Ramiro II (Aragon)

Ramiro II.

Ramiro II the monk ( Spanish Ramiro el Monje , Aragonese Remiro o Monche ; * around 1075 ; † August 16, 1157 in Huesca ) was an Infante of Aragón from the Jiménez family , who as a younger son was initially a clergyman, but was selected as a bishop after death of his brothers from 1134 to 1137 (1157) was the last King of Aragón of his house.

Life

monk

Ramiro was the youngest son of King Sancho Ramírez of Aragón-Navarra († 1094) from his second marriage to Felicia of Roucy ; his older brothers were the kings Peter I († 1104) and Alfons I the warrior († 1134). Apparently intended by his parents for a clerical career, he had spent his early years as a monk in the Abbey of Saint-Pons-de-Thomières in the south of France .

In the marital war between his brother Alfonso I and Queen Urraca of León-Castile , Ramiro was installed as abbot in the royal Leonese abbey of Sahagún in 1112 , after Alfonso forcibly took control of it against the resistance of the monks and citizens Urraca had driven away abbot Domingo. The anonymous chronicler of the abbey and opponent of Aragonese therefore called Ramiro a “false and evil monk” (falso e mal monje) . After Urraca could bring Sahagún back under their control in 1116, Ramiro had to give way to her and the returning Domingo. The same thing happened with regard to the occupation of the bishopric of Burgos after the death of Bishop García in October 1114. The primacy of the Spanish Church, Archbishop Bernardo of Toledo, authorized for the episcopal elections, had elected the previous Archdeacon of Burgos , Pascual, as the new bishop in consensus with Queen Urraca in the same month at a council in León . This, in turn, had not accepted Alfonso, who was in control of Burgos, and instead had Ramiro elected by the cathedral clergy and citizens of the city. After a written protest by the Archbishop, Pope Paschal II had ordered both parties to an arbitration meeting in Rome at Easter 1116. Although this did not happen because both parties had renounced a trip to Rome, Pascual was able to assert himself as acting bishop in Burgos at the latest in 1117 when he was able to take part in a general church council there that year. After his death in October 1118, Alfonso, who had just besieged Saragossa , had no objection to the election of a new bishop. Since then there has been no talk of Ramiro's claim to office.

King of Aragon

The marriage contract between Raimund Berengar IV. Of Barcelona and Petronella of Aragón, drawn up on August 11, 1137 in Barbastro and signed by Ramiro II. Archivo de la Corona d'Aragón, Pergaminos de Ramón Berenguer IV, carpeta núm. 35, doc. núm. 86.

Ramiro had then spent the years as a monk in the Abbey of San Pedro el Viejo in Huesca until he was elected Bishop of Roda-Barbastro in August 1134 to replace the previous bishop who fell in the Battle of Fraga . Only shortly afterwards on September 7th, King Alfonso I, who had no heir and therefore bequeathed his kingdom to the orders of the Templars , Hospitallers and the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher , died. Neither the Navarre nor the Aragonese nobility were willing to accept this rule of law. After two separate ballots, the greats of both countries each proclaimed their own pretender to be their king and thus dissolved the union between the two kingdoms that had existed since 1076. While the Navarrese chose García IV. Ramírez, an illegitimate descendant of the Jiménez dynasty, the Aragonese had chosen the monk Ramiro as the last legitimately born member of the Aragonese branch of the dynasty. Although he had already received spiritual ordination, this process had taken place in a hurry and without asking the Pope, whose dispensation would have been required under canon law. According to the story, which has been quoted a lot since the 13th century, but can be classified as legendary, there was also resistance among the Aragonese to the accession of a monk. When Ramiro heard about it, he had spread the rumor that he wanted to cast a bell (Campana de Huesca) in Huesca , the sound of which would resound throughout the kingdom. After the greats wanted to take part in it and had arrived in Huesca, Ramiro had those twelve nobles who resisted him one after the other summoned to private audiences in order to behead them with his own hands in his room . After arranging eleven of the heads in a circle, he had the head of the leader of the rebels hung as a bell in the middle of the circle. After the other nobles saw this example, any further resistance had ceased.

Immediately after his election, Ramiro met García IV of Navarre near Vadoluongo in the spring of 1135 to formally recognize the separation of Navarre and Aragón. In doing so, however, the new King of Navarre, as the "son", entered into an adoption relationship with Ramiro as his "father" and granted him a claim to leadership. At the same time, Ramiro seems to have strived for an inheritance regulation that would have led to a reunification of Aragon with Navarre in the foreseeable future. However, this request was quickly nullified by García when he paid homage to King Alfonso VII of León-Castile as his overlord in the same year . In the late year 1135, the Leonese king, who had previously been crowned "Emperor of all Spain", entered Saragossa while greeting the bishop and city leaders , which Ramiro had to accept. As a Muslim Taifa kingdom , Zaragoza was once a vassal of León-Castile until it was conquered in 1118 by Alfonso I for Aragon. And his stepson Alfonso VII now demanded the return of the "Kingdom of Saragossa" (regnum Cesaraugustanum) under the suzerainty of his kingdom. To this end, he had initiated preparations for the enfeoffment of the apparently loyal King of Navarre with Saragossa. Ramiro had to sit by and watch from Jaca and at the same time married Agnes (Inés), a daughter of Duke Wilhelm IX. of Aquitaine . However, in the summer of 1136, the situation changed again when García of Navarre rose against the "Emperor". This now sought the rapprochement with Ramiro and returned to him Zaragoza as a fief, with which the conquests of the first kings of Aragon could be preserved for the kingdom.

In July 1136, Agnes gave birth to their daughter Petronella , whom Ramiro immediately designated as his heir and planned her marriage. In consensus with the Aragonese Great Ramiro got engaged on August 11, 1137 in Barbastro his daughter with the powerful Catalan count Ramon Berenguer IV. Barcelona , making the succession of Aragón to the House Barcelona and the historic union with Catalonia for "Crown of Aragón" initiated has been. Only a few months later, on September 13, 1137, Ramiro in Saragossa transferred the power of government over Aragón to his son-in-law and retired to the monastery of San Pedro el Viejo in Huesca to go back to the life of a monk. The marriage to Agnes evidently had already ceased to exist shortly after the birth of Petronella; it is mentioned for the last time in Aragón in a document from October 1136. She reappears as a nun in Fontevrault Abbey five years later , where she died around 1159. Ramiro himself died on August 16, 1157 in his monastery in Huesca, where he was also buried. He carried on the title of king until his death.

literature

• Thomas N. Bisson: The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2000
• Ana Isabel Lapena Paúl: Ramiro II de Aragón. El rey monje (1134-1137). Trea, Gijón 2008
• Antonio Ubieto Arteta: La fecha de la muerte de Ramiro II de Aragón. In: Estudios de Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón. Volume 3, 1947/48, pp. 474-475.
• Antonio Ubieto Arteta: Navarre-Aragon y la idea imperial de Alfonso VII de Castilla. In: Estudios de Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón. Volume 6, 1953/55, pp. 41-82.
• Antonio Ubieto Arteta: Los esponsales de la reina Petronilla y la creación de la Corona de Aragón. Zaragoza, 1987.
• Josep Serrano Daura: La donación de Ramiro II de Aragón a Ramón Berenguer IV de Barcelona, ​​de 1137, y la institución del "casamiento en casa". In: Hidalguía. Volume 270, 1998, pp. 709-719.
• Elena Lourie: The Will of Alfonso I, "El Batallador," King of Aragon and Navarre: A Reassessment , in: Speculum 50, 1975, pp. 635-651.
• Szabolcs de Vajay: Ramire II le Moine, roi d'Aragon, et Agnès de Poitou dans l'histoire et dans la legend. In: Mélanges offerts à René Crozet. Volume 2, 1966, pp. 727-750.
• Bernard F. Reilly: The Kingdom of León-Castilla under Queen Urraca 1109-1126. Princeton University Press, 1982 ( online ).

Remarks

1. ↑ On the date of death cf. Ubieto Artea (1947/48), p. 475.
2. ^ Charles Cawley, Medieval lands [1]
3. ↑ T. Ximénez de Embún y Val (ed.): Historia de la Corona de Aragón: Crónica de San Juan de la Peña: Part aragonesa. 1876, §20, p. 80.
4. ↑ Julio Puyol y Alonso (ed.): Las crónicas anónimas de Sahagún. In: Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia. Volume 76, 1920, §27, pp. 339-343.
5. ↑ Jacques Paul Migne (Ed.): Paschalis II papæ epistolæ et privilegia. In: Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Volume 163, Col. 380.
6. ↑ See Reilly (1982), §8, pp. 232-235.
7. ^ Glenn Edward Lipskey (Ed.): Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris. In: The Chronicle of Alfonso the Emperor. 1972, Book I, §62, pp. 84-85 ( online ).
8. ↑ T. Ximénez de Embún y Val (ed.): Historia de la Corona de Aragón: Crónica de San Juan de la Peña: Part aragonesa. 1876, §20, pp. 86-87.
9. ↑ A short note in the Annales Toledanos confirms the violent death of several "powerful men" in Huesca in 1136 ( Era MCLXXIV), but the exact circumstances of this event remain unclear. Enríque Flórez (Ed.): Annales Toledanos I. In: España Sagrada. Volume 23, 1767, p. 388.
10. ^ Glenn Edward Lipskey (Ed.): Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris. In: The Chronicle of Alfonso the Emperor. 1972, Book I, §63-66, pp. 85-87.

Web links

Commons : Ramiro II.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Medieval Lands

predecessor	Office	successor
Alfons I.	King of Aragon 1134–1137	Petronella
Pere Guillem	Elekt by Roda-Barbastro 1134	Gaufrid