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Alfonso VII
Alfonso VII (born 1104?—died August 1157, Fresneda, Castile) was theking ofLeon andCastile from 1126 to 1157, son of Raymond of Burgundy and the grandson ofAlfonso VI, whose imperial title he assumed. Though his reign saw theapogee of the imperial idea inmedievalSpain and though he won notable victories against the Moors, he remains a somewhat hazy figure.
His childhood was complicated by the struggle between his motherUrraca and her second husband,Alfonso I of Aragon, for control ofCastile and Leon. Only on Urraca’s death (1126) did his stepfather finally relinquish his claims. Alfonso was then formally accepted asemperor by the kings of Aragon and Pamplona (Navarre), by the count of Barcelona, and by various Hispano-Moorish rulers. His capture ofAlmería (1147) from the Moors won him renown, as did other victories, but in the end these led to little expansion of territory. Almería was lost again in 1157 andCórdoba remained in his hands for only three years. In 1146 a new invasion of North Africanfanatics, theAlmohads, began. Alfonso now allied himself with the Almoravids and devoted the rest of his life to a series of campaigns to check Almohad expansion in southern Spain.
- Byname:
- Alfonso The Emperor
- Spanish:
- Alfonso El Emperador
- Born:
- 1104?
- Died:
- August 1157, Fresneda,Castile
- Title / Office:
- king (1126-1157),Castile
- emperor (1126-1157),Castile
- Notable Family Members:
- motherUrraca
- sonFerdinand II
- sonSancho III
Despite the importance of the imperial idea at this time, peninsular fractionalist tendencies were by no means dormant. Alfonso was unable to prevent the establishment ofPortugal as an independent kingdom (1140) and, in his will, he himself divided his realm, as was the Spanish custom, between his two sons,Sancho III of Castile andFerdinand II of Leon. This act finally destroyed the concept of empire in medieval Spain.
