General Notes

Peter II, king of Aragon (1174-1213), son of Alphonso II., and Sancia, daughter of Alphonso VIII. of Castile, had a very marked and curious personal character. As a Spanish prince, he was a crusader, and took a distinguished part in the victory over the Almohades at the Navas de Tolosa in 1212. His lands to the north of the Pyrenees brought him in touch with the Albigenses and in 1213 he fought against Simon de Montfort's crusaders, moved not by sympathy with the Albigenses, but by hostility to the conquering intervention of the north under pretence of religious zeal. A favourer of the troubadours, he combined great personal valour with the most lax morality. He was killed at the battle of Muret (Sept. 12, 1213). [EncyclopÊdia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 17, p. 639, PETER II]

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Peter II, byname PETER THE CATHOLIC, Spanish PEDRO EL CAT”LICO (b. 1174--d. Sept. 12, 1213, Muret, Fr.), king of Aragon from 1196 to 1213, the eldest son and successor of Alfonso II.

Peter married (1204) Mary, lady of Montpellier, and thus greatly extended Aragonese power in southern France. Despite the violent objections of his subjects, he had himself crowned by Pope Innocent III in Rome and declared his kingdom a feudatory of the Holy See (1204). Peter, with other Spanish kings, took a prominent part in the victory over the Moors at Las Navas de Tolosa (July 16, 1212); but he then went to support his brother-in-law Raymond VI of Toulouse against the crusader Simon de Montfort in Languedoc. There he was killed in the Battle of Muret. His son James I succeeded him. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97]