Everything about The Crown Of Aragon totally explained
The
Crown of Aragon is a term used to refer to the permanent union of multiple titles and states in the hands of the
King of Aragon.
At the height of its power by the 14th and 15th centuries, the Crown of Aragon was a
thalassocracy controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern
Spain,
Southeastern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the
Mediterranean Sea as far as
Greece. The component realms of the Crown were not united politically except at the level of the king. Put in contemporary terms, it functioned more as a
confederacy rather than as a single
country. In this sense, the larger Crown of Aragon must not be confused with one of its constituent parts, the
Kingdom of Aragon, from where it takes its name.
In 1479, a new dynastic union merged the Crown of Aragon with the
Crown of Castile, creating what would become the
Kingdom of Spain. The component titles of the Aragonese Crown as subsidiary titles of the Spanish monarch were used until 1716, when they were abolished by the
Nueva Planta decrees as a consequence of the defeat of the preferred pretender of the former components of the Crown of Aragon in the course of the
War of the Spanish Succession.
Context
The leading economic centres of the Crown of Aragon were the
cities of
Barcelona and
Valencia. Another political centre was
Zaragoza, where kings were crowned in the
La Seo Cathedral. Finally,
Palma de Mallorca was an additional important
city and
seaport.
The Crown of Aragon eventually included the
Kingdom of Aragon, the
Principality of Catalonia, the
Kingdom of Valencia, the
Kingdom of Majorca,
Sicily,
Malta and
Sardinia, and for a brief period,
Provence, the
Kingdom of Naples, the
Duchy of Neopatria, and the
Duchy of Athens.
The countries that are today known as
Spain and
Portugal spent the
Middle Ages after 722 in an intermittent struggle called the
Reconquista. This struggle pitted the northern Christian kingdoms against the Islamic
taifa petty kingdoms of the
South and against each other.
In the Late Middle Ages, the expansion of the Aragonese Crown southwards met with the
Castilian advance eastward in the region of
Murcia. Afterward, the Aragonese Crown focused on the
Mediterranean, acting as far as
Greece and
Barbary, whereas Portugal, which completed its
Reconquista in 1272, focused on the
Atlantic Ocean. Mercenaries from the territories in the Crown, known as
almogàvers participated in the creation of this Mediterranean "empire", and later found employment in countries all across southern Europe.
The Crown of Aragon has been considered by some as an
empire which ruled in the
Mediterranean for hundreds of years, with the power to
set rules over the entire sea (for instance, the
Llibre del Consolat del Mar or
Book of the Consulate of the Sea, written in
Catalan, is one of the oldest compilation of
maritime laws in the
World). It was indeed, at its height, one of the
major powers in
Europe.
However its different territories were only loosely connected, in a manner that doesn't match well the traditional idea of
Empire. A contemporary, the Marqués de Lozoya described the Crown of Aragon as being more like a
confederacy than a centralized
kingdom, let alone an empire. Nor did official documents ever refer to it as an empire (
Imperium or any cognate word); instead, it was considered a dynastic union of separate kingdoms.
History
It originated in 1137, when
Aragon and the
County of Barcelona merged by
dynastic union by the marriage of
Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona and
Petronilla of Aragon and their titles were finally beared by only one person when their son
Alfonso II of Aragon ascended to the throne in 1162. Slowly the various entities over which the
House of Barcelona ruled and came to rule came to be called the Crown of Aragon due to the greater prestige of the royal to the comital title.
Raymond Berenger IV of Barcelona, the new ruler of the united dinasty, still called himself count of Barcelona and merely "prince" of Aragón.
The son of Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronila,
Alfonso II, inherited both the titles of King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, in a style that would be maintained by all its successors to the crown. Thus, this union was made while respecting the existing institutions and parliaments of both territories.
Alfonso II tried to conquer Valencia due to favorable circumstances, but the opportunity was lost when
Sancho VI of Navarre invaded Aragon. Alfonso II signed the
treaties of Cazola with
Alfonso VIII of Castile in order to secure the Aragonese frontiers. The treaty also delimited anew their zones of prospective Moorish conquest: the Kings of Aragon were to have Valencia, leaving Murcia to Castile.
King
James I (13th century) started the era of expansion, by conquering and incorporating
Majorca and a good part of the
Kingdom of Valencia to the Crown. With the
Treaty of Corbeil (1258), which was based upon the principle of natural frontiers, French claims over Catalonia came to an end. The general principle was clear, that Aragonese influence north of the Pyrenees was to cease.
Majorca, together with the counties of
Cerdanya and
Roussillon and the city of
Montpellier, was held independently from 1276 to 1279 by
James II of Majorca as a vassal of the Crown after that date, becoming a full member of the Crown of Aragon in 1344.
Valencia was made a new kingdom with its own institutions, and so was the third member of the crown (the legal status of Majorca wasn't as consistent as those of Aragón, Catalonia and Valencia).
On 1282, the sicilians raised against
second dinasty of the Angevins on the
Sicilian Vespers and massacred the garrison soldiers.
Peter III responded to their call, and landed in
Trapani to an enthusiastic welcome five months later. This caused
Pope Martin IV to excomulgate the king, place Sicily under interdict, and offer the kingdom of Aragon to a son of
Philip III of France.
When Peter III refused to impose the
Fueros de Aragon in Valencia, the nobles and towns united on Zaragoza to demand a confirmation of their privileges, which the king has to accept on 1283- Thus was originated the
Union of Aragon, which obtained that power of the
Justicia to mediate between the king and the Aragonese "ricos hombres". The "Justicia de Aragón" institution and the annual Catalan General Courts date from that time. The . which became the constituent event for the dawn of the
Kingdom of Spain. At that point both
Castile and the Crown of Aragon remained distinct territories, each keeping its own traditional institutions, Parliaments and laws. The process of territorial consolidation was completed when
Charles I of Spain in 1516 united all the kingdoms on the Iberian peninsula minus Portugal under one monarch, thereby furthering the creation of the Spanish state, albeit a decentralized one.
The Crown of Aragon and its institutions were abolished only after the
War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1713) by the
Nueva Planta decrees, under which all its lands were incorporated, as provinces, into a united Spanish administration, as
Spain moved towards a
centralized government under the new
Bourbon dynasty. The punishments on the territories that had fought against
Philip V in the War of Succession are used by some
Valencian and
Catalan nationalists as arguments against modern day
Spain.
Institutions
Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia each had a legislative body, known as the
Cortes in Aragon or
Corts in Catalonia and Valencia. A
diputacion general was established in each, becoming known as a
Generalidad in Aragon and
Generalitat in Catalonia and Valencia.
Capital
The Crown had no capital, the courts were itinerating until
Philip II of Spain. Buesa argues that Zaragoza ought to be considered the political capital (but not economical or administrative), due to the obligation of the kings to be crowned at the Seo of Zaragoza
Lands of the Crown
Further Information
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