Ferdinand II of León

Ferdinand II
Ferdinand, from the Tumbo A cartulary of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
King of León and Galicia
Reign	21 August 1157 – 22 January 1188
Predecessor	Alfonso VII
Successor	Alfonso IX
Born	c. 1137
Died	22 January 1188 (aged 50–51) Benavente
Burial	Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
Consort	Urraca of Portugal Teresa Fernández de Traba Urraca López de Haro
Issue among others...	Alfonso IX of León
House	House of Ivrea
Father	Alfonso VII of León and Castile
Mother	Berenguela of Barcelona
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Ferdinand II (c. 1137 – 22 January 1188) was King of León and Galicia from 1157 to his death.

Born in Toledo, Castile, he was the son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and of Berenguela, of the House of Barcelona. At his father's death, he received León and Galicia, while his brother Sancho received Castile and Toledo. Ferdinand earned the reputation of a good knight and hard fighter, but did not display political or organising faculty.

He spent most of his first year as king in a dispute with his powerful nobles and an invasion by his brother Sancho III. In 1158 the two brothers met at Sahagun, and peacefully solved the heritage matters. However, Sancho died in the same year, being succeeded by his child son Alfonso VIII, while Ferdinand occupied parts of Castile. The boundary troubles with Castile restarted in 1164: he then met at Soria with the Lara family, who represented Alfonso VIII, and a truce was established, allowing him to move against the Muslim Almoravids who still held much of southern Spain, and to capture the cities of Alcántara and Alburquerque. In the same year, Ferdinand defeated King Afonso I of Portugal, who, in 1163, had occupied Salamanca in retaliation for the repopulation of the area ordered by the King of León.