ALFONSO II of ARAGON and I of CATALONIA. – Son of the Count of Barcelona Raymond Berengar IV and of Petronilla, granddaughter of Alfonso I and daughter of Ramiro II and of the Aragonese, born in 1152, died in 1196. At his father’s death he obtained the crown of Aragon under the name of ALFONSO II of Aragon and I of Catalonia. During his reign Catalonia extended its dominions beyond the Pyrenees. First the Duchy of Provence (1167), then the County of Roussillon (1172), and later Béarn and Bigorre (1187) were compelled to acknowledge Catalan supremacy. Son-in-law of Alfonso VII of Castile, ALFONSO aided his father-in-law in the war against Navarre and the Muslims. During incursions into Muslim territory he founded Teruel (1170). Later he drew closer to Navarre to the detriment of Alfonso VII. He died at Perpignan, leaving the crown to Peter the Catholic, II of Aragon and I of Catalonia.
ALFONSO II D'ARAGONA E I DI CATALOGNA
BIBL.: B. Capasso, Le fonti della storia delle province napoletane, Napoli 1902, pp. 171, 175, 195, 2, 196, 224, 5; J. Miret i Sans, Itinerario del rey A. I, de Cat., II en A., in Bol. de la R. Ac. de B. L. de Barcelona, 2 (1903-1904), pp. 357, 389, 437; B. Sánchez Alonso, Fuentes de la historia española e hispano-americana, 2a ed., Madrid 1927, pp. 1843, 1883; G. Wincke, Staat und Kirche in Katalonien und Aragon unterird des Mittelalters, I, Münster in V. 1931; id., Documenta selecta numitis civitatis Aragona-Catalunianae et ecclesiae relationes illustrantia (Biblioteca historica de la biblioteca Balmes, XV), Barcelona 1936. Mario Scaduto