James I of Aragon

Jaime I de Aragón receiving from the bishop and jurist Vidal de Canellas the Fueros de Aragón before other ecclesiastical magnates. Initial N miniature Senior, first compilation of the aragones. The Arabic text begins:

Nos, don Iavmes, for the g[rat]ia de Dius Rey d'Aragon et de Maillorgas et de Valencia, conte de Barçalona et de Urgel et seynor de Montpesler [... ]

'Nos, don Jaime, by the grace of God King of Aragon and Majorca and Valencia, Count of Barcelona and Urgel and Lord of Montpellier'.

James I of Aragon the Conqueror (Aragonese: Chaime lo Conqueridor, Occitan: Jacme lo Conquistaire, Catalan/Valencian: Jaume el Conqueridor) (Montpellier, February 2, 1208-Alcira, July 27, 1276) was King of Aragon (1213-1276), of Valencia (1238-1276) and Majorca (1229-1276), Count of Barcelona (1213-1276), Count of Urgell, Lord of Montpellier (1219-1276) and other fiefdoms in Occitania.

Youth

Poblet Monastery. Tombs of the House of Aragon.

The son of Pedro II the Catholic and María de Montpellier, he was the heir to two important lineages: the House of Aragon and that of the emperors of Byzantium, on his mother's side. He had a difficult childhood. His father, who would end up repudiating the queen, only came to conceive of him through the deception of some nobles and ecclesiastics who feared the lack of a successor, and the collaboration of María, making Pedro believe that he was sleeping with one of his lovers. These circumstances produced the rejection of Pedro II towards little Jaime, whom he did not meet until two years after his birth. At that age, the king made a marriage pact to deliver his son Jaime to the guardianship of Simón, Señor de Montfort, to marry him to his daughter, Amicia, for which the boy was to be confined in the castle of Carcassonne until he was 18 years old.

On the death of his father, during the Albigensian crusade, in the battle of Muret (1213), Simón de Montfort refused to hand Jaime over to the Aragonese until after a year of claims and only by order of Pope Innocent III. During his minority, he was under the guardianship of the Knights Templar in the castle of Monzón, having been entrusted to Guillermo de Montredón, together with his cousin of the same age, the Count of Provenza Ramón Berenguer V. Meanwhile, he acted as Regent of the kingdom Count Sancho Raimúndez, son of Petronila de Aragón and Ramón Berenguer IV and Jaime's great-uncle. He inherited the lordship of Montpellier on the death of his mother (1213).

Orphan of father and mother, he was about 6 years old when he was sworn in the Cortes of Lérida in 1214. In September 1218, a general Cortes was held for the first time in Lérida, in which he was declared of legal age. It is worth noting that, having been born on February 2, 1208, he came of age at the age of 10.

In February 1221, at the age of 13, he married Leonor de Castilla, sister of Queen Berenguela de Castilla and aunt of Fernando III, in the Soria town of Ágreda, a border town between Castile and Aragon. After the wedding, the couple moved to the cathedral of Tarazona, where Jaime was ordained a knight. At the age of 22, Jaime I managed to have his first marriage annulled by the Church, citing himself, for reasons of kinship in 1229.

On September 8, 1235, at the age of 26, he contracted a second marriage with Princess Violante (), daughter of Andrew II, King of Hungary. By the will of his second uncle Nuño Sánchez, he inherited the counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya and the vizcounty of Fenolleda in France (1241).

Reign

During the first fifteen years of his reign, he fought various fights against the Aragonese nobility, which even took him prisoner in 1224. In 1227, he faced a new Aragonese noble uprising, led by the infante Fernando, uncle of the king, who It ended, thanks to papal intervention through the Archbishop of Tortosa, with the signing of the Concord of Alcalá (March 1227). This treaty marked the triumph of the monarchy over the rebellious nobles, giving it the necessary stability to start campaigns against the Muslims. This stability achieved the appeasement of the claims of the nobility and bishops.

Conquest of Majorca

Faced with the attacks of Majorcan pirates, the merchants of Barcelona, Tarragona and Tortosa asked the monarch for help to put an end to the threat. Thus, at a meeting in Barcelona (December 1228) they offered him their ships, while the Catalan nobles agreed to participate in the company in exchange for booty and territorial domains. In another meeting in Lleida, the Aragonese nobles accepted the same conditions, but suggested to the king that the company be directed against the Muslims of Valencia, so their participation would not be significant.

On September 5, 1229, the Aragonese squadron, made up of 155 ships, 1,500 knights and 15,000 soldiers, set sail from Tarragona, Salou and Cambrils, to conquer Mallorca from Abú Yahya, the semi-independent Almohad governor of the island.

The Aragonese troops landed in Santa Ponsa and defeated the Muslims in the battle of Portopí (September 13, 1229). The Muslims took refuge behind the walls of Madina Mayurqa (present-day Palma de Mallorca) and crucified several Aragonese soldiers in full view of Jaime's troops. These soon after took and put the population of the city to the sword (December 1229) and seized the island in a few months, except for a small nucleus of Muslim resistance that managed to maintain itself in the Sierra de Tramontana until 1232. The Muslim settlers they fled to Africa or were enslaved.

After putting the population of Madina Mayurqa to the sword, the number of corpses was such that an epidemic occurred that decimated the army of Jaime I. In addition, the Catalan nobles tried to keep the loot, causing a revolt that would further weaken the military power of Jaime I.

Mallorca was established as one more kingdom of the Crown of Aragon under the name Regnum Maioricarum et insulae adiacentes, which obtained a letter of frankness in 1230. The institution in 1249 of the municipality of Mallorca (current Palma) would contribute to the institutionalization of the kingdom.

Conquest of Menorca

The Aragonese monarch found himself unable to conquer Menorca due to internal divisions within his army over loot and the reduction of his army due to some bad decisions; even so, the monarch obtained through the mediation of two Aragonese noblemen (Pedro Maza and Assalido de Gudal), a Catalan nobleman (Bernaldo de Santa Eugenia) and the commander of the Temple of Mallorca (Ramón de Serra) a vassalage over Menorca, signed by the Treaty of Capdepera, by which the Minorcan Muslims accepted their sovereignty (1231). The vassalage over Menorca would be transferred to the kingdom of Mallorca as part of the testament of Jaime I. Alfonso III of Aragon would effectively conquer this island, after the capitulation of Abû 'Umar in 1287. It was repopulated, although an abundant Muslim population remained, who was later banished.

Conquest of Ibiza and Formentera

He ceded the submission of Ibiza and Formentera to Guillermo de Montgrí, Archbishop of Tarragona, and his brother Bernardo de Santa Eugenia, who made it effective in 1235. The island was repopulated with peasants from Ampurias (1236).

Conquest of Valencia

The equestrian statue of Jaime I in the Parterre de Valencia (Agapito Vallmitjana, 1891). It is an idealized representation, because it bears the cimera of the King of Aragon, which is an anachronistic, since it was a heraldic innovation of the centuryXIV of Peter IV the Ceremony.

The conquest of Valencia, unlike that of Majorca, was carried out with an important contingent of Aragonese. Thus, to begin the conquest, in 1231 Jaime I met with the nobleman Blasco de Alagón and Hugo de Folcalquier, master of the Military Order of the Hospital, in Alcañiz to establish a plan for the conquest of the Valencian lands. Blasco de Alagón recommended besieging towns on level ground and avoiding fortified ones. However, the first thing that was taken were two mountainous enclaves: Morella, Blasco taking advantage of the weakness of his Muslim government; and Ares, a place near Morella taken by James I to force Blasco de Alagón to hand over Morella to him.

The conquest of what would later become the kingdom of Valencia began in 1232, with the capture of Morella. In 1233 the campaign in Alcañiz was planned, which would consist of three stages:

• The first stage starts in 1233, with the take of Burriana, immediately and Peñíscola and the castle of Castellón. The latter would be given to the king in 1242 by the so-called "the three bishops' award." The conquest of the city of Valencia had begun on 21 April 1238 and the capitulation was signed on 29 September entering the king in the city on 9 October.
• The second stage is heading south to the Jucar, in the city of Alcira where the only bridge of all Valencia was crossing the Jucar. On December 30, 1242 this villa was conquered, thus allowing the definitive conquest of the Kingdom of Valencia.
• The third stage ranges from 1243 to 1245, reaching the limits stipulated in the Treaty of Almizra in 1244, signed between Jaime I and Infante Alfonso (futuro Alfonso X de Castilla) to delimit the areas of expansion on Muslim territory between Castile and the Crown of Aragon. The lands south of the Biar-Villajoyosa line were reserved for Castilla (including the kingdom of Murcia), joining the kingdom of Valencia by Jaime II de Aragón after the Arbitral Awards of Torrellas (1304) and the Elche Treaty (1305).

In this last stage and in the following years, Jaime I had to face various revolts by the Mudejar population, led by the caudillo al-Azraq.

Jaime I obtained a great triumph over the Aragonese nobility by converting the lands conquered in Valencia into a differentiated kingdom, united to the Crown of Aragon (1239), thanks to the legislative elaboration of the Fueros de Valencia, els furs. The creation of the kingdom provoked an angry reaction from the Aragonese nobility, who thus saw the extension of their lordships in Valencian lands as impossible.

Ultra-Pyrenees policy

By means of the Treaty of Corbeil (1258) Jaime renounced his rights over territories of the French south. In return, his own nephew, San Luis de Francia (his mother was Blanca de Castilla, sister of Leonor de Castilla (1191-1244), Jaime's first wife) renounced his rights, as a descendant of Charlemagne, over the Catalan counties, heirs of the Hispanic Brand.

Jaime I was present at the Second Council of Lugdunense, which was held in the cathedral of Lyon, between May 7 and July 17, 1274. The council deliberated on the preparation of a new crusade focusing on financial aspects Of the same. It was decided that, for six years, a tithe of all the profits of Christendom should go towards the crusade. Jaime I was in favor of starting it immediately but when the Templars opposed it, no decision was made. Faced with the indecisions of the other attendees at the canonical assembly, Jaime I said goodbye to the Holy Father (Pope Gregory X) and left the meeting with the members of his entourage.

Conquest of the kingdom of Murcia

Castilla had subjected Murcia to vassalage (1243), but the Murcians revolted against Castile with the support of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada and the rulers of North Africa (1264). Queen Violante (wife of Alfonso X the Wise) asked her father Jaime I for help. Then, troops from the Crown of Aragon commanded by the infante Pedro (the future Pedro III the Great) conquered Muhammad ibn Hûd Biha al-Dawla the Kingdom of Murcia (1265-66), later leaving more than 10,000 Aragonese in Murcia. Indeed, it must be remembered that according to the conditions of the Treaty of Almizra (1244), Murcia would belong to Castile.

Last years

In September 1269, he left Barcelona with his navy for an expedition to the Holy Land, but his ships scattered by storms, he had to land at Aigües-Mortes, near Montpellier. He resigned from that company due, among other reasons, to his age. He was already 61 years old.

The last moments of King Don Jaime the Conqueror in the act of handing his sword to his son Don PedroIgnatius Pinazo Camarlench. Oil on canvas, 304 X 418 cm, Museo del Prado, 1881.

His sixty-three-year reign is the longest reign of any monarch in the entire history of Spain. He died in Alcira (Valencia) on July 27, 1276. At the moment of his death, in the royal residence of this city, and as he had arranged, Don Jaime was shrouded in Cistercian habits.

The mortal remains of the king remained deposited in Santa María de Valencia until May 1278, when they were transferred to the monastery of Poblet for final burial. However, after the confiscation of Mendizábal, the monastery was abandoned and the corpse of Jaime I was transferred in 1843 to Tarragona, where a pantheon was built for him at the back of the cathedral, which was inaugurated in 1856. In 1952, the remains of Jaime I were restored to Poblet.

He dictated his biography, the Llibre dels feits, which became the first of the four great royal chronicles in Catalan.

Descent and inheritance

From his first wife, Leonor de Castilla, he had:

• Alfonso (1222-1260), married to Constanza de Montcada, daughter of Gaston VII of Bearne, was the heir of the crown but died before his father.

By his second wife, Violante of Hungary, he had:

• Rape (1236-1301), wife of Alfonso X el Sabio.
• Constanza (1238-1275), wife of the Lord of Villena, the Spanish infant Manuel, brother of Alfonso X el Sabio.
• Pedro (1240-1285; future Pedro III of Aragon), which happened to him in the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia and in the Catalan counties.
• Jaime (1243-1311; future Jaime II de Mallorca), who inherited the kingdom of Mallorca, which included the Balearic Islands —Mallorca, Menorca (still under the power of a Muslim sovereign although taxable since 1231), Ibiza and Formentera—, the counties of the Rosellón and the Sardinian and the territories that the Conqueror conserved in Occitania (the lord of Montpellier, the Visée).
• Fernando (1245-1250), who died a child.
• Sancha (1246-before 1275) who became nun and died in the Holy Land.
• Mary (1247-1267), also religious.
• Isabel (1248-1271), wife of Philip III of France, son of Saint Louis of France (Luis IX of France)
• Sancho (1250-1275), Arcedian of Belchite, Abbot of Valladolid and Archbishop of Toledo, died prisoner of the Granada Moors.

Traditionally, it has been considered that Violante's desire to obtain good inheritances for his children was the reason why Jaime I proceeded to partition his kingdoms. However, the patrimonial conception of the kingdoms that the king had seems to make more sense. Thus, he made a first distribution in his testament of 1241. According to this testament, the eldest son Alfonso would inherit Aragon and the Catalan counties, and Pedro, son of Violante, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Roussillon, Cerdanya and the Occitan possessions. Two years later, a new will introduces her third child into the cast. The Catalan counties pass from Alfonso to Pedro, who cedes the Balearic Islands, Roussillon, Cerdagne and the Occitan possessions to Jaime. New testament in 1248, including the new son, Ferdinand, in the distribution. On Alfonso's death (1260), he granted a new testament (1262), which would give the final configuration of the inheritance.

After Violante's death (1253), the king launched into a career of love affairs, bearing multiple children. With Teresa Gil de Vidaure he had Jaime, Lord of Jérica, and Pedro, Lord of Ayerbe. With Elvira Sarroca, he fathered Jaime Sarroca, Bishop of Huesca, and Pedro del Rey, Bishop of Lleida.

From his love affairs with Blanca de Antillón, Fernán Sánchez was born, to whom he gave the barony of Castro. With Berenguela Fernández, he had Pedro Fernández, lord of the barony of Híjar. These extramarital children were the origin of some of the most important noble houses of Aragon and Valencia. However, with Berenguela Alfonso, daughter of the infante Alfonso de Molina, he had no offspring, just as he did not have any with Sibila de Saga. It is also known that he had a relationship with Guillema de Cabrera since 1252, although the date could be brought forward since the king made several donations to him some time before. It is also known that he had a son, Fernando, who was born in November 1261 from the relationship of the king with a citizen of Alzira called Genesia and who was a trusted man of his brother Pedro in Paris and later as abbot of Montearagón, although due to the state of revolt against the king of the Aragonese territories he did not take office and therefore so much does not appear in the abadiology.

Ratings

The reign of Jaime I marked the birth of a territorial awareness in the different kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon, especially in Aragon, the Kingdom of Valencia and in the Catalan counties. There are two factors that contributed to this fact: the normalization of the Law and the transformation of the Courts into a claiming body and representative of the will of the kingdom, act as catalysts for the creation of a differentiating consciousness of each territory. The Fueros de Aragón were promulgated in the courts of Huesca (1247), replacing the different local codes of the kingdom. The Usatges de Barcelona, thanks to royal protection, spread throughout all the Catalan counties (mid-XIII century ). The situation in Valencia was different, since the opposition of the Aragonese nobility to the consolidation of the kingdom meant that the Valencian privileges (Foris et consuetudines Valentiae ), granted by Jaime I in 1240, did not triumph definitively until 1329. In 1244, Jaime I establishes that the Cinca river would be the dividing line between Aragon and the Catalan counties. Since then, the Cortes of each territory met separately.

The reign of Jaime I also marked the displacement of the center of gravity of the monarchy towards the Mediterranean coast. Thus, the Court and the chancery —base of the current Archive of the Crown of Aragon— were established in Barcelona.

Bust of Jaime I in Madrid (N. Bayarri, 1976).

As milestones of his reign can be noted:

• The creation of the kingdoms of Mallorca and Valencia.
• The marriage of the heir of the Crown, Pedro, with Constance II of Sicily, would give a definitive impetus to the Mediterranean expansion of the Crown of Aragon, once the Reconquest in peninsular territory had been concluded.
• The momentum given to North African trade and policy, including the drafting of Llibre del Consolat de MarFirst code of maritime customs.
• The protection given to the Jews.
• The monetary reforms, with the introduction of the bulk of Montpellier and the creation of own coins in the realms of Valencia and Mallorca.
• The intervention in legal normalization, supporting figures such as Raimundo de Peñafort or Vidal de Canellas and promoting Roman law.
• The impulse given to the general institutions of the kingdom, such as the Courts, and the councils.
• The dictation of Llibre dels feits, — it was published after his death — considered the first medieval chronicle of the Crown of Aragon.

Jaime I's childhood was spent in the castle of Monzón, next to the Cinca river. There, he learned live speech in the care of the Master of the Knights Templar. In his autobiography, one can see a constant familiarity with the four arms of power in Aragon and the friendship with which he treats "Pere de Muncada"; who recruited knights for him in the border territory between Aragon and the Catalan counties of the towns of Almenar and Tamarite. The double way in which he writes the place name Monzón is a vestige of how much the living speech of the area dominated in the form & # 34;Monçó & # 34; as the written form with the spelling "Muntsó" in the manuscript that is preserved in the National Library of Madrid.

The historical judgment on James I depends on the kingdom the historian focuses on. For Aragonese historians, the conclusions are usually negative, citing the patrimonial character that he gave to his kingdoms, without caring about dividing his domains among his sons. The fixing of the Catalan-Aragonese border in Cinca is also criticized, which meant the final awarding of Lleida to the Catalan counties and the definitive separation of Aragon and the Catalan counties into two entities with different rights and courts, after spending a hundred years joined. Territorial expansion is also judged negatively, since with the conquest and creation of the kingdoms of Majorca and Valencia, the Crown definitively became a confederal entity, with the monarchy as the only common institution and without any common aspiration among the various kingdoms.

On the other hand, for Mallorcans and Valencians, the evaluation is completely opposite: Jaime I is a great king, the founding father of the kingdoms, the creator of their identity signs to this day: territory, language, privileges, currency, institutions, etc

Ancestors

Additional bibliography

• Huici Miranda, Ambrosio and Cabanes Pecourt, María Desamparados: Documents by Jaime I de Aragón(1976). Announce Editions ISBN 84-7013-077-3 (3 volumes)
• Villacañas, José Luis: Jaume I the conqueror. Spass-Calpe. Madrid. 2003. ISBN 978-84-670-1053-4