Peter I of Aragon

Pedro I of Aragon (ca. 1068-Valle de Arán, December 28, 1104) was king of Aragon and Pamplona (1094-1104).

Biography

Pedro I was the son of Sancho Ramírez and Isabel de Urgel. His father Sancho Ramírez decided to entrust him, while he was still a prince, Ribagorza and Sobrarbe as king, under his supreme authority. It was a formula already used by Sancho the Elder, who granted titles of regulus to his sons during his lifetime so that they would govern part of his royal domains as possessions. No documents of the appointment are preserved, nor is the exact day of the beginning of his government over these lands known, but he already appears as such from June 1085. From 1089 his father ceded him the domain in possession of the middle course of the Cinca, under the title of "king of Monzón", border lands highly exposed to Muslim attacks by the taifa of Lérida. Thus, Sancho Ramírez continued the Navarrese-Aragonese custom of delegating lands governed with royal titles among the infants to collaborate in government tasks and begin to exercise royal responsibilities.

Arabic subscription of Pedro I de Aragón:
† رشم بيره ابن شانجه †. Transliteration: θršm byṭrh.bn š.nğh. Phenotic translation in Arabic andalusi dialect: /ráš(a)m Béṭro (a)ben Šánğo/ o /ráš(a)m Péṭro (a)ben Šánčo /. Spanish translation: 'Señal [= signum] by Pedro, son of Sancho'.

Between the years 1093 and 1103 Aragón, an ally of the Cid in the Levant, dominated the squares of Culla, Oropesa, Miravet, Montornés and Castellón de la Plana. This is confirmed not only by the chronicles, but also by the Historia Roderici and the diplomas signed by the owners of these fortresses. from Aragon, Pamplona, Sobrarbe, Ribagorza, Culla, Oropesa and Castellón. In it he grants "my cid Muño Muñoz" the castle of Azafaz, the town of Ova and the Levantine tenants are mentioned: Ortí Ortiz, who has the honor over Monroig, Culla and Oropesa; and the aforementioned Muño Muñoz, who is in charge of holding Castellón, Monroig over Montornés and Azafaz.

On June 4, 1094, he inherited the throne of Aragon and Pamplona. The reign of Pedro I meant the expansion of the Aragonese territory in its central and eastern sections, reaching the Sierra de Alcubierre and the Monegros.

He conquered Huesca in (1096), after defeating Al-Musta'in II of Zaragoza in the battle of Alcoraz. He fought alongside El Cid in the battle of Bairén (1097) defeating the Almoravids, who They had come with an important army commanded by Muhammad ibn Tasufin in order to recover Valencia for Islam, which had been conquered by the Champion.

Later he took Barbastro (1101), Sariñena and tried to take Zaragoza. He besieged Tamarite de Litera (1104) and regulated the jurisdiction of the infanzones. He consolidated the military supremacy of the Christian troops over the Muslims, dying, according to Iglesias Costa, most probably between September 27 and 30, 1104, in the Aran Valley, although Ubieto Arteta does not specify the day and places it in the month of September 1104.

Marriage and offspring

He married Inés de Aquitania, in Jaca, in 1086, from whom he had two children who died before their father:

• Pedro de Aragón (c. 1086-1104). Ubieto postulated in 1973 (and elsewhere later), from an unclear passage from the First general report (editing of several codexes related to the Estoria de España by Alfonso X el Sabio compiled by Menéndez Pidal), that María Rodríguez, daughter of the Cid, married in the first nuptists with this Aragonese infant; this hypothesis has been admitted by Laliena Corbera and Ian Michael, but rejected by Rubio García, Louis Chalon or Rafael Lapesa. Finally, Alberto Montaner Frutos, in his edition of the Singing from my Cid in 2011, he concludes that such a link with Infante Pedro lacks contemporary documentation that will haunt him, in addition to that Ubieto theory is based on a story of the Estoria del Cid written from the reign of Sancho IV of Castile (1284-1295), which was incorporated into the Sanchina version of the Estoria de Españawhere the name of Peter is given to the prince of Aragon Singing from my Cid marry the daughter of the hero: this chronistic testimony, therefore, cannot be given as a reliable historical source.

• Inés de Aragón, who died in 1103.

In his second nuptials, he married Berta on August 16, 1097 in Huesca, giving her as a dowry some land in La Galliguera in Huesca, where he would govern several years after his death.

He had no offspring from this second marriage, therefore, after his death, his brother Alfonso happened to succeed him.