ALPHONSO XI, the Avenger. This prince was an infant when he succeeded his father Ferdinand IV. in 1312. During his long minority the kingdom was cruelly distracted by intestine warfare. Assuming the reins of government in
his fifteenth year, he strove to repress the turbulent spirit of Alphonso. nobility, and to put down that system of brigandage to which it had given rise. His inflexible severity towards all such offenders procured for him the title of the Avenger. As commander of the allied armies of Catholic Spain, on the 29th Oct. 1340 he gained a complete victory over the kings of Morocco and Granada, who had besieged Tarifa. The slaughter was immense, and the booty so rich that the value of gold is said to have fallen one sixteenth. In 1342 Alonzo laid siege to Algeziras, where cannons were employed for the first time in Europe by the Moors in defence of their walls. This siege had lasted two years, when the Moors capitulated on condition of a truce between the two nations for ten years: but the king of Castile broke his word a few years after by besieging Gibraltar, where he died of the plague on the 26th March 1350, aged 40. He was the father of Pedro the Cruel, who succeeded him. From this reign dates the institution of regidores or jurats, to whom was committed the administration of the communes; and these regidores became the exclusive electors of the cortes, in which the people ceased to have a voice.
2d. Aragon.—ALPHONSO I, surnamed the Fighter, king of Navarre and Aragon, was the second son of Don Sancho Ramirez, and succeeded his brother Pedro I. in 1104. At that period Aragon was exhausted by the interminable wars which its successive sovereigns had waged against the Moors. The power of the Almoravides, which the exertions of the Cid were unable to check, menaced all Christian Spain; and the only prince that still was able to oppose them was the aged Alonzo VI, king of Leon. It was in this juncture of affairs that Alonzo I. by many years of peace had gathered strength to pursue that headlong career which afterwards caused him to be surnamed the Fighter. Very shortly after his marriage with Uraca the daughter of Alonzo VI. of Leon, some misunderstanding alienated his affections from that princess. The haughty Castilian nobles, indignant at her treatment, rescued her from the fortress where she was confined, and bore her away in triumph. In the meantime Alonzo was occupied with his schemes of aggrandizement. The capture of Tudela from the Arabs was the prelude to his invasion of the kingdom of Saragoza in 1110. In dissolving his marriage with Uraca, he attempted to retain the greater part of her dowry; but she had a powerful friend in her brother-in-law Henry Count of Portugal, whose army already menaced Navarre. This obliged him eventually to renounce all pretensions to the states of Leon and Castile, and to recognise, as king of Galicia, Alonzo Raymond the son of Uraca, A.D. 1113. His marriage was dissolved by a council of Castilian bishops, and their decision was ratified by the pope. At this period commenced the struggle between the Aragonese and Almoravides. The army of the governor of Granada was cut to pieces near Saragoza, and Alonzo obtained another victory over a large army sent by Ali of Morocco under the command of his ablest generals to avenge Ben Mezdel. In this short campaign Alonzo displayed extraordinary ability. No longer concealing his designs upon Saragoza, he obliged Amad Dola to surrender that city, from which point he commenced his attempts to subdue the kingdom (A.D. 1118). This hard-earned acquisition was the means of involving him in interminable troubles. In 1120 his territories were menaced by a large force sent against him by Ali; but engaging the enemy near Daroca, he left 20,000 Almoravides dead on the field. This victory placed Daroca and Calatayud in his power. Three years afterwards, while the king of Morocco was fully occupied at home by the rise of a dangerous sect of Almoravides (see ABDUL-MUHEN and ALMORAVIDES), Alonzo seized the opportunity to invade the territory of Valencia. The brilliant victory he obtained at Alcaraz seemed to open up the
Alphonso. way for the conquest of all eastern Spain. In 1125 he undertook a new expedition against Granada. The spoil taken from the Andalusians was dearly bought by the Christians; but it was not upon Alonzo that the Moors made their reprisals. They invaded Estremadura, and defeated the Castilians near Badajoz. The king of Aragon, so far from rendering his neighbours any assistance, determined to take advantage of the critical position of Alonzo Raymond, as well as of the troubles which the death of Uraca had occasioned in several parts of his dominions. But, when on the point of battle with the king of Leon upon his own territory, Alonzo agreed to an accommodation, and resolved to turn his arms in another direction. He imagined the time was arrived for achieving with ease the conquest of Saragoza. Two cities, Mequinzena and Fraga, still held out. He reduced the first, and put the garrison to the sword on account of their devotion to the Almoravides. He then laid siege to Fraga; where, during a sally from the town, he received a mortal wound. Alonzo had been victorious in 29 battles, and his arms had never received a check until this day, when he beheld, whilst dying, the utter destruction of his followers. The camp of the Christians with its rich spoils indemnified the Moors for the losses they had sustained at his hand. His ancient rival, Alonzo Raymond, hastened to avenge his defeat, and to succour the remnant of his army.