Encyclopedia
Alphonse II King of Aragon (1164–1196). He was the first king of the Crown of Aragon and son of the Queen Petronila of Aragon (1157–1164) and the count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer IV (1137–1162). Aware of the new political reality that he embodied as King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, Alphonse II made significant changes to his iconography. Among the most important of these is the binomial that he incorporated to his pendent seals; that is, a portrayal of Alphonse enthroned as king on the obverse and Alphonse as count and mounted on a horse on the reverse. As a known bibliophile and as a result of his desire to reorganise his chancellery following the union of various political entities, he ordered the compilation of the Liber Feudorum Maior, the folios of which demonstrate his potestas regia through their lavish iconography. He was no less innovative in his coinage, on which he included, for the first time, the image of his head wearing the crown.
- royal images
- royal iconography
- kings of Aragon
- Crown of Aragon
- Alphonse II of Aragon
Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona and Prince of Aragon, died on 6 August 1162. He had been the de facto ruler of the kingdom following the agreement signed with King Ramiro II on 11 August 1137, which led to his marriage to Princess Petronila.
In 1164, Petronila made a de jure donation of the kingdom of Aragon (of which there is a miniature in the Liber Feudorum Maior) to her first son in an event of paramount importance for the kingdom of Aragon and for the county of Barcelona insofar as it united both political entities in a confederate system under the rule of the same sovereign, Alphonse II, nicknamed the Chaste or, because of his predilection for the arts, the Troubadour. For the first time, the count was also king, a legal combination that was resolved by giving pre-eminence to the royal title. Well aware of the relevance and significance of his person as the latest link in the royal chain, and in order to make visible the continuity of the regia stirps that he represented, he revived the name and, to great effect, the signum regis used by Alphonse I, the last and legendary de facto king of Aragon (about Alphonse II, see: [1][2][3][4][5][6]).
References
- Caruana, J. Itinerario de Alfonso II de Aragón. Estudios de Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón 1961, 7, 73–298.
- Lacarra, J.M. Alfonso II el Casto, rey de Aragón y Conde de Barcelona. In VII Congreso de Historia de la Corona de Aragón; Universitat de Barcelona: Barcelona, Spain, 1962; Volume I, pp. 95–120.
- Garballo, A.J. Alfonso II. In Los Reyes de Aragón; Centellas, R., Ed.; Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada: Zaragoza, Spain, 1993; pp. 67–72.
- Sánchez, A.I. Alfonso II Rey de Aragón, Conde de Barcelona y Marqués de Provenza. Documentos (1162–1196); Institución Fernando el Católico: Zaragoza, Spain, 1995.
- Ruiz, J.E. A propósito de Alfonso, rey de Aragón, conde de Barcelona y marqués de Provenza; Real Academia de Buenas Letras: Barcelona, Spain, 1996.
- Jenkins, E. The Mediterranean world of Alfonso II and Peter II of Aragon (1162–1213); AIAA: New York, NY, USA, 2012.
