Family of Alfonso II + and Sancha + of CASTILE

Husband:	Alfonso II + (1157-1196)
Wife:	Sancha + of CASTILE (1154-1208)
Children:	Peter II + (1157-1213)
	Constanza of ARAGON (1174- )
	Alfonso II + (1174-1209)
	Leonor of ARAGON (1182- )
	Sancho of ARAGON (1184- )
	Sancha of ARAGON (1186- )
	Ramon BERENGUER (1188- )
	Fernando of ARAGON (1190- )
	Dulce of ARAGON (1192- )
Marriage	18 Jan 1174	Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

Husband: Alfonso II +

Name:	Alfonso II +
Sex:	Male
Nickname:	Alfonso the Chaste/Alfonso the Troubadour
Father:	Ramon IV + BERENGUER (1113-1162)
Mother:	Petronila I + of ARAGON (1136-1173)
Birth	1157	Huesca, Huesca, Aragon, Spain
Occupation		King of Aragon
Title	frm 1162 to 25 Apr 1196 (age 4-39)	King of Aragon
Title	frm 1162 to 25 Apr 1196 (age 4-39)	Count of Barcelona
Title	frm 1167 to 1173 (age 9-16)	Count of Provence
Religion		Roman Catholic
Death	25 Apr 1196 (age 38-39)	Perpignan, Pyreness-Orientales, France
Burial		Poblet Monastery

Wife: Sancha + of CASTILE

Child 1: Peter II +

Name:	Peter II +
Sex:	Male
Spouse:	Marie + of MONTPELLIER (1182-1213)
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

Child 2: Constanza of ARAGON

Name:	Constanza of ARAGON
Sex:	Female
Birth	1174

Child 3: Alfonso II +

Child 4: Leonor of ARAGON

Name:	Leonor of ARAGON
Sex:	Female
Birth	1182

Child 5: Sancho of ARAGON

Name:	Sancho of ARAGON
Sex:	Male
Birth	1184

Child 6: Sancha of ARAGON

Name:	Sancha of ARAGON
Sex:	Female
Birth	1186

Child 7: Ramon BERENGUER

Name:	Ramon BERENGUER
Sex:	Male
Birth	1188

Child 8: Fernando of ARAGON

Name:	Fernando of ARAGON
Sex:	Male
Birth	1190

Child 9: Dulce of ARAGON

Name:	Dulce of ARAGON
Sex:	Female
Birth	1192

Note on Husband: Alfonso II +

Alfonso II (Aragon) or Alfons I (Provence and Barcelona; 1157[1] – 25 April 1196), called the Chaste or the Troubadour, was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1162 until his death. He was the son of Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Petronilla of Aragon and the first King of Aragon who was also Count of Barcelona. He is thus sometimes called, like his successors, especially by Catalan historians, the "count-king". He was also Count of Provence from 1167, which he acquired from the heiress Douce II, until 1173, when he ceded it to his brother Berenguer. 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 under the rule of the House of Barcelona.[2]

 

Contents [hide]

1 Reign

2 Literary patronage and poetry

3 Marriage and descendants

4 References

5 External links

 

 

ReignBorn Raymond Berengar (Ramon Berenguer) at Huesca, he ascended the united throne of Aragon and Barcelona as Alfonso, changing his name in deference to the Aragonese, to honour Alfonso I.

 

For most of his reign he was allied with Alfonso VIII of Castile, both against Navarre and against the Moorish taifa kingdoms of the south. In his Reconquista effort Alfonso pushed as far as Teruel, conquering this important stronghold on the road to Valencia in 1171. The same year saw him capturing Caspe.

 

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 Alfonso married Infanta Sancha of Castile, 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 and Segura. Southern areas of Valencia including Denia were thus secured to Aragon.

 

During his reign Aragonese influence north of the Pyrenees reached its zenith, a natural tendency given the affinity between the Occitan and Catalan dominions of the Crown of Aragon. His realms incorporated not only Provence, but also the counties of Cerdanya and Roussillon (inherited in 1172). Béarn and Bigorre paid homage to him in 1187. Alfonso's involvement in the affairs of Languedoc, which would cost the life of his successor, Peter II of Aragon, 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 when he supported his cousin Agalbursa, the widow of the deceased Judge of Arborea, Barison II, in placing her grandson, the child of her eldest daughter Ispella, Hugh, on the throne of Arborea in opposition to Peter of Serra.

 

Alfonso II provided the first land grant to the Cistercian monks on the banks of the Ebro River in the Aragon region, which would become the site of the first Cistercian monastery in this region. Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda was founded in the year 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.

 

He died at Perpignan in 1196.

 

Literary patronage and poetryHe was a noted poet of his time and a close friend of King Richard the Lionheart. One tensó, apparently composed by him and Giraut de Bornelh, 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 and was taken up by Azalais de Porcairagues and Raimbaut of Orange; there was also a partimen on the topic between Dalfi d'Alvernha and Perdigon.

 

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.

 

Marriage and descendants

Alfonso and Sancho, surrounded by the women of court. From the Liber feudorum maior.Wife, Sancha of Castile, daughter of king Alfonso VII of Castile, b. 1155 or 1157, d. 1208

 

1.Constance, married Emeric of Hungary and later Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

2.Eleanor, married Raymond VI of Toulouse

3.Peter the Catholic, successor

4.Douce (Dolça), nun

5.Alfonso, Count of Provence

6.Ferdinand, Abbot of Montearagon, d. after 1227

7.Ramon Berenguer, d. in the 1190s

8.Sancha of Aragon, married Raymond VII, in March 1211. They had one daughter, Joan, and were divorced in 1241.

Note on Wife: Sancha + of CASTILE

Sancha of Castile (21 September 1154/5 – 9 November 1208) was the only surviving child of King Alfonso VII of Castile by his second queen, Richeza of Poland, who was the daughter of Vladislav II, Duke of Silesia.

 

On January 18, 1174 she married King Alfonso II of Aragon at Zaragoza.

 

A patroness of troubadours such as Giraud de Calanson and Peire Raymond, the queen became involved in a legal dispute with her husband concerning properties which formed part of her dower estates. In 1177 she entered the county of Ribagorza and took forcible possession of various castles and fortresses which had belonged to the crown there.

 

After her husband died at Perpignan in 1196, Sancha was relegated to the background of political affairs by her son Pedro II, and she retired from court, withdrawing to the abbey of Nuestra Senora, at Sijena, which she had founded. There she assumed the cross of the Order of St John of Jerusalem which she wore till the end of her life. The queen mother entertained her widowed daughter Queen Constanza of Hungary (1179-1222) at Sijena prior to her leaving Aragon for her marriage with the emperor Frederick II in 1208. She died soon afterwards, aged fifty-four, and was interred before the high altar of the church at Sijena.

 

[edit] IssueSancha and Alfonso had 9 children, but only seven would survive into adulthood:

 

Constance of Aragon, married King Imre of Hungary and later, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Leonor, married Count Raymond VI of Toulouse

Peter II of Aragon (I of Barcelona), b. 1174, killed at the Battle of Muret, September 12, 1213

Dolça (nun)

Alfonso II, Count of Provence, b. 1180, d. 1209

Fernando, Abbot of Montearagon, d. after 1227

Ramon Berenguer, d. in the 1190s