Kingdom of Valencia
The Kingdom of Valencia on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula was part of the Aragon Crown . When these and the Kingdom of Castile formed the Kingdom of Spain by dynastic means , the Kingdom of Valencia became part of the Spanish monarchy.
The Kingdom of Valencia was created in 1237 when the Moorish Taifa Kingdom of Valencia was conquered during the Reconquista . In 1707 it was dissolved by King Philip V's Decretos de Nueva Planta during the War of the Spanish Succession .
In the centuries of its existence, the kingdom was governed on the basis of the laws and institutions established in the Furs de Valencia , through which the country retained extensive autonomy. The boundaries and identity of today's autonomous community Comunitat Valenciana are largely based on the ancient Kingdom of Valencia.
The conquest
procedure
The conquest of the Kingdom of Valencia began in 1232 when King James I of Aragón ( Jaume I el Conqueridor ) conquered Morella mainly with Aragonese troops. A little later, in 1233, Burriana and Peñíscola were also taken away from the Taifa Balansiya ( Valencia in Arabic ).
A second and much more important wave of conquest began in 1237 when James I defeated the troops of Taifa Balansiya. He entered the city of Valencia on October 9, 1237, and that date is now considered the birthday of the Kingdom of Valencia.
A third phase of the conquest took place between 1243 and 1245, during which the boundaries established in the Treaty of Almizra between James I and the heir to the Castilian throne, Alfonso the Wise , took shape. With this phase, the Reconquista was completed for the Aragon Crown, since all areas further south and west were reserved for Castile.
King James II the Righteous , a grandson of Jacob I, crossed the border set in the Treaty of Almizra in 1296 and conquered the fertile land around Murcia , Orihuela and the Vega Baja del Segura , whose local rulers were allied with Castile. The borders between Castile and the Crown of Aragón were finally revised in 1304 by the Treaty of Torrellas ( Sentencia Arbitral de Torrellas ) and in 1305 by the Treaty of Elche , which added Orihuela, Alicante and Elche to the Kingdom of Valencia and Murcia to Castile.
After the conquest, four taifas disappeared from the map: Balansiya, Alpuente , Dénia and Murcia.
aims
Modern research sees the conquest of Valencia as the king's struggle for new land that should be free from claims of the nobility - similar to the crown of Castile. The new territories were to belong to the king alone, who thereby increased and secured his power over the nobility. Although Aragonese nobles also received property in the conquered area, but only in the sparsely populated and mountainous hinterland. The king kept the fertile and densely populated coastal plain for himself.
This regulation has linguistic consequences to this day:
- The hinterland was largely settled by colonists who spoke Aragonese , a language that has now been superseded by Castilian .
- The coast was largely settled by colonists who spoke Catalan , from which Valencian , which is still dominant today, developed .
Fate of the Muslim population
The conquest of the Muslim Taifa states by no means meant the end of Muslim existence in these areas. The Muslims were allowed to remain on the territory of the Kingdom of Valencia as Mudejares . In contrast to other areas on the Iberian Peninsula, the Mudejars in the area around Valencia even made up the majority of the population. They were important in maintaining the country's economy, although at the same time they were seen as a threat to the stability of the kingdom. In fact, under the leadership of the Arab prince Abū ʿAbdallāh Muhammad ibn Hudhail, called Al-Azraq ("the blue-eyed"), violent revolts against Christian rule broke out several times, for example in 1243, 1248, 1258 and 1276. Al-Azraq was in 1244 declared a vassal of Jacob's son, but continued to rule in the manner of a Taifa prince. His power could not be broken until the last Mudejar uprising in 1276, in which he fell near Alcoy. An important refuge for the Muslims during the uprisings was the Montesa fortress in the south of the kingdom. Conversely, between 1276 and 1291 there were multiple riots by Christian groups against the Muslim communities.
As Mudejars, Muslims had some rights. When the Muslims of the Uxo Valley surrendered to Jacob I in 1250, he issued them a certificate that guaranteed them several rights: 1. After their Sunnah, Muslims are allowed to marry, celebrate public services and move freely in the country; 2. They may elect their qādīs and authorized representatives and use the income from the mosque goods for the intended purposes; 3. Christians are only allowed to dwell with them if they agree; 4. Muslims from the Uxo Valley who want to travel to Muslim territory are allowed to do so. Conversely, they had the duty to pay one eighth of their income to the king or his agent. In addition, they were not allowed to travel to areas that were at war with the king. Later, however, under the influence of the Church, the rights of Muslims were restricted. In 1313 James II forbade the public recitation of Muslim prayers.
The heyday
The kingdom of Valencia had its heyday in the 15th century on the basis of trade, which in the Mediterranean was more and more controlled by the Aragonese crown with the base ports of Barcelona and Valencia. The “Taula de canvis” was opened in Valencia, partly a bank, partly an exchange. Perhaps the most beautiful building from this period is the Llotja de la Seda silk exchange , one of the major trading centers in the Mediterranean in the 16th century and one of the best examples of civil Gothic architecture in Europe. Valencia was one of the first cities in Europe to embrace letterpress printing (the first book printed in the Iberian Peninsula was printed in Valencia ). Authors like Joanot Martorell and Ausiàs March are the main writers of this time.
The decline
In 1479 the Kingdom of Valencia became part of Spain with the unification of Aragon and Castile. The Habsburg kings (1516–1700) confirmed the privileges and freedoms of their countries, the administrative structures remained intact. The decline began with the expulsion of the Jews in 1492 ( Alhambra Edict ), continued as the new kingdom began to focus more on the overseas colonies , and culminated when the rise of the Ottoman Empire and piracy in the western Mediterranean ( Khair ad -Din Barbarossa , Turgut Reis ) brought Mediterranean trade almost to a standstill: Valencia lost its status as a European economic metropolis to the cities of northern and central Europe.
In 1521 social tensions pent up due to the economic crisis erupted in the Rebelión de las Germanias or Revolte de les Germanies, an uprising of artisan guilds against the nobility and bourgeoisie. The Mudejars remained loyal to the nobility during these uprisings, which was one of the reasons for the failure of the revolutionary movement. After the rebellion was put down, the king was able to expand his power in Valencia. The Christian mob took revenge on the Muslims for their role in the uprising by force and forced them to convert to Christianity. In this way a community of crypto-Muslims emerged. The expulsion of these crypto-Muslim Moors from 1609 to 1614 was the final blow that brought the Valencian economy finally ground to a halt. Thousands of displaced people meant that entire towns were abandoned and agriculture lost its workforce.
The end of the Kingdom of Valencia came in 1707 as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession. The population had mostly supported the Habsburg pretender. After the Battle of Almansa and the victory of the Bourbons, the new King Philip V dissolved the old structures and created a centralized monarchy.
literature
- Robert Ignatius Burns: Islam under the crusaders: colonial survival in the thirteenth-century kingdom of Valencia . Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, 1973
- LP Harvey: Islamic Spain, 1250-1500. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1990. pp. 118-137.
Web links
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Harvey: Islamic Spain, 1250-1500. 1990, p. 99.
- ↑ See Harvey: Islamic Spain, 1250-1500. 1990, p. 122.
- ↑ See Harvey: Islamic Spain, 1250-1500. 1990, p. 121.
- ↑ See Harvey: Islamic Spain, 1250-1500. 1990, p. 135.
- ↑ See Harvey: Islamic Spain, 1250-1500. 1990, pp. 125f.
- ↑ See Harvey: Islamic Spain, 1250-1500. 1990, p. 134.
- ↑ See Harvey: Islamic Spain, 1250-1500. 1990, p. 133.
- ↑ See Harvey: Islamic Spain, 1250-1500. 1990, p. 136.
