| Alfonso Ii Of Aragon |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT ALFONSO II OF ARAGON | |
| house of aragon | |
| aragonese monarchs | |
| counts of barcelona | |
| counts of provence | |
| catalan-language poets | |
| troubadours | |
| alfonso ii of aragon | |
| 1152 births | |
| 1196 deaths | |
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Alfonso II of Aragon (Alfons I of Provence and Barcelona, 1152 - 1196 ), known as ''the Chaste'' or ''the Troubadour '' was king of Aragon and count of Barcelona from 1162 to 1196 . He was the son of Ramon Berenguer IV Of Barcelona and Petronila Of Aragon . Born Ramon Berenguer, he ascended the united thrones of Aragon ( 1164 ) and Barcelona (1162) as Alfonso, changing his name in compliment to the Aragonese, to honor King Alfonso I Of Aragon . He was the first ruler to be both king of Aragon and count of Barcelona. He was also Count Of Provence from 1181 to 1185 . For most of his reign he was allied with King 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 Saragossa Alfonso married infanta Sancha Of Castile , sister of the Castilean king. Another milestone in this alliance was a formal treaty the two kings concluded at Cazorla in 1179 , delineating zones of conquest in the south along the watershed of rivers Júcar and Segura . Southern areas of Valencia including Denia were thus secured to Aragon. During his reign Catalonia n influence north of the Pyrenees reached its zenith. His realms incorporated not only Provence , but also the counties of Cerdanya and Roussillon (inherited in 1172 ). Béarn and Bigorre paid hommage to him in 1187 . Alfonso's involvement in the affairs of Languedoc , which will cost the life of his successor, Peter II Of Aragon , for the moment proved highly beneficial, strengthening Catalonian trade and stimulating emigration from the north to colonise the newly reconquered lands in Aragon. King Alfonso died in 1196 . He was a noted Poet of his time and a close friend of King Richard The Lionheart . Alfonso's marriages and descendants
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