| James I | |
|---|---|
 Jaume in 1265, giving orders to a guard in the royal palace | |
| King of Aragon Count of Barcelona | |
| Reign | 12 September 1213 – 27 July 1276 |
| Predecessor | Peter II |
| Successor | Peter III |
| Born | 2 February 1208 Montpellier |
| Died | 27 July 1276 (aged 68) Alzira, Valencia |
| Burial | |
| Spouses | |
| Issue among others... | |
| House | Barcelona |
| Father | Peter II of Aragon |
| Mother | Maria of Montpellier |
James I the Conqueror (Catalan/Valencian:Jaume I or Jaume el Conqueridor;Aragonese:Chaime Io Conqueridor;Spanish:Jaime I de Aragón or Jaime I el Conquistador; 2 February 1208 – 27 July 1276) wasKing of Aragon,Count of Barcelona, andLord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276;King of Majorca from 1231 to 1276; andKing of Valencia from 1238 to 1276. His long reign of 62 years is not only the longest of anyIberian monarch, but one of thelongest monarchical reigns in history, ahead ofHirohito but remaining behindQueen Elizabeth II,Queen Victoria, andFerdinand III of Naples and Sicily.
King James I saw the expansion of theCrown of Aragon in three directions:Languedoc to the north, theBalearic Islands to the southeast, andValencia to the south. Bya treaty withLouis IX of France, he achieved the renunciation of any possible claim of French suzerainty over theCounty of Barcelona and the otherCatalan counties, while he renounced northward expansion and taking back the once Catalan territories inOccitania and vassal counties loyal to the County of Barcelona, lands that were lost by his fatherPeter II of Aragon in theBattle of Muret during theAlbigensian Crusade and annexed by theKingdom of France, and then decided to turn south. His great part in theReconquista was similar inMediterranean Spain to that of his contemporaryFerdinand III of Castile inAndalusia. One of the main reasons for this formal renunciation of most of the once Catalan territories inLanguedoc andOccitania, and any expansion into them, is that he was raised by theKnights TemplarCrusaders, who had defeated his father, who was fighting forthe Pope alongside the French. It was thus effectively forbidden for him to try to maintain the traditional influence of the Count of Barcelona that previously existed inOccitania andLanguedoc.
As a legislator and organiser, he occupies a high place among theEuropean kings. King James I compiled theLlibre del Consolat de Mar,[1] which governed maritime trade and helped establish Aragonese supremacy in thewestern Mediterranean. He was an important figure in the development of theCatalan language, sponsoringCatalan literature and writing a quasi-autobiographical chronicle of his reign: theLlibre dels fets.
James was born atMontpellier as the only son ofPeter II of Aragon andMarie of Montpellier.[2] As a child, James was made a pawn in the power politics ofProvence, where his father was engaged in struggles helping theCatharheretics ofAlbi against theAlbigensian Crusade led bySimon IV de Montfort,Earl of Leicester, who were trying to exterminate them. Peter endeavoured to placate the northernCrusaders by arranging a marriage between his two-year-old son James and Simon's daughter,Amicie de Montfort.[2] He entrusted the boy to be educated in Montfort's care in 1211, but was soon forced to take up arms against him, dying at theBattle of Muret on 12 September 1213. Montfort would willingly have used James as a means of extending his own power had not the Aragonese appealed toPope Innocent III, who insisted that Montfort surrender him. James was handed over to thepapal legatePeter of Benevento atCarcassonne[3] in May or June 1214.
James was then sent toMonzón, where he was entrusted to the care ofGuillem de Montredó,[4] the head of theKnights Templar in Aragon and Provence; the regency meanwhile fell to his great-uncleSancho, Count of Roussillon, and his son, the king's cousin,Nuño. The kingdom was given over to confusion until, in 1217, the Templars and some of the more loyal nobles brought the young king toZaragoza.[5]
In 1221, he was married toEleanor, daughter ofAlfonso VIII of Castile. The next six years of his reign were full of rebellions on the part of the nobles. By the Peace of Alcalá of 31 March 1227, the nobles and the king came to terms.[5]
In 1228, James faced the sternest opposition yet from a vassal.Guerau IV de Cabrera occupied theCounty of Urgell in opposition toAurembiax, the heiress ofErmengol VIII, who had died without sons in 1208. Although Aurembiax's mother, Elvira, had made herself a protégée of James's father, upon her death in 1220 Guerau occupied the county and displaced Aurembiax, claiming that a woman could not inherit.
James intervened on behalf of Aurembiax, to whom he owed protection. He bought Guerau off and allowed Aurembiax to reclaim her territory, which she did atLleida, probably also becoming one of James' earliest mistresses.[6] She surrendered Lleida to James and agreed to hold Urgell in fief for him. On her death in 1231, James exchanged the Balearic Islands for Urgell with her widower,Peter of Portugal.
From 1230 to 1232, James negotiated withSancho VII of Navarre, who desired his help against his nephew and closest living male relative,Theobald IV of Champagne. James and Sancho negotiated a treaty whereby James would inherit Navarre on the old Sancho's death, but when this occurred in 1234, the Navarrese nobles elevated Theobald to the throne instead, and James disputed it.Pope Gregory IX was required to intervene.[7] In the end, James accepted Theobald's succession.
James endeavoured to form a state straddling thePyrenees in order to counterbalance the power of France north of the riverLoire. As with the much earlierVisigothic attempt, this policy was victim to physical, cultural, and political obstacles. As in the case of Navarre, he declined to launch into perilous adventures. By theTreaty of Corbeil, signed in May 1258, he ended his conflict withLouis IX of France, securing the renunciation of any historical French claims to sovereignty overCatalonia, including the County of Barcelona.[3]
After his false start at uniting Aragon with theKingdom of Navarre through a scheme of mutual adoption, James turned to the south and theBalearic Islands in theMediterranean Sea. On 5 September 1229, the troops from Aragon, consisting of 155 ships, 1,500 horsemen and 15,000 soldiers, set sail from Tarragona, Salou, and Cambrils, in southern Catalonia,[8] to conquer Majorca fromAbu Yahya, the semi-independent Almohad governor of the island. Although a group of Aragonese knights took part in the campaign because of their obligations to the king, theconquest of Majorca was mainly a Catalan undertaking, and Catalans would later make up the majority of Majorca's settlers. James conqueredMajorca on 31 December 1229, andMenorca (1232) andIbiza (1235) were later acquired during the reconquest.
Valencia capitulated to Aragonese rule on 28 September 1238,[3] following an extensive campaign that included theSiege of Burriana and the decisiveBattle of the Puig,[9] where the Aragonese commander,Bernat Guillem I d'Entença, who was also the king's cousin, died from wounds received in action.Chroniclers say James usedgunpowder in the siege ofMuseros castle.
During his remaining two decades after Corbeil, James warred with theMoors inMurcia, on behalf of his son-in-lawAlfonso X of Castile. On 26 March 1244, the two monarchs signed theTreaty of Almizra to establish their zones of expansion intoAndalusia so as to prevent squabbling between them. Specifically, it defined the borders of the newly createdKingdom of Valencia. James signed it on that date, but Alfonso did not affirm it until much later. According to the treaty, all lands south of a line fromBiar toVillajoyosa throughBusot were reserved for Castile.
Abaqa, the "Khan of Tartary" (actually theIlkhan), corresponded with James in early 1267, inviting him to join forces with theMongols and go oncrusade.[10] James sent an ambassador to Abaqa in the person ofJayme Alaric de Perpignan, who returned with a Mongol embassy in 1269.[11]Pope Clement IV tried to dissuade James from crusading, regarding his moral character as sub-par, and Alfonso X did the same. Nonetheless, James, who was thencampaigning inMurcia, made peace withMuhammad I, theSultan of Granada, and set about collecting funds for a crusade. After organising the government for his absence and assembling a fleet at Barcelona in September 1269, he was ready to sail east. The troubadourOlivier lo Templier composed a song praising the voyage and hoping for its success. A storm, however, drove him off course, and he landed atAigues-Mortes. According to the continuator ofWilliam of Tyre, he returned via Montpellierpor l'amor de sa dame Berenguiere ("for the love of his lady Berengaria") and abandoned any further effort at a crusade.
James's sonsPedro Fernández andFernán Sánchez, who had been given command of part of the fleet, did continue on their way toAcre, where they arrived in December. They found thatBaibars, theMameluke Sultan ofEgypt, had broken his truce with theKingdom of Jerusalem and was making a demonstration of his military power in front of Acre. During the demonstration, Egyptian troops hidden in the bushes ambushed a returning Frankish force that had been inGalilee. James's sons, initially eager for a fight, changed their minds after this spectacle and returned home viaSicily, where Fernán Sánchez was knighted byCharles of Anjou.
James built and consecrated theCathedral of Lleida, which was constructed in a style transitional betweenRomanesque andGothic with little influence fromMoorish styles.[1]
James was a patron of theUniversity of Montpellier, which owed much of its development to his impetus.[1] He also founded astudium at Valencia in 1245 and received privileges for it fromPope Innocent IV, but it did not develop as splendidly.[1] In 1263, James presided over a debate inBarcelona between the JewishrabbiNahmanides andPablo Christiani, a prominentconverso.
James was the first great sponsor and patron of vernacular Catalan literature. Indeed, he may himself be called "the first of the Catalan prose writers."[12] James wrote or dictated at various stages a chronicle of his own life in Catalan,Llibre dels fets, the first autobiography by a Christian king. As well as being a fine example of autobiography, the "Book of Deeds" expresses concepts of the power and purpose of monarchy, examples of loyalty and treachery in thefeudal order, and medieval military tactics. More controversially, some historians have looked at these writings as a source ofCatalan identity, separate from that ofOccitania andRome.
James also wrote theLibre de la Saviesa or "Book of Wisdom." The book contains proverbs from various authors, reaching from the time ofKing Solomon to nearly his own time withAlbertus Magnus. It even contains maxims from the medieval Arab philosophers and from theApophthegmata Philosophorum ofHonein ben Ishak, which was probably translated at Barcelona during his reign. AHebrew translator by the name of Jehuda was employed at James's court during this period.[12]
Though James was himself a prose writer and sponsored mostly prose works, he had an appreciation of verse.[13] In consequence of theAlbigensian Crusade, manytroubadours were forced to flee southern France and many found refuge in Aragon. Notwithstanding his early patronage of poetry, by the influence of his confessorRamon de Penyafort, James brought theInquisition into his realm in 1233 to prevent any vernacular translation of theBible.[13]
The favour James showed his illegitimate offspring led to protest from the nobles, and to conflicts between his legitimate and illegitimate sons. When one of the latter,Fernán Sánchez, who had behaved with gross ingratitude and treason toward his father, was slain by the legitimate sonPeter, the old king recorded his grim satisfaction.[citation needed]
In his will, James divided his states between his sons byYolanda of Hungary: the aforementioned Peter received the Hispanic possessions on the mainland andJames received theKingdom of Majorca, which included the Balearic Islands, the counties ofRoussillon andCerdanya, and the Lordship of Montpellier. The division inevitably produced fratricidal conflicts. In 1276, the king fell very ill atAlzira and resigned his crown, intending to retire to themonastery of Poblet, but he died at Valencia on 27 July.
His mummified body was later exhumed in 1856, when the monastery was under repair. A photograph of the king was taken. The photograph of the head of the mummy clearly shows the wound in the left eyebrow that the king himself explained in a passage from hisLlibre dels fets (Book of Deeds):
As I was coming with the men, I happened to turn my head towards the town in order to look at the Saracens, who had come out in great force, when a cross-bowman shot at me, and hit me beside the sun-hood, and the shot struck me on the head, the bolt lighting near the forehead. It was God's will it did not pass through the head, but the point of the arrow went half through it. In anger I struck the arrow so with my hand that I broke it: the blood came out down my face; I wiped it off with a mantle of "sendal" I had, and went away laughing, that the army might not take alarm.[14]
James first married, in 1221,Eleanor, daughter ofAlfonso VIII of Castile andEleanor of England. Though he later had the marriage annulled, his one son by her was declared legitimate:
In 1235, James remarried toYolanda, daughter ofAndrew II of Hungary by his second wife Yolande de Courtenay. They had numerous children:
James married thirdlyTeresa Gil de Vidaure, but only by a private document, and left her when (as he claimed) she developedleprosy.
The children in the third marriage were recognised in his last will as being in the line of succession to the throne, should the senior lines fail.
James also had several lovers, both during and after his marriages, and fathered several illegitimate sons.
By Blanca d'Antillón:
By Berenguela Fernández:
By Elvira Sarroca:
James I of Aragon.
James I of Aragon Born: 2 February 1208 Died: 27 July 1276 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | King of Aragon Count of Barcelona 1213–1276 | Succeeded by |
| New title | King of Valencia 1238–1276 | |
| King of Majorca 1231–1276 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Lord of Montpellier 1219–1276 | |
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