death_date birth_date reign father house death_place coronation spouse image name caption predecessor succession birth_place issue successor mother religion article_title
12 september 1213 july 1178 25 april 1196 -- 12 september 1213 alfonso ii of aragon house of barcelona muret 1205 in rome marie of montpellier pietro ii d'aragón . jpg peter ii portrait -lrb- 1851-54 -rrb- of peter ii , by manuel aguirre monsalbe alfonso ii king of aragon count of barcelona huesca james i of aragon james i sancha of castile roman catholicism peter ii of aragon

peter ii of aragon

peter ii the catholic -lrb- july 1178 -- 12 september 1213 -rrb- was the king of aragon and count of barcelona from 1196 to 1213 .
he was born in huesca , 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 -lrb- hence his surname , `` the catholic '' -rrb- .
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 -lrb- as her third husband -rrb- marie of montpellier , daughter and heiress of william viii of montpellier by eudocia comnena .
she gave him a son , james , but peter soon repudiated 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 .
the crown of aragon was widespread in the area that is now southernwestern france , but which at that time was under the control of vassal local princes , such as the counts of toulouse .
the cathars or albingenses rejected the authority and the teachings of the catholic church .
innocent called upon louis viii of france to suppress the albigenses .
under the leadership of simon of montfort a campaign was launched .
the albigensian crusade , which led to the slaughter of approximately 20,000 men , women and children , cathar and catholic alike , essentially destroyed the previously flourishing civilization of occitania and brought the region firmly under the control of the king of france , and the capetian dynasty from the north of france .
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 montfort 's crusaders won a crushing victory .
the nobility of toulouse , vassals of the crown of aragon , were defeated .
the conflict culminated in the treaty of meaux-paris in 1229 , in which the integration of the occitan territory into the french crown was agreed upon .
upon peter 's death , the kingdom passed to his only son by marie of montpellier , the future james the conqueror .
