thumb|Denarius of Peter II, bearing his effigythumb|Another denarius (1196)Peter II the Catholic (
Huesca, 1178 – 12 September 1213) was the
King of Aragon (as
Pedro II) and
Count of Barcelona (as
Pere I) from 1196 to 1213.
He was the son of
Alfonso II of Aragon and
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 faith (hence his surname, "the Catholic"). He was the first king of
Aragon to be crowned by the
Pope.
In the first decade of the thirteenth century he commissioned the
Liber feudorum Ceritaniae, an
illustrated codex cartulary for the counties of
Cerdagne,
Conflent, and
Roussillon.
On
June 15,
1204 he married (as her third husband)
Marie of Montpellier, daughter and heiress of
William VIII of Montpellier by
Eudocia Comnena. She gave him a son,
James, but Peter soon discarded her. Marie was popularly venerated as a saint for her piety and marital suffering, but was never canonized; she died in Rome in
1213.
He participated in the
Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in
1212 that marked the turning point of Arab domination on the Iberian peninsula.
Peter returned from Las Navas in autumn 1212 to find that
Simon de Montfort had conquered
Toulouse, exiling Count
Raymond VI of Toulouse, who was Peter's brother-in-law and vassal. Peter crossed the Pyrenees and arrived at
Muret in September
1213 to confront Montfort's army. 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
September 12,
1213. The Aragonese forces were disorganized and disintegrated under the assault of Montfort's squadrons. Peter himself was caught in the thick of fighting, and died as a result of a foolhardy act of bravado. He was thrown to the ground and killed. The Aragonese forces broke in panic when their king was slain and the crusaders of Montfort won the day.
Upon Peter's death the kingdom passed to his only son by Marie of Montpellier, the future
James the Conqueror.
Ancestors
