Editing Peter II of Aragon

{{short description|King of Aragon from 1196 to 1213}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Peter II
| image        = Pedro II de Aragón entero.jpg
| caption      = The only known contemporary image of Peter, ''[[Liber feudorum Ceritaniae]]'' (1200–1209), pg. 64v.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Muret 1213. La batalla decisiva de la cruzada contra los cátaros|last=Alvira Cabrer|first=Martín|publisher=Ariel|year=2008|location=Barcelona|pages=128–129|quote=5th illustration}}</ref>
| succession   = [[King of Aragon]]<br>[[Count of Barcelona]]
| reign        = 25 April 1196 – 12 September 1213
| coronation   = 1205 in Rome
| predecessor  = [[Alfonso II of Aragon|Alfonso II]]
| successor    = [[James I of Aragon|James I]]
| spouse       = {{marriage|[[Marie of Montpellier]]|1204|1213|end=died}}
| issue        = [[James I of Aragon]]
| full name    = 
| house        = [[House of Barcelona|Barcelona]]
| father       = [[Alfonso II of Aragon]]
| mother       = [[Sancha of Castile, Queen of Aragon|Sancha of Castile]]
| birth_date   = July 1178
| birth_place  = [[Huesca]]
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|df=y|1213|9|12|1178|7|31}}
| death_place  = [[Muret]]
| date of burial = 
| place of burial = Priory of San Juan de Sijena
| signature    = 
}}

'''Peter II the Catholic''' ({{Langx|ca|Pere el Catòlic}}; {{Langx|an|Pero II o Catolico}}) (July 1178 &ndash; 12 September 1213) was the [[King of Aragon]] and [[Count of Barcelona]] from 1196 to 1213.

==Background==
Peter was born in [[Huesca]],<ref>Antonio Ubieto Arteta, ''Creación y desarrollo de la Corona de Aragón'', Zaragoza, Anubar (Historia de Aragón), 1987, pp. 187–188. {{ISBN|84-7013-227-X}}.</ref> the son of [[Alfonso II of Aragon]] and [[Sancha of Castile, Queen of Aragon|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 Church|Catholic]] faith (hence his [[epithet]], "the Catholic").<ref>''Crown of Aragon'', Robyn Slagle, ''The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia'', Vol. I, ed. [[H. Micheal Tarver]] and Emily Slape, (ABC-CLIO, 2016), 9.</ref> He was the first king of Aragon to be crowned by the pope.<ref>{{cite book | last = Moore | first = John Clare | year = 2003 | series = The Medieval Mediterranean | title = Pope Innocent III (1160/61–1216): To Root Up and Plant | publisher  =  Brill | chapter = Chapter 6: Jews and Heretics (1205–1207) | isbn = 97-8900-412-9252 | page = 135}}</ref>

In the first decade of the thirteenth century Peter commissioned the ''[[Liber feudorum Ceritaniae]]'', an [[Illustrated manuscript|illustrated codex]] [[cartulary]] for the counties of [[County of Cerdagne|Cerdagne]], [[County of Conflent|Conflent]], and [[County of Roussillon|Roussillon]].

==Marriage==
On 15 June 1204 Peter married (as her third husband) [[Marie of Montpellier]],<ref>Damian J. Smith, ''Crusade, Heresy and Inquisition in the Lands of the Crown of Aragon (c. 1167–1276)'', (Brill, 2010), 31.</ref> daughter and heiress of [[William VIII of Montpellier]] by [[Eudokia Komnene, wife of William VIII of Montpellier|Eudocia Comnena]]. She gave him a son, [[James I of Aragon|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. Marie also perhaps bore Peter II a daughter, "Sancha", at [[Collioure]] in October 1205 according to Christian Nique.<ref name=Nique2013>{{cite web |language=fr| last = Nique | first = Christian | year = 2013 | title = Les deux visages de Marie de Montpellier (1182–1213) | publisher = Académie des Sciences et Lettres de Montpellier | url = http://www.ac-sciences-lettres-montpellier.fr/academie_edition/fichiers_conf/NIQUE%202013.pdf }}</ref> ("Sancha" was born in 1206 according to other accounts; in 1208 according to Mark Gregory Pegg,<ref>{{cite book | last = Pegg  | year = 2008 | title = A Most Holy War: The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom | publisher = Oxford | isbn =978-0195171310 }}</ref> but February 1208 is more likely the year the couple's son was born). Sancha was betrothed to Raymond VII the son Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, not long after her birth, according to Nique, only days (sources differ as to how long). The marriage contract included Marie's inheritance, Montpellier, which was to be passed to the child immediately should something happen to Peter, says Nique, citing documents discovered in 1850,<ref>{{cite book |language=fr| author = André Germaine | translator = Rouquette | year = 1996 | orig-year = 1884 | title = Preface, le Liber instrumentorum memorialium | publisher = la Société archéologique de Montpellier }}; cited in {{cite web |language=fr| author = Nique | year = 2013 | title = Les deux visages de Marie de Montpellier (1182–1213)}}</ref> something Marie would at first not agree to, but finally agreed to a few months later, stating that she had agreed under pressure.<ref name=Nique2013 /> However the child's younger brother James makes no mention of her and Sancha was apparently dead before the New Year, according to Nique's information.<ref name=Nique2013 />

==Warfare==
Peter participated in the [[Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa]] in 1212 which marked the turning point of Muslim domination in the Iberian peninsula.<ref name="Tucker269">''A Global Chronology of Conflict'', Vol. I, ed. Spencer Tucker, (ABC-CLIO, 2010), 269.</ref>
[[File:Peter II of Aragon.jpg|thumb|left|Engraving of a sealing of Peter II, ca 1196 to 1213<ref>From [[Louis Blancard]], ''Iconographie des sceaux et bulles'', 1860.</ref>]]
The [[Crown of Aragon]] was widespread in the area that is now southwestern France, but which at that time was under the control of vassal local princes, such as the Counts of Toulouse.  The [[Cathars]] or Albigenses rejected the authority and the teachings of the Catholic Church. Innocent called upon [[Philip II of France]] to suppress the Albigenses. Under the leadership of [[Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester|Simon de 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, 5th Earl of Leicester|Simon de Montfort]] had conquered [[Toulouse]], exiling Count [[Raymond VI of Toulouse]], who was Peter's brother-in-law and vassal.<ref>Raymond VI had married Eleanor, sister of Perer II</ref> Peter crossed the Pyrenees and arrived at [[Muret]] in September 1213 to confront Montfort's army.<ref name="Tucker269" /> 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 12 September 1213.<ref name="Tucker269" /> The Aragonese forces were disorganized and disintegrated under the assault of Montfort's squadrons.<ref name="Tucker269" /> Peter himself was caught in the thick of fighting, and died as a result of a courageous last stand. He was thrown to the ground and killed.<ref name="Tucker269" /> The Aragonese forces broke in panic when their king was slain and Montfort's crusaders won a crushing victory.<ref name="Tucker269" />

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 I of Aragon|James the Conqueror]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{commons category|Peter II of Aragon}}
*Sumption, Jonathan. ''The Albigensian Crusade''. 2000.
* {{in lang|es}} Martín Alvira-Cabrer, ''12 de Septiembre de 1213: El Jueves de Muret'', Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 2002.
* {{in lang|es}} Martín Alvira-Cabrer, ''Muret 1213. La batalla decisiva de la Cruzada contra los Cátaros'', Ariel, Barcelona, 2008 and 2013.
* {{in lang|es}} 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).
* {{Citation | last = Nique | first = Christian | title = Les deux visages de Marie de Montpellier (1182–1213) | publisher = Académie des Sciences et Lettres de Montpellier | location = [[Montpellier]]  | year = 2013 | url = http://www.ac-sciences-lettres-montpellier.fr/academie_edition/fichiers_conf/NIQUE%202013.pdf |language=fr}}

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{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Alfonso II of Aragon|Alfonso the Troubadour]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Aragonese monarchs|King of Aragon]]<br/>[[List of Counts of Barcelona|Count of Barcelona]]|years=1196&ndash;1213}}
{{s-aft|after=[[James I of Aragon|James the Conqueror]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Infantes of Aragon}}
{{Aragonese monarchs}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peter 02 Of Aragon}}
[[Category:1178 births]]
[[Category:1213 deaths]]
[[Category:12th-century Aragonese monarchs]]
[[Category:13th-century Aragonese monarchs]]
[[Category:People from Huesca]]
[[Category:Counts of Barcelona]]
[[Category:Lords of Montpellier]]
[[Category:House of Aragon]]
[[Category:Aragonese infantes]]
[[Category:Monarchs killed in action]]
[[Category:Jure uxoris lords]]