Peter III of Aragon
| Peter III | |
|---|---|
King of Sicily | |
| Reign | 4 September 1282 – November 1285 |
| Predecessor | Charles I |
| Successor | James I |
| Co-ruler | Constance II |
| Born | c. 1239 Valencia, Aragon |
| Died | November 1285 (aged 45–46) Vilafranca del Penedès, Catalonia, Aragon |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | |
| Issue more... |
|
| House | Barcelona |
| Father | James I of Aragon |
| Mother | Violant of Hungary |
Peter III of Aragon (In Aragonese, Pero; in Catalan, Pere; in Italian, Pietro; c. 1239 – November 1285) was
Youth and succession
Peter was the eldest son of
In June 1275, Peter besieged, captured, and executed his rebellious half-brother Fernando Sánchez de Castro at Pomar de Cinca.
On his father's death in 1276, the lands of the Crown of Aragon were divided amongst his two sons. The Kingdom of Aragon, the Kingdom of Valencia and the Principality of Catalonia went to Peter III as being the eldest son; while the Kingdom of Majorca and the Catalan counties beyond the Pyrenees went to the second son, who became James II of Majorca.
Peter and Constance were crowned in Zaragoza in November 1276 by the archbishop of Tarragona.[4]
Early rebellions
Peter's first act as king was to complete the pacification of his Valencian territory, an action which had been underway before his father's death.
However, a revolt soon broke out in the
At the same time, a succession crisis continued in the
In 1280, Peter defeated the stewing rebellion led by Roger-Bernard III after besieging the rebels in Balaguer for a month. Most of the rebel leaders were imprisoned in Lleida until 1281, while Roger-Bernard was imprisoned until 1284.
Wars abroad
Tunisia
When
War of the Sicilian Vespers
In 1266,
The Italian physician
Constance thus claimed to her father's throne, supported by her husband, but the claim was fruitless, as Charles was supported by the Papacy and his power remained stronger. The election of a new Pope Nicholas III in 1277 gave the King of Aragon a glimpse of hope, but Nicholas died in 1280 and a pro-French Pope Martin IV dissipated hopes.
Peter nevertheless had begun making strategic alliances with his neighbouring monarchs. Peter made his brother James II of Majorca sign the treaty of Perpignan in 1279, in which he recognized the Kingdom of Majorca as a feudal kingdom of Peter III (making the Crown of Aragon an indissoluble unity). Peter pressed his advantage and by February 1283 had taken most of the Calabrian coastline. Charles, perhaps feeling desperate, sent letters to Peter demanding they resolve the conflict by personal combat. Peter accepted and Charles returned to France to arrange the duel. Both kings chose six knights to settle on places and dates, and a duel was scheduled for 1 June at Bordeaux. A hundred knights would accompany each side and Edward I of England would adjudge the contest; the English king, heeding the pope, however, refused to take part. Peter left John of Procida in charge of Sicily and returned via his own kingdom to Bordeaux, which he entered in disguise to evade a suspected French ambush. Needless to say, no combat ever took place and Peter returned to find a very turbulent Aragon.[8]
He also had a long-lasting friendly relationship with the Kingdom of Castile, establishing a strong alliance between realms by signing the treaties of Campillo and Ágreda in 1281 with Alfonso X of Castile and infant Sancho.
With the
On 30 March 1282 there was a popular uprising in the Kingdom of Sicily called the
Catalan ground troops were commanded by Guillem Galceran de Cartellà, and were formed by the famous and feared
The conquest of Sicily was financed by Jewish contributions and taxes charged to the aljamas. The infant Alfonso demanded them an allowance of 200,000 sous in 1282. The aljamas from the Kingdom of Valencia gave 25,000 sous, the Aragonese 75,000 and 100,000 were charged to the Catalan aljamas. The Kingdom of Sicily was to be a tenaciously pursued inheritance for the Aragonese royal house and its heirs for the next five centuries.
Later domestic unrest
Peter was dealing with domestic unrest at the time when the French were preparing an invasion of Aragon. He took
Also in 1283, Peter's brother James II of Majorca joined the French and recognised their suzerainty over Montpellier. This gave the French free passage into Catalonia through Roussillon as well as access to the Balearic Islands. In October, Peter began preparing the defences of Catalonia. In 1284, Pope Martin IV granted the Kingdom of Aragon to Charles, Count of Valois, another son of the French king and great-nephew of Charles I of Anjou. Papal sanction was given to a war to conquer Aragon on behalf of Charles of Valois.
Aragonese Crusade
In 1284, the first French armies under Philip and Charles entered Roussillon. They included 16,000 cavalry, 17,000 crossbowmen, and 100,000 infantry, along with 100 ships in south French ports.[10] Though the French had James's support, the local populace rose against them. The city of Elne was valiantly defended by the so-called "bastard of Roussillon", the illegitimate son of Nuño Sánchez, late count of Roussillon. Eventually he was overcome and the cathedral was burnt; the royal forces progressed.
In 1285, Philip entrenched himself before
The King of France himself was afflicted. The King of Navarre, the heir apparent to the French throne, opened negotiations with Peter for free passage for the royal family through the Pyrenees. But the troops were not offered such passage and were decimated at the Battle of the Col de Panissars. Philip III of France died in October at Perpignan, the capital of James II of Majorca (who had fled in fear after being confronted by Peter), and was buried in Narbonne. James was declared a vassal of Peter.
Troubadour works
Peter matched his father in patronage of the arts and literature, but unlike him he was a lover of verse, not prose. He favoured the
As well the wars with Philip III of France and James II of Majorca furnished material for new sirventesos and during this period the sirventes was converted into a convenient tool of political propaganda in which each side could, directly or allegorically, present its case and procure sympathy propitious to its cause.
Death and legacy
Peter died from unknown causes at Vilafranca del Penedès in November 1285,[11] just one month after Philip III of France, and was buried in the Monastery of Santes Creus.[12] His deathbed absolution occurred after he declared that his conquests had been in the name of his familial claims and never against the claims of the church. His remains are entombed in a porphyry sarcophagus at the monastery.
Peter made his final testament on 2 November 1285. In it he instructed his successor to return the kingdom of Sicily to the pope and to release all Angevin prisoners of war. Although the will was copied into the royal register, it was ignored by his successors. Peter's eldest son,
In the Divine Comedy, (Purgatory, Canto VII) Dante Alighieri sees Peter "singing in accord" with his former rival, Charles I of Anjou, outside the gates of Purgatory.
Children
Peter and Constance II of Sicily had:
- Alfonso III of Aragon (4 November 1265 – 18 June 1291)[14]
- James II of Aragon (10 August 1267 – 2 November 1327)[14]
- Frederick III of Sicily (13 December 1272 – 25 June 1337)[15]
- Robert of Naples[15]
- Peter of Aragon (c. 1275 – 25 August 1296). Married Guillemette of Béarn, daughter of Gaston VII, Viscount of Béarn.
Peter had a relationship with Ines Zapata between 1275-1280 and had the following children:
- Fernando of Aragon.
- Sancho of Aragon.
- Pedro of Aragon. Married in Portugal with Constança Mendes da Silva.
- Teresa of Aragon.
Additionally, he had 3 illegitimate children with Maria Nicolau before marrying Constance of Sicily:
- Jaime Perez of Aragon (d. 1285).
- Juan Perez of Aragon.
- Beatriz of Aragon (d. 1316).
References
- ^ Burns 1985, pp. 214–215.
- ^ Merriman 1918, p. 319.
- ^ a b c d Chaytor 1933, p. 97.
- ^ a b Aurell 2020, p. 246.
- ^ Chaytor 1933, p. 101.
- ^ Chaytor 1933, p. 102.
- ^ a b Chaytor 1933, p. 103.
- ^ a b Harris 2003, p. 104.
- ^ Harris 2003, p. 180.
- ^ Harris 2003, p. 106.
- ^ Cabrera Sánchez 2011, pp. 112–113.
- ^ El País, news on discovery of mummy of Peter III at Monastery of Santes Creus
- ^ Hans-Joachim Schmidt, "The King of Sicily's Testaments: Hidden, Falsified and Forgotten," in Memories Lost in the Middle Ages: Collective Forgetting as an Alternative Procedure of Social Cohesion (Brepols, 2023), pp. 167–183, at 180.
- ^ a b Burns 1985, p. 214.
- ^ a b c Previté-Orton 1960, p. 767.
Bibliography
- Aurell, Jaume (2020). Medieval Self-Coronations: The History and Symbolism of a Ritual. Cambridge University Press.
- Burns, Robert Ignatius, ed. (1985). The Worlds of Alfonso the Learned and James the Conqueror: Intellect and Force in the Middle Ages. Princeton University Press.
- Cabrera Sánchez, Margarita (2011). "La muerte de los miembros de la realeza hispánica medieval a través de los testimonios historiográficos". En la España medieval (in Spanish). No. 34. Madrid: Universidad Complutense. pp. 97–132. ISSN 0214-3038.
- Chaytor, H.J. (1933). A History of Aragón and Catalonia. London: Methuen. )
- Colomer Pérez, Guifré, Memòries de la guerra de les Vespres (1282–1285). Controvèrsies ideològiques i conflictes polítics a la Mediterrània occidental, Tesi Doctoral URV, 2022 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/675697
- Harris, Jonathan (2003). Byzantium and the Crusades. London: Hambledon. ISBN 9781852852986.
- Merriman, Roger Bigelow (1918). The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and in the New. Vol. 1: The Middle Ages. The Macmillan Company.
- Previté-Orton, Charles William (1960). The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press.
- Riquer, Martín de(1951). "Un trovador valenciano: Pedro el Grande de Aragón". Revista Valenciana de Filología. 1 (4).
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