ALFONSO II

born 759, Oviedo, Asturias died 842, Oviedo byname Alfonso The Chaste, Spanish Alfonso El Casto king of Asturias from 791 to 842, the son of Fruela I. He had to face frequent and determined attacks by the armies of the emirate of Crdoba and was often defeated, but his doggedness saved Asturias from extinction. He built a new capital, Oviedo, on a strategic site in the mountains and set about giving the Asturian kingdom a national identity. He tried to enter into relations with Charlemagne, but although he seems to have failed to get Carolingian support, there are some traces of Frankish influence in Asturias. During Alfonso's reign the discovery of the supposed tomb of St. James the Apostle in Galicia made the kingdom the guardian of an important Christian shrine (Santiago de Compostela), and this, too, helped to give it a national identity. born 1152, Barcelona died 1196, Perpignan, Roussillon count of Barcelona from 1162 and king of Aragon from 1164. The son of Ramn Berenguer IV, Alfonso succeeded his father as count of Barcelona and his mother as ruler of Aragon, thus associating the two countries under the house of Barcelonaa union that was destined to be permanent. Aragonese involvement in France became steadily greater during Alfonso's reign. Nevertheless, the conquest of Teruel (1171) opened the way for the conquest of Valencia; and, in 1179, the pact of Cazorla with his ally, Alfonso VIII of Castile, fixed the future zones of reconquest for the two countries. In his will Alfonso followed the Spanish custom of dividing his kingdom; Provence was thus lost to the Aragonese crown.