Family of Peter II + and Marie + of MONTPELLIER

Husband:	Peter II + (1157-1213)
Wife:	Marie + of MONTPELLIER (1182-1213)
Children:	Sancha (1205- )
	James I + (1207-1276)
Marriage	15 Jun 1204	Montpellier, Herault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

Husband: Peter II +

Name:	Peter II +
Sex:	Male
Father:	Alfonso II + (1157-1196)
Mother:	Sancha + of CASTILE (1154-1208)
Birth	1157	Huesca, Huesca, Aragon, Spain
Occupation		King of Aragon
Title	frm 25 Apr 1196 to 12 Sep 1213 (age 38-56)	King of Aragon
Death	14 Sep 1213 (age 55-56)	Muret, Haute-Garonne, France
	Cause: killed in the Battle of Muret

Wife: Marie + of MONTPELLIER

Name:	Marie + of MONTPELLIER
Sex:	Female
Father:	William VIII + (1158-1203)
Mother:	Eudoxia + (1162-1202)
Birth	1182	Montpellier, Herault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
Occupation		Countess of Montpellier
Title	frm 15 Jun 1204 to 21 Apr 1213 (age 21-31)	Countess of Montpellier
Title	frm 15 Jun 1204 to 21 Apr 1213 (age 21-31)	Queen Consort of Aragon
Death	21 Jan 1213 (age 30-31)	Rome, Italy

Child 1: Sancha

Name:	Sancha
Sex:	Female
Birth	1205

Child 2: James I +

Note on Husband: Peter II +

Peter II the Catholic (Huesca, 1178[1] – Murèth 12 September 1213) was the King of Aragon (as Pedro II) and Count of Barcelona (as Pere I) from 1196 to 1213.

 

He was the son of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile. In 1205 he acknowledged the feudal supremacy of the Papacy and was crowned in Rome by Pope Innocent III, swearing to defend the Catholic faith (hence his surname, "the Catholic"). He was the first king of Aragon to be crowned by the Pope.

 

In the first decade of the thirteenth century he commissioned the Liber feudorum Ceritaniae, an illustrated codex cartulary for the counties of Cerdagne, Conflent, and Roussillon.

 

On June 15, 1204 he married (as her third husband) Marie of Montpellier, daughter and heiress of William VIII of Montpellier by Eudocia Comnena. She gave him a son, James, but Peter soon discarded her. Marie was popularly venerated as a saint for her piety and marital suffering, but was never canonized; she died in Rome in 1213.

 

He participated in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 that marked the turning point of Arab domination on the Iberian peninsula.

 

Peter returned from Las Navas in autumn 1212 to find that Simon de Montfort had conquered Toulouse, exiling Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, who was Peter's brother-in-law and vassal.[clarification needed] Peter crossed the Pyrenees and arrived at Muret in September 1213 to confront Montfort's army. He was accompanied by Raymond of Toulouse, who tried to persuade Peter to avoid battle and instead starve out Montfort's forces. This suggestion was rejected.

 

The Battle of Muret began on September 12, 1213. The Aragonese forces were disorganized and disintegrated under the assault of Montfort's squadrons. Peter himself was caught in the thick of fighting, and died as a result of a foolhardy act of bravado. He was thrown to the ground and killed. The Aragonese forces broke in panic when their king was slain and the crusaders of Montfort won the day.

 

Upon Peter's death the kingdom passed to his only son by Marie of Montpellier, the future James the Conqueror.

Note on Wife: Marie + of MONTPELLIER

Marie of Montpellier (adapted from Occitan: Maria de Montpelhièr) (1182 – 18 April 1213), was by birth heiress and later Sovereign Lady of Montpellier and by her three marriages Viscountess of Marseille, Countess of Comminges and Queen of Aragon.

 

She was the daughter of William VIII, Lord of Montpellier by his wife Eudokia Komnene, a niece of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos.

Since her birth, Marie was the legitimate heiress of the Lordship of Montpellier, because a clausule of the marriage contract of her parents established that the firstborn child, boy or girl, would succeed in Montpellier on William VIII's death.

 

In April 1187, William VIII repudiated Eudokia Komnene and married with certain Agnes, a relative of the Kings of Aragon. She bore him eight children, six sons and two daughters. Although Eudokia entered in a convent in Aniane as a Benedictine nun, William VIII's second marriage was declared invalid and all the children born from this union declared illegitimate, so Marie remained as the undisputed heiress of Montpellier.

 

Marie married Viscount Raymond Geoffrey II of Marseille, also named Barral, in 1192 or shortly before, but was widowed at the end of that year. Her second marriage, in December 1197, was to Count Bernard IV of Comminges, and at the insistence of her father, Marie renounced to her rights over Montpellier in favor of her eldest half-brother William (IX), son of Agnes.

 

From her marriage with Bernard IV, Marie had two daughters, Mathilde (by marriage Viscountess de la Barthe) and Petronille (by marriage Countess of Astarac). The marriage was, however, notoriously polygamous (Bernard IV had two other living wives) and was finally annulled (some say on Marie's insistence, some say on that of King Peter II of Aragon) in 1201. With this annulment, Marie was once more heir to Montpellier, but her father never recognized her and openly acknowledge his son William IX as his heir.

 

William VIII died in 1202. Marie's half-brother William IX, had taken control of the city, but she asserted her right to it. On 15 June 1204 Marie married Peter II of Aragon and thanks to a revolt against William IX, she was recognised as Lady of Montpellier.

 

From her marriage with Peter II, Marie gave birth two children: Infanta Sancha (born in 1205, died aged one) and Infante James, the future King James I the Conqueror (born on 1 February 1208). Peter II immediately attempted to divorce her, hoping both to marry Maria of Montferrat, Queen of Jerusalem, and to claim Montpellier for himself. Marie's last years were spent in combating these political and matrimonial manoeuvres. Pope Innocent III finally decided in her favour, refusing to permit the divorce. Marie died in Rome (21 January 1213) in her way back to Aragon, and Peter II a few months later (14 September 1213) at the Battle of Muret. Marie and Peter II's only surviving child, James I, inherited Aragon and Montpellier.