had to lament the loss of the chivalrous Douglas, the friend of Bruce, who had turned aside from his pious pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to aid the Christian kings of the peninsula in their warfare with the infidels. Alfonso, in the year 1344, reduced Algesiras after a long siege, in which it is said the Moors, for the first time, made use of gunpowder. The reduction of that place was one of the most brilliant achievements of the century in which it occurred. Alfonso's career of conquest was suddenly terminated in 1350, while he was on his way to undertake the siege of Gibraltar.—J. S., G.
ALFONSO I., king of Aragon and Navarre, whose exploits against the Moors, during a reign of thirty years entitle him to a distinguished place among the heroes of Spanish history, succeeded his brother Pedro I. in 1104. Saragossa, situated in the centre of Aragon, a stronghold of the Moorish power for four hundred years, sent out an army of Almoravides in 1111 to besiege Barcelona, and in defence of that city Alfonso fought a great battle, which resulted in the withdrawal of the enemy from the province of Catalonia. Saragossa itself, after many desperate struggles, yielded at length to his victorious arms, and became the capital of his dominions. The possession of that city had always been the first object of his ambition. It commanded the navigation of the Ebro, and as a fortress from which an army might at any moment issue to ravage and destroy, threatened the security of the whole kingdom. Alfonso entered it triumphantly on the 18th December, 1118, and profiting by the panic which the conquest of so important a city spread among his enemies, left several strongholds in his rear, and pursued his way to the frontiers of Castile, where he captured the cities of Tarragona and Talatayud; the latter after a battle in which Temim, the brother of Ali, lost 20,000 men. About the beginning of the year 1125, he marched southwards with an army of four thousand horsemen, laying waste the settlements of the Moors in Murcia, Valencia, and Andalusia. He arrived at Grenada, and expecting the Mozarabes within the city to revolt in his favour, began a regular siege; but notwithstanding the number of his troops, which had gradually increased to 50,000, he had to abandon the place, skilfully guarded within its walls by the Mohammedan wali, and courageously defended without by the heroic Temim. This campaign occupied six months, with very little effect in point of actual conquest, but with much in the way of still further depressing the spirit of the enemy. In 1126, his wife Uracca died, and the following year Alfonso crossed the mountainous frontiers of Castile, and renewed, at the head of a large army, his pretensions to the sovereignty of that kingdom. But he experienced a brave resistance from her son Alfonso VII. (or VIII., see Alfonso VIII. of Leon); and at the end of the campaign, which lasted over three years, was only able to command the cession of a single province, Bioja, in exchange for his renunciation of the title of king of Castile. A truce was concluded on these terms, and Alfonso, who never allowed his sword to rust, forthwith crossed the Pyrenees to besiege Bayonne, which fell into his hands after a short resistance. The Moorish fortresses along the course of the Ebro next attracted his attention, and before undertaking the siege of Tortosa, the ultimate object of his expedition, he resolved to reduce Lerida, Mequinenza, and Fraga. To the reduction of the latter stronghold he bent all his energies, and was on the point of being successful, when, along with the most distinguished of his generals, he was drawn into an ambuscade, which, as a last resource, the garrison had laid in the way of the assault. Here, doubtless, he perished, although, from the fact of his body not having been found, rumours were circulated to the effect that he had escaped and retired to a monastery. Alfonso el Batallador (the Fighter) enjoyed the renown of thirty-five victories, and his successes he owed in great part to his personal valour. If, as is asserted, he added to that quality the talents of a skilful general, we shall look in vain for a greater name than his in the history of mediæval Spain.—J. S., G.
ALFONSO II., king of Aragon, son of Raymond V., count of Barcelona, inherited from his mother, Petronilla, the kingdom of Aragon, about the time of his father's death in 1166, and thus united Aragon with a very large part of the province of Catalonia. In 1167, as heir of his cousin, count of Provence, he took possession of that county, and in 1172 had added, by the testament of Guinard II., to his now extensive dominions, the province of Roussillon. Like his predecessors, he made war on the infidels, and in one of his expeditions took several frontier fortresses of importance. His reign was generally popular, and his death, which occurred at Perpignan in 1196, was much regretted by his subjects.—J. S., G.
ALFONSO III., king of Aragon, son of Pedro III., succeeded his father in 1285. He died suddenly at Barcelona in 1291, after a reign of six years, the greater part of which was taken up in contentions with his nobility, with France, and the popedom.
ALFONSO IV., king of Aragon, succeeded his father Jayme II. in 1328. His reign was embittered by domestic dissensions, and by a struggle with the Genoese for Corsica and Sardinia, granted to him by the pope, which lasted till his death in 1336.
ALFONSO I., king of Naples and Sicily, equally well known as Alfonso V. of Aragon, was the son of Ferdinand I. of Aragon, and, as his heir, was entitled also to the crowns of Sicily and Sardinia. He acceded to the throne of Aragon in 1416, having previously married Mary, daughter of Henry III. of Castile, with whom he lived unhappily, and who brought him no children. Alfonso V. of Aragon spent little time in his native kingdom. In 1420 he undertook the expedition to recover Sardinia, which had been alienated from him by internal faction. An agreement with the viscount of Narbonne, who, with the Genoese and the Aragonese garrisons, divided the island, put him in possession of the province of Arborea. After an unsuccessful attempt on Corsica, in the course of which occurred the siege of Bonifacio, one of the most memorable in history, Alfonso despatched his fleet to the aid of Joanna II., queen of Naples, who promised to make him heir to her throne, if he saved the realm from falling into the hands of Louis of Anjou, at that time besieging Naples. Louis was forced to raise the siege, and in 1421 evacuated Campania, in terms of a treaty with Queen Joanna. This princess, however, soon quarreled with her benefactor, and at the instigation of the seneschal Caraccioli, attempted to seize the person of Alfonso. Her design failing, she withdrew into the strong castle of Porta Capuana, and, summoning to her aid Sforza da Cotignola, lieutenant of her former foe, Louis of Anjou, successfully resisted Alfonso, till reinforcements from Spain enabled the Aragonese king to possess himself of Naples. Queen Joanna, who had taken refuge in Nola, now declared the duke of Anjou her successor instead of Alfonso, and the latter being obliged to return to Spain, and occupy himself for eight years in attending to his interests there, she in the meantime, by the aid of the duke of Milan, regained all her power.
About 1432, we find him again in Italy and Sicily, endeavouring to come to an understanding with Joanna; for Louis of Anjou was by this time dead, and Caraccioli murdered. The queen herself died in 1435, leaving her throne to René of Anjou, brother of Louis. The war between René and Alfonso continued till 1442, not without reverses to the latter; for his fleet was destroyed and himself taken prisoner, off the island of Ponza, by the duke of Milan, who, however, persuaded that it would prove the policy most advantageous for himself, set the Aragonese prince at liberty. Finally, in 1442, Alfonso seated himself on the throne of Naples, and the year after. Pope Eugenius IV. confirmed him in his sovereign rights by a bull of investiture. In 1444, the same pope legitimised Ferdinand, natural son of Alfonso, as his successor.
Alfonso spent the rest of his life in his Neapolitan dominions, and died in 1458 of an illness brought on by the fatigues of the chase, at the age of seventy-four. Alfonso was a man of energy and determination; as a prince liberal, enlightened, fond of splendour, and a patron of literature. He introduced various reforms into the administration of his Italian kingdom, and greatly improved and adorned the city of Naples; but, though aiming to deserve the title of Father of his People, he is accused of too great a wish to conciliate the nobles at the expense of the lower orders.—A. M.
ALFONSO II., king of Naples, son of Ferdinand I. and Isabella, was born in 1448. He was an avaricious and cruel prince, though not destitute of vigour and bravery, as was apparent in the campaigns he conducted against the Venetians, the Florentines, and others, previously to his accession to the throne, which took place in 1494. In 1495, when Charles VIII. of France arrived in Italy, as if panic-stricken at that event, Alfonso abdicated in favour of his son, Ferdinand II., and, retiring to Sicily, died the same year.—A. M.
ALFONSO or AFFONSO I., founder of the Portuguese monarchy, was born in 1094 at Guimaraens, and in 1112 succeeded his father as count of Portugal,—then a vassal state to
