Alfonso VIII of Castile Alfonso VIII ( 11 November 1155 – 5 October 1214 ) , called the Noble or el de las Navas , was the King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo . He is most remembered for his part in the Reconquista and the downfall of the Almohad Caliphate . After having suffered a great defeat with his own army at Alarcos against the Almohads , he led the coalition of Christian princes and foreign crusaders who broke the power of the Almohads in the Battle of the Navas de Tolosa in 1212 , an event which marked the arrival of a tide of Christian supremacy on the Iberian peninsula . His reign saw the domination of Castile over León and , by his alliance with Aragon , he drew those two spheres of Christian Iberia into close connection . Regency and civil war . Alfonso was born to Sancho III of Castile and Blanche , daughter of García Ramírez of Navarre , in Soria on 11 November 1155 . He was named after his grandfather Alfonso VII of Castile . His early life resembled that of other medieval kings . His father died in 1158 when his mother was also dead . Though proclaimed king when only three years of age , he was regarded as merely nominal by the unruly nobles to whom a minority was convenient . Immediately , Castile was plunged into conflicts between the various noble houses vying for ascendancy in the inevitable regency . The devotion of a squire of his household , who carried him on the pommel of his saddle to the stronghold of San Esteban de Gormaz , saved him from falling into the hands of the contending factions . The noble houses of Lara and Castro both claimed the regency , as did the boy ' s uncle , Ferdinand II of León . In 1159 the young Alfonso was put briefly in the custody of García Garcés de Aza , who was not wealthy enough to support him . In March 1160 the Castro and Lara met at the Battle of Lobregal and the Castro were victorious , but the guardianship of Alfonso and the regency fell to Manrique Pérez de Lara . Alfonso was put in the custody of the loyal village Ávila . At barely fifteen , he came forth to do a man ' s work by restoring his kingdom to order . It was only by a surprise that he recovered his capital Toledo from the hands of the Laras . Reconquista . In 1174 , he ceded Uclés to the Order of Santiago and afterwards this became the order ' s principal seat . From Uclés , he began a campaign which culminated in the reconquest of Cuenca in 1177 . The city surrendered on 21 September , the feast of Saint Matthew , ever afterwards celebrated by the citizens of the town . Alfonso took the initiative to ally all the major Christian kingdoms of the peninsula — Navarre , León , Portugal , and Aragon — against the Almohads . By the Treaty of Cazola of 1179 , the zones of expansion of each kingdom were defined . After founding Plasencia ( Cáceres ) in 1186 , he embarked on a major initiative to unite the Castilian nobility around the Reconquista . In that year , he recuperated part of La Rioja from the Kingdom of Navarre . In 1195 , after the treaty with the Almohads was broken , he came to the defence of Alarcos on the river Guadiana , then the principal Castilian town in the region . At the subsequent Battle of Alarcos , he was roundly defeated by the caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf al - Mansur . The reoccupation of the surrounding territory by the Almohads was quickly commenced with Calatrava falling first . For the next seventeen years , the frontier between Moor and Castilian was fixed in the hill country just outside Toledo . Finally , in 1212 , through the mediation of Pope Innocent III , a crusade was called against the Almohads . Castilians under Alfonso , Aragonese and Catalans under Peter II , Navarrese under Sancho VII , and Franks under the archbishop of Narbonne , Arnaud Amalric , all flocked to the effort . The military orders also lent their support . Calatrava first , then Alarcos , and finally Benavente were captured before a final battle was fought at Las Navas de Tolosa near Santa Elena on 16 July . The caliph Muhammad an - Nasir was routed and Almohad power broken . Cultural legacy . Alfonso was the founder of the first Spanish university , a " studium generale " at Palencia , which , however , did not survive him . His court also served as an important instrument for Spanish cultural achievement . His marriage ( Burgos , before 17 September 1177 ) with Eleanor ( Leonora ) , daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine , brought him under the influence of the greatest governing intellect of his time . Troubadours and sages were always present , largely due to the influence of Eleanor . Alfonso died at Gutierre - Muñoz and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son , Henry I , named after his maternal grandfather . Alfonso was the subject for Lion Feuchtwanger ' s novel " Die Jüdin von Toledo " ( " The Jewess of Toledo " ) , in which is narrated an affair with a Jewish subject in medieval Toledo in a time when Spain was known to be the land of tolerance and learning for Jews , Christians , and Muslims . The titular Jewish woman of the novel is based on Alfonso ' s historical paramour , Rahel la Fermosa . Alfonso is portrayed in the 1919 film " The Jewess of Toledo " by Franz Höbling . Children . With Eleanor of England he had 11 children :