The siege of Bayonne was launched by Alfonso the Battler, King of Aragon and Navarre, apparently against the Duke of Aquitaine, William X, and lasted from October 1130 to October 1131. The city of Bayonne was then a part of Aquitaine, nominally a part of France. The chief narrative source for the siege of Bayonne is the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris, a contemporary account of events in Spain compiled to celebrate the feats of Alfonso VII of León and Castile. The siege began with knights, infantry, and siege engines and included the plundering of the environs of the city and assaults on its walls. The arrival of a relief army led to a famous joust and the prolongation of the siege. The siege was a failure, and was lifted after Alfonso had made his famous last will and testament.
The primary sources are insufficient to fully explain the purposes behind Alfonso's siege, but historians are unanimous in attributing his actions to his ongoing conflict with his western neighbour, Alfonso VII, hero of the aforementioned Chronica. The latter had concluded an alliance with Alfonso's eastern neighbour, Raymond Berengar III of Barcelona, by marrying his daughter, Berengaria, in 1127.
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