Alfonso I of Aragon

Alfonso I of Aragon
King of Aragon and Pamplona
Statue of Alfonso I of Aragon in Zaragoza.
King of Aragon
Reign	September 28, 1104 – September 7, 1134
Predecessor	Peter I
Successor	Ramiro II
King of Pamplona
Reign	September 28, 1104 – September 7, 1134
Predecessor	Peter I
Successor	García Ramírez
King of León, Castile and Galicia (Together with Urraca I until 1114)
Reign	October 1109 – March 8, 1126
Predecessor	Alfonso VI
Successor	Alfonso VII
Born	c. 1073
Died	September 7, 1134 (c. 60 years old) Poleñino, Aragon
Burial	Monastery of San Pedro el Viejo
Spouse	Urraca of León
House	House of Aragon
Father	Sancho Ramírez
Mother	Felicia of Roucy
Signature

Alfonso I of Aragon (c. 1073 – Poleñino, Aragon, September 7, 1134), called the Battler, was King of Aragon and of Pamplona between 1104 and 1134. The son of Sancho Ramírez (King of Aragon and of Pamplona between 1063 and 1094) and of Felicia of Roucy, he ascended the throne after the death of his half-brother Peter I.

He distinguished himself in the struggle against the Muslims and came to double the extent of the kingdoms of Aragon and Pamplona after the key conquest of Zaragoza. Temporarily, and thanks to his marriage to Urraca I of León, he ruled over León, Castile and Toledo, and between 1109 and 1114 had himself styled "emperor of León and king of all Spain" or "emperor of all the Spains", until noble opposition forced the annulment of the marriage. The echoes of his victories crossed borders; in the 14th-century Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña we can read: "they called him Don Alfonso the Battler because in Spain there was no knight so good, who won twenty-nine battles". His campaigns took him as far as the southern cities of Córdoba, Granada and Valencia and led him to inflict severe defeats on the Muslims at Valtierra, Cutanda, Arnisol and Cullera.

At his death, and in what is one of the most controversial episodes of his life, he bequeathed his kingdoms to the military orders, which was not accepted by the nobility, who chose his brother Ramiro II the Monk in Aragon and García Ramírez the Restorer in Navarre, thus dividing his kingdom.

Childhood and youth

Monastery of San Pedro de Siresa, in the Hecho Valley, Province of Huesca, where the Infante Alfonso Sánchez was educated.

Alfonso was the son of the King of Aragon and Pamplona, Sancho Ramírez, and of Felicia of Roucy. He belonged to the Jiménez dynasty, a Navarrese house of Hispano-Roman origin that had replaced the Arista on the throne of Pamplona and had spread through almost all the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula.

Since he was not the King's firstborn, he spent his early years at the monastery of Siresa (Hecho Valley, in the Pyrenees of Huesca), while he was trained in "letters" and the military arts to become a feudal lord during the rule of his brother Peter I of Aragon. His tutor was Lope Garcés "Peregrino", who later obtained from the King the tenancy of Pedrola in gratitude for the services rendered. When he was older, his teacher may have been Esteban, Canon of Jaca and future Bishop of Huesca and Zaragoza.

As an infante, Alfonso Sánchez (as he appears in various documents) was trained in the tasks of government as tenente of Biel, Luna, Ardanés and Bailo, localities of the Cinco Villas and the Jacetania close to the frontier with the Muslims. The territory initially belonged to his brother Fernando, and Alfonso probably acquired it after the latter's death in 1086. During the reign of his half-brother Peter, he lived through the Crusade of Barbastro in 1089 and personally took part in the capture of Huesca in 1096, commanding the vanguard of the expedition and fighting in the Battle of Alcoraz, as well as in the relief expedition to aid the Cid in Valencian lands against the Almoravids, defeating the army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin in 1097 at the Battle of Bairén. The Cid's campaign would be a great influence on Alfonso's strategic ideas, as it showed Muslim weakness and the military potential of a group of determined men, even if they did not come from the feudal elite. The success of the First Crusade (1095–1099) was also an important influence on the young Alfonso.

Although the Infante Alfonso Sánchez was not initially destined to reign, a series of events cleared his path to the throne. Before the death of his father Sancho Ramírez, his second son, Fernando, had died, which left Alfonso Sánchez second in the order of succession. Sancho Ramírez, after dying in 1094 during a siege of Huesca, was succeeded by his firstborn Pedro Sánchez. Peter I in turn was left without heirs in the following years, as he lost his two children Inés (1103) and Pedro (1104), making Alfonso heir apparent before he himself died on another military expedition in 1104.

Beginning of the reign

Inheritance

Jaca dinero minted by Alfonso I of Aragon following the tradition of his brother and his father with the Tree of Sobrarbe. Obverse: bust of the King. Legend: ANFUS-REX-ARA-GON.

Alfonso I ruled as King of Aragon, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza and Pamplona. Sobrarbe and Ribagorza were former counties raised to kingdoms in the will of Sancho the Great and unified with the neighboring Kingdom of Aragon of Ramiro I, of the same origin, upon the death of Gonzalo I. Pamplona was the main dynastic trunk, which had likewise been unified with Aragon after the death of Sancho IV of Peñalén in the time of Alfonso's father. Upon the death of his brother Peter in the Aran Valley, then part of Ribagorza, Alfonso inherited an incipient Kingdom of Aragon which, although it had taken the main city of the Pyrenees, Huesca, in 1096 after winning the Battle of Alcoraz, and had managed to conquer Barbastro, Sariñena and Bolea in 1100, had failed in the siege of Tamarite de Litera in 1104 and saw those recent conquests threatened. Probably with the death of Peter I the unconsolidated areas on the southeastern frontier, such as Alcolea de Cinca, were lost.

Alfonso had taken part as a lord under the command of his brother in these wars and was familiar with the situation. There were problems in undertaking the siege of fortified cities given the complete lack of experience with siege machinery, so a war of attrition in the open field was resorted to until the fortified places accepted a negotiated surrender. The lack of international support was also felt, apart from the traditional backing of the County of Urgell and of the counties of Béarn and Gascony. His father, Sancho Ramírez, had strategically chosen his marriages (first with Isabella of Urgell and afterward with Felicia of Roucy, Alfonso's mother) to preserve these alliances. Alfonso's cousin, Talesa of Aragon, married Gaston of Béarn in 1085 to guarantee the support of the powerful northern neighbor, which would be key in Alfonso's reign.

The kingdom had begun, after the efforts of his grandfather Ramiro, his father Sancho and his brother Peter, to develop a primitive state structure. These had promoted two bishoprics linked to the Roman Curia, important ties for justifying the elevation of the status of counties to kingdom: that of Aragon, which after the conquest of Huesca had been established in the new capital and had been since 1099 in the hands of Alfonso's former tutor, Esteban, and the one of Roda in the former eastern part of Ribagorza. Although the Roman ties had brought about the introduction of the Gregorian Reform, Alfonso, like his predecessors, maintained a close relationship (similar to proprietary churches) with the monasteries and churches that his ancestors had founded to guarantee the settlement and Christianization of the territory. San Juan de la Peña and Santa María de Santa Cruz de la Serós functioned as the male and female family monasteries of the royal house, with San Pedro de Siresa (where Alfonso had been educated and where the Aragonese bishopric had begun), the Monastery of Montearagón and the briefly cathedral see of San Pedro de Jaca (in the hands of his brother Ramiro) being important centers of power developed by Alfonso's father in Aragon. Sancho Ramírez had also developed in the west the see of San Vicente de Roda as a second bishopric and the monasteries of San Victorián (Sobrarbe) and Santa María de Alaón (Ribagorza). The boundaries between these bishoprics were not very well defined, with both disputing the recently reconquered areas such as Barbastro. Throughout the diocesan conflicts Alfonso the Battler showed greater personal closeness to his former teacher, with whom he shared a militant and energetic character, than to Ramón de Roda, who came from beyond the Pyrenees and had a reputation for saintliness.

Most of the territory was in royal hands, with a system of tenancies and honors in which the King shared the secular revenues of the localities with non-hereditary local governors, often relatives of Alfonso himself. Besides Alfonso's own former tenancy, reintegrated into the royal domain upon his accession to the throne, one may mention the domains of Bertha of Aragon, his brother's widow, who held as Queen dowager the so-called kingdom of the Mallos in the area of Riglos, and those of his uncle Sancho Ramírez, who enjoyed various lordships such as Aibar, Atarés and Javierrelatre and tenancies such as Benabarre. One of the key tenancies of the kingdom was the regnum of Monzón, given its condition as a disputed frontier with the Muslims to the southeast. This tenancy had belonged to his uncle Sancho Ramírez until the latter left on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

In general, these frontier settlements were governed by the Fueros of Sobrarbe and of infanzones, seeking to attract and settle the militarily able population needed to defend the kingdom. It was not unusual for members of the lesser nobility who distinguished themselves in the struggle against the Muslims to receive social promotion through tenancies. Thus, the chronicles record as tenentes in some localities former battle companions of Alfonso, especially once the hitherto infante began to reign. Thus appear Barbatuerta (Azara), Castán and his son Fortún (to whom Alfonso himself donated his former possession of Biel once on the throne), Bacalla and his sons Lope Ferrench and Gome (Luna), García and his son Gil (Atrosillo), Fortún Maza (perhaps in Abizanda) and his possible relative Ferriz de Lizana, Eximén Aznárez (Oteiza) or Tizón (Buil). These had fought alongside the now King at Alcoraz and Bairén and were also faithful supporters during his reign.

Outside this general feudal regime was the city of Jaca, to which Alfonso's father had given its own fuero to attract population from beyond the Pyrenees and encourage trade along the Way of Saint James. The success of this initiative led to the extension of this fuero to Sangüesa, Estella and Tafalla. Alfonso continued this project during his reign, extending these fueros throughout his kingdom.

To the east the kingdom had no clear frontier with the various territories that were heirs of the Hispanic March, although documentary records attest that between 1108 and Alfonso's death in 1134, the Battler was "king in Pallars and Aran". This seems to be the result of the recent breakup of the County of Pallars into the counties of Pallars Jussà and Pallars Sobirà and the close relationship developed with the former under the reign of his brother Peter I of Aragon. The pressure of the stronger rulers of Aragon and Urgell and the struggles between cousins habitually placed the small counties under the protection of their respective neighbors. Pallars Jussà seems to have fallen within Aragon's sphere of influence and Pallars Sobirà within that of Urgell. In exchange, Peter I, and Alfonso I after his brother, respected the hereditary properties that the counts of Pallars held in Ribagorza from before it was unified with Aragon and rewarded them with new tenancies such as Fantova.

Likewise, the historic alliance with Urgell had at times placed men of Urgell as tenentes in Aragon (Barbastro under Armengol III of Urgell), in parallel with a complex marriage policy that placed the Leonese ally of Alfonso, Pedro Ansúrez, in the regency of Urgell until c. 1117, making that frontier even more blurred. Despite this, Alfonso never styled himself king beyond Pallars. A balanced foreign policy with ties to Aragon but also to its rivals (the Kingdom of León and the County of Barcelona) allowed Urgell to maintain an independent status until 1208. Further east lay the County of Barcelona, a rising rival power ruled by Ramon Berenguer III, which had integrated other Catalan counties and achieved a dynastic union with the County of Provence. Ramon Berenguer's projects of expansion to the south and west posed the threat of a race to take key strongholds from the Muslims.

Partition of the Kingdom of Pamplona after the death of Sancho IV of Peñalén in 1076
     Area occupied by Alfonso VI of León, also king of Castile
     Area occupied by Sancho Ramírez of Aragon, father of Alfonso the Battler
     County of Navarre, held by the Aragonese monarch in homage to the Leonese one.

To the west, it included a Navarre that had lost what is today La Rioja, Álava, Biscay and the western part of Gipuzkoa in favor of Castile. The territory was reduced to the core area of present-day Navarre, granted as the County of Navarre under homage to the Leonese Monarch. It included Pamplona, which had historically given its name to the kingdom and was an episcopal see under Pedro de Roda, a faithful supporter of Alfonso's father and later of Alfonso himself. Having lost Nájera, an important city of the kingdom and site of the Monastery of Santa María la Real of Nájera, the Monastery of Leyre became the other great church in Navarre. The boundaries with Esteban's Aragonese diocese were also a cause of controversy, since the banks of the Onsella River had been disputed by both kingdoms before their unification.

This Navarre probably retained an outlet to the sea through Gipuzkoa, given that there are documents of his brother Peter relating to the monastery of Leyre and San Sebastián, and it seems that Alfonso was sovereign to the northeast over the domains of Íñigo Vela, lord of Guevara and Oñate and tenente of Baztan, Echauri, La Borunda and Hernani. Also under the sovereignty of Alfonso's father had fallen the tenancy of his Jiménez kinsman Sancho Garcés, which covered the area of Sangüesa and Uncastillo. Sancho's son and Alfonso I's relative, Ramiro Sánchez of Pamplona, occupied an important role at court as tenente of territories in both Navarre and Aragon and was appointed by Alfonso in 1104 as tenente of Monzón. Other Navarrese magnates such as Sancho Sánchez, tenente of Erro and governor of Pamplona or Tafalla, had shown mixed loyalties between Castile and Aragon, although Sancho Ramírez was able to repress their revolts and they appear as relevant vassals throughout the reign of Alfonso I. At the time of his accession to the throne, Sancho Sánchez was still the governor of a good part of Navarre. The frontier with the Muslims ran in the south through the Merindad of Tudela and the district today called the Cinco Villas.

Further west were the Castilian lordships of Diego López de Haro (Lordship of Biscay, Haro and tenancies in Álava, Rioja and Gipuzkoa), García Ordóñez (County of Nájera and tenancies of Grañón and Calahorra), Íñigo Jiménez (Lordship of Cameros and Viguera) and Gómez González (Count of La Bureba), who would later play prominent roles in Alfonso's reign as vassals or enemies. Although in former times these territories had been linked to the Kingdom of Pamplona, the vigor of León and Castile had caused Navarrese influence in the area to recede. Castile had previously been united in 1072 to the Kingdom of León of Alfonso VI, who had also conquered the Taifa of Toledo and had thereby become the main peninsular power just to the west of the possessions inherited by his namesake the Battler.

First acts of the reign

Barely crowned in 1104, Alfonso began to take the steps that would in time lead to the conquest of Zaragoza. Before the end of 1106 he took the madina of Siya (present-day Ejea de los Caballeros), an important strategic position for securing the southwestern frontier. That same year Tauste and Sádaba fell, thus completing the conquest of the present-day district of the Cinco Villas. This closed the Ebro Valley from the west and cut the route between Saraqusta and Tudela (one of the traditional secondary cities of the Zaragozan taifa). Alfonso took part on the front line in the campaign, coming close to being captured or killed on at least one occasion.

The ruins of El Castellar or "Sobre Zaragoza".

Also in 1105–1106 he ordered the reinforcement of several castles near Zaragoza that threatened the capital of the Muslim King Al-Musta'in II and had been built by Sancho Ramírez and Peter I. One of the castles, very close to Zaragoza, built in 1101 by Peter I, took its name from the crusader war cry Deus lo vol (God wills it), giving rise to the present-day place name of Juslibol. The remains of this castle are known as the "Picote de San Martín". About four kilometers from this forward position the castle of Miranda and the village of Miranda were fortified; a little later the Castle of Alfocea; and some twenty kilometers from the capital of the Taifa of Saraqusta, upstream on the Ebro at the mouth of the Jalón, the fortress-palace of El Castellar had been erected in 1091 by Sancho Ramírez and his son Peter I. Watchtowers were also built, such as the Tower of Candespina in Sobradiel. This not only reinforced the newly conquered area but also placed under observation one of the routes from the secondary Taifa of Calatayud to the Zaragozan capital. It was a strategy designed to take advantage of the rupture of the Zaragozan defensive line brought about by the fall of Huesca. On an open plain such as that north of the Ebro, it was possible to carry out raids quite deep into Muslim territory.

The capture of Balaguer from the Muslims by the allied County of Urgell in 1106 opened new opportunities for Alfonso on his eastern frontier. Alfonso sent aid in exchange for properties in Balaguer (Cerced, given to the Bishop of Roda). But above all, it meant the rupture of the Muslim defensive line north of Lleida. Alfonso continued to hem in Zaragoza from the east by completing the conquest of the Hoya de Huesca and the Monegros (taking the south of the Sierra de Alcubierre) and reinforcing the area of Barbastro and Monzón. The frontier march constituted by the regnum of Monzón became a priority because of its character as an area vulnerable to Muslim attacks from Lleida. Alfonso conquered Tamarite de Litera and San Esteban de Litera in 1107, thus fulfilling an objective in which his brother Peter I had failed. It is with this expansion in the east that Pallars is recognized for the first time as part of Alfonso's domains. Thus, a document of 1108 states that Alfonso reigned in Aragon, Pamplona, Sobrarbe, Ribagorza, Pallars and Aran.

Part of the present-day Aragonese Strip and of the Province of Lleida remained in Muslim hands, however. Although Alfonso expanded his kingdom to the south, taking his frontiers to the Ebro River and the Cinca, Fraga and Mequinenza were still Muslim north of the Ebro and guaranteed the connection between Saraqusta and its subordinate Taifa of Lleida. Around 1109 Alfonso probably fortified Velilla de Cinca to serve as a forward position against Lleida, in a manner analogous to Juslibol and El Castellar with Zaragoza. Likewise, the banks of the Gállego River (with strongholds such as Zuera, Almudévar or Gurrea de Gállego) were still to be conquered north of Zaragoza.

Marriage and Leonese policy

Context

Main article: Almoravids § Almoravid conquest of al-Andalus

Alfonso VI of León, father-in-law of Alfonso of Aragon.

After his coronation in 1104, the dynastic problem had arisen that the new King was over thirty and unmarried. The only remaining member of the royal house was his brother Ramiro, who had an ecclesiastical career. His wedding, a matter of state, was calculated considering the various Iberian royal houses with marriageable daughters. He was not the only one seeking strategic marriage alliances: the successes against the Muslims of Alfonso VI of León had brought about a Muslim counterattack led by the Almoravid movement. In 1109, knowing his end was near, Alfonso VI decided on the marriage of his daughter Urraca to the King of Aragon, interested in the military support that his new son-in-law, a veteran fighter, could provide him. Alfonso VI had lost his only male heir Sancho at the Battle of Uclés (1108) and had found himself unable to secure the territory of the present-day provinces of Soria, Guadalajara and Cuenca, so the alliance seemed necessary to avoid greater ills. The marriage was celebrated at the beginning of October 1109, the year in which Urraca's father would die, at the Castle of Monzón de Campos, with the castellan of the fortress, Don Pedro Ansúrez, sponsoring the union.

Alfonso, who although he was about thirty-six years old had until then remained single, was probably sterile. The lack of offspring from the marriage doomed it to failure, and the Aragonese King, after the separation from Urraca, did not take a wife again and died without descendants in 1134.

Before marrying, it seems, Urraca and Alfonso agreed on the capitulations of betrothal by which they reciprocally designated each other with soberana potestas in the possessions of the other. But it was agreed that if the marriage produced offspring, this child would become the heir, which relegated the firstborn of Urraca's previous marriage to Raymond of Burgundy, Alfonso Raimúndez (the future Alfonso VII), who would have lost his rights to the throne of León in such an eventuality. Among those opposed to this marriage the Galician nobles stood out, because of the loss by the then five-year-old infante Alfonso Raimúndez (the future Alfonso VII) of the rights to the throne of the Kingdom of León and Castile following the marriage pact signed between Urraca and Alfonso I of Aragon, which stipulated that the rights of succession would pass to the child they might have. However, in case the marriage had no offspring, the lands of the Aragonese King would pass to Alfonso Raimúndez together with those of Urraca.

Another important faction opposed to Alfonso I of Aragon was that formed by the French churchmen of Burgundian origin who had established themselves along the Way of Saint James during the reign of Alfonso VI, under the protection of Urraca's first husband, who belonged to the House of Burgundy. The churchmen were also lords of many territories, so they were in addition opposed to the pro-bourgeois policies of the Aragonese King, which, if they triumphed, would considerably reduce their power. It was a dangerous opposition, since their contact with Pope Paschal II would in time allow the annulment of the marriage, which the Castilian chroniclers called "the ill-fated wedding" or "the ill-suited wedding" because it was incestuous, both spouses being great-grandchildren of Sancho Garcés III of Pamplona the Great.

Castilian dinero minted in Toledo during the reign of Alfonso the Battler.

Alfonso's political action in the kingdoms of León, Castile and Galicia was therefore very difficult. However, he was able to rely on the primitive bourgeoisie of the towns to which he offered fueros and privileges similar to those granted in the ones he resettled in Aragon. Thus, Alfonso I supported the establishment of free towns and stimulated trade all along the Way of Saint James. These guarantees, liberties and exemptions created a free or franc social sector, to the detriment of taxes, which were the source of the power of the feudal aristocracy, which made him unpopular among the nobility. Urraca relied on these latter privileged estates when the struggle broke out between opposing factions and between supporters of one or the other spouse of the royal marriage.

Alfonso I also maintained his military policy of giving the tenancy of castles and strongholds to his loyal followers: Aragonese and Navarrese nobles, veteran battle companions and faithful knights of his host, which steadily increased the enmity he provoked in León and Castile. Feeling that they were losing power at court, the great lords of the Leonese court began to conspire against the King.

Moreover, Count Gómez González had been, before the death of Alfonso VI, a suitor for Urraca's hand, and everything indicates that he maintained a love affair with her. Before the death of the Leonese Monarch, a group of Castilian nobles had met near Toledo, at Magán, to propose Gómez González to the dying King as a candidate for husband of the future Queen, although, not daring to put it formally to the old monarch, they got the King's personal physician, a Jew named Cidiello, to do so. Alfonso VI received the news angrily, on seeing the opposition of part of the Castilian nobility to the plans he had designed to marry his daughter to the experienced Aragonese King. However, Count Gómez González gathered supporters and prepared an armed uprising against Alfonso I.

First Galician insurrection

The response of Alfonso, a veteran warrior seasoned in many battles, was swift and energetic. Aware of the opposition that the Archbishop of Compostela, Gelmírez, and the Count of Traba, tutor of the Infante Alfonso Raimúndez, had in store for him, he marched with his Aragonese and Pamplonese hosts and inflicted a hard defeat on them at the Castle of Monterroso (present-day Province of Lugo), in 1109. The Battler had the support in Galicia of the City of Lugo, which had been the epicenter of revolts of the Galician lesser nobility and had been handed over a few years earlier by Alfonso VI to the Bishop to pacify it. He also had the support of Pedro Arias, lord of Deza and archenemy of the Count of Traba. In general, the bourgeoisie of Lugo and Compostela and the lesser nobility headed by the Arias family showed broad misgivings about the attempts of Gelmírez and Traba to consolidate themselves as great magnates and regents of the young Alfonso Raimúndez. The message conveyed to the discontented was that the Battler was resolved to crush militarily any attempt at rebellion against him. However, the harshness of the military repression at Monterroso deepened the enmity of Alfonso I with the Galician nobility and the party of Gelmírez and Traba.

The military defeat of the Battler's enemies meant that the opposition had to reorganize. Throughout 1110 Alfonso received homage in Castilian territory and Urraca in Aragonese lands, in fulfillment of the marriage capitulations. However, the military tension was evident. Urraca granted privileges to Diego López de Haro, Lord of Biscay and Haro and successor of García Ordóñez in the strategic tenancy of Nájera, to strengthen her party, which in Castile was grouped around Count Gómez González. Also close to the Queen's party was Pedro González de Lara, Count of Lara and tenente in Medina del Campo, Palencia and numerous other places.

Some authors interpret the donations that Alfonso I made at this time to monasteries such as Valvanera, Santo Domingo de la Calzada and San Salvador de Oña as an attempt to reinforce their loyalties and counterbalance Urraca's party. Alfonso also had in principle the support of his ally, Pedro Ansúrez, to whom he managed to add Count Henry of Portugal, who, despite his family ties to the Infante Alfonso Raimúndez, saw in Gelmírez and the latter an obstacle to his own expansion.

The Battle of Valtierra and the insurrection of Gómez González

A Muslim attempt that same year to take advantage of Alfonso's attention to Leonese policy was thwarted by the Battler's victory over al-Musta'in I, King of the taifa of Zaragoza. Al-Musta'in had launched a counterattack north of the Ebro, reversing some of Alfonso's advances of previous years on the axis between Tudela and Zaragoza, but he was repulsed when trying to penetrate further north and threaten Olite, at the Battle of Valtierra of January 24, 1110. The defeat led the taifa to pay parias to Urraca to prevent further attacks by Alfonso, and to the discrediting of the Hudid dynasty, which was replaced by the Almoravids. The last Hudids took refuge in the fortress of Rueda, which was considered impregnable. Alfonso meanwhile granted a fuero to Ejea in 1110 to guarantee its Christian resettlement in the area he had wrested from the Muslims in previous years and to prevent new attacks. The fuero dates approximately from the end of July, after Alfonso's withdrawal on July 5, 1110 from a punitive expedition to Zaragoza after Valtierra, when he moved with his army to Ejea.

Urraca I of León, in a 12th-century depiction.

Between 1110 and 1111, Count Gómez González, leader of Urraca's party, tried to convince the Queen that Prince Alfonso should become the legitimate King of Castile as the biological son of the Queen of León and Castile, so that she would support the uprising of the nobility against Alfonso. This turned the political conflict into open war between the Aragonese Monarch and factions of the Leonese, Castilian and Galician nobility. The strong character of Alfonso I and the clash with the personality of his wife (the Leonese, Castilian and Galician chronicles, always anti-Alfonso, put in Urraca's mouth that Alfonso "struck her with hands and feet") led to the failure of the marriage. It is said that Alfonso feared that the closeness between the Count and his wife meant infidelity on her part, a reason for which he might have repudiated her. To all this was added the initiative of the Archbishop of Toledo Bernard of Sédirac, also opposed to the Aragonese, who requested the annulment from the Pope. The papal condemnation of the marriage arrived during the summer of 1110, while Alfonso was fighting the Galician rebels.

With civil war declared between the supporters of Urraca and Alfonso, the latter declared her incapable of governing and had her confined at El Castellar, in Aragon, as a consequence of a conspiracy in which Urraca ordered the tenentes of fortresses in the kingdoms of León and Castile not to obey her husband's orders. The imprisonment caused an irreconcilable political rupture with the faction of the high prelates Bernard of Sédirac of Toledo and Diego Gelmírez of Compostela, as well as with the aristocratic nobility led by Pedro Froilaz and Gómez González. Alfonso was forced to carry out a successful invasion of Castile with Navarrese and Aragonese troops with no other support than that of the Count of Portugal. In a few weeks he subdued the cities of Palencia, Burgos, Osma, Sahagún, Astorga and Orense, with a speed that earned him a reputation for invincibility among his enemies. In the localities along the Way of Saint James Alfonso found centers of support that shared with him a common enemy in the high Castilian clergy (see the parallel bourgeois revolt of Sahagún against its abbots, the coalition of those burghers of Sahagún with the burghers of Burgos and Carrión, and the role of Pedro Ansúrez, lord of Valladolid, on Alfonso's side).

Taking advantage of this distraction and the consequences of Valtierra, Count Gómez González launched a raid on El Castellar, freed Queen Urraca and took her to the Monastery of Sahagún. The news of the raid and of the maneuvers of the Archbishop of Toledo to request the annulment of the marriage caused Alfonso to march with his army to southern Castile on a punitive expedition. He occupied the city of Toledo in April 1111 and Alfonso replaced the hostile Archbishop Bernard of Sédirac. Toledo would have an Aragonese garrison, under the command of a Commander named Oriel, until 1113.

Alfonso finished suppressing the Castilian revolt that same year. At the Battle of Candespina of October 26, 1110, located in the present-day Segovian municipality of Fresno de Cantespino, he obtained another victory. The Navarrese-Aragonese hosts of Alfonso and of Count Henry of Burgundy faced the troops loyal to Urraca and Gómez González. Alfonso's forces were weakened by the desertion of the faction of Pedro Ansúrez, which had gone over to Urraca. However, Urraca's side was not united either, because of the jealousy between her favorites, the counts Gómez González and Pedro González de Lara. The battle was an absolute victory for Alfonso, which not only annihilated the enemy forces but also brought about the death of the rebellious Count, leaving the Queen in a very bad situation. Various localities of southern Castile then fell into the hands of Alfonso's supporters. Urraca chose to make a pact with Count Henry, offering him the partition of the kingdom as Alfonso had done; she got the Count to change sides and together they besieged the Aragonese sovereign at Peñafiel, although they could not force the stronghold to surrender. At the same time as they marched north to draw up the division of the kingdom, Urraca was negotiating in secret with Alfonso. With Urraca's connivance, Alfonso advanced rapidly westward and came close to capturing Teresa at Sahagún. Urraca withdrew to the Galician mountains. By the end of the year, there are documents signed jointly by Alfonso and Urraca.

Second Galician insurrection

The Galician nobility headed by the Bishop of Santiago de Compostela Diego Gelmírez and the infante's tutor Pedro Froilaz the Count of Traba took over leadership of the opposition to Alfonso I after the disappearance of Candespina, and the young prince's tutor proclaimed Alfonso Raimúndez, seven years old, "king of Galicia" in the cathedral of Santiago on September 19, 1111. The meaning of this proclamation is debated, and it cannot be determined whether the aim was to establish an independent kingdom or not, but most likely it was simply a matter of granting Alfonso Raimúndez the status of co-ruler with a rank equal to that of his mother Urraca. Gelmírez's inept policy in not facilitating the submission of Portugal closed the path to the triumph of the revolt, which obtained support among the Galician nobility, but which also generated opponents among the sectors supporting Alfonso the Battler, as happened in Lugo. This stronghold was subdued by Alfonso's enemies before they marched on León.

The attitude of Urraca I throughout the conflict is debated: while the Historia Compostelana (which is a partial source, since it is a biography devoted to exalting the policy of Bishop Gelmírez) states that Urraca agreed with the coronation of Alfonso Raimúndez (even though this would have meant accepting a co-regency directed by Gelmírez and his collaborators), there is a document showing that on September 2, 1111 (only fifteen days before the act of proclaiming her son "king of Galicia") Urraca signed in Burgos, together with her husband Alfonso the Battler, a donation in favor of the Monastery of Oña, and in October she did the same in another one subscribed at Briviesca. Both documents were drawn up by the Canon of Santiago de Compostela, whose office places him close to Bishop Gelmírez, so the play of political alliances is far from simple.

The Battler moved against the supporters of Alfonso Raimúndez in Galicia, since it was incorporated by right into his kingdom by the marriage capitulations, which established that a child of Alfonso and Urraca could reign over the territories of both. He defeated them at Villadangos in October or November 1111 with the help of the Count of Portugal, Henry of Burgundy, uncle of Alfonso VII. With this victory Alfonso I of Aragon thwarted the political attempt of Diego Gelmírez, Bishop of Santiago de Compostela, and his supporters, captured Pedro Froilaz (who would be released shortly afterward) and weakened his opponents. The Battler besieged the last remnants of the rebellion at Astorga. However, Gelmírez and Alfonso Raimúndez managed to flee in forti Castello Orzilione (quod Castrum est in Castella), taking the child to his mother. The place where Urraca was staying and to which Diego Gelmírez took the Infante Alfonso Raimúndez was probably Orcellón in the Diocese of Ourense, in a district known as Castela.

Annulment of the marriage

Alfonso I of Aragon in the Compendium of Chronicles of Kings (National Library of Spain)

In 1112 Pope Paschal II made the threat of annulment official, excommunicating them if they remained together. Alfonso, deeply religious, repudiated her definitively. Pedro Froilaz and Gelmírez meanwhile undertook a campaign in 1113–1114 against Alfonso's garrisons, besieging him at Carrión and defeating Aragonese contingents at Atapuerca and Burgos. Burgos would fall into Urraca's hands shortly afterward. On the other hand, the situation on the frontier seems favorable to Alfonso I, and in 1113 he was able to replace the rebellious Diego López de Haro with the Navarrese noble Fortún Garcés Cajal in the strategic tenancy of Nájera. In the south, Álvar Fáñez secured Toledo for Urraca. The situation was consolidated and made official at a council held in Palencia in 1114. Even so, the political panorama was complex, as shown by the bourgeois revolts in Segovia against Urraca's supporters (where Álvar Fáñez died) or the attempt by the people of Burgos to elect Alfonso's brother, Ramiro, as Bishop of Burgos. In the spring of 1114, Segovia and Toledo recognized Alfonso's authority, probably seeking help against Almoravid pressure from the south, and the same year the same happened with Sahagún, Carrión and Burgos.

Alfonso became solely King of Aragon and Pamplona, despite so many struggles, and directed his objectives toward the reconquest of the Ebro Valley, with the capture of Saraqusta in mind, a project almost abandoned during his five years of marriage and Castilian regency (1109–1114). Nevertheless, he continued to use the title of King of Castile and that of imperator totius Hispaniae, a product of the imperial tradition of León, and did not give up the enclaves he had resettled, fortified and governed through his tenentes in the present-day Basque Country, La Rioja, Burgos, Palencia, Soria, Segovia, Guadalajara and Toledo.

Especially notable are the tenancies in the Navarrese-Aragonese hands of Íñigo Jiménez (Cameros) and Fortún Garcés Cajal (Nájera), who had remained loyal to Alfonso I in the civil war, while Diego López de Haro, Lord of Haro and Biscay, had switched sides and would attempt a revolt in 1116, put down by Alfonso I. It seems that in January 1117 the Battler was besieging him at Haro, and by February of that same year Diego López appears in the royal documents of Alfonso I, probably having submitted or changed sides again. In the following years Alfonso managed to prevent the concentration of power in the area by placing independent tenentes such as Lope López (Calahorra) and Lope Yáñez (Arnedo). He also retained the monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla and their properties, and very probably those of San Prudencio de Monte Laturce, Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Nuestra Señora de Valvanera. The seat of the bishopric of the area, disputed among several localities, had just returned to Calahorra and was from 1118 in the hands of Sancho de Funes, a fervent supporter of Alfonso (to the point of being called Sancho of the Aragonese in the cathedral chronicles).

Tenancies in Navarrese and Aragonese hands also abounded in the Burgos basin of the Ebro, especially that of Tedeja/Medina de Pomar. Other tenancies documented in the period include, from north to south, Piedralada, Belorado, Cerezo, Pedroso and Oca in the mountains running south from the former, and Bilibio and Cellorigo on the frontier with La Rioja. From the confirmations of donations he issued, it seems that he also retained the lands of the monastery of Oña. Further north, the submission of López de Haro and the vassalage of the Vela family placed the present-day Basque Country under Alfonso.

Likewise, many localities on the Way of Saint James, which had supported Alfonso I in the recent conflict, retained lieutenants and garrisons of Alfonso, even in confrontation with pro-Urraca factions. Known cases are those of Paredes Rubias and Castrojeriz, in tenancies loyal to Alfonso. Moreover, Alfonso did not abandon the burghers of Sahagún who had supported him, placing a garrison under the rule of a pro-Aragonese Giraldo nicknamed the devil in the chronicles of the rival Monastery of Sahagún, and exercising his power in the area through the missions of his maternal relative Beltrán de Risnel in Sahagún, Carrión (of which he was recognized as Count) and Burgos. However, Alfonso did not attempt to separate these latter territories from Castilian jurisdiction. Instead, the subsequent civil war between Urraca and her son Alfonso Raimúndez (under the control of Gelmírez and Froilaz, who benefited from a regency during his minority instead of a government by Urraca) continued to give the Battler opportunities to preserve his influence in the Kingdom of Castile for several more years. For this he generally counted on the sympathies of the burghers of the Way of Saint James for his policy favorable to the fueros and to trade with the Franks, but he found a hard counterweight in Bishop Pascual of Burgos and his successor Simón, who sought to restore their power in the diocese and Urraca's authority. The city of Burgos itself changed loyalties on several occasions.

Alfonso also maintained good relations with the Castilian territories on the frontier with the Muslims, with royal acts recorded in documents affecting towns such as Sepúlveda, Pedraza, Sotosalbos or Segovia even years after the annulment of the marriage, the resettlement by Alfonso I of frontier areas, his assistance to Toledo against Almoravid incursions, and his reconquest in 1112 from the Muslims of localities of Soria such as Campisábalos, Atienza and Medinaceli. Cities such as Segovia or Toledo wavered in their loyalties until dates as late as 1122. Some authors have pointed out that the clash between Gelmírez's Burgundian party and Alfonso's Aragonese party revealed a deeper conflict over the way of carrying out the Reconquista, in which Gelmírez represented the continuity of Alfonso VI's feudal policy and the Battler the continuity of the Cid's vision of frontiersmen. Within that framework, Alfonso I would have the support of the peasantry, who sought lands safe both from Muslim attacks and from the great feudal powers of the kingdom itself. In opposition to Alfonso, in addition to the Almoravid thrust, stood the see of Toledo, which had archiepiscopal rank and claimed the right to appoint bishops for Sigüenza and Osma. Although the Muslim counterattacks had deprived the bishops appointed by Bernard of Sédirac of effective control over the territories they claimed, they contributed another factor preventing Alfonso from fully consolidating his dominion in those areas.

In 1117 he signed a truce with Urraca, which he renewed in 1120. He continued to style himself Lord of Castile and, intermittently, emperor. At the end of the summer and during the autumn of 1122, he made a broad incursion into Castile, passing through Olmedo and Fresno, through lands then dominated by the Infante Alfonso Raimúndez, whom he is believed to have wished to intimidate into respecting the truce he had agreed years earlier with his mother. His acts in the lands south of the Duero were generally conciliatory toward the Leonese and the campaign fruitful, since the Aragonese sovereign did not return to these regions during Urraca's reign. Peace in the Castilian territories suited both parties: it allowed Alfonso to concentrate on the conquest and resettlement of the Ebro, and Urraca to try to subdue her sister Teresa in the west. As for the Infante Alfonso, he obtained from the Aragonese Monarch acquiescence to govern the lands south of the Duero and to take possession of Sigüenza, in exchange for Alfonso keeping his Castilian strongholds along the Way of Saint James. The pact between Leonese and Aragonese must have been agreed at the end of 1122 or the beginning of the following year.

The conquest of the Ebro Valley

Return to his kingdom

During his years of Leonese politics, Alfonso had taken part in the Reconquista on the defensive. In 1110 he had repelled attacks by al-Mustain at Valtierra, and in 1112 attacks by his Almoravid successors in the District of Huesca. He had sent Bishop Esteban of Huesca to support his Urgell allies against a Muslim incursion in 1114, and he had aided Toledo and Segovia against the Almoravids in 1114 (these cities seem to have temporarily returned to his side in exchange). Once the marriage was annulled, Alfonso began a new, more offensive stage centered on the conquest of Zaragoza. After the defeat of Valtierra, the city had suffered popular discontent and had fallen into the hands of the Almoravids.

Rooms of the Aljafería, palace and fortress of Saraqusta.

Zaragoza (in Arabic, Saraqusta or sometimes Madînat al-Baida, the white city) was one of the principal cities of al-Andalus. Because it was a frontier capital, it was also one of the principal Muslim taifa kingdoms. At its greatest splendor this taifa had stretched from Tudela to Tortosa. Tudela, Huesca, Lérida, Tarragona and Calatayud depended on it, and it received vassalage from Valencia and Denia. The strength of this taifa, compared with the vast depopulated territories on the frontier of Castile and León, had been the cause of the lesser expansion of the Kingdom of Aragon. At the beginning of the 12th century it was governed by the Hudids. After the defeat of Valtierra, however, they were led to pay parias to Urraca to win Castilian protection against Alfonso. Al-Mustain had died in the battle and had been succeeded by his son Abdelmalik. Their situation became increasingly compromised as King Alfonso demonstrated his power in the north and the Almoravids did the same in the south. The parias paid to the Castilians angered the most nationalist faction, who caused the city to fall into Almoravid hands.

The dethroned king of Zaragoza fled to Rueda de Jalón, where he created a small kingdom over the Jalón Valley. His hatred of the Almoravids would later lead him to ally with Alfonso against those who had dethroned him. Almoravid rule in the City of the Ebro was first personified by Muhammad ibn al-Hayy (1110–1115), who had retaken Valencia after its capture by the Cid. He was followed by Ibn Tifilwit (1115–1117), whose rule was marked by his disagreements with the philosopher and vizier Avempace. Their only advance against Alfonso was the capture of the fortress of Juslibol. In 1117, after the death of the governor, the City of Zaragoza passed into the hands of the King of Murcia.

From 1115 Alfonso resumed the pincer strategy to isolate Zaragoza from the west and the east. His first moves were directed at restoring and extending the western frontier facing Tudela, which had suffered al-Mustain's expedition in 1110. The chronicles again record the conquest of Tauste in 1115. Although it had been taken earlier together with Ejea, it seems to have been back in Muslim hands. It had probably been lost during the Valtierra campaign.

The military campaign was then interrupted by domestic politics. In 1116, Bishop Esteban of Huesca settled his boundary disputes with Ramón of Roda in summary fashion by expelling him from Barbastro by force. He did so with the acquiescence of Alfonso, or at least without any response from him. The Battler probably considered the attitude of the Bishop of Roda useless in a context of constant wars, while Esteban had been one of his most useful vassals. Ramón went into exile in France. Esteban's relations with the papacy became strained once again; he had already clashed with it in the time of Peter I over his disputes with the Bishop of Pamplona.

From the end of 1116 to the beginning of 1117 Alfonso undertook the subjugation of Diego López de Haro and achieved a truce with his ex-wife, after which he resumed his campaigns against the Muslims. That year he continued advancing in the western part, beginning the conquest of the District of Tudela and taking Fitero, Corella, Murchante, Cascante, Monteagudo and Cintruénigo. He granted these towns the enjoyment of the adjoining hills under a system of facerías (shared use).

Repeating what he had done a decade earlier, he then turned his attention to the eastern frontier. In the same year of 1117 he raided the lands of Lérida, threatening the city itself. Various Almoravid hosts joined together and forced the Battler to abandon his attempt to take it. It may have been during that campaign that he took Morella in 1117. However, the success of the Almoravid counterattack and the evolution of the frontier in the following years make it doubtful that this or other advances in the southeastern area could have been consolidated.

The conquest of Zaragoza

Main article: Reconquest of Zaragoza

The chronology between the conquest of the territory of Tudela in 1117 and the first half of 1118 is confusing for historians. At some point in this period Alfonso went to Béarn to strengthen relations with Gaston IV. Gaston was an Occitan veteran of the Crusades in the Holy Land, with warlike and religious habits similar to those of the Aragonese king. He was also lord of a viscounty with forces comparable to those of Aragon. He was moreover an expert in siege weapons, as he had shown at the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, when he fought under Raymond IV of Toulouse. His experience in sieges of cities could therefore be vital for King Alfonso. Not much is known about how their good relationship arose; it was probably based on similar life experiences forged in the war against the Muslims, and they became close friends. Its beginning, as has been said, is unclear, and they may already have been collaborating before 1117: the Viscount of Béarn appears as tenant of Barbastro in 1113, for reasons that are not known. Between 1117 and 1118, at a council in Béarn, a commitment of collaboration with Aragon was signed.

It is also not known whether Gaston of Béarn influenced other Occitan nobles. With the backing of the Pope, however, who granted a crusade bull and the associated religious benefits, many joined the campaign against Zaragoza. They did so despite the memory of Charlemagne's defeat in 778, which was present in legend through the Song of Roland. A bull of Gelasius II ratified the Council of Toulouse of February 1118 and reaffirmed the army that was gathering to conquer the white city.

In March 1118, a large number of French and Gascon knights and lords gathered at Ayerbe under Alfonso's command. Besides Gaston, the list includes his brother Centule of Bigorre, Bernard of Comminges, William IX of Aquitaine and Bernard Aton of Béziers, with their hosts and vassals. Forces also came from the allied County of Urgell and from Pallars, since Count Arnal Mir of Pallars Jussà was a feudatory of Alfonso I of Aragon. Forces likewise came from Ribagorza itself. Diego López de Haro, Lord of Biscay, was also present as a vassal. The ecclesiastical vassals present included William of Pamplona, Esteban of Huesca and Saint Ramón of Roda; with the exception of the second, they were themselves from beyond the Pyrenees. Sancho de Funes, Abbot of Nájera and shortly afterward Bishop of Calahorra, was also there. Through them the Church contributed heavily to the financing of the campaign.

The ravine of death, by Agustín Salinas Teruel. c. 1891–1892. (Provincial Deputation of Zaragoza). In that ravine south of the city, on May 22, the Christians surprised a contingent that was coming to lift the siege.

They marched south, conquered Almudévar, Gurrea de Gállego and Zuera, and at the end of May laid siege to Zaragoza. Little is known about how the siege unfolded. Several historians believe that the water supply, which entered through the Romareda canal, was cut off to hasten the city's fall. The nine months that the siege lasted were a great test for the morale and health of the Christian troops, since the men slept in the open. They probably made a temporary withdrawal in winter. For their part, the Almoravids sent forces from Córdoba and Granada to break the siege, without success. Zaragoza finally surrendered on December 18, 1118, having lost all hope of relief. The capture of the Zuda Tower, seat of the Muslim government and fortification of the walled enclosure, is usually given as the milestone of the fall.

Alfonso restored the ancient episcopal see, whose occupant seems to have been a matter of dispute. Alfonso appears to have preferred Esteban of Huesca, who had always been close to him and had made a vital contribution to the campaign. However, the dispute with Ramón of Roda was recent, and it had brought Esteban into conflict with the Holy See. This may have motivated the final choice of Pedro de Librana, a Béarnese monk preferred by the Pope. Alfonso ordered a new church to be built over the old Mozarabic chapel of El Pilar. He also ordered the city's main mosque to be converted into a cathedral. He granted concessions to the Benedictines to found a monastery in the Aljafería Palace, a building that became the royal residence of the kings of Aragon. Alfonso offered the City a fuero to attract Christian settlers.

The city's capitulations recognized several rights of the Muslims:

• to stay in Zaragoza, on condition of moving to the suburbs within one year, during which the mosques would continue to fulfill their function;
• to pay the same taxes as before the conquest;
• to keep their rural properties;
• to practice their religion and be judged by their own laws.

The right of those who wished to leave freely was also recognized. With these advantageous conditions, Alfonso sought to avoid the depopulation of the city, especially by retaining the artisans and merchants and assimilating the Mudéjars, which would leave its mark on the art of the city. To organize coexistence, Alfonso I established a system of aljamas that guaranteed respect among religious communities, as in other cities of his kingdom.

After all this, the medina or old city was repopulated with Christians who had taken part in the capture of the city. It is estimated that, of the roughly twenty thousand Muslims, many remained. With the arrival of new inhabitants the population grew and the city expanded beyond its walls. Gaston IV of Béarn received the tenancy of the city as a reward for his efforts.

Conquest of the right bank of the Ebro, the Jalón Valley and the Battle of Cutanda

Map of the conquests of Alfonso I (in orange, conquests from the Muslims; in dark green, territories of the Kingdom of Pamplona recovered from Castile; in dark yellow, frontier areas repopulated by Alfonso).

Monument in honor of Alfonso I of Aragon in Calatayud.

Once Zaragoza had been taken, the King of Aragon planned the conquest of the towns south of the Ebro River. In 1119 the operations around Zaragoza were completed with the conquest of nearby localities such as Fuentes de Ebro and Alfajarín. Around that time, Belchite (which received a first fuero in 1119) or Cariñena were probably the southernmost points from Zaragoza under Christian rule. The Paniza mountain pass possibly served as the natural frontier to the south.

After that, Alfonso turned his attention to Tudela, the next center of Muslim power on the Ebro. Tudela fell after a brief siege on February 25 of that year. Its fall was followed by that of the entire Dehesa del Moncayo and the banks of the Queiles River, including Ágreda, Vozmediano and Tarazona, the last after another brief siege, together with its district. The valley of the Alhama River also fell, with Cervera del Río Alhama at its head, as did Alfaro, Tudején and Castillón (fortresses now in ruins in Navarre).

Around the same time he also took the upper Ebro riverbank, where the Jalón River flows into it, and the course of the Huecha River. The towns taken there included Novallas, Magallón, Alberite de San Juan, Mallén, Alagón, Pedrola, Novillas, Épila and Ricla... He distributed them among his tenants and trusted men. The new conquests were of such magnitude that some authors see in them the seed of the transition from the system of tenancies to that of hereditary lordships in the Ebro Valley. The grant of Alagón to his former tutor, Lope Garcés Peregrino, is significant. With it he gave rise to the House of Alagón, which would become one of the great noble houses of the kingdom. Another important grant was that of Urrea to Pedro Jiménez, probably a relative of the loyal Íñigo Jiménez de Cameros. Pedro Jiménez was Justice of Aragon, one of the principal offices of the court, and he would become the founder of the House of Urrea, another of the principal lineages of the kingdom. Alfonso likewise made a vassal of the Hudid kingdom of Imad al-Dawla in Rueda de Jalón and Borja. This was the last stronghold of the local Muslim dynasty that the Almoravids had deposed, and it sought revenge against them.

In 1119 he also rebuilt the abandoned city of Soria and repopulated its district. Alfonso VI of León had managed to take Almazán, Gormaz and Medinaceli in 1098–1104. The Almoravid counteroffensive and the catastrophe of Uclés in 1108, however, had made those conquests short-lived. They had turned the area into a sparsely populated frontier that now threatened to outflank Alfonso I's new possessions. Repopulating the area became necessary to prevent Muslim counterattacks from the Duero Valley. To the south, these campaigns of 1119–1120 left the frontier in defensible positions. This was thanks to the mountain passes at places such as Ágreda and Lanzas Agudas and to the support of the Hudid kingdom on the lower course of the Jalón.

In 1120 he was besieging Calatayud, the next great center of Muslim power, with his own forces and those of allies from the other side of the Pyrenees such as William IX of Aquitaine. While there, he received news that the Almoravids were marching from their bases in Valencia to try to reconquer Zaragoza. Alfonso and his allies lifted the siege and marched to intercept them. The Muslim advance followed an old Roman road in the basin of the Turia River and the Guadalaviar, passing through what is now Teruel. Alfonso met them at Cutanda, in the valley of the Jiloca River. The Battle of Cutanda is remembered as Alfonso's greatest victory. In the 14th century people still said «peor fue Cutanda» ("Cutanda was worse") to refer to achievements that seem impossible. Despite being inferior in number, the Aragonese forces crushed the Muslim ones and won their victory on June 17, 1120. This definitively ended Muslim hopes of recovering Zaragoza. The iqlim (district) of Qutanda probably also fell at this time, together with the nearby area (Calamocha...). The district of Sahla may have fallen as well. These districts covered the route from Valencia.

After his victory his army resumed the conquest of Calatayud. Calatayud fell in 1121, followed by the lands of present-day Bubierca, Alhama de Aragón and Ariza. With this, the stretch of the Jalón Valley that is now Aragonese fell. Military operations continued with the fall of Daroca (1122) and its district (including present-day Torrelacárcel and Singra and the springs of the Jiloca). This meant taking the course of the principal tributary of the Jalón, the Jiloca. The fall of the area was another severe blow to the influence of the Almoravids, who were put in open retreat. At the end of the 1122 campaign, the most advanced positions were Carabantes (in the present-day Province of Soria), Ariza (in Aragon), and Milmarcos, Anchuela and Guisema (in the present-day Province of Guadalajara). Facing them, the former taifas of Molina and Albarracín, now both in Almoravid hands, marked the frontier in the foothills of the Serranía de Cuenca. To the west lay the Castilian and Leonese lands. In the autumn of 1122 Alfonso raided them to pressure Alfonso Raimúndez to respect the truce agreed with his mother in 1117.

Repopulation and organization of the conquered territory

Imaginary portrait of Alfonso I of Aragon, by Manuel Aguirre y Monsalbe. c. 1851–1854. (Provincial Deputation of Zaragoza).

The extent of the newly conquered lands posed challenges for guaranteeing their Christian population. The original Mozarab population was significant in localities such as Tudela, Calatayud, Daroca, Alagón and Tamarite de Litera. Even so, it was necessary to consolidate and repopulate the territory, since part of the Islamic population had left. Under the old system of presura, the King and his tenants distributed the lands abandoned after the conquest. This gave Upper Aragonese, Navarrese and Gascons opportunities to settle, as can be seen in place names, in numerous onomastic studies, and in linguistic and religious studies.

From 1120 the Battler granted fueros to numerous towns, thereby encouraging the repopulation and settlement of the territory. They included Soria (1120), Funes, Marcilla and Peñalén (1120), the New Burg of Sangüesa (1122), Puente la Reina (1122), Araciel (1123), Cabanillas (1124) and Carcastillo (1125)... They are often called fueros de francos (Frankish fueros) because they encouraged the creation of burgos francos (Frankish burgs), with French immigrants. The chronological evolution of the repopulated areas shows a certain use of the concept of strategic depth. Fueros were normally granted to territories some time after their conquest, when the frontier had already advanced further and the aim was to create a territorial structure in the rear. Alfonso began by granting fueros to the area of the Way of Saint James, which served as a connection with the other side of the Pyrenees, continuing the work of his father Sancho Ramírez. He then went on to secure the area near Tudela and the Ebro when the frontier was already approaching the Jalón.

Alfonso also took care to recover the ancient episcopal sees of Roman and Visigothic times. These were key to building a Christian administration in cities that had just lost their Islamic institutions. He re-established and endowed with resources the bishoprics of Calahorra (recovered from Nájera in 1116), Zaragoza (re-established in 1118) and Tarazona (re-established in 1119). He also secured and enlarged the bishoprics re-established by Alfonso VI, such as Sigüenza (taken from the Muslims and repopulated in 1121–1124), Segovia (1122–1123) and Osma. Besides guaranteeing repopulation, the bishoprics were key to justifying control of the territory. The Diocese of Tarazona, for example, served to legitimize the repopulation of Soria against the claims of the Castilian bishoprics of Osma and Sigüenza. These, in turn, legitimized the Castilian claims to Soria and the Jalón. Despite this, the bishops of Segovia, Osma and Sigüenza were present at acts of Alfonso I, which again shows the complexity of the political game of the time.

Despite these Christian Mozarab inhabitants, the Islamic population remained significant. The case of Borja stands out especially. After the 1119 campaigns this locality had been left as a nominal exclave of the vassal Hudid kingdom, surrounded by the towns taken by Alfonso. It seems that around 1122, once the military conquests were over, its peaceful surrender was agreed on terms favorable to the local Muslim population. Besides Borja and the rest of the vassal Hudid kingdom on the Jalón, other towns that had surrendered after the capture of Zaragoza and the Battle of Cutanda kept a significant Muslim population (Mudéjars). In the Hudid area, a significant population remained in places such as Terrer or Arcos de Jalón. The other towns were:

• Pedrola, Fuentes de Ebro, Pina and Gelsa on the Ebro;
• Cuarte, Cadrete, María, Mezalocha and Muel along the Huerva River;
• Letux, Codo and Belchite on the southeastern frontier with the Muslims;
• the towns along the Queiles and Huecha, such as Tarazona.

Many of the Mudéjars and Muwallads continued working their traditional lands as exaricos, since their departure would have meant economic collapse. Alfonso's fueros typically allowed them to remain in the towns in aljamas outside the walls, with their own institutions.

To secure these conquests south of the Ebro militarily, Alfonso founded a military order in Belchite in 1122: the Confraternity of Belchite. It was the first of its kind in the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded on the model of the Militia of Jerusalem and of those established in the Crusades. Its members and benefactors would receive crusade benefits, and not only for the conquest of a single city, as had happened until then. Its probable area of territorial action was south of Zaragoza and the lower course of the Huerva River (Cariñena, Belchite). This area had been in Alfonso's hands since 1119 but lacked great natural defenses against possible Islamic counterattacks.

Also in 1122 Alfonso received homage from Centule II of Bigorre. Centule was a veteran of his campaigns and the brother of his ally Gaston. He had ascended the throne of Bigorre, which had a nominal but ineffective dependence on the Duchy of Aquitaine. Centule received new possessions in the Ebro Valley to repopulate, most notably the tenancy of Tarazona. Once Zaragoza had been taken, Aragon had become a center of power in its own right, with strong ties to Béarn and Bigorre. Authors such as Lema Pueyo have argued that this was the result of a deliberate policy by Alfonso. By giving tenancies and possessions on one side of the Pyrenees, he bound to himself Occitan lords who could also become his vassals or allies on the other side of the mountain range. The Navarrese monarchs had already had aspirations there in the past. Among the nobles who came to his court around that time was his maternal cousin, Rotrou III of Perche. Rotrou would become one of his trusted lieutenants, and Alfonso would give him the tenancy of Tudela.

Foreign policy and consolidation of the frontiers

In 1123 he clashed with the Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer III, over the city of Lérida, which both aspired to take. In 1120, its governor had agreed with Berenguer Ramón III to cede castles on the Segre frontier, such as Corbins, and to support him against Tortosa. This irritated Alfonso, because it shifted Barcelona's pressure toward his tenancies on the Cinca. Chalamera, Zaidín and Velilla had or had had Aragonese tenants. However, their effective control was hindered by the Muslim presence in Alcolea and by the alliance between Lérida and Ramon Berenguer, so they may have returned to Muslim hands. The Battler, helped in turn by his historic Urgell allies, took Alcolea de Cinca. At the same time Alfonso Jordan, claimant to the counties of Toulouse and Provence, waged a campaign against Ramon Berenguer to assert his rights to Languedoc. Some historians have seen this as a continuation of the conflict through chains of traditional trans-Pyrenean alliances. The Battler then besieged Lérida in 1123 and took or built Gardeny Castle on one of the nearby hills. He besieged the stronghold in vain throughout the spring and the first half of the summer. According to Zurita, the intervention of various Catalan and Aragonese prelates and barons put an end to the conflict between Alfonso and the Count. Both reached a mutual commitment to refrain from undertaking any action against Lérida. In any case, shortly afterward, in 1124, an Almoravid army defeated Ramon Berenguer III at the Battle of Corbins. This forced the Count of Barcelona to give up the objective of Lérida.

Monreal del Campo, a locality founded by Alfonso I as a bulwark on his southeastern frontier and seat of the Militia Caesaraugustana.

As he had done in Belchite, in 1124 Alfonso established in Monreal del Campo the Militia Christi of Monreal, also called the Militia Caesaraugustana or Order of Monreal. It had its base in the newly founded City of Monreal, located at the springs of the Jiloca; the name means 'mansion of the heavenly King'. The order received an area of influence in the region of the Jiloca and Teruel, and its assigned district extended as far as Segorbe. Its objective was to lead the reconquest with a view to taking Tortosa, and thereby to give the kingdom an outlet to the Mediterranean. The Jiloca Valley, which had become a frontier zone, was repopulated and fortified.

Also in 1124 he put down a revolt by Diego López I de Haro and Ladrón Íñiguez. They were powerful feudal lords of Biscay, Álava and La Rioja who supported his ex-wife Urraca. In March he entered La Rioja, and in July he besieged Haro, López's fortress. Alfonso quickly defeated them and proceeded to divide his enemies. The former disappears from the chronicles after the revolt, while Ladrón Íñiguez seems to have been reconciled with the King. To stabilize the situation, Alfonso granted privileges to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. He also replaced López de Haro in numerous tenancies with the loyal Fortún Garcés Cajal, who appears to have been Alfonso's choice for La Bureba, and with Ladrón Íñiguez, who appears as tenant of Álava, Estíbaliz, Haro and other territories. From 1125 the House of Vela would become defenders of the belonging of Álava, Biscay and Guipúzcoa to the Kingdom of Pamplona. The House of Haro, meanwhile, became its enemies and defenders of the Castilian side.

By September 1124 the King was already back on the southern frontier. It seems that in that same year he took Medinaceli from the Muslims. The fall of the lower Jalón valley in 1120–1122 had left the upper course of the river in a situation similar to that of Soria in 1119. It served as a bottleneck to prevent attacks from the Tagus Valley. In that same campaign he collaborated with Bishop Bernard of Agen in the capture of the city of Sigüenza and in the restoration and repopulation of its bishopric. This is another sign of the political complexity of the moment. Although Bernard was almost certainly favorable to Urraca, he needed the military collaboration of Alfonso, who still considered himself King of Castile, to wrest his episcopal see from the Muslims. Leopoldo Torres Balbás attributes to Alfonso I the decision to place the original medina of medieval Sigüenza next to the castle. It was probably during this campaign that Alfonso I took the castle of Santiuste, a little to the south, and founded the neighboring locality of Aragoncillo.

Expedition through al-Andalus of 1124–1126

Main article: Military expedition of Alfonso I of Aragon through Andalusia

The great extent of the new territories incorporated into the Kingdom of Aragon obliged the Battler to attract a large population to repopulate fields and towns and to sustain the country's economy. He knew of the dissatisfaction of the numerous Mozarab population in Muslim territory at the rise in religious fanaticism under the new North African Almoravid religious current. He was also encouraged by the Mozarabs of Granada, who offered him their support to rebel in that city in the south of al-Andalus. Alfonso therefore undertook a military expedition through Muslim lands.

At Nívar (dark blue), north of the Vega de Granada (lighter), Alfonso I of Aragon set up camp for about ten days while harassing the Almoravid Andalusi capital.

In 1124, at fifty years of age, the Monarch undertook this risky incursion into the interior of al-Andalus. He led an army that entered the Taifa of Valencia and reached Benicadell (Penya Cadiella in the chronicles). He had already fought there in his youth, at the Battle of Bairén, during his expedition in support of the Cid. The year 1125 was decisive. Advancing south through Valencia, within a year he carried out an offensive against the Almoravid city of Granada, intending to create a Christian principality in the very heart of al-Andalus. He besieged Granada, but the Mozarab population inside the city would not or could not open its gates to him. He then decided to undertake a plundering operation through the fertile lands of the Guadalquivir Valley.

While the King of Aragon was plundering the south of the present-day Province of Córdoba, Abu Bakr, son of the emir Ali ibn Yusuf, had set out with troops from Seville to meet the Battler. He caught up with him at Arnisol, Arinzol or Aranzuel, according to the sources, present-day Anzur (today in the municipality of Puente Genil), near Lucena. A pitched battle was fought there on March 10, 1126, resulting in a decisive victory for the Aragonese.

He passed through important towns in the south of Córdoba and reached the coast at Motril or Vélez-Málaga. There, according to the chronicles, he ordered a fish to be caught for him before beginning his return, laden with booty and accompanied by numerous Mozarabs. It is estimated that more than ten thousand followed him with the intention of settling in the Christian kingdom. The figure may be exaggerated, but what is certain is that on his return the Battler declared these Mozarabs free men. He granted them privileges and judicial, fiscal, economic and military advantages. Although pursued by the Almoravid forces, Alfonso managed to return through Cuenca and Albarracín in 1126 and to settle many of these Mozarabs in his kingdom. The transfer of the Mozarabs was the main consequence of the long incursion, which lasted more than a year. That same year Alfonso gave them privileges in a document issued at Alfaro. There is evidence that they heavily repopulated the newly conquered lands in the Ebro Valley, especially in the area of Mallén. Other authors have pointed out that the new settlers were also key to preventing the depopulation of the original Pyrenean core as people emigrated from the mountains to the valley.

The eastern frontier also required his attention. Lérida and Tortosa, to the east, remained the last Muslim strongholds from which to threaten Alfonso's kingdom. In 1126 itself, the Almoravids launched a punitive expedition from there, taking advantage of the king's absence on his Andalusian campaign. They could not be stopped until Lascuarre, which made evident the need to repopulate and consolidate the Ribagorza area. Thus, in 1126 Alfonso promulgated new fueros, such as those of Aínsa.

Last years

War with Alfonso VII of León and consolidation of the western frontier

Alfonso VII in a miniature from the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

Throughout all those years Alfonso had continued to retain part of his former influence in the kingdom of Castile, which was divided between the supporters of Urraca and those of her son Alfonso Raimúndez. Even so, as he focused on the conquests from the Muslims on the Ebro, he gave his ex-wife the opportunity to consolidate her rule. She expelled him, for example, from Toledo in 1118, from Burgos in 1120 and probably from Segovia after 1123. Alfonso I nevertheless still retained the garrisons along the Way of Saint James, and at some point in the 1120s the city of Burgos was added to them again. On March 8, 1126, Urraca I of León died. This left her son, then 21 years old, as sole heir of the joint crowns of León and Castile as Alfonso VII, and at last free to act.

The tensions between the two Alfonsos, inherited from the old civil wars, broke out when the Leonese king tried to recover the towns that the Aragonese had held since his victory at Candespina. Alfonso VII also had the support of Lope Díaz de Haro, son of Diego López de Haro, who aspired to recover his father's lands. The Battler lost some of his advanced positions in the interior of Castile, such as Frías, Briviesca, Villafranca de Montes de Oca, Burgos, Santiuste, Sigüenza and Medinaceli. Peace was finally reached with the Pact of Támara in June 1127. Under it the Battler officially renounced the title of emperor of the Leonese tradition. Thus, for example, in 1130 Alfonso appears as reigning in «Ribagorza, Aragon, Pamplona and in Aran».

However, towns of Burgos, La Rioja, Biscay and Álava remained in Aragonese power. They included the left bank of the Bayas River, Pancorbo, Cellorigo, Bilibio, Belorado, Nájera, Haro, Calahorra and Cervera del Río Alhama. With this, the frontier lay along the traditional limits between Castile and Navarre, as they had been before the Castilian conquests that followed the assassination of Sancho of Peñalén.

According to the Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña:

So that henceforth no dissension should arise between the two kingdoms, it was decided which land was the Kingdom of Navarre, that is, from the Ebro River to near the city of Burgos, which King Sancho of Castile had violently seized from his relative King Sancho of Navarre (Sancho of Peñalén), son of King García (García Sánchez of Nájera). Of which documents were drawn up between both kings and kingdoms of Castile and Navarre, and each of them received "cartas suas firmatas et bene vallatas". Then Alfonso of Aragon handed over all the land of Castile to Alfonso of Castile, and from then on did not wish to be called emperor, but king of Aragon, Pamplona and Navarre.

— 

The exact situation after the peace is not entirely clear, since it seems that both Alfonsos continued to dispute some strongholds on the frontier even after agreeing to the treaty. It seems that Alfonso I continued to control or to try to fortify Castrojeriz despite its being on the Castilian side. Alfonso I also appointed a tenant for Briviesca and Cerezo in La Bureba, although effective control seems to have been Alfonso VII's. To complicate the situation further, the Count of Lara had continued to lead Urraca's faction against her son Alfonso VII and waged a parallel revolt against the Leonese Monarch. He was a former enemy of Alfonso the Battler, whom he had opposed in defense of Urraca. Pedro González de Lara had become the father-in-law of Bertrán Risnel, the Aragonese King's principal agent in León and Castile. In this way a faction favorable to Alfonso I the Battler arose in León. For his part, Alfonso VII of León married shortly afterward (late 1127 or early 1128) Berenguela. She was the daughter of the Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer III, who was also a rival of the Battler.

Portico of the Church of the Virgen del Rivero (early 12th century), in San Esteban de Gormaz. This locality was Aragonese under Alfonso I the Battler, and it was repopulated and fortified around 1128.

Moreover, the Aragonese Extremadura extended across the present-day provinces of Soria and Guadalajara, through localities that would become Castilian only after the Battler's death. This area included towns conquered from the Muslims by the Battler or repopulated by him, such as Ágreda, Almazán and Soria, which remained in Aragonese power until the end of 1135. After Támara, Alfonso I devoted himself to reinforcing that frontier.

From September 1127 he took charge of repopulating Cella. Rotrou of Perche must have taken part in these operations, since he received the town of Corella (Navarre) as a reward. In November 1127 he began to besiege Molina de Aragón. Near it he built the fortress of Castilnuevo, which was finished by February 1128. From May of that year his magnates continued the siege of the important stronghold of Molina de Aragón. Meanwhile, he moved further south and conquered Traíd, in the present-day Province of Guadalajara. The documentation for that year records Aragonese tenants appointed for Ágreda (assigned to Jimeno Íñiguez) and Almenar de Soria, which were thus brought under control and repopulated. From August to the end of 1128 Alfonso I devoted himself to populating and thereby fortifying Almazán, which he decided to rename «Plasencia». According to the chronicles, he built walls around it. According to Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, the King of Aragon also repopulated and fortified Berlanga de Duero. He also ordered another Monreal to be built near Ariza, guarding the Jalón Valley. Molina was in the King's power in December. After this campaign, Aragon's most advanced positions on the southwestern frontier were Alfaro, Corella, Soria, Almazán, San Esteban de Gormaz, Molina de Aragón, Traíd and Cella.

According to the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris, Alfonso VII of León confronted him during that 1128 campaign over Morón de Almazán. According to the chronicle, the Leonese king came to the town's aid when the Battler tried to besiege it. That town, Atienza and Medinaceli remained in the hands of the Emperor, facing the positions fortified by the Aragonese. The lack of collaboration from the Count of Lara, who opposed Alfonso VII, prevented him from taking further measures on the Soria front. The chronicle is another pro-Leonese source. It describes Alfonso VII's forces as inferior in number to the Battler's and blames the rebellious Castilian and Leonese nobles for the Aragonese advantage.

Return to the eastern frontier and Occitan policy

In 1129, popular discontent with the Almoravids offered Alfonso an opportunity when the governor of Seville, Ali ibn Majjuz, fled. He took refuge with Alfonso. With his alliance, and now free of Leonese pressure, the Aragonese King tried to conquer Valencia. An Almoravid army was summoned to relieve the city, and it was utterly defeated at the Battle of Cullera (or of Alcalá, after the nearest castle). The victory was of such magnitude that Ibn al-Abbar considers it the cause of the Almoravid discredit that brought the second taifa kingdoms to Sharq al-Andalus. However, Alfonso returned north. He may have done so to calm the situation after the death of Centule of Bigorre, who had left his domains to his daughter Beatrice, in conflict with Bernard of Comminges. According to some sources, Alfonso intervened to bring Bernard to reason. He confirmed to Peter of Marsan, Beatrice's husband, the tenancy of Tarazona and the possessions that had belonged to his father-in-law. On the way he had to reconquer Monzón. It had been lost through treachery three years earlier to the Count of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer III, or perhaps in the Almoravid expedition of 1126 against Lascuarre.

Meanwhile, the first Bishop of reconquered Zaragoza, Pedro de Librana, died between April and September 1029. The see was still vacant in early February 1130, when King Alfonso I was repopulating Monzón and appointed Esteban, Bishop of Jaca-Huesca. Before February 15, 1130, Esteban had already been transferred from the bishopric of Jaca-Huesca to that of Zaragoza. Meanwhile, the situation with León remained complicated, although various French lords mediated.

Commemorative plaque at the castle of Bayonne

Between October 1130 and early 1131 Alfonso crossed the Aran Valley to return to the other side of the Pyrenees, where the situation seems to have remained unstable. The reasons for the campaign are not clear. Some authors suggest that William X of Aquitaine or Alfonso Jordan of Toulouse might have allied with Alfonso VII of León. Others point out that the cause could have been succession problems arising from the death of his vassal Centule. Still others point to internal Aquitanian conflicts, since the Duke of Aquitaine was the theoretical sovereign of Labourd, Béarn, Bigorre and Toulouse. Discontented with William X of Aquitaine, who was also Duke of Vasconia, Alfonso attacked his lands. The kings of Pamplona had held claims to that title under Sancho III. He had the support of local nobles, such as Viscount García (Gassion) of Soule, whom he had appointed tenant of Belorado in 1125. With their help he seized the countryside of the viscounty of Labourd. He besieged Bayonne for a year, probably interested in obtaining a reliable outlet to the ocean. The sources differ on whether he took it in 1131 or whether it was saved by a Toulousan army. The Monarch claimed to reign «from Belorado to Pallars and from Bayonne to Monreal». During this siege he dictated his will, which later became the source of great dissension.

During that campaign, Alfonso continued to attend to the repopulation and organization of his territories. He granted fueros to several towns, such as Daroca (1129), Corella (1130) and Calatayud (1131). The fueros of Daroca and Calatayud are especially relevant. Around these towns, and on the basis of the alfoz assigned by Alfonso, the first Aragonese communities of villages were organized: the Community of Villages of Calatayud and the Community of Villages of Daroca. This was a model imported from the communities of villa y tierra of Castile. It was adapted to the territorial organization that Alfonso had found, which dated from the Islamic period or even earlier. The model took hold and became the scheme used by Alfonso's successors to guarantee the security of the frontier. He also expanded the fuero of Zaragoza with the privilege of Tortum per tortum (1129). It entrusted the protection of private interests to any secular armed bodies that might be formed, guaranteeing self-defense and the grazing rights granted to the city. For centuries this would become a key element of municipal policy and a vital point of its economy (see Casa de Ganaderos de Zaragoza). A last relevant grant was the fuero of San Cernin. It meant the separate recognition of the Frankish settlement next to episcopal Pamplona (La Navarrería), which gave rise to the system of the burgs of Pamplona.

Last battles and the Fraga campaign

Statue of Alfonso I in the Retiro Park of Madrid.

Tomb in the Monastery of San Pedro el Viejo (Huesca)

In 1131, while the king was fighting in Gascony, Gaston IV of Béarn and the warrior bishop Esteban fought in southeastern Aragon against the Almoravids, who continued to harass the kingdom from Valencia. In one of the last Muslim attacks the viscount and the bishop were killed. The historian Ibn ʿIḏārī narrates it thus, according to José María Lacarra:

This same year (534 of the Hegira) the governor of Valencia, Mohamad Yidar, died. Yintān ben ʿAlī governed it for the consolation of God. He defeated the Christians [May 24, 1130], and the head of their chief, Gaston, was brought to Granada in the month of Jumada II. This brought the smile back to the emir of the Muslims, ʿAlī ben Yūsuf, who was in Marrakesh, adds Ibn ʿIḏārī.

The body of Don Gaston was recovered by his widow, Doña Talesa, and buried in the church of El Pilar, today the basilica and co-cathedral of Zaragoza. Esteban, another of Alfonso's historic supporters during his reign, was succeeded in the miter of Zaragoza by García Guerra de Majones.

After Gaston's death, the king returned to his kingdom, leaving Occitan policy in the hands of his knights. There may have been some escalation of tension with Alfonso VII of León. The rebellious Count of Lara had been defeated the previous year, and in 1131 the two monarchs again disputed Castrojeriz. Zafadola, successor of Imad al-Dawla in the kingdom of Rueda de Jalón, changed allegiance that same year and paid homage to the Leonese king. However, the Leonese king used Zafadola against the Almoravids and was kept busy by a rebellion in Asturias, avoiding further conflicts with the Battler.

In any case, Alfonso I made it his priority to finish the reconquest of the Ebro. He moved to the lands of La Rioja, where he planned a repopulation of the city of Cantabria or Varia (next to Logroño), probably aimed at consolidating the area against León. On the banks of the Ebro he planned a river expedition to finally end the threat posed by the Muslim positions at Lérida and Tortosa. He gathered timber for the boats at San Millán. Also in 1132 he consolidated the repopulation of the Ebro riverbank by granting fueros to Mallén and Asín.

His last campaign against the Muslims began in 1133. That same year the Battler besieged and took Mequinenza, one of the last Islamic positions north of the Ebro and the western bastion of the defensive line of Lérida. Nonaspe and its district also fell around the same time and were given to Pedro de Biota, Íñigo Fortuñón and Jimén Garcez. The area taken covered the lower course of the Matarraña and Algás rivers. According to the description in the donation, it included Algares, Batea, Badon and Lode. According to the places where he issued documents that year, the Aragonese frontiers reached Orta. Before the end of 1133 he conquered Escarpe, in the present-day Province of Lérida. According to authors such as Pita Mercè, the choice of route may have sought to avoid the fortresses that protected Lérida from the north, which were still in dispute from past campaigns. Instead, Alfonso set up camp on the hill of Almanarella, thereby cutting communications between Lérida and the stronghold of Fraga to its west.

However, Alfonso had a diminished army without Gaston's Béarnese and Gascons, who had returned en masse to their land. In the summer of 1134 the king was besieging the fortress of Fraga with barely five hundred knights. An Almoravid attack led by the governor of Valencia, Avengania, with the collaboration of the Muslim garrison, then surprised the besiegers and defeated them on July 17. The veteran monarch received serious wounds. Although he managed to flee and survive at first, complications from those wounds caused his death on September 7 of that year in the Monegros locality of Poleñino (between Sariñena and Grañén). He was buried in the monastery of Montearagón, near Huesca. According to the Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña, he was 61 years old and had reigned for half of them.

Will and succession

Imaginary portrait of King Alfonso I of Aragon in the city hall of Zaragoza

He made a will in favor of God sic (1131) during the siege of Bayonne. More specifically, he left as heirs and successors to the kingdom the military orders of the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He renewed this will at Sariñena in 1134:

In the name of the greatest and incomparable good, which is God. I, Alfonso, king of Aragon, of Pamplona [...] thinking of my fate and reflecting that nature makes all men mortal, resolved, while I had life and health, to distribute the kingdom that God granted me and my possessions and revenues in the most fitting manner for after my existence. Therefore, fearing divine judgment, for the salvation of my soul and also that of my father and my mother and that of all my relatives, I make my will to God, to Our Lord Jesus Christ and to all his saints. And with good intent and of my own free will I offer to God, to the Virgin Mary of Pamplona and to San Salvador de Leyre the castle of Estella with the whole town [...], I give to Santa María de Nájera and to San Millán [...], I also give to Saint James of Galicia [...], I also give to San Juan de la Peña [...] and also for after my death I leave as my heir and successor the Sepulchre of the Lord which is in Jerusalem [...] all this I do for the salvation of the soul of my father and of my mother and the remission of all my sins and to merit a place in eternal life...

The Aragonese and Navarrese nobles were displeased with the will. The Aragonese agreed that his brother Ramiro should succeed him in Aragon; he reigned as Ramiro II the Monk. In Navarre they chose García Ramírez, the Restorer, son of the Infante Don Ramiro, who had been married to a daughter of El Cid. Thus the crowns of Navarre and Aragon separated after fifty years, and the definitive frontiers between Navarre and Aragon were fixed.

The King's remains have been exhumed twice: in 1920 (during a history congress) and in 1985, for study.

See also

• Chronological table of the kingdoms of Spain

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