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| 2. Aragon |
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| THE HOUSE OF ARAGON (1276-1516) |
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| 1276–85 |
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| PETER (PEDRO) III, who was married to Constance, daughter of Manfred and heir of the Hohenstaufen. In 1282 he sailed on a long-planned expedition for the conquest of Sicily (which he disguised as an African crusade). He landed at Collo, was called to the throne, defeated Charles of Anjou, and became Peter I of Sicily (1282–85), refusing to do homage to the pope for his island kingdom. This expansion of the Aragonese kingdom gave Aragon for a time predominance in the western Mediterranean, but it estranged the Aragonese aristocracy, as well as the towns. The nobility therefore formed the Union for Liberty and, in the cortes of 1283, extorted from Peter a General Privilege, which defined the rights and duties of the nobles, affirmed the principle of due process of law, and provided for annual meetings of the cortes. | 1 |
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| 1285–91 |
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| ALFONSO III was obliged to make a sweeping regrant of the Privileges of Union (1287), the so-called Magna Carta of Aragon. | 2 |
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| 1291–1327 |
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| JAMES II (king of Sicily, 1285–95). He exchanged the investiture of Sardinia and Corsica for that of Sicily (1295), which thereupon passed to his brother Frederick, who established the separate Sicilian dynasty. James began the expulsion of the Genoese and Pisans from Sardinia (1323–24), a process not finally completed until 1421. For a period Aragon held the duchy of Athens (first indirectly through Sicily, 1311–77, then directly, to 1388), thanks to the activity of the Grand Catalan Company (See 1302). | 3 |
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| 1327–36 |
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| ALFONSO IV. | 4 |
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| 1336–87 |
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| PETER (PEDRO) IV. He was virtually a prisoner of the revived union of the nobility and had to confirm their privileges. But after a victory over the union (at Epila, 1348), he broke up the coalition and gradually restricted the power of the aristocracy in Aragon and Valencia. The clergy and the towns had far less power than in Castile, while the rural workers and serfs suffered a much harder lot. | 5 |
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| 1377 |
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| On the death of Frederick II of Sicily, Peter IV, as the husband of Frederick's sister, sent his son Martin as viceroy to Sicily. | 6 |
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| 1387–95 |
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| John (Juan) king. | 7 |
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| 1395–1410 |
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| Martin king. He reunited Aragon and Sicily (1409). On his death, the native dynasty came to an end after a period of dynastic struggle. | 8 |
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| 1412–16 |
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| Ferdinand (Fernando) I, of Castile, a grandson of Peter IV, succeeded to the throne. | 9 |
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| 1416–58 |
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| ALFONSO V (the Magnanimous). His attention was engrossed by the desire to conquer Naples. After long diplomatic intrigues and occasional combats, he succeeded (1435) in being recognized as king by the pope in 1442. Alfonso, a lover of Italy and a passionate devotee of the Renaissance, shifted the center of gravity of the Aragonese empire and subordinated the interest of Aragon to that of Naples. Aragon was ruled by his brother John, as viceroy. On the death of Alfonso, Naples passed to his son Ferrante (1458–94). | 10 |
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| 1458–79 |
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| John (Juan) II king. | 11 |
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