Peter II of Aragon

Peter II
Portrait of Peter II, by Manuel Aguirre Monsalbe (1851-54)
King of Aragon Count of Barcelona
Reign	25 April 1196 – 12 September 1213
Coronation	1205 in Rome
Predecessor	Alfonso II
Successor	James I
Born	July 1178 Huesca
Died	Muret
Burial	priory of San Juan de Sijena
Spouse	Marie of Montpellier
Issue	James I of Aragon
House	House of Barcelona
Father	Alfonso II of Aragon
Mother	Sancha of Castile
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Peter II the Catholic (July 1178 – 12 September 1213) was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1196 to 1213.

He was born in Huesca, the son of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile. In 1205 he acknowledged the feudal supremacy of the papacy and was crowned in Rome by Pope Innocent III, swearing to defend the Catholic faith (hence his surname, "the Catholic"). He was the first king of Aragon to be crowned by the pope.

In the first decade of the thirteenth century he commissioned the Liber feudorum Ceritaniae, an illustrated codex cartulary for the counties of Cerdagne, Conflent, and Roussillon.

On June 15, 1204 he married (as her third husband) Marie of Montpellier, daughter and heiress of William VIII of Montpellier by Eudocia Comnena. She gave him a son, James, but Peter soon repudiated her. Marie was popularly venerated as a saint for her piety and marital suffering, but was never canonized; she died in Rome in 1213.

Engraving of a sealing of Peter II, ca 1196 to 1213

He participated in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 that marked the turning point of Arab domination on the Iberian peninsula.

The Crown of Aragon was widespread in the area that is now southernwestern France, but which at that time was under the control of vassal local princes, such as the Counts of Toulouse. The Cathars or Albingenses rejected the authority and the teachings of the Catholic Church. Innocent called upon Louis VIII of France to suppress the Albigenses. Under the leadership of Simon of Montfort a campaign was launched. The Albigensian Crusade, begun in 1209, led to the slaughter of approximately 20,000 men, women and children, Cathar and Catholic alike. Over the course of twenty years military campaigns essentially destroyed the previously flourishing civilization of Occitania and by 1229 brought the region firmly under the control of the King of France, and the Capetian dynasty from the north of France.

Peter returned from Las Navas in autumn 1212 to find that Simon de Montfort had conquered Toulouse, exiling Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, who was Peter's brother-in-law and vassal. Peter crossed the Pyrenees and arrived at Muret in September 1213 to confront Montfort's army. He was accompanied by Raymond of Toulouse, who tried to persuade Peter to avoid battle and instead starve out Montfort's forces. This suggestion was rejected.

The Battle of Muret began on September 12, 1213. The Aragonese forces were disorganized and disintegrated under the assault of Montfort's squadrons. Peter himself was caught in the thick of fighting, and died as a result of a foolhardy act of bravado. He was thrown to the ground and killed. The Aragonese forces broke in panic when their king was slain and Montfort's crusaders won a crushing victory.

The nobility of Toulouse, vassals of the Crown of Aragon, were defeated. The conflict culminated in the Treaty of Meaux-Paris in 1229, in which the integration of the Occitan territory into the French crown was agreed upon.

Upon Peter's death, the kingdom passed to his only son by Marie of Montpellier, the future James the Conqueror.

Ancestry

Family of Peter II of Aragon

16. Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona               8. Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona                       17. Maud of Apulia               4. Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona                             18. Gilbert I, Count of Gévaudan               9. Douce I, Countess of Provence                       19. Gerberga, Countess of Provence               2. Alfonso II of Aragon                                   20. Sancho V of Aragon and Navarre               10. Ramiro II of Aragon                       21. Felicia of Roucy               5. Petronilla of Aragon                             22. William IX, Duke of Aquitaine               11. Agnes of Aquitaine                       23. Philippa, Countess of Toulouse               1. Peter II of Aragon                                         24. William I, Count of Burgundy               12. Raymond of Burgundy                       25. Etiennete               6. Alfonso VII of León and Castile                             26. Alfonso VI of León and Castile               13. Urraca of León and Castile                       27. Constance of Burgundy               3. Sancha of Castile                                   28. Bolesław III Wrymouth               14. Władysław II the Exile                       29. Zbyslava of Kiev               7. Richeza of Poland                             30. Leopold III, Margrave of Austria               15. Agnes of Babenberg                       31. Agnes of Germany

Sources

• Sumption, Jonathan. The Albigensian Crusade. 2000.
• (Spanish) Martín Alvira-Cabrer, 12 de Septiembre de 1213: El Jueves de Muret, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 2002.
• (Spanish) Martín Alvira-Cabrer, Muret 1213. La batalla decisiva de la Cruzada contra los Cátaros, Ariel, Barcelona, 2008 and 2013.
• (Spanish) Martín Alvira-Cabrer, Pedro el Católico, Rey de Aragón y Conde de Barcelona (1196-1213). Documentos, Testimonios y Memoria Histórica, 6 vols., Zaragoza, Institución Fernando el Católico (CSIC), 2010 (on line).

Regnal titles
Preceded by Alfonso the Troubadour	King of Aragon Count of Barcelona 1196–1213	Succeeded by James the Conqueror