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ALFONSO VIII., king of Castile and Leon, styled the Emperor. At the death of his mother, Queen Urraca , he became king in 1126. The misrule of that princess's government, and the wars which had devastated Castile during the latter part of the preceding reign, rendered the beginning of his own very stormy. Several places were held by his step-father, Alfonso VII., until they were subdued, but at last the two princes were reconciled, and Alfonso VIII. remained sovereign lord of Castile and Leon. About the year 1137 he was obliged to march an army into Galicia against the Count of Portugal, Alfonso Henriquez. Though the Portuguese had the advantage, Heuriquez Bued for peace, which Alfonso readily granted. Iu 1140 he attempted to conquer Navarre, but failed. In his wars with the infidels, Alfonso was more successful. He obtained many signal victories over them, and advanced the Castilian frontiers to Andalusia, His last battle against the Almohades was undecisive; after whic...

Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur ( Arabic : ابو يوسف يعقوب المنصور ‎) (c. 1160 – January 23, 1199), also known as Moulay Yacoub, was the third Almohad Amir Succeeding his father, Abu Ya'qub Yusuf , Yakub al-Mansur reigned from 1184 to 1199 with distinction. During his tenure, trade, architecture, philosophy and the sciences flourished, to say nothing of military conquests. In 1191 Yaqub al-Mansur repelled the occupation of Paderne Castle and the surrounding territory near Albufeira, in the Algarve which had been controlled by the Portuguese army of King Sancho I since 1182. In the Battle of Alarcos , on July 18, 1195, he defeated the Castilian King Alfonso VIII . After victory, he took the title al-Mansur Billah ("Made Victorious by God"). The battle is recounted by the historian Abou Mohammed Salah ben Abd el-Halim of Granada in his Roudh el-Kartas (History of the Rulers of Morocco, French translation by A. Beaumier, 1860) in 1326. He died in Marrakech , Moro...