James I of Aragon
| James I | |
|---|---|
Poblet Monastery | |
| Spouses | |
| Issue among others... |
|
| House | Barcelona |
| Father | Peter II of Aragon |
| Mother | Maria of Montpellier |
James I the Conqueror (
As a legislator and organiser, he occupies a high place among the
Early life and reign until majority
James was born at
James was then sent to Monzón, where he was entrusted to the care of Guillem de Montredó,[4] the head of the Knights Templar in Aragon and Provence; the regency meanwhile fell to his great-uncle Sancho, Count of Roussillon, and his son, the king's cousin, Nuño. The kingdom was given over to confusion until, in 1217, the Templars and some of the more loyal nobles brought the young king to Zaragoza.[5]
In 1221, he was married to Eleanor, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile. The next six years of his reign were full of rebellions on the part of the nobles. By the Peace of Alcalá of 31 March 1227, the nobles and the king came to terms.[5]
Acquisition of Urgell
In 1228, James faced the sternest opposition yet from a vassal.
James intervened on behalf of Aurembiax, to whom he owed protection. He bought Guerau off and allowed Aurembiax to reclaim her territory, which she did at
From 1230 to 1232, James negotiated with
James endeavoured to form a state straddling the Pyrenees in order to counterbalance the power of France north of the river Loire. As with the much earlier Visigothic attempt, this policy was victim to physical, cultural, and political obstacles. As in the case of Navarre, he declined to launch into perilous adventures. By the Treaty of Corbeil, signed in May 1258, he ended his conflict with Louis IX of France, securing the renunciation of any historical French claims to sovereignty over Catalonia, including the County of Barcelona.[3]
Reconquest
After his false start at uniting Aragon with the
(1235) were later acquired during the reconquest.Valencia capitulated to Aragonese rule on 28 September 1238,[3] following an extensive campaign that included the Siege of Burriana and the decisive Battle of the Puig,[9] where the Aragonese commander, Bernat Guillem I d'Entença, who was also the king's cousin, died from wounds received in action. Chroniclers say James used gunpowder in the siege of Museros castle.
During his remaining two decades after Corbeil, James warred with the Moors in Murcia, on behalf of his son-in-law Alfonso X of Castile. On 26 March 1244, the two monarchs signed the Treaty of Almizra to establish their zones of expansion into Andalusia so as to prevent squabbling between them. Specifically, it defined the borders of the newly created Kingdom of Valencia. James signed it on that date, but Alfonso did not affirm it until much later. According to the treaty, all lands south of a line from Biar to Villajoyosa through Busot were reserved for Castile.
Crusade of 1269
James's sons
Patronage of art, learning, and literature
James built and consecrated the
James was a patron of the
James was the first great sponsor and patron of vernacular Catalan literature. Indeed, he may himself be called "the first of the Catalan prose writers.".
James also wrote the
Though James was himself a prose writer and sponsored mostly prose works, he had an appreciation of verse.
Succession
The favour James showed his illegitimate offspring led to protest from the nobles, and to conflicts between his legitimate and illegitimate sons. When one of the latter, Fernán Sánchez, who had behaved with gross ingratitude and treason toward his father, was slain by the legitimate son Peter, the old king recorded his grim satisfaction.[citation needed]
In his will, James divided his states between his sons by
His mummified body was later exhumed in 1856, when the monastery was under repair. A photograph of the king was taken. The photograph of the head of the mummy clearly shows the wound in the left eyebrow that the king himself explained in a passage from his Llibre dels fets (Book of Deeds):
As I was coming with the men, I happened to turn my head towards the town in order to look at the Saracens, who had come out in great force, when a cross-bowman shot at me, and hit me beside the sun-hood, and the shot struck me on the head, the bolt lighting near the forehead. It was God's will it did not pass through the head, but the point of the arrow went half through it. In anger I struck the arrow so with my hand that I broke it: the blood came out down my face; I wiped it off with a mantle of "sendal" I had, and went away laughing, that the army might not take alarm.[14]
Marriages and children
James first married, in 1221,
- Alfonso (1229–1260), married Constance of Béarn, Viscountess of Marsan[15]
In 1235, James remarried to Yolanda, daughter of Andrew II of Hungary by his second wife Yolande de Courtenay. They had numerous children:
- Yolanda, also known as Violant, (1236–1301), married Alfonso X of Castile[16]
- Constance (1239–1269), married Manuel of Castile, son of Ferdinand III
- Peter III (1240–1285), successor in Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia
- James II (1243–1311), successor in Balearics and Languedoc
- Ferdinand (1245–1250)
- Sancha (1246–before 1275), died in the Holy Land.[17]
- Isabella (1248–1271), married Philip III of France
- Maria (1248–1267), nun
- Archbishop of Toledo
- Eleanor (born 1251, died young)
James married thirdly Teresa Gil de Vidaure, but only by a private document, and left her when (as he claimed) she developed leprosy.
The children in the third marriage were recognised in his last will as being in the line of succession to the throne, should the senior lines fail.
James also had several lovers, both during and after his marriages, and fathered several illegitimate sons.
By Blanca d'Antillón:
- Fernán Sánchez(or Fernando Sánchez) (1240–1275), Baron of Castro
By Berenguela Fernández:
By Elvira Sarroca:
- Jaume Sarroca (born 1248), Bishop of Huescafrom 1273 to 1290
References
- ^ a b c d Chaytor, 96.
- ^ a b Nicholson 2004, p. 113.
- ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Juan Garcia Atienza: The Knights Templar in the Golden Age of Spain, p. 149
- ^ a b Chaytor, 82.
- ^ Chaytor, 83.
- ^ Chaytor, 86.
- ISSN 1699-7913.
- ^ Burns 1973, p. 35.
- ^ Chaytor, 90.
- ^ Runciman, History of the Crusades, pp. 330–332
- ^ a b Chaytor, 93.
- ^ a b Chaytor, 94.
- ^ Translated by John Forster. "The Chronicle of James I, King of Aragon, Surnamed The Conqueror" (PDF). Chapter CCLXVI (in Catalan). Retrieved 18 October 2012.
- ^ Linehan 2011, p. 85.
- ^ Previté-Orton 1952, p. 902.
- ^ Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain) (1956). Homenaje a Millás-Vallicrosa. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. p. 230.
Sources
- Burns, Robert Ignatius (1973). Islam Under the Crusaders: Colonial Survival in the Thirteenth-Century Kingdom of Valencia. Princeton University Press.
- Chaytor, H. J. A History of Aragon and Catalonia. London: Methuen, 1933.
- Linehan, Peter (2011). Spain, 1157–1300: A Particle Inheritance. Wiley-Blackwell.
- Nicholson, Helen J. (2004). The Crusades. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0313326851.
James I of Aragon.
- Previté-Orton, Charles William (1952). The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. II The Twelfth Century to the Renaissance. Cambridge at the University Press.
- The book of deeds of James I of Aragon. A translation of the medieval Catalan Libre dels fets. Trans. Damian Smith and Helen Buffery (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003) (Crusade Texts in Translation, 10.) Pp. xvii + 405 incl. 5 maps.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
External links
- libro.uca.edu
- Medieval Sourcebook: e-text of James's grant of trade privileges to Barcelona, 1232, freeing the city from tolls and imposts with his realms
- The Barcelona Maritime Code of 1258
- Quia super limitibus Cathalonie et Aragonum 1243, original document in which James I of Aragon officially writes down the border delimitations between Catalonia and Aragon with all the pertinent lords as witnesses.
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