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ALPHONSO XI

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 736 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALPHONSO XI . (1312–1350) is variously known among See also:Spanish See also:kings as the Avenger or the Implacable, and as " he of the. Rio Salado." The first two names he earned by the ferocity with which he repressed the disorder of the nobles after a See also:long minority; the third by his victory over the last formidable See also:African invasion of See also:Spain in 1340. The chronicler who records his See also:death prays that " See also:God may be merciful to him, for he was a very See also:great See also:king." The See also:mercy was needed. Alphonso XI. never went to the insane lengths of his son See also:Peter the Cruel, but he could be abundantly sultanesque in his methods. He killed for reasons of See also:state without See also:form of trial, while his open neglect of his wife, Maria of See also:Portugal, and his ostentatious See also:passion for Leonora de Guzman, who See also:bore him a large See also:family of sons; set Peter an example which he did hot fail to better. It may be that his See also:early death, during the great See also:plague of 1350, at the See also:siege of See also:Gibraltar, only averted a desperate struggle with his legitimate son, though it was a misfortune in that it removed a ruler of eminent capacity, who understood his subjects well enough rot to go too far. [Four other kings of See also:Aragon, besides the Battler, bore the name of Alphonso. All these princes held territory in the See also:south-See also:east of See also:France, and had a See also:close connexion with See also:Italy. ALPHoNso II. of Aragon (1162–1196) was the son of See also:Raymond See also:Berenger, See also:count of See also:Barcelona, and of Petronilla, niece of Alphonso the Battler, and daughter of Ramiro surnamed the See also:Monk. He succeeded to the See also:county of Barcelona in 1162 on the death of his See also:father, at the See also:age of eleven, and in 1164 his See also:mother renounced her rights in Aragon in his favour. Though christened Ramon (Raymond), the favourite name of his See also:line, he reigned as Alphonso out of a wish to please his Aragonese subjects, to whom the memory of the Battler was dear.

As king of Aragon he took a See also:

share in the See also:work of the reconquest, by helping his See also:cousin Alphonso VIII. of See also:Castile to conquer See also:Cuenca, and to suppress one Pero See also:Ruiz de Azagra, who was endeavouring to carve out a See also:kingdom for himself in the debatable See also:land between See also:Christian and See also:Mahommedan. But his See also:double position as ruler both See also:north and south of the eastern See also:Pyrenees distracted his policy. In See also:character and interests he was rather Provencal than Spanish, a favourer of the troubadours, no enemy of the Albigensian heretics, and himself a poet in the See also:southern See also:French See also:dialect. ALPHONSO III. of Aragon (1285—1291), the insignificant son of the notable Peter III., succeeded to the Spanish and Provencal possessions of his father, but his See also:short reign did not give him See also:time even to marry. His inability to resist the demands of his nobles See also:left a heritage of trouble in Aragon. By recognising their right to See also:rebel in the articles called the See also:Union he helped to make anarchy permanent. ALPHONSO IV. of Aragon (1327—1336) was a weak See also:man whose reign was in-significant. ALPHONSO V. of Aragon (1416—1458), surnamed the Magnanimous, who represented the old line of the See also:counts of Barcelona only through See also:women, and was on his father's See also:side descended from the Castilian See also:house of Trastamara, is one of the most conspicuous figures of the early See also:Renaissance. No man of his time had a larger share of the quality called by the Italians of the See also:day " virtue." By hereditary right king of See also:Sicily, by the will of See also:Joanna II. and his own See also:sword king of See also:Naples, he fought and triumphed amid the exuberant development of individuality which accompanied the revival of learning and the See also:birth of the See also:modern See also:world. When a prisoner in the hands of Filipo Maria See also:Visconti, See also:duke of See also:Milan, in 1435, Alphonso persuaded his ferocious and crafty captor to let him go by making it See also:plain that it was the See also:interest of Milan not to prevent, the victory of the Aragonese party in Naples. Like a true See also:prince of the Renaissance he favoured men of letters whom he trusted to preserve his reputation to posterity. His devotion to the See also:classics was exceptional even in that time.

He halted his See also:

army in pious respect before the birthplace of a Latin writer, carried See also:Livy or See also:Caesar on his See also:campaigns with him, and his panegyrist Panormita did not think it an incredible See also:lie to say that the king was cured of an illness by having a few pages of See also:Quintus See also:Curtius read to him. The classics had not refined his See also:taste, for he was amused by setting the wandering scholars, who swarmed to his See also:court, to abuse one another in the indescribably filthy Latin scolding matches which were then the See also:fashion. Alphonso founded nothing, and after his See also:conquest of Naples in 1442 ruled by his See also:mercenary soldiers, and no less mercenary men of letters. His Spanish possessions were ruled for him by his See also:brother See also:John.

End of Article: ALPHONSO XI

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