Kingdom of Aragon

…1281–85) excommunicated the king of Aragon and offered the vacant throne to Philip for one of his sons. Because at this juncture the crown of Navarra was destined for Philip’s son and successor, Philip the Fair, the whole Spanish March seemed ripe for recovery by the French. Yet the Crusade…

…under the rule of the Aragonese.

…of the royal house of Aragon. This house, in rebellion against papal claims of suzerainty and engaged in constant war with the Kingdom of Naples, went through a pattern of monarchical weakness and economic decline similar to that shown by the Angevins of Naples. In Hohenstaufen and early Aragonese Sicily,…

…the south, Alfonso V of Aragon (1416–58) used the island kingdom of Sicily mainly as a base for his conquest of Naples. Thereafter Sicily was governed by viceroys who subjected its interests to those of Aragon, which became part of Spain in 1479. Examples of Sicily’s incorporation into the Spanish…

Sancho created the kingdom of Aragon in 1035, and his successors there pursued the Christian reclamation of the peninsula in earnest. Alfonso I of Aragon captured the former Moorish capital of Zaragoza in 1118. In 1179 Alfonso II of Aragon and Alfonso VIII of Castile

Supported by the armies of Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal, Castilian forces routed the Almohad emir of Morocco, Muḥammad al-Nāṣir, at Las Navas de Tolosa (July 16, 1212) and so removed the last serious Islamic threat to Christian hegemony in Spain. The way was now open to the conquest of Andalusia

…same period, James I of Aragon completed Aragon’s part in the Reconquest. After occupying the Balearics (1235), he captured Valencia (1238). Unlike Ferdinand, James carefully worked to preserve the agricultural economy of the Moors and so established the final peninsular frontiers of Aragon. In Portugal, Afonso III captured Faro (1249),…

The kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, and Portugal spent the next century consolidating their holdings, until the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1469 united the Spanish crown. The Catholic Monarchs, as Ferdinand and Isabella came to be known, completed the conquest of…

of Portugal, Navarre (Navarra), and Aragon-Catalonia (Spanish: Cataluña; Catalan: Catalunya), whose frontiers began to be delineated in the 11th and 12th centuries, repudiated and often undermined the aspirations of their larger neighbour. The Reconquista was nearly completed by the middle of the 13th century, by which time the Muslims retained…

In the late Middle Ages the Crown of Aragon experienced a confrontation between the monarchy and the nobility similar to that which occurred in neighboring Castile. As Roman law and its practitioners gained in influence, there were protests in both…

…Naples) was the king of Aragon (1416–58) and king of Naples (as Alfonso I, 1442–58), whose military campaigns in Italy and elsewhere in the central Mediterranean made him one of the most famous men of his day. After conquering Naples, he transferred his court there.

…princess Isabella of Castile in Valladolid in October 1469. This was a marriage of political opportunism, not romance. The court of Aragon dreamed of a return to Castile, and Isabella needed help to gain succession to the throne. The marriage initiated a dark and troubled life, in which Ferdinand fought…

…of Castile (1474–1504) and of Aragon (1479–1504), ruling the two kingdoms jointly from 1479 with her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon (Ferdinand V of Castile). Their rule effected the permanent union of Spain and the beginning of an overseas empire in the New World, led by Christopher Columbus under Isabella’s…

The kingdom of Aragon soon sought Ramon Berenguer IV’s aid against Castile. In the course of their negotiations, he was promised the hand of the Aragonese king Ramiro II’s daughter and heir, Petronila (Peronella); they were married on Aug. 11, 1137, and a few months later…

…from 1162 and king of Aragon from 1164.

When Ferdinand II (1479–1516; also known as Ferdinand V of Castile from 1474) succeeded to the Crown of Aragon in 1479, the union of Aragon (roughly eastern Spain) and Castile (roughly western Spain) was finally achieved, and the Trastámara became the second…

…betrothed to Petronila, queen of Aragon, Catalonia and Aragon were united under the same ruler. Catalonia monopolized trade in the western Mediterranean in the 13th and 14th centuries, and Catalan interests dominated the union with Aragon until 1410, when the male line of the counts of Barcelona became extinct. Dissatisfaction…