THE
ARAGONES KINGDOM AND HER TERRITORIAL EXPANSION
The king Ramiro II " the Monk" it found a solution to resolve the Serious problem of the succession in the kingdom Aragonés. It delivered its daughter Petronila, of barely a year of age, as wife of Ramón Berenguer IV, conde of Barcelona. August 11, 1137 itself pactaron the engagement In Barbastro.
Lto future shackles it contributed " the kingdom of Aragón in its integrity", but Ramiro of reserved the right of " to be king, mister and father in the cited kingdom and in all your condados (of the conde Of Barcelona) while me plazca". It was itself gestando the birth of the Crown of Aragón, that fulfillment a paper trancendental in the desarrolo of the history peninsular and International. On account of the age of Petronila, the ceremony It took place thirteen years later (1150) in the cathedral of Lérida.
The union with the house of Barcelona make the consolidation and continuation of the conquests territoriales facing the world Andalusí. Since the engagement, Ramón Berenguer IV acted indistinctly as conde of Barcelona and príncipe of Aragón (1137 - 1162). Once assured its political situation in the Kingdom and fortificada the southern border, continued the expansion territorial, paralyzed since the death of " The Batallador" (1134). It threw its offensive one bélica upon the ground of the Valley of the Ebro: Sariñena, Pina and Velilla of Ebro were recuperated in 1141; also Chalamera and Alcolea of Cinca. In 1142 it recovered Monzón and, surely, Zaidín and Tamarite. Besides, and to fortify the extremadura aragonesa, itself reocupó the city of Daroca, semidesértica and abandoned after the death of Alfonso I, and by means of Statute, proceeded to its repoblación and organization.
THE NEW ADVANCES AND TERRITORIAL CONQUESTS
The territorial expansion continued in 1147 with the occupation of the castle of Ontiñena, bulwark whose control guaranteed the expansion By the ground understood among the rivers Cinca and Segre. Taking advantage of the presence in Barcelona of a fleet genovesa and of a contingent military one occitano (had responded jointly to it it takes of Almería, year 1147), Ramón Berenguer IV decided to occupy Tortosa, that surrendered the 30 of December of 1148 after various months of siege. With the city were delivered all the populations of their entorno commercial, that conformed a zone, the Under Ebro, of a Strong personality. This obliged to organizing it as a independent territory: the marquesado of Tortosa, city to The one that statutes were given and privileges in 1149.
Isolated of their correligionarios (already in 1147, Ermengol SAW of Urgel there was occupied distinct places, with what facilitated to Ramón Berenguer IV the road toward the capital one), the ground of the Moslem district of Lérida They went likewise conquered. Lérida and Fraga surrendered in October of 1149 and were organized in a territory with Own jurisdiction: the marquesado of Lérida. The statutes of the city were granted in 1150, jointly by Ramon Berenguer IV and by Ermengol of Urgel.
The last conquests left prompt the way for the occupation of the ground turolenses of the Under Aragón, and showed the military weakness of the Almorávides. Without barely fight assembled they went themselves taking places as Huesa of the Common one (1154), Monforte of Moyuela (1157), Híjar, Albalate of the Archbishop and, above all, Alcañiz, that It was repoblada to statute of Zaragoza. To Alcañiz, that passed more ahead to be able of the Order of Calatrava, they were granted it -as it was habitual in the zones of the extremadura or border- some terms jurisdiccionales very extensive, that they came to To cover the practical totality of the Under Aragón.
In August of 1162, in the course of a trip to Turín to attend an imperial assembly, the Death surprised to Ramón Berenguer IV. The " Chronic of San Juan of the Rock" says of him:
" Aquesti Remón Belenguer, compte of Barçalona, regnó XXX and two aynnos and finó in the barch of Sant Dalmau, near Turini, in Lombardía, in the aynno of MCLXII in the ydus of August, gave dexó grant ploro to the town and great perigro to the ground and joy to the moros and desolation to the poor and sospiros to the religious... AND it was buried the its body in the monesterio of Ripol with grant honor"
ALFONSO II, FIRST MONARCH OF THE CROWN
Alfonso II it was the first one regular of the Crown, upon inheriting the Kingdom of Aragón of its mother, Petronila, and the ground patrimoniales of the house of Barcelona of its father, Ramón Berenguer IV. During the minority of age of the monarch, besides of the tutela of its mother, had to be done charge of the destinies of both states a curia or counsel of regencia in the one that intervened, indistinctly, noble aagoneses and Catalonian. In 1174 with the Spanish infant Sancha, sister of Alfonso VIII, that went the fundadora of the monastery of Sijena.
In times of Alfonso II it was completed the it conquers and occupation of the majority of the ground Turolenses. Since the year 1163 continues the offensive one aragonesa in the right margin of the Ebro (basins of the rivers Martín, Guadalope and Matarraña), and are gained Caspe, Fayón, Fabara, Maella, Calaceite, The Fresneda, Valderrobles, Rafales, Monroyo, Peñarroya, Calanda, Castellote, Aguaviva, Aliaga and Cantavieja. Parallel they went themselves occupying other populations in the desembocadura of the Ebro (Orta, Paúls, Benet, among others), to the ones that was granted them the statutes of Zaragoza.
In 1169 the ground were taken of Gúdar, Monteagudo of the Castle and Teruel. In this way remained territorialmente perfilado the kingdom aragonés, cuyas borders coincided with the present save light retouchs and incorporations in the reigns of Pedro II (Manzanera, Rubielos of Dwells, Ademuz) and of Jaime I (Linares of Dwells). The only exception was the señorío of Albarracín, in hands of the family navarra of the Ruiz of Azagra, that not itself It incorporated to the Kingdom until 1284.
It emphasizes likewise, the political succession in the French Noon by Alfonso II. Upon dying without heirs Ramón Berenguer III of Provenza in 1166, Alfonso II it incorporated the Condado of Provenza to the Crown. Ten years later occupied Niza. Numerous mister languedocianos lent it and They renewed fidelity and homage. Among them it fits to emphasize to María, condesa of Bearn (in 1170), the vizconde Céntulo V of Bigorra (in 1175), that of Narbona and the mister Bernat I Tie Of Nimes and Roger V of Bêziers (in 1178).
With these antecedents is not strange that Pedro II it had to intervene in the matters occitanos, máxime after its marriage in 1204 with María of Montpellier that, as gift, It contributed the señorío of the one that was holder. Besides, its brother Alfonso (1196-1209) governed the Provenza, Gavaldán and Millau, and its sister Leonor married in 1204 with the conde Ramón I SAW of Tolosa, with what he changed radically the traditional one Enfrentamiento among the dynasty of Barcelona and that of Tolosa.
THE KING PEDRO II AND THE ALBIGENSE CUESTION
In occitania itself they debated complex interests that, inevitably, they finished In a generalized conflict bélico. To the secular one enfrentamiento of the condado tolosino facing the provenzal, that enmascaraba fights it among the monarchy of the Capeto and the Anglo-saxon of the Plantagenet by dominating the France southern, the expansion was added of the catarismo by ground occitanas, heresy that motivated the intervention of the Papa Inocencio III and the crusade antialbigense. Pedro " the Catholic" it was seen implicated in this voragine of events and assumed the defense of the señoresdel Midi that they lent it vasallaje, and likewise the interests in the zone of the own Crown of Aragón facing the politics Anexionista of the France north.
Pedro II it responded to ground tolosanas in January of 1213 and itself aprestó, as mister of Occitania, to defend to its súbditos and vasallos facing The young men crusaders. The monarch was trapped among the fidelity due to the Papa (sifted upon its head the threat Of excommunication) and its own political interests.
Pedro II and its huestes they freed a hard battle campal facing the army of Simón of Monfort in Muret (to the south of Tolosa), that themselves saldó with The death of the young monarch and the rout of its troops. It says of this the " Chronic of San Juan of the Rock" :
" the dito king wanting but to die with honor that non bivir with desonor, for such that by ningun time in battle that you were non rotated face, died in that...() Et went soterrado in the monesterio of Sixena, the qual its mother dona Sancha avía hedifficado et stablido convent of mulleres of the order of the Spital of Jherusalem"
Itself break in this way the old one and intended dream of the unit occitana, and the possibility of achieving the consolidation of the controls ultrapirenaicos (since the Ródano until the Ebro) of the Crown of Aragón.
" THE CONQUEROR" AND THE EXPANSION BY MALLORCA AND RAISE
The death unexpected of Pedro II it left in a complex situation to the future monarch Jaime -of barely five Years of age-, and to the own Kingdom aragonés. While Jaime it received its first education in the castle templario of Monzón, a counsel of regencia was in charge of the public matters Of the Kingdom. It was evident the political situation of crisis and economic bankruptcy in Aragón, to the extent of that the history of this periodo (1213-1227) was an endless one family succession of intrigues, fights and banderías among the distinct groups nobiliarios that sought the control of The regencia.
Besides, the young king had to be faced very prompt to problems of thickness he calibrate, so much Personal as politicians. To the twelve years (1220) participated in its first facts of weapons and, besides, contracted marriage (1221) with Leonor of Castilla, five greater years That he. With her, they assure the columnists, " was not able to do that that the men should do with its woman, Because it did not have the age". The divorce arrived in 1229.
As mister of Montpellier, Jaime I it intervened in the matters occitanos, but the reality and the history it they carried toward other roads: The Raise Spaniard and the Expansion by the Mediterranean one. The nickname of " The Conquering", with the one that has passed to the history, had origin in its gestas bélicas facing the world andalusí, that they did that the name of Aragón and of their Crown they reached Some elevations unsuspected years behind. In this section it emphasizes the conquest of the Baleares (Mallorca, 1229; Menorca, 1231; Ibiza and Formentera, 1235). It was a Catalonian business -had few repercussions for the kingdom of Aragón, in spite of that in their conquest intervened some four hundred young men aragoneses-, that sited down the bases of the future expansion of The Crown by the Mediterranean one.
The conquest of the kingdom of Valencia went conceived like business net aragonesa, since the noble, the Military Orders and the concejos, saw in the conquest A prolongación natural of their controls territoriales. The first actions bélicas began in 1232 (occupation of Arés and Morella), and continued with the conquest of Burriana, Peñíscola and Castellón. The process culminated with the Capitulación of Valencia in 1238, after a prolonged siege.
Jaime I it decided to create the Christian kingdom of Valencia, endowing it besides a Own administrative, legal, and political structure. The real decision went badly received by the noble aragoneses, that they were felt "traicionados" by the monarch, already that they thought to integrate the rich ground levantinas in the Kingdom of Aragón. Apesar that the king rewarded generously to the noble aragoneses, these did not leave of presionar so that be to recognized their rights upon the ground conquered and they achieved that a cincuentena of Localities valencianas be to governed for statutes aragoneses.
THEM REVOLVED NOBILIARIAS AND THE END OF THE REIGN
The tried Almizra with Castilla (1244) put end to the reconquista Aragonesa. The lack of ground by reconquistar and breaks it subsequent of a military and political system that lasted already two centuries affected of notable form to the relations among the monarch and the groups nobiliarios aragoneses, with the That again it maintained political tensions of importance.
In the Assembly of Ejea of 1265, the noble they achieved to impose some of their demands to the own one king (hereditary transmission of honors, competences of the Justice of Aragón, new repartos of ground, etc...). Besides, other private events of kind had interest For Aragón. Its romances extraconyugales, with Go it Alvarez, White of Antillón, Berenguela Alfonso and Teresa Gil of Vidaurre, among others, caused dynasties nobiliarias (Baronías of Híjar, Jérica, Ayerbe, etc...).
Also its marriage with Violante of Hungary (1235), that filled it of children, complicated the last years of its reign, therefore in its dispositions testamentearias -came to dictate until four testaments distinct- it utilized the ground that conformed the Crown with A sense patrimonial of the same. Nevertheless, the death of some of its children varone favored the succession, and of this way Jaime I it left in 1162 to its primogénito Pedro the kingdom of Aragón, the condado of Barcelona and the kingdom of Valencia. To its another son, Jaime, it It granted the kingdom of Mallorca and the señorío of Montpellier.
Finalized it reconquista aragonesa and closed the expansion by Occitania, only remained the Mediterranean projection. The own monarch, with seventy and a years, prepared a naval expedition to Holy Ground that It failed on account of a storm. Still it insisted, to weigh to its advanced age, in carrying the Crusade to the Holy Places, and It was offered personally in the Council of Lyon of 1274. Although its proposed not they had the echo desired, was able to exclaim, being returned toward the its:
" barons, already can go us; therefore today, to the less, we have left in good place the honor of Every Spain".
The octogenary monarch died in Valencia In 1276.
