Alfonso I of Aragón 1
General Notes: Alfonso I (Alfonso the Battler), d. 1134, king of Aragón and Navarre (1104–34), brother and successor of Peter I. The husband of Urraca, queen of Castile, he fought unsuccessfully to extend his authority over her kingdom. He also fought energetically against the Moors, from whom he captured Zaragossa (1118), Calatayud (1120), and many other towns. His raid (1125) into Andalusia bolstered Christian morale, and he encouraged Christians in Muslim lands to settle in his domain. Alfonso was killed in battle against his stepson, Alfonso VII of Castile, and was succeeded by his brother Ramiro II in Aragón and by García IV in Navarre. Noted events in his life were: • Acceded: King of Aragón and Navarre, 1104. Alfonso married Urraca of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VI Ferdinandez and Constance of Burgundy, in Oct 1109 in Monzón, Spain. (Urraca of Castile was born circa 1081 and died on 8 Mar 1126 in Saldana.) Marriage Notes: The most personal note we have of Alfonso comes from the Muslim historian Ibn al-Athir, who relates that once, asked about his failure to take concubines, Alfonso responded that a real soldier lives with men, not women." The remark has the ring of truth to it. Certainly Alfonso had not been married before his luckless match with Urraca in the fall of 1109. He was probably thirty-six at that time to his bride's twenty-nine. After his definitive separation from her, he would never attempt marriage again, dying childless in 1134. 2 |