1.
Crown of Aragon
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Put in contemporary terms, it has sometimes been considered that the different lands of the Crown of Aragon functioned more as a confederation than as a single kingdom. In this sense, the larger Crown of Aragon must not be confused with one of its constituent parts, formally, the political center of the Crown of Aragon was Zaragoza, where kings were crowned at La Seo Cathedral. The de facto capital and leading cultural, administrative and economic centre of the Crown of Aragon was Barcelona followed by Valencia, finally, Palma was an additional important city and seaport. For brief periods the Crown of Aragon also controlled Montpellier, Provence, Corsica, the countries that are today known as Spain and Portugal spent the Middle Ages after 722 in an intermittent struggle called the Reconquista. This struggle pitted the northern Christian kingdoms against the Islamic taifa petty kingdoms of the South, in the Late Middle Ages, the expansion of the Aragonese Crown southwards met with the Castilian advance eastward in the region of Murcia. Afterward, the Aragonese Crown focused on the Mediterranean, acting as far as Greece and Barbary, whereas Portugal, mercenaries from the territories in the Crown, known as almogàvers participated in the creation of this Mediterranean empire, and later found employment in countries all across southern Europe. The Crown of Aragon has been considered by some as an empire which ruled in the Mediterranean for hundreds of years and it was indeed, at its height, one of the major powers in Europe. However, its different territories were connected through the person of the monarch. A modern historian, Juan de Contreras y Lopez de Ayala, Marqués de Lozoya described the Crown of Aragon as being more like a confederacy than a centralised kingdom, let alone an empire. Nor did official documents refer to it as an empire, instead. This union respected the institutions and parliaments of both territories. This was due to the loss of Catalan influence, the renunciation of the family rights of the counts of Barcelona in Occitania. Petronillas father King Ramiro, The Monk who was raised in the Saint Pons de Thomières Monastery and his brothers Peter I and Alfonso I El Batallador had bravely fought against Castile for hegemony in the Iberian peninsula. After the death of Alfonso I, the Aragonese nobility that campaigned close him feared being overwhelmed by the influence of Castile, and so, Ramiro was forced to leave his monastic life and proclaim himself King of Aragon. He married Agnes, sister of the Duke of Aquitaine and betrothed his daughter to Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona. The wedding agreement provided Raymond Berengar IV the title of Princeps Aragonum and Dominator Aragonenesis and kept the title, Raymond Berengar IV, the first ruler of the united dynasty, called himself Count of Barcelona and Prince of Aragon. Alfonso II inherited two realms and with them, two different expansion processes, the House of Jiménez looked south in a battle against Castile for the control of the Mediterranean coast in the Iberian peninsula. The House of Barcelona looked north to its origins, Occitania, soon, Alfonso II of Aragon and Barcelona committed himself to conquer Valencia as the Aragonese nobility demanded
2.
Coronation
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The ceremony can also be conducted for the monarchs consort, either simultaneously with the monarch or as a separate event. A ceremony without the placement of a crown on the head is known as an enthronement. Coronations are still observed in the United Kingdom, Tonga, in addition to investing the monarch with symbols of state, Western-style coronations have often traditionally involve anointing with holy oil, or chrism as it is often called. Wherever a ruler is anointed in this way, as in Great Britain and Tonga, some other lands use bathing or cleansing rites, the drinking of a sacred beverage, or other religious practices to achieve a comparable effect. Such acts symbolise the granting of divine favour to the monarch within the relevant spiritual-religious paradigm of the country, in the past, concepts of royalty, coronation and deity were often inexorably linked. Rome promulgated the practice of worship, in Medieval Europe. Coronations were once a direct expression of these alleged connections. Thus, coronations have often been discarded altogether or altered to reflect the nature of the states in which they are held. However, some monarchies still choose to retain an overtly religious dimension to their accession rituals, others have adopted simpler enthronement or inauguration ceremonies, or even no ceremony at all. In non-Christian states, coronation rites evolved from a variety of sources, buddhism, for instance, influenced the coronation rituals of Thailand, Cambodia and Bhutan, while Hindu elements played a significant role in Nepalese rites. The ceremonies used in modern Egypt, Malaysia, Brunei and Iran were shaped by Islam, Coronations, in one form or another, have existed since ancient times. Egyptian records show coronation scenes, such as that of Seti I in 1290 BC, judeo-Christian scriptures testify to particular rites associated with the conferring of kingship, the most detailed accounts of which are found in II Kings 11,12 and II Chronicles 23,11. Following the assumption of the diadem by Constantine, Roman and Byzantine emperors continued to wear it as the symbol of their authority. Although no specific coronation ceremony was observed at first, one gradually evolved over the following century, the emperor Julian was hoisted upon a shield and crowned with a gold necklace provided by one of his standard-bearers, he later wore a jewel-studded diadem. Later emperors were crowned and acclaimed in a manner, until the momentous decision was taken to permit the Patriarch of Constantinople to physically place the crown on the emperors head. Historians debate when exactly this first took place, but the precedent was established by the reign of Leo II. This ritual included recitation of prayers by the Byzantine prelate over the crown, after this event, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the ecclesiastical element in the coronation ceremonial rapidly develop. This was usually performed three times, following this, the king was given a spear, and a diadem wrought of silk or linen was bound around his forehead as a token of regal authority
3.
Zaragoza
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Zaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the Huerva, on 1 September 2010 the population of the city of Zaragoza was 701,090, within its administrative limits on a land area of 1,062.64 square kilometres, ranking fifth in Spain. It is the 32nd most populous municipality in the European Union, the population of the metropolitan area was estimated in 2006 at 783,763 inhabitants. The municipality is home to more than 50 percent of the Aragonese population, the city lies at an elevation of 199 metres above sea level. Zaragoza hosted Expo 2008 in the summer of 2008, a fair on water. It was also a candidate for the European Capital of Culture in 2012, the city is famous for its folklore, local gastronomy, and landmarks such as the Basílica del Pilar, La Seo Cathedral and the Aljafería Palace. Together with La Seo and the Aljafería, several other buildings part of the Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Fiestas del Pilar are among the most celebrated festivals in Spain, the city was called by the ancient Romans Caesaraugusta, from which the present name derives. The Iberian town that predated the Roman city was called Salduie, see also, Caesar Augusta The Sedetani, a tribe of ancient Iberians, populated a village called Salduie. Later on, Augustus founded a city called Caesaraugusta at the location to settle army veterans from the Cantabrian wars. The foundation date of Caesaraugusta has not been set with exact precision, the city did not suffer any decline during the last centuries of the Roman empire and was captured peacefully by the Goths in the fifth century AD. From 1018 to 1118, Zaragoza was one of the taifa kingdoms, during the first three decades of this period, 1018–1038, the city was ruled by the Banu Tujibi. After the death of El Cid his kingdom was overrun by the Almoravids, who, by 1100, had managed to cross the Ebro into Barbastro, the Banu Hud stubbornly resisted the Almoravids and ruled until they were eventually defeated by them in May 1110. On 18 December 1118, the Aragonese led by Alfonso I conquered the city from the Almoravids, after Alfonsos death without heirs in 1134, Zaragoza was swiftly occupied by Alfonso VII of León and Castile. The wedding never happened, as Petronila ended up marrying Ramon Berenguer IV, the marriage union was the origin of the Crown of Aragón. While the reality of the existence of Saint Dominguito del Val is questioned, despite a decline in the outlying rural economy, Zaragoza has continued to grow. The General Military Academy, a training center of the Spanish Army, was re-established on September 27,1940 by Minister of the Army José Enrique Varela Iglesias. During the second half of the 20th century, Zaragozas population boomed as a number of factories opened in the region, in 1979, the Hotel Corona de Aragón fire killed at least 80
4.
Alfonso IV of Aragon
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Alfonso IV, called the Kind was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1327 to his death. He was born in Naples, the son of James II. His reign saw the incorporation of the County of Urgell, Duchy of Athens, during the reign of his father, he was the procurator general of the Crown. He married Teresa dEntença y Cabrera, heiress of Urgell, in 1314 in the Cathedral of Lerida and he is reputed to have been so liberal in the expenses during the wedding, that the local counsels imposed restrictions on how much he could spend. In 1323–1324, he undertook the conquest of Sardinia and he became heir after his older brother James renounced his rights to become a monk. In 1329, he began a war with the Republic of Genoa. The city of Sassari surrendered in 1323, but rebelled three more times and was contested by Genoa, after being widowed in 1327, Alfonso married in February 1329 Eleanor of Castile, who was betrothed to his brother James, who had refused to consummate the marriage. She was the sister of Alfonso XI of Castile, because of some favoritism he showed towards his second wife, the last years of his life, he had to contend with the son of his first marriage, the future Peter IV. By Teresa dEntença, Alfonso Constance, married in 1336 to James III of Majorca, James I, Count of Urgell, also inherited Entença and Antillon. Sancho, lived only a few days, by Eleanor of Castile, Ferdinand, Marquis of Tortosa and Lord of Albarracín and Fraga, married Maria, Marchioness of Tortosa. John, Lord of Elche, Biel and Bolsa, married in 1355 to Isabel Núñez de Lara and was killed by order of his cousin Pedro of Castile, diccionario universal de historia y de geografía, p.152. By Lucas Alamán, Manuel Orozco y Berra Medieval Iberia, an encyclopedia, Ed. E. Michael Gerli, Samuel G. Armistead, a History of Medieval Spain, Cornell University Press,1975
5.
John I of Aragon
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John I, called by posterity the Hunter or the Lover of Elegance, but the Abandoned in his lifetime, was the King of Aragon from 1388 until his death. John was the eldest son of Peter IV and his wife, Eleanor. He was born in Perpignan, capital of the Rousillon, which at time was part of the Principality of Catalonia. He was a man of character, with a taste for verse and he was a Francophile and married Violant of Bar against the wishes of his father, who had wanted him to marry a princess of Sicily. His wife frequently participated in government, since the king was often ill, once on the throne, John abandoned his fathers relatively Anglophile policy and made an alliance with France. He continued Aragons support for the Pope of the Avignon line, Clement VII, John also made an alliance with Castile, and confirmed in 1388 a treaty with Navarre fixing borders between these kingdoms. In 1389-90, the Aragonese battled the troops of the Count of Armagnac, John III, the attack went from Empordà to Girona. The invaders were defeated in 1390 by Aragonese troops commanded by Johns brother Martin, during 1388-90, John gradually lost all lands of the Duchies of Athens and Neopatras in Greece. In 1391, John promulgated legislation on Jews in different cities of the Kingdom of Aragon, also in 1391, his administration faced a revolt in the vassal kingdom of Sicily, where the population had proclaimed Louis II of Naples as king. John was a protector of culture of Barcelona and he established in 1393 the Consistory of Barcelona, imitating the same office in Toulouse. Aragon had been attempting to subjugate Sardinia since the reign of James II, however, in the 1380s, the remaining independent principality Arborea became a fortress of rebellion and the Aragonese were rapidly driven back by Eleanor de Bas-Serra. The Aragonese continued in Johns reign to attempt to suppress rebels in Sardinia, however, during Johns reign, practically the whole of Sardinia was lost. Johns reign was characterized by disastrous financial administration and he died during a hunt in forests near Foixà by a fall from his horse, like his namesake, cousin, and contemporary, John I of Castile. He left no sons, and was succeeded by his younger brother Martin, two daughters, however, survived to adulthood. From his first marriage on 24 June 1373 to Martha of Armagnac, daughter of Count Jean I of Armagnac, James Joanna, together they claimed the throne of Aragon after her fathers death. Matthew of Foix invaded Aragonese territories, but was back by the new King Martin
6.
Perpignan
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Perpignan is a city, a commune, and the capital of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. Perpignan was the capital of the province and County of Roussillon. In 2013 Perpignan had 118,238 inhabitants in the city proper, the metropolitan area had a total population of 305,837 in 2010. Perpignan is located in the center of the Roussillon plain,13 km west of the Mediterranean coast and it is the southern most of the cities of metropolitan France. Perpignan is crossed by the largest river in Roussillon, the Têt, and by one of its tributaries, floods often occur, as in 1892 when the rising of the Têt in Perpignan destroyed 39 houses, leaving more than 60 families homeless. Perpignan experiences a Mediterranean climate similar to much of the Mediterranean coastline of France, roads The motorway A9 connects Perpignan with Barcelona and Montpellier. Trains Perpignan is served by the Gare de Perpignan railway station, which offers connections to Paris, Barcelona, Toulouse, salvador Dalí proclaimed it to be the Center of the Universe after experiencing a vision of cosmogonic ecstasy there in 1963. Airport The nearest airport is Perpignan–Rivesaltes Airport, attested forms The name of Perpignan appears in 927 as Perpinianum, followed in 959 by Villa Perpiniano, Pirpinianum in the 11th century, Perpiniani in 1176. Perpenyà, which appears in the 13th century, is the most common form until the 15th century, though settlement in the area goes back to Roman times, the medieval town of Perpignan seems to have been founded around the beginning of the 10th century. Soon Perpignan became the capital of the counts of Roussillon, historically, it was part of the region known as Septimania. In 1172 Count Girard II bequeathed his lands to the Counts of Barcelona, Perpignan acquired the institutions of a partly self-governing commune in 1197. French feudal rights over Roussillon were given up by Louis IX in the Treaty of Corbeil, when James I the Conqueror, king of Aragon and count of Barcelona, founded the Kingdom of Majorca in 1276, Perpignan became the capital of the mainland territories of the new state. The succeeding decades are considered the age in the history of the city. It prospered as a centre of manufacture, leather work, goldsmiths work. King Philippe III of France died there in 1285, as he was returning from his crusade against the Aragonese Crown. In 1344 Peter IV of Aragon annexed the Kingdom of Majorca, a few years later it lost approximately half of its population to the Black Death. Perpignan is one of the houses of Lancaster Girls Grammar School, the festival has a broad mainstream focus with pop-related music as well as traditional acoustic guitar music and alternative music. The festival has attracted international guests like Caetano Veloso, Rumberos Catalans, Pedro Soler, Bernardo Sandoval, Peter Finger, in 2008, Perpignan became Capital of Catalan Culture
7.
Barcelona
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Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. Barcelona has a cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre. Particularly renowned are the works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona, the city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and also many international sport tournaments. It is a cultural and economic centre in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world. In 2008 it was the fourth most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union, in 2012 Barcelona had a GDP of $170 billion, it is leading Spain in both employment rate and GDP per capita change. In 2009 the city was ranked Europes third and one of the worlds most successful as a city brand, since 2011 Barcelona has been a leading smart city in Europe. During the Middle Ages, the city was known as Barchinona, Barçalona, Barchelonaa. Internationally, Barcelonas name is abbreviated to Barça. However, this refers only to FC Barcelona, the football club. The common abbreviated form used by locals is Barna, another common abbreviation is BCN, which is also the IATA airport code of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport. The city is referred to as the Ciutat Comtal in Catalan. The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear, the ruins of an early settlement have been excavated in the El Raval neighbourhood, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends, the first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum centred on the Mons Taber, under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens, the city minted its own coins, some from the era of Galba survive. Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, also known as the Basilica La Seu, is said to have founded in 343
8.
Maria of Navarre
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Maria of Navarre was queen consort of the Crown of Aragon from 1338 until her death as the first of four wives of Peter IV of Aragon. Maria was the child of Joan II of Navarre and Philip III of Navarre. Her parents, having established the House of Évreux as the new ruling dynasty in the Kingdom of Navarre, in 1333 they negotiated a betrothal between Marias elder sister, Joan, and Peter, then heir apparent to the throne of Aragon. Peter, who ascended the throne in January 1336, expressed a preference for the daughter, however. The marriage contract was signed in her fathers castle on Anet on 6 January 1336 and it stipulated that, if her mother died leaving no sons, Maria or her children would inherit the crown of Navarre. The wedding ceremony took place near Zaragoza on 25 July 1337, despite difficulties over the payment of her dowry, the relations of Marias husband with her parents were excellent. As dower Maria received from Peter the towns of Jaca, Tarragona, in 1338 the new queen made her joyous entry into Barcelona, capital of the Crown of Aragon. Queen Maria was pious and a wife, probably having little in common with her husband. Their first child, Constance, was born in 1343, followed by Joanna in 1344, the lack of a male heir for nine years of the marriage presented a problem. In 1347 Peter attempted to secure the succession for their eldest daughter, but was opposed by his brother James I, Count of Urgell, on 23 April in Valencia Queen Maria gave birth to a son, christened Peter, but the infant died the next day. Maria died of complications on 29 April. In her will she left her rights to Navarre to her son and then to her daughters and she was interred instead in the Monastery of Saint Vincent in Valencia. Her widower remarried within a few months, the queens of Aragon, their lives and times. Mariage et pouvoir, réflexion sur le rôle de lalliance dans les relations entre les Evreux-Navarre et les Valois au XIV siècle, the Queen and her consort, succession, politics and partnership in the Kingdom of Navarre, 1274–1512. The Queens Regnant of Navarre, Succession, Politics, and Partnership, 1274–1512
9.
Eleanor of Portugal, Queen of Aragon
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Eleanor of Portugal, was a Portuguese infanta and queen consort of Aragon from 1347 to 1348. Little is known about her childhood, in the same year as the death of the kings first wife, Maria of Navarre. Eleanor was the first and only queen of Aragon who was born in Portugal and she died a year after her wedding on 30 October 1348 on her way to Jérica after having succumbed to the Black Death when she was in Teruel. Almeida Rodrigues, Ana Maria de Seabra, un destin interrompu, Aliénor de Portugal, brève reine dAragón. Dezassete mulheres, duas dinastias, quatro séculos de História
10.
Eleanor of Sicily
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Eleanor of Sicily was Queen of Aragon from 1349 until 1375 as the third wife of King Peter IV. Eleanor was the daughter of Peter II of Sicily and Elisabeth of Carinthia. She was the second of eight children, six of whom survived to adulthood, Eleanor married in Valencia on 27 August 1349 to Peter IV of Aragon, on the condition that he renounce all rights to any Sicilian Crown. He was twice-widowed, had two surviving daughters, Constance and Joanna but no surviving sons, Eleanor became a powerful influence at the Aragonese court, replacing Bernardo de Cabrera as Peters chief adviser. Eleanors brother Frederick III the Simple, married Constance of Aragon, Frederick and Constance had a daughter, Maria, but no sons. Then in 1357 Frederick proposed to transfer the duchies of Athens and Neopatria to Eleanor in return for help from her husband in Sicily. Alfonso, died young In 1373 Eleanors eldest son John married Martha of Armagnac, Eleanor treated Martha as her own daughter. Upon a royal stay at her home in Empordà, Eleanor made Sibila of Fortia her lady-in-waiting and this led to an eventful future for the girl. In Lérida on 20 April 1375, Eleanor died leaving her husband a widower and her three surviving children and her husband remarried to Sibila, a girl that was over thirty years his junior. Most of the family, including Eleanors children, came into conflict with Sibila
11.
Sibila of Fortia
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Sibila of Fortià, Queen of Aragon, was daughter of Berenguer de Fortià and his wife Francesca of Palau. Sibila belonged to the lineage of Fortià, the nobility, with possessions in the rural Empordà. She was the wife of Peter IV of Aragon. Sibila was said to be a beauty in her early adulthood. She married her first husband, Artal de Foces on an unknown date, upon her widowhood, Sibila became a lady in waiting to Peters third queen, Eleanor of Sicily, during the royal couples stay in Sibilas home of Empordà. Eleanor died in 1375, she had left Peter two surviving sons and one daughter, Sibila attracted the attention of the king, soon after Eleanors death. Sibila was in her twenties and Peter was fifty six, the kings sons, Martin of Aragon and John of Aragon soon found out what was happening. They were opposed the idea of their father marrying Sibila, the marriage could cause problems that could imperil their rights in the line of succession. Indeed, the announcement of the marriage of the lead to some tense relations between the king and his sons. On 11 October 1377, in Barcelona, Sibila married Peter IV of Aragon and she was the fourth wife of Peter, his previous wives were, Maria of Navarre, Eleanor of Portugal and Eleanor of Sicily. Its believed that before the marriage, Sibila gave birth to a son, Alfonso, the childs birth has been doubted and some do not believe in the childs existence, the only evidence of his existence is in the Chronicle of Peter IV of Aragon. The couple had three children, Alfonso of Aragon, Count of Morella, Isabella of Aragon, married James II of Urgell and was mother of Isabella of Aragon, Countess of Urgell. Through Isabella, Peter and Sibila are ancestors to Joana, Princess of Portugal, Sibilas family were invited to court, the king became friends with Sibilas brother, Bernard. Peter, Sibila and her family made up one half of the court, Peter died in 1387 and so John and Violant became King and Queen of Aragon. For her own safety, Sibila fled to Sant Martí Sarroca, her stepdaughter, however, Sibila did not live there for long, she was forced to go back to Aragon, on the command of John and Violant. They however did not execute Sibila, she was sent to live in Barcelona and she was however treated better in Barcelona than at the royal court. John died in 1396, and Martin succeeded him, Sibila died in Barcelona on 24 November 1406. By order of King Martin she had a state funeral and she was buried in the convent of San Francisco in Barcelona, traditional burial place of kings and queens of Aragon
12.
Peter IV of Aragon
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Peter IV, called the Ceremonious, was from 1336 until his death the King of Aragon and also King of Sardinia and Corsica, King of Valencia, and Count of Barcelona. In 1344, he deposed James III of Majorca and made himself King of Majorca and his wars in Greece made him Duke of Athens and Neopatria in 1381. Peter was born at Balaguer, the eldest son and heir of Alfons IV, then Count of Urgell, Peter was designated to inherit all of his fathers title save that of Urgell, which went to his younger brother James. Upon succeeding his father he called a corts in Zaragoza for his coronation and he crowned himself, disappointing the Archbishop of Zaragoza and thus rejecting the surrender Peter II had made to the Papacy, in an otherwise traditional ceremony. According to his own reports, this act caused him some distress. He did, however, affirm the liberties and privileges of Aragon, after the festivities in Zaragoza, Peter began on his way to Valencia to receive coronation there. On route he stopped at Lleida to affirm the Usatges and Constitutions of Catalonia and this offended Barcelona, at which the ceremony had usually been performed, and the citizens of that city complained to the king, who claimed that Lleida was on his way to Valencia. While in Valencia he decided on the case of his stepmothers inheritance, depriving her of income and outlawing her Castilian protector, Peter Ponce of León, Peter was largely forced to capitulate by a new invasion from Morocco aimed at Castile and Valencia. In 1338 he married Maria, second daughter of Philip III, in May 1339 he allied with Alfonso XI of Castile against Morocco, but his contribution of a fleet had no effect at the pivotal Battle of the Saulty River. Early on in his reign, a thorn in Peters side had been James III of Majorca, his brother-in-law, James had twice postponed performing the ceremony of homage to Peter, his feudal overlord, and when he finally performed it in 1339 it was on his terms. The rising economic star of Majorca, whose merchants were establishing independent markets and gaining trading privileges in the western Mediterranean, threatened the supremacy of Barcelona. Peters outrage, however, was no outlet until 1341. Peter then opened a process against James, with the intent of dispossessing him of his kingdom. He alleged that the circulation of James coinage in the Counties of Roussillon and this was open to question, considering the ancient customs of Roussillon and Cerdagne, but Peter was prepared to move forward anyway. The interference of Pope Clement VI, however, granted James a hearing in Barcelona in front of papal delegates, Peter, for his part, spread rumours that James was seeking to capture him. James, fearing that Peter would stoop to invading Majorca and seizing it by force, in February 1343 Peter declared James a contumacious vassal and his kingdom and lands forfeit. The legal process being terminated, Peter went to war, on the advice that the islanders were burdened by taxes, in May a fleet which had been blockading Algeciras landed at Majorca and quickly defeated James army at the Battle of Santa Ponça. Peter received the submission of all the Balearics and confirmed the privileges of the islands as they had been under James I, though James sued for peace and Pope Clement attempted to mediate it, Peter returned to Barcelona prepared to invade Roussillon and Cerdagne
13.
Martin of Aragon
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Martin the Humane, also called the Elder and the Ecclesiastic, was King of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia and Corsica and Count of Barcelona from 1396 and King of Sicily from 1409. He failed to secure the accession of his grandson, Frederic, Count of Luna. Martin was born in 1356, in either Girona or Perpignan and he was the second son of King Peter IV of Aragon and Eleanor of Sicily, princess of the Sicilian branch of the House of Aragon. As a cadet prince of the Aragonese royal family, Martin was given the Duchy of Montblanch. In 1380 his father appointed him lord and regent of the island of Sicily, then also as Trinacria, since its queen Maria of Sicily. As a son of Eleanor of Sicily, Martin was himself an heir to the island, in 1396, Martin succeeded his elder brother John I, who had died sonless, on the throne of Aragon. However, Sicilian nobles were causing unrest and so Martin was kept in Sicily, meanwhile, Martins wife, María López de Luna, claimed the throne on his behalf of and acted as his representative until he arrived in 1397. Still, the delay opened the way for more problems and quarrels to surface in Aragon and his right to the throne was contested, first by Count Matthew of Foix on behalf of his wife Joanna, elder daughter of John I. However, Martin succeeded in quashing an invasion by troops of the count, after the death of the childless Joanna, John Is younger daughter Yolande of Aragon, who had married the Angevin King Louis II of Naples, continued the claim, as did her sons. Martin launched crusades against the Moors in North Africa in 1398 and 1399, Aragon had been trying to subjugate Sardinia since the reign of James II, and gradually the Aragonese had conquered most of the island. King Martin sent his son Martin the Younger, by king of Sicily through his marriage to Queen Maria. The son won the Battle of Sanluri in 1409, drove away the Genoese allies of the Sardinians and this soon caused Arboreas total loss of independence. Soon after the battle, however, Martin the Younger died suddenly, Martin of Aragon then succeeded his son as King of Sicily, taking the title of Martin II. Overall, the Kingdom of Aragon enjoyed external peace during Martins reign and he worked to quell internal strife caused by nobles, factions and he supported the Avignon line of Popes and Pope Benedict XIII, who was Aragonese, held the seat throughout Martins reign. Martins military intervention rescued the imprisoned Benedict in 1403 from the clutches of his rivals, Martin had four legitimate children by Queen Maria, Martin the Younger, James, John, and Margaret. Martin still married secondly on 17 September 1409 to his cousin Margaret of Prades, daughter of Peter of Aragon, Baron of Entenza, Martin died, in the monastery of Valldonzella, extramuros of Barcelona the 31st May 1410. While the reason unclear, it is supposed that either plague, uremic coma or the possibility of having been poisoned. The story of the kings associated with laughter has no historical evidence in any form whatsoever
14.
Joanna of Aragon, Countess of Ampurias
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Joanna of Aragon was the second child of Peter IV of Aragon and his first wife Maria of Navarre. She was an Infanta of Aragon by birth and Countess of Ampurias by her marriage and she was a member of the House of Aragon. On the 19 June 1373, Joanna married John I, Count of Ampurias and this was his second marriage after the death of his first wife Blanche of Sicily. Joanna was twenty-nine at the time of the marriage, she was considered an older bride, many members of her family showed dislike to her fathers fourth wife Queen Sibila, due to her low ranking birth and her familys interference at court. Joannas husband John came into conflict with Sibila, and then rebelled against Joannas father, the marriage of Peter and Sibila also led to a strain between himself and his three surviving children, Joanna, John and Martin. Joanna and John were married for years, in this time they had two sons, John, succeeded his father as Count of Ampurias Peter, succeeded his brother, however only reigned for a year. Joanna died aged forty or forty-one in 1385 and her husband died thirteen years later in 1398. She is buried at Poblet Monastery
15.
Eleanor of Aragon, Queen of Castile
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Eleanor of Aragon was a daughter of King Peter IV of Aragon and his wife Eleanor of Sicily. She was a member of the House of Aragon and Queen of Castile by her marriage, Eleanor was the youngest child and only daughter of her father by his third marriage. Eleanor was a sister of John I of Aragon and Martin of Aragon and she was a half-sister of Constance, Queen of Sicily, Joanna, Countess of Ampurias and Isabella, Countess of Urgell. On the death of Eleanors mother in 1375, her father married Sibila of Fortia and this caused disagreements between King Peter and his children especially John. Eleanors maternal grandparents were Peter II of Sicily and his wife Elisabeth of Carinthia, granddaughter of Henry V, Duke of Legnica, Eleanors paternal grandparents were Alfonso IV of Aragon and his first wife Teresa dEntença. At Soria on the 18 June 1375, Eleanor married John I of Castile and her marriage was arranged as part of the arrangements for peace between Aragon and Castile agreed at Almazán on the 12 April 1374 and at Lérida on the 10 May 1375. Eleanor and John were married for seven years, in time they had three children, Henry, succeeded his father as King of Castile. Ferdinand, became King of Aragon in 1412, Eleanor, died young After seven years of marriage on 13 August 1382, Eleanor died giving birth to her daughter and namesake Eleanor, who died young. Eleanors son Ferdinand later claimed his mothers rights on the Kingdom of Aragon when both of Eleanors brothers died without surviving sons
16.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
17.
Roman Catholicism
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The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church or the Universal Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.28 billion members worldwide. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history, headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, the churchs doctrines are summarised in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. Its central administration is located in Vatican City, enclaved within Rome, the Catholic Church is notable within Western Christianity for its sacred tradition and seven sacraments. It teaches that it is the one church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christs apostles. The Catholic Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals that it declares as definitive is infallible. The Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as such as mendicant orders and enclosed monastic orders. Among the sacraments, the one is the Eucharist, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest the sacrificial bread and wine become the body, the Catholic Church practises closed communion, with only baptised members in a state of grace ordinarily permitted to receive the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Queen of Heaven and is honoured in numerous Marian devotions. The Catholic Church has influenced Western philosophy, science, art and culture, Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world, from the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticised for its doctrines on sexuality, its refusal to ordain women and its handling of sexual abuse cases. Catholic was first used to describe the church in the early 2nd century, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in the letter from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans, written about 110 AD. In the Catechetical Discourses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the name Catholic Church was used to distinguish it from other groups that call themselves the church. The use of the adjective Roman to describe the Church as governed especially by the Bishop of Rome became more widespread after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages. Catholic Church is the name used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity, led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within the church. Ultimately leading the entire Catholic Church is the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the pope, in parallel to the diocesan structure are a variety of religious institutes that function autonomously, often subject only to the authority of the pope, though sometimes subject to the local bishop. Most religious institutes only have male or female members but some have both, additionally, lay members aid many liturgical functions during worship services
18.
Ducat
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The ducat /ˈdʌkət/ was a gold or silver coin used as a trade coin in Europe from the later medieval centuries until as late as the 20th century. Many types of ducats had various metallic content and purchasing power throughout the period, the gold ducat of Venice gained wide international acceptance, like the medieval Byzantine hyperpyron and the Florentine florin, or the modern British pound sterling and the United States dollar. The word ducat is from Medieval Latin ducatus = relating to a duke, Doge Enrico Dandolo of Venice, whose title means duke, introduced a silver ducat whose types are related to the ducats of Roger II. Later gold ducats of Venice, however, became so important that the name ducat was associated exclusively with them, the Venetian business model of the 13th century was importing goods from the East and selling them at a profit north of the Alps. They paid for goods with Byzantine gold coins but when the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos backed a rebellion called the Sicilian Vespers in 1282. This was just one more in a series of debasements of the hyperpyron, both Florence and Genoa had introduced gold coins in 1252 and the florin of Florence had become the standard European gold coin. Venice modeled the size and weight of their ducat on the florin, the Venetian ducat contained 3.545 grams of 99. 47% fine gold, the highest purity medieval metallurgy could produce. Gold ducat types derive from silver ducat types, which were ultimately Byzantine, the obverse shows the Doge of Venice kneeling before St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice. Saint Mark holds the gospel, which is his usual attribute, the legend on the left identifies the saint as S M VENET, i. e. Saint Mark of Venice, and the legend on the right identifies the doge, with his title DVX in the field. On the reverse, Christ stands among a field of stars in an oval frame, the reverse legend is the same as on Roger II’s ducats. Succeeding doges of Venice continued striking ducats, changing only their name on the obverse, during the 15th century, the value of the ducat in terms of silver money was stable at 124 Venetian soldi, i. e. schillings. The term ducat became identified with this amount of money as well as the gold coin. Conflict between England and Spain in 1567, however, increased the price of gold and upset this equivalence, at this point, the coin was called the ducato de zecca, i. e. ducat of the mint, which was shortened to zecchino and corrupted to sequin. Leonardo Loredan extended the coinage with a half ducat and subsequent doges added a quarter, all of these coins continued to use the designs and weight standards of the original 1284 ducat. Even after dates became a feature of western coinage, Venice struck ducats without them until Napoleon ended the Venetian Republic in 1797. Instead, the Roman coin showed a senator kneeling before St. Peter on the obverse, the Popes subsequently changed these designs, but continued to strike ducats of the same weight and size into the 16th century. Most imitations of the Venetian ducat were made in the Levant, the Knights of Saint John struck ducats with grand master Dieudonné de Gozon, 1346-1353, kneeling before Saint John on the obverse and an angel seated on the Sepulcher of Christ on the reverse. Subsequent Grand masters, however, found it expedient to copy the Venetian types more exactly, first at Rhodes and they struck ducats at Chios that could be distinguished from the Venetian originals only by their workmanship
19.
King of Sardinia
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The following is a list of rulers of Sardinia, in particular, of the monarchs of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica from 1323 and then of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1479 to 1861. Owing to the absence of sources, little is known of the history of the Nuraghic civilization which constructed impressive megalithic structures between the 18th and the 12th centuries BCE. Greek colonization of the city of Olbia has been confirmed by recent archaeological excavations, Godas 533–535 According to Procopius, Godas was a Vandal governor of Sardinia who rebelled against his king, Gelimer, who ruled northern Africa and Sardinia. Procopius wrote that Godas behaved like a king, but it was a short-lived kingdom, Godas was defeated and killed after two years by an expedition from Carthage led by King Gelimers brother, Tzazo. Shortly afterwards, Roman troops sent by Emperor Justinianus and led by General Belisarius, totally annihilated the Vandal kingdom, before the Kingdom of Sardinia was founded, the rulers of the island were known as archons or judges. The island was organized into one judicatus from the 9th century, after the Muslim conquest of Sicily in the 9th century, the Byzantines could no longer defend their isolated far western province. In all likelihood a local noble family came to power, still identifying themselves as vassals of the Byzantines, of those rulers, only two names are known, Salusios and the protospatharios Turcoturios, who probably reigned some time in the 10th and 11th centuries. They were still linked to the Byzantines, both by a pact of ancient vassalage and from culturally, with the use of the Greek language. In the early 11th century, Muslims based in Spain attempted to conquer the island, the only records of that war are from Pisan and Genoese chronicles. The Christians won but afterwards the previous Sardinian kingdom had been undermined and was divided into four small judicati, Cagliari, Arborea, Gallura, List of judges of Arborea, c. 1070–1410 List of judges of Cagliari, c, 1060–1258 List of judges of Gallura, c. 1070–1288 List of judges of Logudoro, c, in 1249, he was captured by his enemies and imprisoned in Bologna, where he died 26 years later. None of these rulers had authority over the whole island. In 1269, a faction in Logudoro elected Philip of Sicily as king of all Sardinia. James II of Aragon received royal investiture from Pope Boniface VIII in 1297 as Rex Sardiniae et Corsicae, the Aragonese did not take possession of the island until 1323, after a victorious military campaign against the Pisans. However, the Sardinian royal title did not have a line of succession. Between 1410 and 1412 there was an interregnum, Sardinia was taken over by Habsburg troops in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession in the name of the Habsburg claimant to the Spanish throne, Charles III. At the end of the war, Sardinia remained in Charles possession and, Spanish forces invaded the kingdom in 1717 during the War of the Quadruple Alliance
20.
King of Valencia
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For the majority of the Middle Ages, Valencia was a constituent part of larger polities. From the time of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Valencia was controlled by the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus and the Emirate/Caliphate of Cordoba. Following the latters collapse, Valencia became the seat of a Taifa state ruled by a succession of local dynasties from 1010 until it was conquered by Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid, in 1095. He ruled until his death, when his widow swore fealty to Castile, a third time, in 1229, Valencia saw almost a decade of local rule before being conquered by Aragon in 1237. Valencia was reorganized into an administrative Kingdom of Valencia within the Crown of Aragon and this arrangement continued until the formal creation of the Crown of Spain and abolition of the previous administrative kingdoms by the Nueva Planta Decrees in 1714. 1410-1412, between the death of Martin the Elder and the Compromise of Caspe, dynastic union of Aragon with Castile. After this time, there are no more Aragonese monarchs, list of Spanish monarchs Kings of Spain family tree
21.
Count of Barcelona
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The Count of Barcelona was the ruler of Catalonia for much of Catalan history, from the 9th until the 15th century. The County of Barcelona was created by Charlemagne after he had conquered lands north of the river Ebro, as the county became hereditary in one family, the bond of the counts to their Frankish overlords loosened, especially after the Capetian dynasty supplanted the Carolingians. In the 12th century the Counts formed a union with the Kingdom of Aragon. In 1258, the king of France relinquished his authority over the County in the Treaty of Corbeil. Catalonia maintained its own laws, institutions, taxes and privileges until they were removed after the War of the Spanish Succession in the 18th century, Count of Barcelona remained one of the many hereditary titles of the Spanish monarchy. In the 20th century, the title regained some prominence when Juan de Borbón, in 1977, after Juan Carlos had become King upon Francos death in 1975, he officially awarded the title of Count of Barcelona to his father, who had renounced his rights to the throne. Juan held that title until his death in 1993, when it reverted to the King who has held it ever since, Juan de Borbóns widow used the title Countess of Barcelona until her death in 2000. The succession of Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronilla led to the creation of the Crown of Aragon, martin was the last direct descendant of Wilfred the Hairy to rule, died without legitimate heirs. By the Compromise of Caspe of 1412 the County of Barcelona, in Barcelona this was promulgated in 1716, and the title of Count of Barcelona became one of the many unused hereditary titles of the modern Spanish monarchy. List of Aragonese monarchs List of Spanish monarchs List of Viscounts of Barcelona
22.
Principality of Catalonia
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At the time, Catalonia did not yet exist as a political entity, though the use of this term seems to acknowledge Catalonia as a cultural or geographical entity. The counties that would make up the Principality of Catalonia were gradually unified under the rule of the Count of Barcelona. Under Alfons the Troubador, Catalonia was regarded as an entity for the first time. Still, the term Principality of Catalonia was not used legally until the 14th century, the term Principality of Catalonia remained in use until the Second Spanish Republic, when its use declined because of its historical relation to the monarchy. Today, the term is used primarily by Catalan nationalists and independentists to refer collectively to the French, like much of the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, it was colonized by Ancient Greeks, which chose Roses to settle in. Both Greeks and Carthaginians interacted with the main Iberian population, after the Carthaginian defeat, it became, along with the rest of Hispania, a part of the Roman Empire, Tarraco being one of the main Roman posts in the Iberian Peninsula. The Visigoths ruled after the Western Roman Empires collapse near the end of the 5th century, moorish Al-Andalus gained control in the early 8th century, after conquering the Visigothic kingdom in 711-718. A distinctive Catalan culture started to develop in the Middle Ages stemming from a number of petty kingdoms organized as small counties throughout the northernmost part of Catalonia. The counts of Barcelona were Frankish vassals nominated by the Carolingian emperor then the king of the Franks, in 987 the count of Barcelona did not recognise Frankish king Hugh Capet and his new dynasty which put it effectively out of the Frankish rule. At the start of eleventh century the Catalan Counties suffer an important process of feudalisation, on the other side, the king of France, heir of the Carolingian Empire formally renounced his nominal feudal lordship over all the Catalan counties. This treaty turned the de facto independence of the Catalan counties into a de jure. At the same time, the Principality of Catalonia developed an institutional and political system based in the concept of pact between the estates of the realm and the king. The laws had to be approved in the General Court of Catalonia, the first Catalan constitutions are of the ones from the Catalan Courts of Barcelona from 1283. The last ones were promulgated by the Courts of 1705-1706, presided by the king Charles III, the compilations of the Constitutions and other rights of Catalonia followed the Roman tradition of the Codex. This constitutions developed a compilation of rights for the whole citizens of the Principality. The General Court of Catalonia, dating from the 11th century, is one of the first parliaments in continental Europe, the Courts were composed by the three estates of the realm and were presided by the king of Aragon. The current Parliament of Catalonia is considered the symbolic and historic successor of this institution, the domains of the Aragonese Crown were severely affected by the Black Death pandemic and by later outbreaks of the plague. Between 1347 and 1497 Catalonia lost 37 percent of its population, in 1410, King Martin I died without surviving descendants
23.
James III of Majorca
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James III, called the Rash or the Unfortunate, was King of Majorca from 1324 to 1344. He was the last ruler of independent Majorca, James was born at Catania, Sicily. His parents were Ferdinand, the son of James II of Majorca. Margaret of Villehardouin, Jamess maternal grandmother, fought to reclaim the Principality of Achaea from the Angevins of Naples, Isabella died soon after the childbirth, and James was proclaimed Prince of Achaea under the guardianship of his father. Ferdinand invaded the Morea in an effort to bring the principality under his control, upon the death of his uncle Sancho in 1324, James inherited the crown of Majorca. His uncle Philip ruled the kingdom as regent until 1329, in order to establish friendly relations with the Crown of Aragon, he married Constance, daughter of Alfonso IV of Aragon. Though the kings of Majorca traditionally swore an oath of fealty to the kings of Aragon and he patronised the University of Montpellier, which lay within his continental domains, and the legal scholars of that institution defended his rights as king. On 9 May 1337 James promulgated the Leges palatinae, a code for his court. For it he commissioned an illuminated manuscript in an Italian style. He brought it to the Papal curia, then sold it to Philip VI of France and it was to have an important influence on Aragonese and possibly even Burgundian court functions. In 1342 James refused to render the oath of fealty to his cousin Peter IV of Aragon and he was supported, however, by the doctors of the University of Montpellier and by an Aragonese troubadour, Thomàs Périz de Fozes, who wrote a poem in his defence. In a short war he was out of Majorca by Peter. He died at the Battle of Llucmajor on 25 October 1349 while trying to retake the island and his heir was his son, James IV, who ruled in Achaea and was a claimant to Majorca. James IV died childless and James IIIs daughter, Isabella, inherited the familys claims, married to John II Palaiologos, marquess de Montferrat. By his second wife, Violante of Vilaragut, whom he married in 1347, he had a short-lived daughter
24.
King of Majorca
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The Kingdom of Majorca was created by James I of Aragon following his conquest in 1229 and the subsequent surrender of sovereignty by the Muslim rulers in of the Balearic Islands in 1231. It was ruled in conjunction with the Crown of Aragon until his death when by will it passed to a son, James. He was removed by his nephew Alfonso III of Aragon, who conquered the island of Minorca in 1287, by the Treaty of Anagni of 1295, however, these island territories were yielded back to James. In 1344, the kingdom was again united with the Crown of Aragon, peter IV of Aragon annexed the kingdom in 1344 and the title was part of the Crown of Aragon, though disputed by pretenders. Isabels descendants did not continue the pretension, list of Spanish monarchs Kings of Spain family tree Kingdom of Majorca
25.
Sardinia
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Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and an autonomous region of Italy. It is located in the Western Mediterranean, just south of the French island of Corsica, the regions official name is Regione Autonoma della Sardegna / Regione Autònoma de Sardigna, and its capital and largest city is Cagliari. It is divided into four provinces and a metropolitan city and its indigenous language and the other minority languages spoken by the Sardinians enjoy equal dignity with Italian under regional law. The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *srd-, later romanised as sardus and it makes its first appearance on the Nora Stone, where the word Šrdn testifies to the names existence when the Phoenician merchants first arrived. According to Timaeus, one of Platos dialogues, Sardinia and its people as well might have named after Sardò. There has also been speculation that identifies the ancient Nuragic Sards with the Sherden, in Classical antiquity, Sardinia was called Ichnusa, Σανδάλιον Sandal, Sardinia and Sardó. Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 24,100 square kilometres and it is situated between 38°51 and 41°18 latitude north and 8°8 and 9°50 east longitude. To the west of Sardinia is the Sea of Sardinia, a unit of the Mediterranean Sea, to Sardinias east is the Tyrrhenian Sea, the nearest land masses are the island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia, the Balearic Islands, and Provence. The Tyrrhenian Sea portion of the Mediterranean Sea is directly to the east of Sardinia between the Sardinian east coast and the west coast of the Italian mainland peninsula, the Strait of Bonifacio is directly north of Sardinia and separates Sardinia from the French island of Corsica. The island has an ancient geoformation and, unlike Sicily and mainland Italy, is not earthquake-prone and its rocks date in fact from the Palaeozoic Era. Due to long erosion processes, the highlands, formed of granite, schist, trachyte, basalt, sandstone and dolomite limestone. The highest peak is Punta La Marmora, part of the Gennargentu Ranges in the centre of the island. The islands ranges and plateaux are separated by wide valleys and flatlands. Sardinia has few rivers, the largest being the Tirso,151 km long, which flows into the Sea of Sardinia, the Coghinas. There are 54 artificial lakes and dams that supply water and electricity, the main ones are Lake Omodeo and Lake Coghinas. The only natural lake is Lago di Baratz. A number of large, shallow, salt-water lagoons and pools are located along the 1,850 km of the coastline, the climate of the island is variable from area to area, due to several factors including the extension in latitude and the elevation. During the year there is a concentration of rainfall in the winter and autumn, some heavy showers in the spring
26.
Sicily
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Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous Region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands, Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, the island has a typical Mediterranean climate. The earliest archaeological evidence of activity on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC. It became part of Italy in 1860 following the Expedition of the Thousand, a revolt led by Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Italian unification, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region after the Italian constitutional referendum of 1946. Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine. It is also home to important archaeological and ancient sites, such as the Necropolis of Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples, Sicily has a roughly triangular shape, earning it the name Trinacria. To the east, it is separated from the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina, about 3 km wide in the north, and about 16 km wide in the southern part. The northern and southern coasts are each about 280 km long measured as a line, while the eastern coast measures around 180 km. The total area of the island is 25,711 km2, the terrain of inland Sicily is mostly hilly and is intensively cultivated wherever possible. Along the northern coast, the ranges of Madonie,2,000 m, Nebrodi,1,800 m. The cone of Mount Etna dominates the eastern coast, in the southeast lie the lower Hyblaean Mountains,1,000 m. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta districts were part of a leading sulphur-producing area throughout the 19th century, Sicily and its surrounding small islands have some highly active volcanoes. Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and still casts black ash over the island with its ever-present eruptions and it currently stands 3,329 metres high, though this varies with summit eruptions, the mountain is 21 m lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps, Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under the mountain by Zeus, Mount Etna is widely regarded as a cultural symbol and icon of Sicily. The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the northeast of mainland Sicily form a volcanic complex, the three volcanoes of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari are also currently active, although the latter is usually dormant
27.
Southern Italy
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It generally coincides with the administrative regions of Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, Molise, Sicily, and Sardinia. Some also include the most southern and eastern parts of Lazio within the Mezzogiorno, Southern Italy carries a unique legacy of culture. It features many major tourist attractions, such as the Palace of Caserta, there are also many ancient Greek cities in Southern Italy, such as Sybaris, which were founded several centuries before the start of the Roman Republic. These same subdivisions are at the bottom of the Italian First level NUTS of the European Union, the term Mezzogiorno first came into use in the 18th century and is an Italian rendition of meridies. The term was popularised by Giuseppe Garibaldi and it eventually came into vogue after the Italian unification. In a similar manner, Southern France is colloquially known as le Midi, Southern Italy forms the lower part of the Italian boot, containing the ankle, the toe, the arch, and the heel, along with the island of Sicily. Separating the heel and the boot is the Gulf of Taranto, named after the city of Taranto and it is an arm of the Ionian Sea. The island of Sardinia, right below the French island of Corsica, on the eastern coast is the Adriatic Sea, leading into the rest of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Otranto. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast, off the tip of the peninsula is the isle of Capri. The climate is mainly Mediterranean, except at the highest elevations and the eastern stretches in Apulia, along the Ionian Sea in Calabria. The largest city of Southern Italy is Naples, a name from the Greek that it has maintained for millennia. Bari, Taranto, Reggio Calabria, Foggia, and Salerno are the next largest cities in the area. The region is very active and highly seismic, the 1980 Irpinia earthquake killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000. Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and they included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of Italy, Magna Graecia, the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria—Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With this colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites, an original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Latin civilisations. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis, Syracuse, Acragas, other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum, Epizephyrian Locri, Rhegium, Croton, Thurii, Elea, Nola, Syessa, Bari, and others. After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BCE, from then to the Norman conquest of the 11th century, the south of the peninsula was constantly plunged into wars between Greece, Lombardy, and the Islamic Caliphate
28.
Latin Empire
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It was established after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and lasted until 1261. Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, was crowned the first Latin emperor as Baldwin I on 16 May 1204, the last Latin emperor, Baldwin II, went into exile, but the imperial title survived, with several pretenders to it, until the 14th century. The original name of state in the Latin language was Imperium Romaniae. This name was used based on the fact that the name for the Eastern Roman Empire in this period had been Romania. The names Byzantine and Latin were not contemporaneous terms, the term Latin has been used because the crusaders were Roman Catholic and used Latin as their liturgical and scholarly language. It is used in contrast to the Eastern Orthodox locals who used Greek in both liturgy and common speech, after the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade, the crusaders agreed to divide up Byzantine territory. In the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae, signed on 1 October 1204, none of these polities actually controlled the city of Rome, which remained under the temporal authority of the Pope. The initial campaigns of the crusaders in Asia Minor resulted in the capture of most of Bithynia by 1205, with the defeat of the forces of Theodore I Laskaris at Poemanenum and Prusa. Latin successes continued, and in 1207 a truce was signed with Theodore, the Latins inflicted a further defeat on Nicaean forces at the Rhyndakos river in October 1211, and three years later the Treaty of Nymphaeum recognized their control of most of Bithynia and Mysia. The peace was maintained until 1222, when the resurgent power of Nicaea felt sufficiently strong to challenge the Latin Empire, Nicaea turned also to the Aegean, capturing the islands awarded to the empire. In 1235, finally, the last Latin possessions fell to Nicaea, unlike in Asia, where the Latin Empire faced only an initially weak Nicaea, in Europe it was immediately confronted with a powerful enemy, the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan. When Baldwin campaigned against the Byzantine lords of Thrace, they called upon Kaloyan for help, at the Battle of Adrianople on 14 April 1205, the Latin heavy cavalry and knights were crushed by Kaloyans troops and Cuman allies, and Emperor Baldwin was captured. He was imprisoned in the Bulgarian capital Tarnovo until his later in 1205. At the same time, another Greek successor state, the Despotate of Epirus, under Michael I Komnenos Doukas, posed a threat to the vassals in Thessalonica. Henry demanded his submission, which Michael provided, giving off his daughter to Henrys brother Eustace in the summer of 1209 and this alliance allowed Henry to launch a campaign in Macedonia, Thessaly and Central Greece against the rebellious Lombard lords of Thessalonica. However, Michaels attack on the Kingdom of Thessalonica in 1210 forced him to north to relieve the city. In 1214 however, Michael died, and was succeeded by Theodore Komnenos Doukas, on 11 June 1216, while supervising repairs to the walls of Thessalonica, Henry died, and was succeeded by Peter of Courtenay, who himself was captured and executed by Theodore the following year. A regency was set up in Constantinople, headed by Peters widow, Yolanda of Flanders, epirote armies then conquered Thrace in 1225–26, appearing before Constantinople itself
29.
Balearic Islands
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The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The four largest islands are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, there are many minor islands and islets close to the larger islands, including Cabrera, Dragonera and SEspalmador. The islands have a Mediterranean climate, and the four islands are all popular tourist destinations. Ibiza in particular is known as a party destination, attracting many of the worlds most popular DJs to its nightclubs. The islands culture and cuisine are similar to that of the rest of Spain but have their own distinctive features, the archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain, with Palma de Mallorca as the capital. The 2007 Statute of Autonomy declares the Balearic Islands as one nationality of Spain, the co-official languages in the Balearic Islands are Catalan and Spanish. Though now a part of Spain, throughout history the Balearic Islands have been under the rule of a number of different kingdoms, the official name of the Balearic Islands in Catalan is Illes Balears, while in Spanish they are known as the Islas Baleares. The term Balearic derives from Greek, of the various theories on the origins of the two ancient Greek and Latin names for the islands—Gymnasiae and Baleares—classical sources provide two. According to the Lycophrons Alexandra verses, the islands were called Γυμνησίαι/Gymnesiae because its inhabitants were often nude, the Greek and Roman writers generally derive the name of the people from their skill as slingers, although Strabo regards the name as of Phoenician origin. He observed it was the Phoenician equivalent for lightly armoured soldiers the Greeks would have called γυμνῆτας/gymnetas, the root bal does point to a Phoenician origin, perhaps the islands were sacred to the god Baal and the resemblance to the Greek root ΒΑΛ is accidental. Indeed, it was usual Greek practice to assimilate local names into their own language, but the common Greek name of the islands is not Βαλεαρεῖς/Baleareis, but Γυμνησίαι/Gymnesiai. The former was the used by the natives, as well as by the Carthaginians and Romans. The Balearic Islands are on a platform called the Balearic Promontory. They are cut by a network of northwest to southeast faults, the main islands of the autonomous community are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, all popular tourist destinations. Amongst the minor islands is Cabrera, the location of the Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park, the islands can be further grouped, with Majorca, Minorca, and Cabrera as the Gymnesian Islands, and Ibiza and Formentera as the Pityusic Islands, also referred to as the Pityuses. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, the Balearic Islands unsurprisingly have typical mediterranean climates, the below-listed climatic data of the capital Palma is typical for the archipelago, with minor differences to other stations in Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca. Little is recorded on the earliest inhabitants of the islands, though many legends exist, the story, preserved by Lycophron, that certain shipwrecked Greek Boeotians were cast nude on the islands, was evidently invented to account for the name Gymnesiae. There is also a tradition that the islands were colonised by Rhodes after the Trojan War, the islands had a very mixed population, of whose habits several strange stories are told
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Duchy of Athens
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The first duke of Athens was Otto de la Roche, a minor Burgundian knight of the Fourth Crusade. Although he was known as the Duke of Athens from the foundation of the duchy in 1205, instead, Otto proclaimed himself Lord of Athens. The local Greeks called the dukes Megas Kyris, from which the shortened form Megaskyr, like the rest of Latin Greece, however, the Duchy recognized the suzerainty of Charles I of Sicily after the Treaties of Viterbo in 1267. The Duchy occupied the Attic peninsula as well as Boeotia and extended partially into Thessaly, sharing a border with Thessalonica. It did not hold the islands of the Aegean Sea, which were Venetian territories, the buildings of the Acropolis in Athens served as the palace for the dukes. The Duchy was held by the family of la Roche until 1308, walters son Walter VI of Brienne retained only the lordship of Argos and Nauplia, where his claims to the Duchy were still recognized. In 1312, the Catalans recognized the suzerainty of King Frederick III of Sicily, the ducal title remained in the hands of the Crown of Aragon until 1388, but actual authority was exercised by a series of vicars-general. In 1318/19 the Catalans conquered Siderokastron and the south of Thessaly as well, part of Thessaly was conquered from the Catalans by the Serbs in the 1340s. The principal towns and villages were represented by the síndic, which had their own councils, judges and notaries were elected for life or even as inherited offices. In 1379 the Navarrese Company, in the service of the Latin emperor James of Baux, conquered Thebes, meanwhile, the Aragonese kept another part of Neopatras and Attica. After 1381 the Duchy was ruled by the Kings of Sicily until 1388 when the Acciaioli family of Florence captured Athens, from 1395 to 1402 the Venetians briefly controlled the Duchy. In 1444 Athens became a tributary of Constantine Palaeologus, the despot of Morea, in 1456, after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey conquered the remnants of the Duchy. Despite the Ottoman conquest, the title of Duke of Athens and Neopatras continued in use by the kings of Aragon, Athens was the seat of a metropolitan archdiocese within the Patriarchate of Constantinople when it was conquered by the Franks. The see, however, was not of importance, being the twenty-eighth in precedence in the Byzantine Empire, nonetheless, it had produced the prominent clergyman Michael Choniates. It was a metropolitan see with eleven suffragans at the time of conquest, Euripus, Daulia, Coronea, Andros, Oreos, Scyrus, Karystos, Porthmus, Aulon, Syra and Seriphus, and Ceos and Thermiae. The customs of the church of Paris were imported to Athens, antonio Ballester, however, an educated Catalan, had a successful career in Greece as archbishop. The Parthenon, which had been the Orthodox church of the Theotokos Atheniotissa, the Greek Orthodox church survived as an underground institution without official sanction by the governing Latin authorities. The Greek clergy had not typically been literate in the century and their education certainly worsened under Latin domination
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Duchy of Neopatras
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The Duchy of Neopatras was one of the Crusader States set up in Greece after the sacking and conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade. It was situated in Central Greece, centered on the city of Neopatras, modern Ypati) in the Spercheios valley, when the Greek ruler of Thessaly, John II Doukas, died in 1318 without heir, his domains fell into anarchy. The Almogavars of the Catalan Company, who had conquered most of the Duchy of Athens to the south of Thessaly. The Catalans took Neopatras in 1319, and by 1325 had also conquered Zetounion, Loidoriki, Siderokastron and Vitrinitsa, as well as—apparently briefly—Domokos, Gardiki, the territory conquered by the Catalans was divided into five captaincies. Most of the Duchys possessions in Thessaly were lost when the region was conquered by the Serbs of Stefan Dushan in 1348, but Neopatras, in 1377, the title of Duke of Athens and Neopatras was assumed by Peter IV of Aragon. By 1380, the Catalans were left only with the two capitals of Athens and Neopatras, as well as the County of Salona, Athens fell to Acciaioli in 1388, and in 1390 he captured Neopatras as well. Ecclesiastically, Neopatras largely corresponded to the Latin Archdiocese of Neopatras, among the Catalan archbishops was Ferrer dAbella, who tried to have himself transferred to a west European see. The Late Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, tabula Imperii Byzantini, Band 1, Hellas und Thessalia. Vienna, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, the Latins in the Levant, a History of Frankish Greece. The Despotate of Epiros 1267–1479, A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages, setton, Kenneth M. Catalan Domination of Athens 1311–1388, Revised Edition. A History of the Crusades, Volume III, The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, madison, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press
32.
Balaguer
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Balaguer is the capital of the comarca of Noguera, in the province of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. It is located by the river Segre, a tributary to the Ebre, the municipality includes an exclave to the east. Balaguer was conquered from the Moors by Ermengol VI of Urgell in 1106, he made it his new capital, the town has a Gothic bridge, the Pont de Sant Miquel, over the Segre river. This bridge was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War in the battle of Cap de Pont, another Gothic building is the Santa Maria Church, in the heights above the city, in line with a quite finely conserved wall dating to the 15th century AD. General Francos forces first entered Catalonia from Aragon in 1938 through Balaguers bridgehead, josep Ivan Argelaga, performance artists dogman Gaspar de Portolà, founder of San Diego and Monterey. Peter IV of Aragon, King of the Crown of Aragon, lord of Balaguer Balaguer Offensive Palomero, Aaron Gutiérrez, Planificación urbana y vivienda obrera en Balaguer. Ocupación del margen izquierdo Scripta Nova, Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales, Vol. VII,146,1 de agosto de 2003. Official municipal web site Government data pages
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Alfons IV of Aragon
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Alfonso IV, called the Kind was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1327 to his death. He was born in Naples, the son of James II. His reign saw the incorporation of the County of Urgell, Duchy of Athens, during the reign of his father, he was the procurator general of the Crown. He married Teresa dEntença y Cabrera, heiress of Urgell, in 1314 in the Cathedral of Lerida and he is reputed to have been so liberal in the expenses during the wedding, that the local counsels imposed restrictions on how much he could spend. In 1323–1324, he undertook the conquest of Sardinia and he became heir after his older brother James renounced his rights to become a monk. In 1329, he began a war with the Republic of Genoa. The city of Sassari surrendered in 1323, but rebelled three more times and was contested by Genoa, after being widowed in 1327, Alfonso married in February 1329 Eleanor of Castile, who was betrothed to his brother James, who had refused to consummate the marriage. She was the sister of Alfonso XI of Castile, because of some favoritism he showed towards his second wife, the last years of his life, he had to contend with the son of his first marriage, the future Peter IV. By Teresa dEntença, Alfonso Constance, married in 1336 to James III of Majorca, James I, Count of Urgell, also inherited Entença and Antillon. Sancho, lived only a few days, by Eleanor of Castile, Ferdinand, Marquis of Tortosa and Lord of Albarracín and Fraga, married Maria, Marchioness of Tortosa. John, Lord of Elche, Biel and Bolsa, married in 1355 to Isabel Núñez de Lara and was killed by order of his cousin Pedro of Castile, diccionario universal de historia y de geografía, p.152. By Lucas Alamán, Manuel Orozco y Berra Medieval Iberia, an encyclopedia, Ed. E. Michael Gerli, Samuel G. Armistead, a History of Medieval Spain, Cornell University Press,1975
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Counts of Urgell
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This is a list of the counts of Urgell, a county of the Principality of Catalonia in the 10th through 13th centuries. 1033, killed at Barbastro in February or March 1065 1065–11 March 1092 Ermengol IV el de Gerp, when Martin I of Aragon died he was a candidate to the crown, but the Compromise of Caspe preferred Ferdinand of Antequera. He revolted and on 31 October 1413, surrendered to the king, the county of Urgell was dissolved and count James died in jail in the castle of Xàtiva on 1 June 1433. County of Urgell House of Cabrera
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Parliament
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In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative, elected body of government. Generally a modern parliament has three functions, representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government, historically, parliaments included various kinds of deliberative, consultative, and judicial assemblies. The term is derived from Anglo-Norman parlement, from the verb parler talk, the meaning evolved over time, originally any discussion, conversation, or negotiation, through various kinds of deliberative or judicial groups, often summoned by the monarch. By 1400, it had come to mean in Britain specifically the British supreme legislature, various parliaments are claimed to be the oldest in the world, under varying definitions. The Sicilian Parliament, whose first assembly was convened in 1097, the Icelandic Althing, year 930, but only including the main chiefs. Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose decisions were assessed by village elders, some scholars suggest that in ancient Mesopotamia there was a primitive democratic government where the kings were assessed by council. The same has been said about ancient India, where some form of deliberative assemblies existed, however, these claims are not accepted by most scholars, who see these forms of government as oligarchies. Ancient Athens was the cradle of democracy, the Athenian assembly was the most important institution, and every citizen could take part in the discussions. However, Athenian democracy was not representative, but rather direct, the Roman Senate controlled money, administration, and the details of foreign policy. Some Muslim scholars argue that the Islamic shura is analogous to the parliament, however, others highlight what they consider fundamental differences between the shura system and the parliamentary system. England has long had a tradition of a body of men who would assist, under the Anglo-Saxon kings, there was an advisory council, the Witenagemot. The name derives from the Old English ƿitena ȝemōt, or witena gemōt, the first recorded act of a witenagemot was the law code issued by King Æthelberht of Kent ca. 600, the earliest document which survives in sustained Old English prose, however, the Witan, along with the folkmoots, is an important ancestor of the modern English parliament. As part of the Norman Conquest of England, the new king, William I, did away with the Witenagemot, membership of the Curia was largely restricted to the tenants in chief, the few nobles who rented great estates directly from the king, along with ecclesiastics. William brought to England the feudal system of his native Normandy and this is the original body from which the Parliament, the higher courts of law, and the Privy Council and Cabinet descend. Of these, the legislature is formally the High Court of Parliament, only the executive government is no longer conducted in a royal court. Most historians date the emergence of a parliament with some degree of power to which the throne had to defer no later than the rule of Edward I, like previous kings, Edward called leading nobles and church leaders to discuss government matters, especially finance. A meeting in 1295 became known as the Model Parliament because it set the pattern for later Parliaments, in 1307, Edward I agreed not to collect certain taxes without the consent of the realm
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Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zaragoza
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The Archdiocese of Saragossa is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory located in north-eastern Spain, in the province of Zaragoza, part of the autonomous community of Aragón. The archdiocese heads the ecclesiastical province of Saragossa, having authority over the suffragan dioceses of Barbastro-Monzón, Huesca, Tarazona. The diocese was created in Roman times, Pope John XXII elevated it to an archdiocese in 1318. In 1912 the diocese was bounded on the north by Navarre and Huesca, on the east by Huesca, Lerida, the episcopal city of Saragossa is situated on the river Ebro. The cathedral is dedicated to the Saviour, as it had been before the Moorish invasion and it shares its rank with the Church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, half of the chapter residing at each of the two churches, while the dean resides six months at each alternately. The building of the cathedral was begun by Pedro Tarrjao in the fourteenth century, in 1412 Antipope Benedict XIII caused a magnificent baldachinum to be erected, but one of its pillars fell down, and it was reduced to its present condition. The great chancel and choir were built by order of Archbishop Dalmau de Mury Cervellón, in the chapel of Saint Dominguito del Val are preserved the relics of that saint, a boy of seven who was allegedly crucified by the Jews in 1250. The façade of the cathedral is Renaissance, and beside it rises the tower, more modern than the body of the church, the Church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar is believed to have originated in a chapel built by the Apostle James. Bishop Pedro de Librana found it almost in ruins and appealed to the charity of all the faithful to rebuild it. At the close of the century four bishops again stirred up the zeal of the faithful to repair the building. In 1681 work was commenced on the new church, the first stone being laid by Archbishop Diego de Castrillo,25 July 1685 and this grandiose edifice,140 metres in length, covers the capella angelica, where the celebrated image of the Blessed Virgin is venerated. Saragossa possesses many very noteworthy churches, among them is that of St. Engratia, built on the spot where the victims of Dacian were martyred. It was destroyed in the Spanish War of Independence, only the crypt and the doorway being left, it was rebuilt in the late 19th or early 20th century, the University of Saragossa obtained from Charles I in 1542, the privileges accorded to others in Spain. Its importance was afterwards promoted by Pedro Cerbuna, Bishop of Tarazona, a separate building has been erected for the faculties of medicine and sciences. The archiepiscopal palace is an edifice erected by Archbishop Agustín de Lezo y Palomeque. Before the Roman period the site of Saragossa appears to have been occupied by Salduba, in 24 BC Emperor Octavius Augustus, then in his seventh consulate, founded the colony of Caesar Augusta, giving it the Italian franchise and making it the capital of a juridical conventus. Geographer Pomponius Mela called it the most illustrious of the cities of Hispania Tarraconensis. Pope Urban VIII ordered the old lesson in the Breviary dealing with this point to be restored
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Peter II of Aragon
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Peter II the Catholic was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1196 to 1213. He was born in Huesca, the son of Alfonso II of Aragon, in 1205 he acknowledged the feudal supremacy of the papacy and was crowned in Rome by Pope Innocent III, swearing to defend the Catholic faith. He was the first king of Aragon to be crowned by the pope, in the first decade of the thirteenth century he commissioned the Liber feudorum Ceritaniae, an illustrated codex cartulary for the counties of Cerdagne, Conflent, and Roussillon. On June 15,1204 he married Marie of Montpellier, daughter and she gave him a son, James, but Peter soon repudiated her. Marie was popularly venerated as a saint for her piety and marital suffering, Marie also perhaps bore Peter II a daughter, Sancha, at Collioure in October,1205 according to Christian Nique. Sancha was betrothed to Raymond VII the son Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, not long after her birth, according to Nique, however the childs younger brother James makes no mention of her and Sancha was apparently dead before the New Year, according to Niques information. He participated in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 which marked the point of Muslim domination in the Iberian peninsula. The Crown of Aragon was widespread in the area that is now southernwestern France, the Cathars or Albigenses rejected the authority and the teachings of the Catholic Church. Innocent called upon Philip Augustus of France to suppress the Albigenses, under the leadership of Simon of Montfort a campaign was launched. The Albigensian Crusade, begun in 1209, led to the slaughter of approximately 20,000 men, women and children, Cathar and he was accompanied by Raymond of Toulouse, who tried to persuade Peter to avoid battle and instead starve out Montforts forces. The Battle of Muret began on September 12,1213, the Aragonese forces were disorganized and disintegrated under the assault of Montforts squadrons. Peter himself was caught in the thick of fighting, and died as a result of an act of bravado. He was thrown to the ground and killed, the Aragonese forces broke in panic when their king was slain and Montforts crusaders won a crushing victory. The nobility of Toulouse, vassals of the Crown of Aragon, were defeated, the conflict culminated in the Treaty of Meaux-Paris in 1229, in which the integration of the Occitan territory into the French crown was agreed upon. Upon Peters death, the passed to his only son by Marie of Montpellier. Martín Alvira-Cabrer,12 de Septiembre de 1213, El Jueves de Muret, la batalla decisiva de la Cruzada contra los Cátaros, Ariel, Barcelona,2008 and 2013. Martín Alvira-Cabrer, Pedro el Católico, Rey de Aragón y Conde de Barcelona, documentos, Testimonios y Memoria Histórica,6 vols. Zaragoza, Institución Fernando el Católico,2010, Nique, Christian, Les deux visages de Marie de Montpellier, Montpellier, Académie des Sciences et Lettres de Montpellier
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Pope
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The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
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Crown of Castile
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The title of King of Castile remained in use by the Habsburg rulers during the 16th and 17th centuries. Charles I was King of Aragon, Majorca, Valencia, and Sicily, in the early 18th century, Philip of Bourbon won the War of the Spanish Succession and imposed unification policies over the Crown of Aragon, supporters of their enemies. This unified the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Castile into the kingdom of Spain, even though the Nueva Planta decrees did not formally abolish the Crown of Castile, the country of was called Spain by both contemporaries and historians. King of Castile also remains part of the title of Felipe VI of Spain. The Kingdom of León arose out of the Kingdom of Asturias, the Kingdom of Castile appeared initially as a county of the Kingdom of León. From the second half of the 10th century to the first half of the 11th century it changed hands between León and the Kingdom of Navarre, in the 11th century it became a kingdom in its own right. The two kingdoms had been united twice previously, From 1037 until 1065 under Ferdinand I of León, upon his death his kingdoms passed to his sons, León to Alfonso VI, Castile to Sancho II, and Galicia to García. From 1072 until 1157 under Alfonso VI, Urraca, and Alfonso VII, from 1111 until 1126 Galicia was separate from the union under Alfonso VII. In 1157 the kingdoms were divided between Alfonsos sons, with Ferdinand II receiving León and Sancho III Castile, from then on the two kingdoms were united under the name of the Kingdom of León and Castile, or simply as the Crown of Castile. Ferdinand III later conquered the Guadalquivir Valley, while his son Alfonso X conquered the Kingdom of Murcia from Al-Andalus, the heir to the throne has been titled Prince of Asturias since the 14th century. Almost immediately after the union of the two kingdoms under Ferdinand III, the parliaments of Castile and León were united. It was divided into three estates, which corresponded with the nobility, the church and the cities, and included representation from Castile, León, Galicia, Toledo, Navarre, under Alfonso X, most sessions of the Cortes of both kingdoms were held jointly. The Cortes of 1258 in Valladolid comprised representatives of Castile, Extremadura and León, subsequent Cortes were celebrated separately, for example in 1301 that of Castile in Burgos and that of León in Zamora, but the representatives demanded that the parliaments be reunited from then on. These laws continued to be in force until 1889, when a new Spanish civil code, in the 13th century there were many languages spoken in the Kingdoms of León and Castile among them Castilian, Leonese, Basque and Galician-Portuguese. But, as the century progressed, Castilian gained increasing prominence as the language of culture, henceforth all public documents were written in Castilian, likewise all translations of Arabic legal and government documents were made into Castilian instead of Latin. In 1492, under the Catholic Monarchs, the first edition of the Grammar of the Castilian Language by Antonio de Nebrija was published, Castilian was eventually carried to the Americas in the 16th century by the conquistadors. Because of Castilians importance in the land ruled by the Spanish Crown, on the death of Alfonso XI a dynastic conflict started between his sons, the Infantes Peter and Henry, Count of Trastámara, which became entangled in the Hundred Years War. Alfonso XI had married Maria of Portugal with whom he had his heir, however, the King also had many illegitimate children with Eleanor of Guzman, among them the above-mentioned Henry, who disputed Peters right to the throne once the latter became king
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Valencia
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Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 1. 5–1.6 million people. Valencia is Spains third largest metropolitan area, with a population ranging from 1.7 to 2.5 million, the Port of Valencia is the 5th busiest container port in Europe and the busiest container port on the Mediterranean Sea. The city is ranked at Gamma in the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, Valencia was founded as a Roman colony by the consul Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus in 138 BC, and called Valentia Edetanorum. In 1238 the Christian king James I of Aragon reconquered the city and divided the land among the nobles who helped him conquer it and he also created a new law for the city, the Furs of Valencia, which were extended to the rest of the Kingdom of Valencia. In the 18th century Philip V of Spain abolished the privileges as punishment to the kingdom of Valencia for aligning with the Habsburg side in the War of the Spanish Succession, Valencia was the capital of Spain when Joseph Bonaparte moved the Court there in the summer of 1812. It also served as capital between 1936 and 1937, during the Second Spanish Republic, the city is situated on the banks of the Turia, on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula, fronting the Gulf of Valencia on the Mediterranean Sea. Valencia is integrated into an area on the Costa del Azahar. Valencias main festival is the Falles, the traditional Spanish dish, paella, originated in Valencia. The original Latin name of the city was Valentia, meaning strength, or valour, the Roman historian Livy explains that the founding of Valentia in the 2nd century BC was due to the settling of the Roman soldiers who fought against an Iberian rebel, Viriatus. It is not clear if the term Balansiyya was reserved for the entire Taifa of Valencia or also designated the city, by gradual sound changes, Valentia /waˈlentia/ has become Valencia or in Castilian and València in Valencian. In Valencian, the grave accent <è> /ɛ/ contrasts with the acute accent <é> /e/—but the word València is an exception to this rule and it is spelled according to Catalan etymology, though its pronunciation is closer to Vulgar Latin. Valencia stands on the banks of the Turia River, located on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, at its founding by the Romans, it stood on a river island in the Turia,6.4 km from the sea. The Albufera, a lagoon and estuary about 11 km south of the city, is one of the largest lakes in Spain. The City Council bought the lake from the Crown of Spain for 1,072,980 pesetas in 1911, in 1986, because of its cultural, historical, and ecological value, the Generalitat Valenciana declared it a natural park. Valencia has a Mediterranean climate with short, very mild winters and long, hot and its average annual temperature is 18.4 °C.23.0 °C during the day and 13.8 °C at night. In the coldest month – January, the temperature typically during the day ranges from 14 to 21 °C. In the warmest month – August, the temperature during the day typically ranges from 28–34 °C. Generally, similar temperatures to those experienced in the part of Europe in summer last about 8 months
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Lleida
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Lleida is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the city of the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression, the metro area has about 250,000 inhabitants. It is also the city of the Segrià comarca, as well as the largest city in the province. It had 137,387 inhabitants as of 2010, including the municipalities of Raimat. Lleida is one of the oldest towns in Catalonia, with recorded settlements dating back to the Bronze Age period, until the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the area served as a settlement for an Iberian people, the Ilergetes. The town became a municipality, named Ilerda, under the reign of Augustus and it was reconquered in 1149, after being ruled by the Moors for many centuries, who had conquered the town in the 8th century. In 1297, the University of Lleida was founded, becoming the third oldest in the whole of Spain, during the following centuries, the town was damaged by several wars such as the Reapers War in the 17th century and the Spanish Civil War in the 20th century. Since then, the city has been in a constant urban, commercial, in ancient times the city, named Iltrida and Ilerda, was the chief city of the Ilergetes, an Iberian tribe. Indíbil, king of the Ilergetes, and Mandoni, king of the Ausetanes, under the Romans, the city was incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis, and was a place of considerable importance, historically as well as geographically. Its situation induced the legates of Pompey in Spain to make it the key of their defense against Caesar and it ended by the capitulation of Afranius and Petreius, who were conquered as much by Caesars generosity as by his strategy. In consequence of the battle, the Latin phrase Ilerdam videas is said to have used by people who wanted to cast bad luck on someone else. Under the Roman empire, Ilerda was a flourishing city. It had a stone bridge over the Sicoris. In the time of Ausonius the city had fallen into decay and it was part of Visigothic and Muslim Hispania until it was conquered from the Moors by Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona in 1149. It used to be the seat of a university, the oldest in the Crown of Aragon, until 1717. The University of Lleida is nowadays active again since 1991, during the Reapers War, Lleida was occupied by the French and rebel forces. In 1644 the city was conquered by the Spanish under D. Felipe da Silva, Lleida served as a key defense point for Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, and fell to the Insurgents, whose air forces bombed it extensively, in 1937 and 1938
42.
Usages of Barcelona
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The Usages of Barcelona were the customs that form the basis for the Catalan Constitutions. They are the laws and basic rights of Catalonia, dating back to their codification in the twelfth century. The Usages combined fragments of Roman and Visigothic law with the resolutions of the court of Barcelona. The first Usages were compiled and codified by Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Barcelona, however, the evidence for Ramons work dates from the codes of James the Conqueror of a later date. James, seeing that some judges ruled by Gothic law and some by Roman law, according to a tradition of usus terrae, though the Usages applied legally only to the Barcelonan county, in practice they were applied to the entire Principality of Catalonia. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, they were copied frequently, the Nueva Planta decrees superseded them with the central legislation of the Bourbons, though continued to have some force. El codi a mitjan segle XII, Barcelona, Fundació Noguera,1984 The Usatges of Barcelona, The Fundamental Law of Catalonia
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