Peter I of Aragon and Navarre

Who was Peter I of Aragon and Navarre?

Peter I was the King of Aragon and Navarre for a decade from 1094 until his death. He was the son and successor of Sancho V Ramírez by his first wife, Isabella of Urgell. He was named in honour of Saint Peter, because of his father's special devotion to the Holy See, to which he had made his kingdom a vassal. Peter continued his father's close alliance with the Church and pursued the Reconquista with even greater success, allying with Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known as El Cid, the ruler of Valencia, against the Almoravids. According to the medieval Annales Compostellani Peter was in bellis expertus et audax in principio, and one modern historian has remarked that "his grasp of the possibilities inherent in the age seems to have been faultless."