His rule was characterised by the renewed supremacy of the western kingdoms of Christian Iberia over the eastern (Navarre and Aragón) after the reign of Alfonso the Battler.

Though he sought to make the imperial title meaningful in practice to both Christian and Muslim populations, his hegemonic intentions never saw fruition.

[5] He was a child, but his mother had (1109) succeeded to the united throne of León-Castile-Galicia and wished to retain sole rulership of the kingdom.

[9] On 10 March 1126, after the death of his mother, he was crowned in León[3] and immediately began the recovery of the Kingdom of Castile, which was then under the domination of Alfonso the Battler.

At this time, he helped Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, in his wars with the other Catalan counties to unite the old Marca Hispanica.

Sancho the Great considered the city the imperiale culmen and minted coins with the inscription Imperator totius Hispaniae after being crowned in it.

After Afonso Henriques recognised him as liege in 1137, Alfonso VII lost the Battle of Valdevez in 1141 thereby affirming Portugal's independence in the Treaty of Zamora (1143).

Those who held the standards shouted out loud and proclaimed "Long live Alfonso, emperor of León and Toledo!

Two years later, the Almohads invaded and he was forced to refortify his southern frontier and come to an agreement with the Almoravid Yahya ibn Ghaniya for their mutual defence.

When Pope Eugene III preached the Second Crusade, Alfonso VII, with García Ramírez of Navarre and Ramon Berenguer IV, led a mixed army of Catalans and Franks, with a Genoese–Pisan navy, in a crusade against the rich port city of Almería, which was occupied in October 1147.

Though he was not actually defeated, his death in the pass, while on his way back to Toledo, occurred in circumstances which showed that no man could be what he claimed to be – "king of the men of the two religions."

By an Asturian noblewoman named Gontrodo Pérez, he had an illegitimate daughter, Urraca (1132–1164), who married García Ramírez of Navarre, the mother retiring to a convent in 1133.

A parody version of king Alfonso and queen Berengaria is presented in the tragicomedy La venganza de Don Mendo by Pedro Muñoz Seca.