| |
| 5. Aragon |
| |
 |
| SPANISH RULERS (970-1285) |
| Aragon, beginning as a county on the river Arago under Carolingian control, emerged from Carolingian domination in the middle of the 9th century, passed under the control of Navarre, and then became independent under Ramiro (d. 1069). The period from 1069 to 1134 is marked by confusion, intrigue, some progress against the Moors, and the annexation of Navarre (1076). | 1 |
| |
| 1102–34 |
| |
| ALFONSO I (the Battler) advanced to the Ebro, captured Saragossa (1118), and made raids to the Mediterranean; his victories defined the medieval realm of Aragon, and he ranks among the greatest kings of the Reconquest. On Alfonso's death, Aragon chose his brother, Ramiro, a monk who emerged from retirement long enough to marry and produce a daughter, Petronilla, whom he betrothed to Ramón Berenguer IV (1131–62), count of Barcelona. He then returned (1137) to his monastery, leaving Petronilla under the guardianship of Ramón. On his marriage to Petronilla in 1150, Ramón became king of Aragon. The resulting union of Catalonia and Aragon was a decisive event in Spanish history. | 2 |
| After the union, the Aragonese kings, preoccupied with Spanish affairs, let Provence drift, and on the death of Alfonso II (1162–96) it passed to his son Alfonso, nominally under the suzerainty of his brother Peter (Pedro) II (1196–1213), but in fact lost for good. Alfonso tried to keep his Provençal holdings clear of the Albigensian heresy, but Raymond, count of Toulouse, a supporter of the heresy, sought to win Peter II to his views. Peter went to Rome (1204) for a papal coronation, declared himself a vassal of the Holy See, and bore an honorable part at Las Navas de Tolosa, but he was forced by the horrors of the Albigensian Crusade and the legitimate appeals of his vassals to oppose Simon de Montfort at Muret, where he fell. | 3 |
| |
| 1213 |
| |
| The Battle of Muret marked the end of Aragonese interests north of the Pyrenees. | 4 |
| |
| 1258 |
| |
| With the Treaty of Corbeil, the king of France renounced his claims to Barcelona, Urgel, Cerdagne, Roussillon. Aragon was ceded, including Carcassonne, Foix, Béziers, Nîmes, Narbonne, Toulouse. All rights in Provence passed to Margaret, wife of Louis IX; a marriage was arranged between Louis's son Philip and Isabella, daughter of James I of Aragon. | 5 |
| |
| 1213–76 |
| |
| JAMES (Jaime) I (the Conqueror). After the weakness and anarchy of his minority, James, one of the greatest soldiers of the Middle Ages, conquered Valencia in an intermittent campaign (1233–45), took the kingdom of Murcia for Castile (1266), and freed the Aragonese frontier of the Muslim menace. James also attempted to establish his overlordship in Tlemcen and Bugia in North Africa, and to secure a hold in Tunis. Against the will of his Aragonese nobles, but with the support of his Catalonian and French vassals, James conquered the Balearic Islands (1229–35), thus beginning the creation of an Aragonese Mediterranean empire. | 6 |
| Spanish culture in the Middle Ages was greatly enriched by Muslim and Jewish influences. The Muslim tradition of scholarship continued, and the translations from Arabic to Latin made Spain the avenue by which the knowledge of antiquity came to the West. Gerard of Cremona translated the works of Ptolemy, Euclid, Galen, and the Hippocratic corpus. Toledo, which had been a center of learning for the Arabic world, became a center for the translation of Arabic and Greek works into Latin. John of Sevilla (fl. 1135–53), also at Toledo, translated Arabic texts on mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy into Latin and the vernacular. Abraham bar-Hiyya (d. 1136) (Sarasorda) was one of the earliest to introduce Muslim mathematics to the West. Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) (1135–1204), born in Córdoba, became one of the most influential thinkers of the West; he also translated medical and astronomical texts from Arabic. Ibn-Rushd (1126–98), born in Córdoba, was known as “the commentator,” through whom the West relearned the works of Aristotle. | 7 |
| Ramón Lull (1232–1315) was the greatest Catalonian intellectual figure of the Middle Ages, a vernacular poet, novelist, missionary, mystic, educator, reformer, logician, scientist, and traveler. | 8 |
| Architecture. (1) Pre-Romanesque architecture revealed traces of Visigothic, Carolingian, Persian, Byzantine, and Muslim traditions. (2) Romanesque architecture showed particularly the influence of Auvergne and Languedoc (second church of Santiago de Compostella). (3) The Gothic was marked by strong elements of the Burgundian style, brought by the Cluniacs. The full tide of the Gothic was probably introduced by the Cistercians (cathedrals of Toledo, c. 1230; Burgos, 1126; Leon, c. 1230). Catalan Gothic shows German influences (cathedrals of Barcelona, 1298; Gerona, 1312). The later Spanish Gothic revealed French, German, and Flemish currents (cathedral of Sevilla, begun 1401; west towers of Burgos cathedral, 1442). (4) Moorish architecture had a development of its own: the great mosque of Córdoba (completed 1118), the Alcazar in Sevilla (c. 1181), and the Alhambra (mostly 14th century). | 9 |
| Foundation of the first universities: Valencia (1209); Salamanca (1242). (See Aragon) | 10 |
| |
| |
