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Birth:          Mar 1157 Villa Mayor del Valle, Spain
Death:          25 Apr 1196 Perpignan, Pyrenees-Orientales, France
Burial:         Monastery of Nuestra Senora, Poblet

Notes
Count of Tarragona, Gerona, Cerdagne
Marquis of Provence
b 1/25 Mar 1157
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_II_of_Aragon
Alfonso II (1–25 March 1157[1][2][3] – 25 April 1196), called the Chaste or the 
Troubadour, was the King of Aragon and, as Alfons I, the Count of Barcelona from 
1164 until his death.[1][4] The eldest son of Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona 
and Queen Petronilla of Aragon, he was the first King of Aragon who was also Count 
of Barcelona. He was also Count of Provence,[5] which he conquered from Douce II, 
from 1166 until 1173, when he ceded it to his brother, Ramon Berenguer III. 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.[6]
Reign[edit]

Born at Huesca,[2] Alfonso, called indistinctly from birth Alfonso and Ramon,[7] 
ascended the united throne of Aragon and Barcelona as Alfonso, in deference to the 
Aragonese, to honour Alfonso the Battler.[8]

For most of his reign he was allied with Alfonso VIII of Castile, both against Navarre 
and against the Moorish taifas 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 Sancha, sister of the Castilian king.[9] 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. Alfonso also 
reached an agreement, the Treaty of Sangüesa (1168), with Sancho VI of Navarre 
dividing the territory of the Taifa of Murcia between them.

During his reign Aragonese influence north of the Pyrenees reached its zenith, a 
natural tendency given the affinity between the Occitan, Catalan and Aragonese 
dominions of the Crown of Aragon. His realms incorporated not only Provence (from 
1166 or just before),[5] but also the counties of Cerdanya (1168) and Roussillon 
(inherited in 1172).[10] 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. The Monasterio de Piedra was founded in 1194 with thirteen 
monks from Poblet Monastery, in an old castle next to the Piedra river, the Real 
Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda 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.

He died at Perpignan in 1196.

Literary patronage and poetry[edit]

He was a noted poet of his time and a close friend of King Richard the Lionheart. One 
tensó, "Be·m plairia, Seingner En Reis",[11] 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[edit]

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 Imre of Hungary and secondly 
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
Alfonso II (1180 – February 1209), Count of Provence, Millau and Razès.
Eleanor (1182 – February 1226), married Count Raymond VI of Toulouse.
Ramon Berenguer (ca. 1183/85 – died young).
Sancha (1186 – aft. 1241), married Count Raymond VII of Toulouse, in March 1211
Ferdinand (1190 – 1249), cistercian monk, Abbot of Montearagón.
Dulcia (1192 – ?), a nun at Sijena.

Parents
____ Raymond (Ramon) Berenguer IV (1113 - 6 Aug 1162)
OF ARAGON Petronilla (Petronel) I (1136 - 15 Oct 1173)

Siblings
____ Alfonso II "The Chaste" (Mar 1157 - 25 Apr 1196)
____ Dulce (Aldonza) (ABT 1159 - 1 Sep 1198)

Marriage To ____ Sancha (Sanchia) (21 Sep 1154 - 9 Nov 1208)
    m. 18 Jan 1174 Zaragoza, Spain his 2d

Notes

Parents
____ Alfonso VII "Pierre-Raimund" (1 Mar 1105 - 21 Aug 1157)
OF POLAND (OF SILICIA) Richeza (Richilde) (Ryksa) (ABT 1138 - 16 Jun 1185)

Children by ____ Sancha (Sanchia) 21 Sep 1154 - 9 Nov 1208
OF ARAGON Alfonso II (1174 - Feb 1209)
____ Pedro II "the Catholic" (ABT 1175 - 14 Sep 1213)

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