Aurembiaix (Urgell)

Aurembiaix († August 1231 in Balaguer ) was a countess of Urgell and mistress of King James I of Aragon . She was the heir to Count Ermengol VIII of Urgell and the Castilian noblewoman Elvira Pérez.

Life

In his will, written down on August 30, 1208, Count Ermengol VIII placed his daughter and heiress Aurembiaix under the protection of the Pope in the event that he should die before they came of age and married. With this he hoped to prevent the ambition of his nephew Guerau de Cabrera , who himself wanted to take over the County of Urgell. After the count died in 1209, his widow Elvira, ignoring the will, gave Aurembiaix as the ward of the family of King Peter II of Aragon , who was to be their new protector and defender of their rights. Aurembiaix was betrothed to the only a few months old Infante and future King Jacob . This arrangement was contractually sealed on October 31, 1209 in Lleida . Even if the engagement was terminated only a little later, King Peter II kept the contract and took Guerau prisoner after a short war in the autumn of 1211, which seemed to secure Urgell for Aurembiaix. The situation changed with the unexpected death of King Peter II in September 1213 in the battle of Muret . The ensuing anarchy in Aragon and Catalonia used Guerau de Cabrera to seize the castles in Urgell and, supported by the local knighthood, to rise to the new count. Aurembiaix and her mother were forced to exile in Castile .

In 1228 the now grown up Aurembiaix moved to the court of her former fiancé King James I of Aragón, from whom she now hoped to be appointed to Urgell, as his father had once done. Jakob I had recognized Guerau as Count in Urgell several times in the previous years, but always subject to the Aurembiaix's inheritance rights, which were to be renegotiated as soon as the latter was ready to claim them. Her interests were represented by her stepfather, Guillem de Cervera, towards the king, who held a strong position through his ties to the Montcada family . After Guerau failed to comply with a summons before the convened arbitration tribunal, the King of Aragon declared war on him. To this end, Aurembiaix and Jacob I sealed a contract in Lleida on August 1, 1228, according to which Urgell was to be handed over to Aurembiaix as a fiefdom of the king. By autumn 1228 the most important castles of Urgell such as Agramunt , Linyola and Balaguer were taken, Guerau de Cabrera died and his son Ponç had to surrender.

Apparently Aurembiaix 'developed relationship with King James I at this time a real romance that in Agramunt in the formal conclusion of the October 23, 1228 concubinage contract resulted. In it the king pledged to be loyal to her, where he was only allowed to leave her for a "lady of equal value", with Aurembiaix having fixed her value with a sum of money. Urgell should be passed on to a common child, even if it was of illegitimate origin. At that time, King James I was still married to Eleanor of Castile , who was heavily pregnant when the contract was signed. Aurembiaix gave up the cohabitation in 1229 through her marriage to Peter of Portugal . He was already her second husband; in her youth she had already been married to the Castilian nobleman Álvaro Pérez de Castro, from whom she had to separate again due to close relatives. Neither from their marriages nor from their relationship with James I. had children.

Shortly after writing her will, Aurembiaix died in Balaguer in August 1231. As ordered by her, she was buried in the Cistercian Abbey of Sant Hilari in Lleida. Her widower Peter of Portugal transferred Urgell to King James I only a few days later, who in turn handed over the county to the son of Guerau de Cabrera in 1236.

literature

• Damian J. Smith: Innocent III and the Crown of Aragon: The Limits of Papal Authority. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004, pp. 86-87.
• Ferran Soldevila: Fou Aurembiaix d'Urgell amistançada de Jaume I? , in: Revista de Catalunya , Vol. 5 (1926), pp. 408-410.

annotation

1. ↑ Diego Monfar y Sors: Historia de los condes de Urgel , Vol. 1 (1853), pp. 433-437.
2. ↑ Diego Monfar y Sors: Historia de los condes de Urgel , Vol. 1 (1853), pp. 440-443.
3. ↑ Diego Monfar y Sors: Historia de los condes de Urgel , Vol. 1 (1853), pp. 463-466. Documentos de Jaime I de Aragón , Vol. 1, ed. by Ambrosio Huici Miranda and Maria Descamparados Cabanes Pecourt (1976), No. 102.
4. ↑ The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon. A Translation of the medieval catalan Llibre dels Fets , ed. by Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery (2010), §34-46, pp. 54-67.
5. ↑ Itinerari de Jaume I "el Conqueridor" , ed. by Joaquím Miret i Sans (1918), p. 72.
6. ↑ Diego Monfar y Sors: Historia de los condes de Urgel , Vol. 1 (1853), pp. 506-508.

predecessor	Office	successor
Ermengol VIII.	Countess of Urgell ( usurped from Guerau de Cabrera 1213–1228 ) 1209–1231	Crown of Aragon