Jacob III (Mallorca)

Jacob III of Mallorca ( Catalan : Jaume III de Mallorca ; * April 5, 1315 in Catania ; † October 25, 1349 in Llucmajor ), called "the Bold" (catal .: el Temerari ), was king of Mallorca from 1324 to 1344/49 , Count of Cerdanya and Roussillon and Lord of Montpellier from the House of Barcelona .

Jacob III from Mallorca

Life

Jacob was the only son of the Infante Ferdinand of Mallorca , the third son of King James II , and Isabel de Sabran, Countess of Matagrifó. He became an orphan at an early age after his father was defeated and killed by his enemies in 1316 while attempting to conquer the Principality of Achaia in Greece . Jacob was brought to Perpignan by the chronicler Ramon Muntaner , to the court of his uncle King Sancho , where he was raised in the care of his grandmother Esclarmunda von Foix . Since the uncle had no legitimate children, Jacob was appointed by him as his heir to the throne and finally succeeded him in 1324. Because of his immaturity, another uncle, Infante Philipp, led the government for Jakob.

Jacob was confronted with Aragon's claims to the Mallorcan throne, which were initially averted with the help of the Pope, but had to take the oath of feudalism in 1327 Jacob II of Aragón and in 1329 Alfons IV of Aragon . To King Philip VI. of France he paid homage to Montpellier in 1331 . After Peter IV of Aragon took office , the Aragonese claims revived. In a trial that began in 1342, Jacob was found guilty of conspiracy with enemies of Aragon in February 1343 and his property was subsequently deprived of his property. In the same year, Aragonese troops landed on Mallorca and defeated Jacob's troops at Santa Ponça, in 1344 Roussillon and Cerdanya also fell into the hands of Aragón and Jacob fled to France. Here he sold Montpellier in 1349 for 120,000 gold thalers to the French king to finance the reconquest of Mallorca. His ambitions ended with his death in the Battle of Llucmajor, Mallorca finally fell to Aragón. His body was first buried in the Cathedral of Valencia , later transferred to the Cathedral of La Seu in Palma .

Jacob's children held on to their claims to the Kingdom of Mallorca until 1403, but could not enforce them.

progeny

In 1336 he married Konstanze von Aragón (1322-1346), the daughter of King Alfonso IV. From the marriage came Jacob IV , who married Queen Joan I of Naples in 1363 , and a daughter Isabella (1337-1406), who was with Margrave Johann II of Montferrat was married. From the second marriage to Violante von Villaragut, in 1347, there was only one daughter, Esclaramunda (1348-1349), who died young.

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• Note: Jacob III. is occasionally referred to with the ordinal number "II", if the first king of Mallorca, James I of Aragón, is not included in the count.

literature

• Ludwig Vones: Jakob III . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 5, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7608-8905-0 , column 283 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Sancho I.	King of Mallorca 1324-1344 / 1349	Mallorca falls to Aragón (King Peter IV. )