buried in the conjugal mausoleum of the Monastery of Sigena, he chose the Monastery of Poblet so as not to raise suspicions. His will specified that, in case of having conquered Valencia in life, he was to be buried in El Puig (Valencia), a place that he had already donated to the Poblet monastery in February 1176, a wish also expressed by his son Pedro II of Aragon and also died without fulfilling it.
Several of the counts of Barcelona since Wifredo the Hairy had been buried in Ripoll, while others were buried in other places, including the monastery of San Pablo del Campo and the cathedrals of Barcelona and Girona.
King Alfonso II was buried in the wall of the presbytery, in a box. After the reform of the royal tombs promoted by Pedro the Ceremonious, the tomb was installed in the first arch of the sculptural complex.
Descendants
On January 18, 1174, he married Sancha de Castilla in the Cathedral of El Salvador in Zaragoza. From this marriage were born:
- Peter II of Aragon, the Catholic (1178-1213), king of Aragon, with the name of Peter II and count of Barcelona, with the name of Pedro I;
- Constance (1179-1222), married in 1198 with Emerico I of Hungary and in 1210 with Federico II Hohenstaufen, Sacro Emperor Roman Germánico, king of Sicily and king of Jerusalem;
- Alfonso (1180-1209), Count of Provence, with the name of Alfonso II;
- Leonor (1182-1226), married in 1202 with Ramon VI de Tolosa:
- Sancha (1186-1241), married in 1211 with Ramon VII de Tolosa;
- Sancho, dead young.
- Ramon Berenguer, young dead.
- Fernando (1190-1249), he entered as a cistern monk in the Monastery of Poblet and in 1205 he was taken from Poblet to become Abbot of Montearagón.
- Sweet (1192-?), he entered as a nun in the Monastery of Sijena, becoming a comedian of the Order of Saint John.
Succession
In his will, Alfonso II ordered that, upon his death, which occurred in April 1196, his territories be divided between his two sons: Pedro, King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona (1196-1213), and Alfonso, Count of Provence, Millau and County of Gévaudan (1196-1209).
With this testamentary provision, in addition to endowing his youngest son with a domain, the king sanctioned the need for Provence to have its own governor. In 1185, Alfonso II had named his son Alfonso, a minor, count of Provence; for this reason, the king entrusted the government of Provence to attorneys, such as Roger Bernardo I de Foix (1185-1188), Barral de Marseille (1188-1192) and Lope Jiménez.
| Predecessor: Petronila I (property queen 1157-1164) Ramón Berenguer IV de Barcelona (princeps et dominator regni 1137-1162) |  King of Aragon Count of Barcelona 1164-1196 | Successor: Peter II |
| Predecessor: Sweet I | Count of Pallars Jussá 1192-1196 | |
| Predecessor: Gerardo II de Rosellón | Count of the Rosellion 1172-1185 | Successor: Sancho I |
| Predecessor: Ramón Berenguer III de Provenza | Count of Provence 1166-1196 | Successor: Alfonso II de Provenza |
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