Kingdom of Aragon
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Kingdom of Aragon Reino de Aragón |
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 In the center the coat of arms of the Crown of Aragon. The coats of arms representing the Kingdom of Aragon are attached to it on both sides; left the “Cross of Íñigo Arista”, right the “Cross of Alcoraz”. |
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| Official language |
Aragonese Catalan Spanish |
| Capital | 1035-1096: Jaca 1096-1118: Huesca 1118-1707: Saragossa |
| Monarchs | List of the kings of Aragon |
| religion |
Christian ( Roman Catholic Church ) |
| founding | 1035 |
| resolution | 1707 |
The Kingdom of Aragón ( Aragonese Reino d'Aragón , Catalan Regne d'Aragó , Spanish Reino de Aragón ) was a state structure of medieval Spain , which existed from 1035 to 1707.
The Kingdom of Aragón emerged in 1035 through a split from the Basque Kingdom of Navarre under a side branch of the House of Jiménez . In the first century of its existence, it was next to the kingdom of Navarre, the out of the kingdom of Asturias emerged Kingdom of León - Castile and turn it split Kingdom Portugal as one of the four most important Christian kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula establish. Originally limited to the southern foothills of the Pyrenees , it was able to expand considerably to the south in the course of the Reconquista against the Muslim Al-Andalus .
In the middle of the 12th century, the Kingdom of Aragón became the namesake of the Aragon Crown . This territorial conglomerate was created by the union of the Kingdom with Catalonia under the House of Barcelona .
Through a dynastic union in the early 16th century, Aragón and the countries associated with it were connected to the Kingdom of Castile to form the modern Kingdom of Spain. Aragón continued to exist as an autonomous regional body until it was dissolved in 1707 by King Philip V in the Decretos de Nueva Planta and united with the institutions of Castile to form a central Spanish state. It was not until 1982 that Aragón, now as an autonomous community within Spain (see: Aragon ), received the status of an independent regional authority again.
history
Origin and expansion
The Spanish Kingdom of Aragón had its origins in the old Franconian county of Aragón , which had existed as one of the administrative districts of the Spanish march of the Frankish Empire since the early 9th century . The county then comprised the area around the main town Jaca , corresponding to today's Comarca Jacetania , and was named after the Río Aragón that flows through it. The count's house was probably of Basque descent and quickly alienated itself from the Frankish Empire due to dynastic and thus political ties to the neighboring independent Basques of Pamplona ( Kingdom of Navarre ). Through the marriage of his last heiress Andregoto to King García I , Aragón was finally annexed to the Kingdom of Navarre, where it remained for several generations. King Sancho III. the great one , who won the rule over almost all Christian empires of Spain for his dynasty, decided shortly before his death in 1035 a division of territory among his sons. He thought of his illegitimate son Ramiro I in the old county of Aragón, for which he, like all other brothers, was to be given all the regalia of a king, which ultimately established the Kingdom of Aragón.
Even under his first energetic kings from the House of Jiménez, Aragón expanded its territory considerably and thus secured a place among the authoritative Spanish empires of the Middle Ages. Ramiro I (1035-1063) initially claimed the independence of his small empire from his older brother García III. of Navarre and took over after the death of his younger brother Gonzalo in 1045 his areas of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza . His son Sancho Ramírez (1063-1094) initiated a political rapprochement with the Roman Church and in 1076 annexed the core areas of Navarre around Pamplona . Under him, the expansion against Al-Andalus began, with the Taifa Kingdom of Saragossa as an immediate enemy. Aragón was particularly favored by French military aid, which was won thanks to the mediation of the Pope and family ties between the royal family and the French nobility. With the conquests of Huesca in 1096 and Barbastro in 1100 by Peter I (1094–1104), the border of Aragon could be advanced to the Vero . Under Alfonso I "the warrior" ( el Batallador , 1104–1134), the middle Ebro Valley including the northernmost Muslim outpost of Saragossa was conquered in 1118, which was repopulated with Christian ethnic groups ( Repoblación ) and made the new capital of the kingdom.
Crown of Aragon
Upon the death of Alfonso I, who had left no heir to the throne, the Aragonese greats proclaimed his brother Ramiro II (1134–1137) king, although he had belonged to a clerical class as a monk and select bishop. After a brief political interplay with the King of León-Castile, Alfonso VII "the Emperor" , Ramiro was able to preserve his brothers' conquests. Immediately after the birth of his daughter Petronella (1137–1164) he made her his heiress, married her to the powerful Count Raimund Berengar IV of Barcelona in 1137 and handed over the affairs of government in Aragón to him. This Aragonese-Catalan marriage founded the dynastic personal union of Aragon and Catalonia, which laid the foundation of a territorial conglomerate under the umbrella term “Crown of Aragon” , which held the dominant position in the western Mediterranean during the Middle Ages and early modern times . Under the first king of this union, Alfonso II (1162-1196), the territorial expansion of Aragon had reached its end with the establishment of Teruel in 1171. A further expansion in the area south of it was blocked by the conquest of Castile and the establishment of the Kingdom of Valencia .
The kingdom of the Crown of Aragon under the House of Barcelona was not a centralized unitary state, but from the beginning corresponded to a personal union in which the two sub-kingdoms, namely the Kingdom of Aragon and the Principality of Catalonia, with the exception of the ruler, remained institutionally separated from each other and each had their own legal customs . For example, since the late 12th century, the Aragón estates had sought to protect their interests within the conglomerate in their own council ( Cortes ). The relationship between the two sub-kingdoms was not free from tension, despite a common ruler. Especially when Aragón fell behind Catalonia economically and politically in the 13th century, as it was deprived of its possibilities for expansion and thus access to the sea as a purely inland country by the establishment of the Kingdom of Valencia, while Catalonia favored its coastal location as a center of trade and politics in the western Mediterranean could rise. The differences between Aragón and Catalonia finally culminated in the dispute over the direction that followed the heirless death of the last king of the House of Barcelona, Martin I , in 1410 and the representatives of the estates of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia struggled for his successor. In the compromise of Caspe in 1412, the Aragonese had finally prevailed with the support of the Valencians and elected a member of the Castilian royal family Trastámara to the throne, against a pretender of the Catalan dynasty. With this election the dynastic rapprochement of the Crown of Aragón to the Kingdom of Castile had been initiated, which by the marriage (1469) of King Ferdinand II "the Catholic" (1452–1516) with his cousin, Queen Isabella I "the Catholic" ( 1451–1504), led to a permanent personal union with Castile, on which the united Kingdom of Spain is based.
In united Spain
Even within Spain, united in personal union under the House of Habsburg , Aragón and those areas associated with his crown retained their state autonomy with their own Cortes and self-government. This changed, however, after the Spanish Habsburgs died out and the war of Spanish Succession that followed in 1701. In addition to the Estates of Catalonia, those of Aragón also supported the pretender of the Austrian Habsburgs, Archduke Karl ("Carlos III") , in the fight against the Heir to the throne appointed by the last king, the French Bourbon Philip V, after he had won a decisive victory against the Habsburgs and their allies in the battle of Almansa on April 25, 1707, he used this success to reorganize the administrative structure of the Spanish kingdom. In doing so, following the example of his French homeland and the absolutism of his grandfather Louis XIV , he sought a centralization of the Spanish state, whereby the autonomy of its partial members, especially that of the Aragon Crown, should be abolished. On June 29, 1707 Philip V decreed in the first Decretos de Nueva Planta issued by him, the dissolution of the Cortes and the generalities of Aragón and Valencia and repealed the legal systems ( Fuero ) of both kingdoms. The Kingdom of Aragon ceased to exist. It was now administratively linked as a province with the Castilian state, in which the Spanish central state manifested itself. The victory of Archduke Charles in the Battle of Saragossa with the subsequent occupation of the city in 1710 could no longer influence this development. In 1714 the Archduke had to finally renounce the Spanish throne in the Peace of Rastatt , whereupon Philip V was also able to incorporate Catalonia and the Balearic Islands into the Spanish state.
However, the title of King of Aragón has remained in the traditional Spanish royal statute to this day.
outlook
During the French occupation of Spain in the Napoleonic Wars , the Aragonese province was administratively divided into three prefectures (Ebro y Cina, Ebro y Jalón and Guadalaviar Alto) in 1810. After the return of the Bourbons, they were reorganized in a first reorganization of the Spanish state in 1822 into the four provinces of Calatayud, Huesca, Teruel and Saragossa. In a second reorganization initiated by Interior Minister Francisco Javier de Burgos in 1833 , the Calatayud Province was connected to that of Saragossa. The three provinces that have existed since then were defined as parts of the "historical region of Aragón", which, however, was not an administrative institution. It was only with the entry into force of the Statute of Autonomy for Aragón on August 10, 1982, that this region was regained the status of a separate local authority with its own government and legislation as an autonomous community (Comunidad autónoma) within the limits of the old kingdom and with Saragossa as the capital.
heraldry
The banner of today's autonomous community of Aragón is borrowed from the coat of arms of the royal house of Aragon. This coat of arms is already documented in the seals of Count Raimund Berengar IV. After his marriage to Queen Petronella, it became the coat of arms of the Crown of Aragon. It is not known of the earlier kings of Aragon that they ever had their own coat of arms, especially since the coat of arms did not appear until the second half of the 12th century. However, this was retrospectively attributed to them in the reigns of King Peter IV (1336-1387) and John I (1387-1396) by adding their own heraldic representations in various genealogical treatises from that time.
For example, the first king of Aragon, Ramiro I, was given a sky-blue shield with a white cross symbol heraldically applied to the right. This cross was 
borrowed from the characteristic signature with which this king used to sign his documents. The Aragonese historian Jéronimo Zurita (Anales de la corona de Aragón) saw a divine sign in this cross, which, according to legend, appeared in the sky to the Basque leader Íñigo Arista during a battle against the Moors . The "Cross of Íñigo Arista" should refer to the origin of the Jiménez family from the Basque-Navarre royal family.
From King Peter I, however, a new coat of arms was assigned to the House of Jiménez, the so-called "Cross of Alcoraz", which, however, only emerged from the coinage of King Peter III. (1276-1285) is known. In all likelihood, this coat of arms originated from the ideal of the crusade of the 13th century, which Peter II (1196–1213) and James I “the Conqueror” (1213–1276) in particular pursued. But traditionally its origin is explained since the 14th century with an equally legendary tradition, according to which King Peter I was presented with four severed heads of Moorish princes as a trophy after the victorious battle of Alcoraz (1096). And since the king recognized this victory as a result of the support of St. George , he accepted his cross symbol supplemented by the four Moorish heads as the new coat of arms of his dynasty. The coats of arms of the islands of Sardinia and Corsica , which belonged to the crown of Aragon for several generations, probably have their origin in the "Cross of Alcoraz".
From the late 15th century both coats of arms, combined with that of the Crown of Aragón and supplemented by a fourth coat of arms representing the Sobrarbe region , were combined to form a four- sided coat of arms , which is now used as the coat of arms of the autonomous community of Aragón .