473. King Alfonso Raimundez
VII was born on 1 Mar 1104/5. He died on 21 Aug 1157 in Fresneda, Castile.
(111) From Encyclopedia Britannica Online,
article titled "Alfonso VI:"
"byname ALFONSO THE EMPEROR, Spanish ALFONSO EL EMPERADOR, king of Leon
and Castile from 1126 to 1157, son of Raymond of Burgundy and the grandson of
Alfonso VI, whose imperial title he assumed. Though his reign saw the apogee
of the imperial idea in medieval Spain and though he won notable victories against
the Moors, he remains a somewhat hazy figure.
"His childhood was complicated by the struggle between his mother Urraca
and her second husband, Alfonso I of Aragon, for control of Castile and Leon.
Only on Urraca's death (1126) did his stepfather finally relinquish his claims.
Alfonso was then formally accepted as emperor by the kings of Aragon and Pamplona
(Navarre), by the count of Barcelona, and by various Hispano-Moorish rulers.
His capture of Almerâia (1147) from the Moors won him renown, as did other
victories, but in the end these led to little
expansion of territory. Almerâia was lost again in 1157 and Câordoba
remained in his hands for only three years. In 1146 a new invasion of North African
fanatics, the Almohads, 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.
"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
of Portugal 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
and Ferdinand II of Leon. This act finally destroyed the concept of empire
in medieval Spain."
He was married to Berenguela Berenger in 1128 in Saldana,
Spain. Berenguela Berenger died on 3 Feb 1148/49.
King Alfonso Raimundez VII and Berenguela Berenger had the following children:
+558 i.
King Sancho III.
+559 ii.
King Ferdinand II.
+560 iii.
Sancha (Beatrice) of Castile.
561 iv.
Constance of Castile was born after 1140.
(112) She died on 4 Oct 1160.
562 v.
Garcia of Castile was born before Mar 1141/42. Died young.
563 vi.
Alfonso of Castile was born after 1144. Died young.
Return to Table of Contents