Cheating King of Aragon

King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona Alfonso II was a noted poet and composer of his time and a close friend of King Richard the Lionheart. He also participated many times in poetical debates. Alfonso even had two nicknames - the Chaste and the Troubadour. He was born under different name. Yes, he was born in 1152 as Raymond Berengar, became a king of the united thron of Aragon and Barcelona in 1162 and changed his name to Alfonso. He stayed with the name Alfonso until his death in 1196. He was also Count of Provence from 1167 when he unchivalrously wrested it from the real heiress Douce to 1173 when he ceded it to his brother Berenguer. He was also involved in a couple of medieval love triangles and one big scandal.

Alfonso II was not just a troubadour and a poet, he was also a brave warrior and a vital part of Spanish Reconquista. He was a friend and an ally of Alfonso VIII of Castile. Together, they fought against Navarre and the Moorish kingdoms of the south. In 1174 in Saragossa Alfonso II married Sancha of Castile, sister of the Castilian king. This caused a scandal in the Christian world because his real fiancee was Eudokia Komnene, a niece of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Eudokia Komnene was sent to by Emperor in 1174 to be betrothed to King Alfonso II, but, on her arrival, she found that he had just married Sancha of Castile. One can imagine the surprise! Thus, Alfonso and his love affairs are mentioned in poems by many troubadours, including Peire Vidal, who commented on Alfonso’s decision to marry Sancha of Castile rather than Eudokia Komnene that he had preferred a poor Castilian maid to the emperor Manuel’s golden camel.

Other troubadours, like Guillem de Berguedà Pons de la Gardia, Giraut de Salignac reproached Alfonso II for his love arrairs. In their poems they say, that Alfonso II of Aragon was in rivalry with a knight Arnaut de Mareuil for the love of Azalais of Toulouse. According to their medieval story, the king jealously persuaded Azalais to break off her friendship with Arnaut. Alfonso’s own dealings with Azalais were fiercely criticized by troubadour Guillem de Berguedà, who wrote: “she gave you her love, and you took two cities and a hundred castles from her”.