Aragon County

Aragon County

Hispanic Brand and Part of the Kingdom of Pamplona
← 802-1035 →
Capital	Jaca (Huesca)
Main language	Latin, Navarroaragones, Aragonese,
Other languages	Catalan, Basque, Andalusian Arab, Mozarab, Hebrew.
Religion	Catholic
Government	Monarchy
Conde
• 802 - 809	Aureolo
• 922 - 943	Andregoto Galíndez
• 1004-1035	Sancho Garcés III
History
• Established	802
• Dissolved	1035

The county of Aragon was a state that originated in the early 9th century AD. C. in a mountainous strip in the central Pyrenees that included the valleys of Ansó, Hecho and Aragón. The County of Aragón and the other counties of the Hispanic March are created due to the manifest interest of the Carolingian dynasty in protecting its southern border from possible Muslim attacks.

Although initially it was under the tutelage of the Frankish kings, as it spread through the upper basin of the Gállego River, it broke away from the Carolingian protection and came closer to the nucleus of rulers of Pamplona.

By interrupting the male line of succession of the counts of Aragon and having married the heiress of the county, Andregoto Galíndez, to the king of Pamplona García Sánchez I, their son, Sancho Garcés II, bears the titles of king of Pamplona and Count of Aragon since 925.

These titles will be linked until the year 1035, when the will of Sancho el Mayor divides these lands among his children. Ramiro I of Aragon inherited Aragon, with the title of count and subject to his stepbrother King García Sánchez III of Pamplona. Ramiro added the counties of Ribagorza and Sobrarbe to his domain upon the death of his half-brother Gonzalo and, later, he acted independently of the de iure vassalage that he owed to the king of Pamplona, acting from that moment on as king in Aragon. His son Sancho Ramírez signed as "king's son" and later historiography considered Ramiro as the first king of Aragón with the name of Ramiro I of Aragón and initiator of his dynasty, called Ramírez or Aragón.

Politics

Despite the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by Islam, the Pyrenean valleys of the territory that currently makes up Aragon, were not effectively dominated by the Andalusian administration. Already in the middle of the 8th century AD. C., after the victory of Poitiers, the county of Aragon was born as one of the Carolingian demarcations that were established by the Franks as a parapet against Muslim aggression, since the Mohammedan civilization dominated the nearby cities of Huesca and Boltaña in this area. To the north, in a territory delimited by the course of the Aragón and Aragón Subordán rivers, and in the Hecho, Ansó and Canfranc valleys, it arose at the beginning of the 9th century AD. C. a territory governed by Aureolo, a native count of the region who died in 809. Upon his death there was a power vacuum that was used by the Muslims to recover strongholds in the Hispanic March.

Río Aragón Subordán in the valley of Hecho.

Aureolo was succeeded by Aznar Galíndez I under the protection of Charlemagne, for the native magnate to achieve independence in 828, naming himself that year "count of Aragon", initiating a dynasty that, in the first half of the IX century AD. C., extended its domain through the valleys of Tena and Aurín, and the upper basin of the Gállego.

However, the government of Aznar Galíndez I did not continue, since his son-in-law, García el Malo, son of Galindo Belascotenes and married to Matrona, rebelled against Aznar (possibly due to the expansionist eagerness of the count of Aragón over the alto Sobrarbe, governed by García el Malo) and dispossessed it, until the son of the expelled Aragonese count, Galindo Aznárez I, appears again at the head of the County of Aragón with the help of García Íñiguez de Pamplona.

In the tenth century AD. C. Andregoto Galíndez, daughter of Galindo II Aznárez, married with the king of Pamplona García Sánchez I. His son Sancho Garcés II, inherited in 970 the kingdom of Pamplona and the county of Aragón from his mother, which indicates that already the right Aragonese allowed the female transmission of the House.

Pamplona and Aragón would be united until the year 1035, the year in which, on the death of Sancho III el Mayor, he gave the county of Aragón to his son Ramiro, who would end up achieving independence from de iure vassalage. i> that he had to lend to his brother García Sánchez III of Pamplona and establishing, when his son Sancho Ramírez succeeded him, the kingdom of Aragón.

Religion and Culture

The first bishopric of the county of Aragon is documented in the X century AD. C., in which the Bishop of Pamplona consecrates Ferriolo in the seat of San Adrián de Sásave. Until then, the Aragonese would depend on the Mozarabic bishop of Huesca or that of Pamplona.

Much more relevant were, on the other hand, the monasteries, which articulated not only the ecclesiastical aspects, but also represented an important part of the political, social and cultural articulation of the territory.

San Pedro de Siresa, cultural focus of the Aragonese county.

In fact, the Aragonese county is constituted around the monastery of San Pedro de Siresa founded around 820 and governed by Abbot Zacarías, which was an important cultural center and had more than a hundred monks. On a visit in 852, Eulogio de Córdoba transmitted news to Guilesindo de Pamplona about the splendor of the monastery and its library.

Saint Eulogio found in this monastery works of the Greco-Roman tradition that had not been preserved in the Córdoba of the Caliphate. Among Latin poetry, he found works of the importance of the Aeneid —the masterpiece of Latin epic literature—, satires by Flaco and Juvenal, pamphlets by Porfirio, epigrams by Adhelelmo, odes by Horace and fables by Aviano., which from that moment on formed part of the Andalusian Hispanic culture. He also mentions patristic monuments, such as The City of God by Augustine of Hippo, Catholic hymns and other didactic works.

During the IX and X in Aragon several monastic complexes were developed that incorporated territories of considerable extension into their domains. Both Mozarabic and Carolingian traditions are observed in its rules. It was not until the XI century AD. C., with the foundation of the kingdom, that the influence of the Roman rite would penetrate the Aragonese abbeys. In their scriptoria both the Carolina and the Visigothic letters were used, and the factories of their churches will combine Mozarabic elements of Muslim influence with other pre-Romanesque features that are difficult to ascribe.

Other important monasteries were that of San Martín de Cillas (first half of the IX century AD), located at the beginning of the Ansó valley, a short distance from the Biniés gorge; that of San Julián de Navasal, at the head of the Hecho valley; San Martín de Cercito (Acumuer Valley, west of the Aragonese county) and the aforementioned San Adrián de Sásave, founded at the end of the IX< century d. C. and located in the Borau valley, which at the beginning of the following century would become the first diocese of Aragon.

Economy and society

Adoration of the Magi in the folio 206r Roda Codex (hacia 990), which includes the so-called "Genealogías de Roda", annals that provide historical information of the 8th century AD to X AD on the kings of Pamplona and counts of Aragon from Iñigo Arista to Sancho Abarca.

The economy of the County of Aragon was in its beginnings of great austerity, based on the cultivation of wheat, barley and oats in the few cultivated areas provided by the narrow valleys of the Pyrenean geography, and on the livestock activity, the main resource of this subsistence economy. There were also vine crops, although scarce due to the inconvenient mountain climate, since the Christian religion has wine as a basic product in its cultural tradition.

Industrial activity was reduced to the essential needs of the population, with artisan and family production dedicated above all to work tools and personal belongings.

The population lived in small villages and even in isolated houses, as well as sheltered by fortresses and monasteries. Only at the end of the IX century d. C. certain changes begin to be glimpsed, due to the evolution of the war economy in the border area. As the war force grows, lords who dominate castles and walled towns emerge, giving rise to a typically feudal social hierarchy. These magnates accumulated land and men and provided an economic boost to the territories they defended and exploited; similar activity was developed by the monasteries, whose monks did not repair, on many occasions, in maintaining and promoting the warlike activity.

Anyway, in the Condado de Aragón the small proprietors predominated, and a society in which, except for a few dozen magnates, there was not excessive socioeconomic difference between men. The development of feudalism in the eastern counties of Ribagorza and Pallás was more notable, highly influenced by the county of Tolosa and the Frankish monarchy. If anything, the evolution of the century X d. C. towards the XI is in line with a greater importance of the warrior activity, with the consequent increase in lords and knights, which with the creation of the Kingdom of Aragon would constitute a base of barons and wealthy men who would dominate throughout the Middle Ages. Aragonese politics.

One cannot speak of urban settlements in the IX and X. Jaca, which would be the first city of the kingdom, did not experience its remarkable growth until the 11th century AD. C., with the creation of the cathedral, its role as a crossroads on the road to Santiago, and the receipt of the Fuero de Jaca that allowed it to attract a significant number of free bourgeois men, merchants and artisans, already with the decided support of the first kings of Aragon.

Fonts

• "Monographics. Aragon, from county to kingdom." Great Aragonese Encyclopedia (GEA OnLine). Consultation on March 20, 2018.
• Sesma Muñoz, J. Angel (1980). « Medieval Aragon». In Angel Canellas López (dir.), ed. Aragon in his story. Zaragoza: Immaculate Savings Box. pp. 107-186. ISBN 84-500-3905-3.
• Ubieto Arteta, Antonio (1981). History of Aragon. Territorial training. Vol. I. Zaragoza: Anubar. ISBN 84-7013-181-8.