Everything about Alfonso Vii Of Le N totally explained
Alfonso VII (
1 March 1105 –
21 August 1157), called
the Emperor, became the
King of Galicia in
1111 and
King of León and
Castile in
1126. He was crowned "
Emperor of All the Spains" in
1135. He was the son of
Urraca of Castile and
Raymond of Burgundy, the first of the
House of Burgundy to rule in
Hispania.
Alfonso was a dignified and somewhat enigmatic figure. His rule was characterised by the renewed supremacy of the western kingdoms of Christian
Hispania over the eastern (
Navarre and
Aragón) after the reign of
Alfonso the Battler. He also sought to make the imperial title meaningful in practice, though his attempts to rule over both Christian and Muslim populations was even less successful. His hegemonic intentions never saw fruition, however. During his tenure,
Portugal became
de facto independent, in 1128, and was recognized as
de jure independent, in 1143. He was a patron of poets, including, probably, the
troubadour Marcabru.
Succession to three kingdoms
In 1111,
Diego Gelmírez,
Bishop of Compostela, and the count of
Traba crowned Alfonso King of Galicia in the cathedral of
Santiago de Compostela. He was but a child at the time, but his mother had already (1109) succeeded to the united throne of León-Castile-Galicia and desired to assure her son's prospects and groom him for his eventual succession. On
10 March 1126, after the death of his mother, he was crowned in
León and immediately began the recovery of the
Kingdom of Castile, which was then under the domination of Alfonso the Battler. By the
Peace of Támara of 1127, the Battler recognised Alfonso VII of Castile. The territory in the far east of his dominion, however, had gained much independence during the rule of his mother and experienced many rebellions. After his recognition in Castile, Alfonso fought to curb the autonomy of the local barons.
When Alfonso the Battler,
King of Navarre and
Aragón, died without descendants in 1134, he willed his kingdom to the
military orders. The aristocracy of both kingdoms didn't accept this and
García Ramírez, Count of
Monzón was elected in Navarre while Alfonso pretended to the throne of Aragón. The nobles chose another candidate in the dead king's brother,
Ramiro II. Alfonso responded by occupying
La Rioja, conquering
Zaragoza, and governing both realms in unison. From this point, the arms of Zaragoza began to appear in those of León.
In several skirmishes, he defeated the joint Navarro-Aragonese army and put the kingdoms to vassalage. He had the strong support of the lords north of the
Pyrenees, who held lands as far as the
River Rhône. In the end, however, the combined forces of the Navarre and Aragón were too much for his control. At this time, he helped
Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, in his wars with the other
Catalan counties to unite the old
Marca Hispanica.
Imperial rule
A vague tradition had always assigned the title of emperor to the sovereign who held León.
Sancho the Great considered the city the
imperiale culmen and minted coins with the inscription
Imperator totius Hispaniae after being crowned in it. Such a sovereign was considered the most direct representative of the
Visigothic kings, who had been themselves the representatives of the
Roman Empire. But though appearing in charters, and claimed by
Alfonso VI of Castile and Alfonso the Battler, the title had been little more than a flourish of rhetoric.
In 1135, Alfonso was crowned "Emperor of All the Spains" in the
Cathedral of León. By this, he probably wished to assert his authority over the entire peninsula and his absolute leadership of the
Reconquista. He appears to have striven for the formation of a national unity which
Hispania had never possessed since the fall of the
Visigothic kingdom. The elements he'd to deal with couldn't be welded together. The weakness of Aragón enabled him to make his superiority effective, although
Afonso I of Portugal never recognised him as
liege, thereby affirming Portugal's independence. In 1143, he himself recognised this
status quo and consented to the marriage of
Petronila of Aragón with
Ramon Berenguer IV, a union which combined Aragón and Catalonia into the
Crown of Aragón.
Reconquista
Alfonso was a pious prince. He introduced the
Cistercians to
Hispania by founding a monastery at
Fitero. He adopted a militant attitude towards the
Moors of
al-Andalus, especially the
Almoravids. From 1139, Alfonso led a series of
crusades subjugating the Almoravids. He took the fortress of
Oreja near
Toledo and, as the
Chronica Adefonsis Imperatoris tells it:
In 1144, Alfonso advanced as far as
Córdoba. Two years later, the
Almohads invaded and he was forced to refortify his southern frontier and come to an agreement with the Almoravid
Ibn Ganiya for their mutual defence. When
Pope Eugene III preached the
Second Crusade, Alfonso VII, with García Ramírez of Navarre and Ramon Berenguer IV, led a mixed army of
Catalans and
Franks, with a
Genoese-
Pisans navy, in a crusade against the rich port city of
Almería, which was occupied in October 1147. It was Castile's first
Mediterranean seaport. In 1151, Alfonso signed the
Treaty of Tudilén with Ramon Berenguer. The treaty defined the zones of conquest in Andalusia in order to prevent the two rulers from coming into conflict. Six years later, Almería entered into Almohad possession. Alfonso was returining from an expedition against them when he died in pass of
Muradel in the
Sierra Morena, possibly at
Viso del Marqués (
Ciudad Real).
Legacy
Alfonso was at once a patron of the church and a protector, though not a supporter of, the Muslims, who were a minority of his subjects. His reign ended in an unsuccessful campaign against the rising power of the Almohads. Though he wasn't actually defeated, his death in the pass, while on his way back to
Toledo, occurred in circumstances which showed that no man could be what he claimed to be — "king of the men of the two religions." Furthermore, by dividing his realm between his son, he ensured that Christendom wouldn't present the new Almohad threat with a united front.
Family
In November
1128, he married
Berenguela, daughter of Ramon Berenguer III. She died in
1149. Their children were:
- Sancho III of Castile (1134-1158)
- Ramon, living 1136, died in infancy
- Ferdinand II of León (1137-1188)
- Constance (c.1138-1160), married Louis VII of France
- Sancha (c.1139-1179), married Sancho VI of Navarre
- García (c.1142-1145/6)
- Alfonso (c.1144-by 1149)
In
1152, Alfonso married
Richeza of Poland, the daughter of
Ladislaus II the Exile. They had:
Ferdinand, (1153-1157)
Sancha (1155-1208), the wife of Alfonso II of Aragón.
Alfonso also had two mistresses, having children by both. By an Asturian noblewoman named Guntroda Pérez, he'd an illegitimate daughter, Urraca (1132-1164), who married García Ramírez of Navarre, the mother retiring to a convent in 1133. Later in his reign, he formed a liaison with Urraca Fernández, widow of count Rodrigo Martínez and daughter of Fernando García of Hita, an apparent grandson of García Sánchez III of Navarre, having a daughter Stephanie 'the Unfortunate' (1148-1180), who was killed by her jealous husband, Fernan Ruiz de Castro.
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