Prince of Girona

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Coat of arms of the princes of Gerona

Prince of Girona ( Spanish Príncipe de Gerona [ xeˈɾona ]; Catalan Príncep de Girona [ ʒiˈɾonə ]), until 1388 Duke of Girona (Spanish Duque de Gerona ; Catalan Duc de Girona ), is a Spanish nobility title , which was given in 1351 by King Peter IV. Of Aragon was created for his firstborn son and heir to the throne by amalgamating four Catalan counties ( see below ). Current title holder as Princess of Girona ( Princesa de Gerona ; Princesa de Girona ) is the eldest daughter of the reigning King of Spain , Felipe VI. , the Spanish Crown Princess Leonor de Borbón .

The following nobility titles are directly connected to the title of prince of Girona:

Origin of the duchy

The Duchy of Girona ( Latin: ducatus Gerundensis ) was created in 1351 by Peter IV of Aragón for their son John , who was born in 1350 . The king followed a development in other kingdoms of Europe ( Prince of Wales 1301, Dauphin 1349). For the area of ​​the duchy, Peter IV combined the previous counties of Girona , Besalú , Empúries and Osona in one duchy. The creation of the duchy did not separate it from the lands of the Aragonese crown; the duchy / principality reverted to the crown upon death or upon the takeover of the crown of Aragon by the title holder. The nobles, clergy and representatives of the cities of this area should continue to be represented in the Cortes of Catalonia .

Reasons for creating

With the creation of the title Duke of Girona and the enfeoffment of the rulers, the king's eldest son, as heir to the throne, was to be given his own source of income in order to enable him to hold an appropriate court. Through the title of duke, the heir to the throne stood in the hierarchy above all other nobles who were represented in the respective Cortes. This position was to come to the king's son at an age at which he was unable to perform the tasks associated with it.

The title was only available to descendants of the ruling king, but not to heirs to the throne who succeeded him as younger brothers or who came to the throne from sidelines of the ruling house. These were only awarded the title of Duke of Montblanc. Only the later King John I and his son Jacob bore the title Duke of Girona . When Ferdinand I became King of Aragon in 1412, he appointed his son, who later became King Alfonso V , as Prince of Girona . This title is still common today.

When choosing the county of Girona (Gerona) as the namesake of the new ducal title, the origins of the Crown of Aragon should be emphasized. The county of Girona belonged to Catalonia as a heartland of the Counts of Barcelona and had never before been given to members of the royal family as a secondary school . After Peter IV had regained the lands of the Crown of Mallorca ( Mallorca , Roussillon and Cerdanya , but not the dominion of Montpellier ) for the Aragonese crown, he wanted the cohesion of his entire kingdom by appointing the Duke of Girona as his sole representative for all empires Strengthen territories. The princes of Girona were sworn in as representatives of the king in the Cortes of the individual kingdoms of the Aragonese crown (as far as such an oath was customary). This also clearly established and confirmed the succession to the throne and the indivisibility of rule.

History of the title and its bearers

Duke of Girona (1351-1388)

The first bearer of the title Dux Gerundensis was Johann , the son of King Peter IV. He was followed by Johann's son Jakob. He died before his father. The future heir to the throne was then Martin I. However, since Martin was not the king's eldest son, he received the title of Duke of Montblanch. His son, Martin , called the boy, was already King of Sicily by the time he became heir to the throne of Aragon, so he was not awarded the lesser title of Duke of Girona. Ferdinand I was never heir to the throne, but became king of Aragon through an arbitration award from Caspe . His son Alfons became the first prince of Girona in 1412 .

Prince of Girona (1412 until today)

The first Prince Alfons had no legitimate sons, so that his brother Johann became heir to the throne, but as a second-born he could not become Prince of Girona. Johann's son, Ferdinand , got the title after the death of his half-brother Karl von Viana .

With John of Aragon and Castile , the first heir to the throne became Prince of Asturias and Prince of Girona . After his death, Miguel da Paz , the son of his sister Isabella , became heir to the throne and thus Prince of Girona as the grandson of the reigning King Ferdinand II. Miguel da Paz died in 1500 at the age of two. In 1502 Johanna and her husband Philipp were sworn in as the new princes of Girona. Until King Ferdinand's death in 1516, Johanna continued to be the heir to the throne in relation to the Aragonese crown. Their eldest son Karl became King of Aragon after the death of his grandfather Ferdinand , without having previously been formally heir to the throne.

Since King Charles I came to power in 1516, the kingdoms of the Crown of Aragón have been ruled in personal union or real union with, among others, the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile and the Kingdom of Navarre . The Crown Princes have since received the titles of Prince of Asturias as heir to the throne in Castile, Prince of Viana as heir to the throne in Navarre and Prince of Girona as heir to the throne in the lands of the Crown of Aragon. As a sworn prince of Girona, Philip II took on government duties in the Aragonese countries, such as B. the presidency of the Cortes, true for his father Karl. Philip's sons, Karl and Ferdinand , were successively the eldest sons of the king, Princes of Girona, but died before their father. After his two brothers Baltasar Carlos and Philipp Prosper , the later King Charles II was the last prince of Girona of the Ancien Régime .

After his victory in the War of the Spanish Succession , Philip V reorganized Spain into a central state by abolishing most of the institutions of the individual sub-empires in favor of the institutions of Castile. These reforms, which were laid down in the Decretos de Nueva Planta , also included the abolition of the title of Prince of Girona.

In 1941 Juan de Borbón y Battenberg , the head of the Spanish royal family in exile, reintroduced the title and bestowed it on his son, who later became King Juan Carlos I. After the proclamation as King of Spain, the title went from Juan Carlos I. on the then heir to the throne Felipe . The current title holder is Crown Princess Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz , the eldest child of the reigning King Felipe VI. and his wife Letizia . According to Art. 57, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Spain of 1978, the first-born child (= regardless of its gender) is entitled to the title, so female primogeniture is also possible. However, if the king had a legitimate son, the title would pass from the first-born daughter to the younger brother due to the birthright that still applies in Spain.

List of the dukes / princes of Girona

Some of the Infants carried the title, but were not sworn in before the Cortes.

House Barcelona / Aragon
  • Johann (1351–1387), later King Johann I.
  • Jacob (1387-1388); died before his father
House Trastámara
House of Austria (Habsburg)
House Borbón

literature

  • Antonio Ubieto Arteta: Historia de Aragón - Creación y Desarollo de la Corona de Aragón . tape 1 . Anubar Ediciones, Zaragoza 1987, ISBN 84-7013-227-X , p. 207 (Spanish, online ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In contrast to today's Catalan province of Girona (as well as the city ​​of Girona ), the (historical) Catalan principality dealt with in this article is referred to as Gerona in Spanish and partly in German-language literature , but now more often as Girona , which is why this is Article uses this notation.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Latin document of January 21, 1351 is published in: Manuel de Bofarull y de Sartorio (ed.): Colección de documentos inéditos del Archivo General de la Corona de Aragón, publicada de Real order. Vol. 6. Monfort, Barcelona 1850, pp. 258-266 (digitized version ) and ibid., Vol. 33. Barcelona 1867, p. 401-410: “Copia creationis et erectionis ducatus Gerundensis” (digitized version ) .
  2. ↑ José Angel Sesma Muñoz: El ducado / principado de Gerona y la monarquía aragonesa bajomedieval . In: Aragón en la Edad Media, ISSN  0213-2486 , Nº 14-15, 2. 1999, p. 1.510 , accessed on January 31, 2015 (Spanish).
  3. ^ Antonio Ubieto Arteta: Historia de Aragón - Creación y Desarollo de la Corona de Aragón . tape 1 . Anubar Ediciones, Zaragoza 1987, ISBN 84-7013-227-X , p. 207 (Spanish, online ).
  4. ^ Antonio Ubieto Arteta: Historia de Aragón - Creación y Desarollo de la Corona de Aragón . tape 1 . Anubar Ediciones, Zaragoza 1987, ISBN 84-7013-227-X , p. 206 (Spanish, online ).
  5. ↑ José Angel Sesma Muñoz: El ducado / principado de Gerona y la monarquía aragonesa bajomedieval . In: Aragón en la Edad Media, ISSN  0213-2486 , Nº 14-15, 2. 1999, p. 1.514 , accessed on January 31, 2015 (Spanish).
  6. ↑ José Angel Sesma Muñoz: El ducado / principado de Gerona y la monarquía aragonesa bajomedieval . In: Aragón en la Edad Media, ISSN  0213-2486 , Nº 14-15, 2. 1999, p. 1.508 , accessed on January 31, 2015 (Spanish).
  7. ↑ José Angel Sesma Muñoz: El ducado / principado de Gerona y la monarquía aragonesa bajomedieval . (PDF) In: Aragón en la Edad Media, ISSN  0213-2486 , Nº 14-15, 2. 1999, p. 1.512 , accessed on January 31, 2015 (Spanish).
  8. ↑ José Angel Sesma Muñoz: El ducado / principado de Gerona y la monarquía aragonesa bajomedieval . (PDF) In: Aragón en la Edad Media, ISSN  0213-2486 , Nº 14-15, 2. 1999, p. 1.514 , accessed on January 31, 2015 (Spanish).
  9. ^ Su Alteza Real la Princesa de Asturias . Biography . In: Casa de Su Majestad el Rey. Palacio de la Zarzuela , accessed March 24, 2015 (Spanish).
  10. ↑ King Felipe VI: How Spain changes with the change of the throne. In: Süddeutsche.de. June 17, 2014, accessed June 19, 2014 .