Alfonso II of Aragon

Alfonso II (1157–1196), called the Chaste, was the first king of Aragon to rule as count of Barcelona. His father Ramon Berenguer IV died in 1162; his mother Petronilla abdicated the Aragonese throne in his favour in 1164 and acted as his regent.

He allied with Castile by marrying Sancha, sister of Alfonso VIII, in 1174, and pushed the Reconquista south in 1171; the Treaty of Cazorla in 1179 fixed Aragon's southern claims. He ceded Provence to his brother in 1173 and added Cerdanya and Roussillon. A patron of troubadours, he died at Perpignan in 1196.