In 1479, uponJohn II of Aragon's death, the crowns of Aragon and Castile were united to form the nucleus of modern Spain. The Aragonese lands retained autonomous parliamentary and administrative institutions, such as theCorts. The arrangement remained until theNueva Planta decrees, promulgated between 1707 and 1715 by Philip V of Spain in the aftermath of theWar of the Spanish Succession, centralised power in Spain.[2][3] However, the title "King of Aragon" would continue to be used by the centralised Spanish crown.
Aragon was originally aCarolingianfeudalcounty around the city ofJaca, which in the first half of the 9th century became a vassal state of the kingdom ofPamplona (laterNavarre), its own dynasty of counts ending without a male heir in 922. The nameAragón is the same as that of theriver Aragón, which flows by Jaca. It might derive from theBasqueAragona/Haragona meaning "good upper valley" (haran+goi+ona, whereharan = "valley",goi = "upper, high", andona =good). Alternatively, the name may be derived from the earlier Roman province ofHispania Tarraconensis.[citation needed]
By defeating his brother,García Sánchez III of Navarre, Ramiro achieved independence for Aragon. His sonSancho Ramírez, who also inherited the kingdom of Navarre, was the first to call himself "King of the Aragonese and Pamplonese".[5] As the Aragonese domains expanded to the south, conquering land fromAl Andalus, the capital city moved from Jaca toHuesca (1096), and later toZaragoza (1118).[6] AfterAlfonso the Battler died childless in 1134, different rulers were chosen for Navarre and Aragon, and the two kingdoms ceased to have the same ruler. By 1285 the southernmost areas of what is nowAragon had been taken from theMoors.
The Kingdom of Aragon gave the name to theCrown of Aragon, created in 1150 with thedynastic union resulting from the marriage of the Princess of Aragon,Petronilla, and theCount of Barcelona,Ramon Berenguer IV. Their son Alfonso II inherited all of the territories ruled by his father and mother. The King of Aragon also held the title of Count of Barcelona and ruled territories that consisted of not only the present administrative region of Aragon, but alsoCatalonia, and later the kingdoms ofMajorca,Valencia,Sicily,Naples andSardinia.
The King of Aragón was the direct ruler of the Aragonese region, and held the titles ofCount of Provence,Count of Barcelona, Lord ofMontpellier, andDuke of Athens andNeopatria. Each of these titles gave him sovereignty over a certain region, and these titles changed as he won and lost territories. In the 14th century, his power was greatly restricted by theUnion of Aragon.
Union of the Crowns of Aragon and Castile and afterwards
TheCrown of Aragon became a part of theSpanish monarchy after the dynastic union withCastile, which supposed thede facto unification of both kingdoms under a common monarch. The house of Barcelona held the Crown until 1410, when it went extinct. Subsequently, in 1412 the Aragonese secured the election of a Castilian prince,Ferdinand of Antequera, to the vacant Aragonese throne, over strong Catalan opposition. One of Ferdinand's successors,John II of Aragon (1458–1479), countered residual Catalan resistance by arranging for his heir, Ferdinand, to marryIsabella, the heir presumptive ofHenry IV of Castile.[7]
In 1479, upon John II's death, the crowns of Aragon and Castile were united to form the nucleus of modern Spain. Aragonese territories retained their autonomous parliamentary and administrative institutions, such as theCorts, until theNueva Planta decrees, which were promulgated between 1707 and 1715 by Philip V of Spain in the aftermath of theWar of the Spanish Succession.[7] The decreesde jure ended the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia and Mallorca, and the Principality of Catalonia, and merged them with Castile to officially form the Spanish kingdom.[8] A new Nueva Planta decree in 1711 restored some rights in Aragon, such as the Aragonese Civil Rights, but upheld the end of the political independence of the kingdom.[8]
The previous Kingdom of Aragon remained as an administrative unit until 1833, when it was divided into the three existing provinces. In the aftermath ofFrancisco Franco's death,Aragon became one of theautonomous communities of Spain in 1982.
^Holt, Andrew (2016).Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History [3 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 763.ISBN978-1610695664.
^I. Ruiz Rodríguez,Apuntes de historia del derecho y de las instituciones españolas, Dykinson, Madrid, 2005,p. 179. (In Spanish)
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