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ALPHONSO VII

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 735 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALPHONSO VII ., " the See also:Emperor " (1126–1157), is a dignified and somewhat enigmatical figure. A vague tradition had always assigned the See also:title of emperor to the See also:sovereign who held See also:Leon as the most See also:direct representative of the Visigoth See also:kings, who were themselves the representatives of the See also:Roman See also:empire. But though given in charters, and claimed by Alphonso VI. and the Battler, the title had been little more than a flourish of See also:rhetoric. Alphonso VII. was crowned emperor in 1135 after the See also:death of the Battler. The weakness of See also:Aragon enabled him to make his superiority effective. He appears to have striven. for the formation of a See also:national unity, which See also:Spain had never possessed since the fall of the Visigoth See also:kingdom. The elements he had to See also:deal with could not be welded together. Alphonso was at once a See also:patron of the See also:church, and a See also:protector if not a favourer of the Mahommedans, who formed a large See also:part of his subjects. His reign ended in an unsuccessful See also:campaign against the rising See also:power of the See also:Almohades. Though he was not actually defeated, his death in the pass of Muradel in the Sierra Morena, while on his way back to See also:Toledo, occurred in circumstances which showed that no See also:man could be what he claimed to he—" See also:king of the men of the two religions." His See also:personal See also:character does not stand out with the emphasis of those of Alphonso VI. or the Battler. Yet he was a See also:great king, the type and to some extent the victim of the confusions of his age—Christian in creed and ambition, but more than See also:half See also:oriental in his See also:household.

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