DEVELOPMENT TOWARD NATIONAL UNITY: ARAGON, 1276-1479
[Sidenote: General characteristics of the era.]
The general remarks made with respect to Castilian history in this
period apply, with but few modifications, to that of the kingdom of
Aragon. In Aragon the victory of monarchy over seigniorial anarchy was
externally clear as early as the middle of the fourteenth century. The
civil wars after that date (and there were very few until the last reign
of the period) were due to the vast power of the city of Barcelona in
conflict with the king, to the difference in interests of Aragon proper
and Catalonia, and to social uprisings. Social progress in this region,
but especially in Catalonia, was much more marked than in Castile,
merely because there was so much more to gain, and great as were the
advances made they did not bring the masses to a state of social freedom
equal to that which had been attained in Castile. Of great importance to
the future of Spain was the embarkation of Aragon on a career of Italian
conquest. Fatal as Spain’s Italian aspirations were to be in succeeding
centuries, that evil was balanced, at least in part, by a contact with
Renaissance influences proceeding out of Italy, and by a favorable
commerce which redounded in many ways to the benefit of Spain. This was
one of the periods when the advantages of the Italian connection were
greater than the disadvantages.
[Sidenote: Pedro III and the nobles.]
Pedro III (1276-1285) showed in his short reign that he was a man of his
father’s mould. Able as he was he had to yield not a little to his
nobles and the oligarchical towns, as indeed had Jaime I,--as witness
the case of the independent position of the _Justicia_ won from Jaime I.
From Pedro III these elements, especially those of Aragon proper,
obtained the rights embodied in a document called the “General
Privilege”; by this the _Justicia_ was proclaimed chief justice for all
cases coming before the king, and was made to depend more closely on the
nobles and allied towns. They also gained many other privileges, such as
the restoration of the goods and lands taken from them by Jaime,
exemption from naval service, and a reduction in the number of days of
military service required of them. Yet Pedro was able to keep them
sufficiently in hand to enable him to embark upon an ambitious foreign
policy.
[Sidenote: Foreign policy of Pedro III.]
Pedro took the first step toward the reincorporation of the realm left
by his father to Pedro’s brother Jaime when he procured a recognition
from the latter that he held his kingdom of Majorca as a vassal of the
king of Aragon. Reaching out still farther he established a protectorate
over the Moslem state of Tunis, gaining great commercial advantages at
the same time. The next logical move was the conquest of the island of
Sicily. Two events combined to bring Pedro III into competition for
dominion there. One was his denial of vassalage to the pope, repudiating
the arrangement of Pedro II, and the other was his marriage to
Constance, the daughter of King Manfred of Sicily. The papacy had only
recently won its struggle of several centuries against the Hohenstaufen
Holy Roman Emperors, and it claimed that the territory of Naples, or
southern Italy and Sicily, was at the pope’s disposal. Manfred of Sicily
was a member of the defeated imperial family, and would not recognize
the papal claim, whereupon the pope offered the kingdom as a fief to the
French prince, Charles of Anjou. Charles accepted and succeeded in
conquering the island, putting Manfred to death. He then proceeded to
rule in tyrannical fashion, until in 1282 he provoked the celebrated
uprising known as the “Sicilian vespers,” when a terrible vengeance was
wreaked upon the followers of Charles. Pedro III already had a great
army near by in Tunis, and when he was invited by the Sicilians to help
them he accepted, alleging the claims of his wife to the Sicilian crown,
and landing in Sicily in the same year, 1282. In a short time he was
master of the entire island, and through the exploits of his great
admiral, Roger de Lauria, in control of not a little of the Italian
coast as well, though only temporarily.
[Sidenote: The French invasion.]
Affronted both by the denial of vassalage and by the conquest of Sicily
the pope excommunicated Pedro, and declared his deposition as king of
Aragon, granting the throne in his stead to Charles of Valois, second
son of the king of France. He even went so far as to proclaim a crusade
against Pedro, and a great French army was prepared to carry out his
decision and to establish the claim of Charles of Valois. Allies were
found in King Jaime of Majorca and many of Pedro’s own nobles and
churchmen. The French forces soon overran much of Catalonia, but when
matters looked darkest a great naval victory by Roger de Lauria and an
epidemic which broke out in the French army turned the tide, and the
invaders were driven across the Pyrenees. In the same year Pedro died,
but just before his death he offered to return Sicily to the pope,--so
strong was the prestige of the papacy in that day.
[Sidenote: Alfonso III.]
[Sidenote: Struggles with the nobility and the Privilege of the Union.]
Pedro’s son, Alfonso III (1285-1291), had no idea of abandoning Sicily.
He made it into a separate kingdom under his brother Jaime, and the
strife with France and the pope went on. Alfonso was not of his father’s
calibre, however, and in 1291 agreed to renounce the Sicilian claim and
to fight Jaime if the latter should fail to comply with this
arrangement; furthermore, he agreed to pay the papal tribute of the
treaty of Pedro II, including all back sums still unpaid. Before Alfonso
could act on this agreement he died. His reign had not been free from
struggles with the nobility, and the latter were in no small degree
responsible for the weak result of his foreign policy; only an
exceptionally capable monarch, such as Pedro III had been, could handle
successfully the grave foreign and domestic problems of the time. The
nobles and towns of Aragon proper and Valencia had banded together in a
league called the Union, and they used their combined influence to exact
new privileges from Alfonso. When he resisted they went so far as to
conspire for the succession of the French pretender, and took other
extreme measures which soon decided the king to give way. In 1287 he
granted the famous “Privilege of the Union.”[31] By this document the
king was restrained from proceeding against any member of the Union
without the consent of both the _Justicia_ and the _Cortes_, and a
council was to be appointed to accompany him and decide with him the
matters of government affecting Aragon and Valencia. If he should fail
to observe the Privilege in these and other respects (for there were
other articles of lesser note) the members of the Union might elect a
new king. Thus, as Alfonso III put it, “There were as many kings in
Aragon as there were _ricoshombres_” (great nobles). Jaime II
(1291-1327), brother of the preceding, contrived to reduce some of the
privileges granted by this document, although indirectly, for he
recognized its legal force. He enacted laws which were in fact
inconsistent with it, and in this way managed to deprive the _Justicia_
of some of the vast power to which he had attained.
[Sidenote: Jaime II and the Sicilian question.]
The reign of Jaime II was especially interesting from the standpoint of
foreign affairs. Having been king in Sicily, Jaime was not disposed to
surrender the island to the pope, and left his son, Fadrique, there to
govern for him. Soon he changed his mind, and made a similar agreement
to that of Alfonso III, whereby the island was to be given to the pope,
and Jaime was to employ force, if necessary, to achieve this end. Jaime
was soon afterward granted Sardinia and Corsica in compensation for
Sicily, although they were to be held as a fief from the pope, and he
was to make good his claim by conquering them. The Sicilians were not
favorable to Jaime’s agreement, and proceeded to elect Fadrique king,
resisting Jaime’s attempts to enforce his treaty. After a long war,
peace was made in 1302 on terms whereby Fadrique married the daughter of
the Angevin claimant, the papal candidate, and promised the succession
to his father-in-law. Toward the close of Jaime’s reign Sardinia was
conquered, in 1324, by the king’s eldest son. It was at this time, too,
that a body of Catalan mercenaries set up their rule in the duchy of
Athens, thus extending Catalan influence to the eastern
Mediterranean.[32]
[Sidenote: Alfonso “the Benign.”]
Alfonso IV “the Benign” (1327-1335) had a brief, not very eventful
reign, marked by wars with Pisa and Genoa for the possession of
Sardinia, but more especially interesting as a preparation for the reign
to follow. Alfonso’s second wife tried to procure a kingdom for her son
by a partition of the realm, thus depriving the king’s eldest son,
Pedro, of his full inheritance. Alfonso was willing to accede to her
wishes, but the energetic character of Pedro, backed by popular
sentiment, obliged him to desist from the project.
[Sidenote: Pedro “the Ceremonious” and the overthrow of seigniorial
anarchy.]
Pedro IV “the Ceremonious” (1335-1387) forms a curious parallel to his
Castilian contemporaries, the great Alfonso XI and the violent Pedro I.
Like the latter he was energetic, treacherous, and cruel, but was more
hypocritical, having a great regard for appearances and standing on the
letter of the law (hence his nickname). Withal, like Alfonso XI, he was
the type of ruler needed at the time, and was even more successful than
the great Castilian, for he definitely decided the question between the
nobility and the crown. The struggle began over a dynastic issue when
Pedro, who at the time had no sons, endeavored to arrange for the
succession of his daughter Constance, instead of his brother Jaime. The
nobles and the towns of the Aragonese and Valencian parts of the kingdom
used this event as a pretext for a renewal of the activities of the
Union, and in the first conflict they were too strong for Pedro. He was
obliged in 1347 to acknowledge the Privilege of the Union, and in
addition had to consent to a division of the kingdom into districts
ruled by delegates of the Union, who had broad powers, including a right
to receive the taxes, which henceforth were not to go to the king. Pedro
was not a man to bow at the first defeat, and in the same year renewed
the contest. It is noteworthy that the Catalonian nobles and towns were
on the king’s side, possibly because of their interest in Mediterranean
expansion, which necessitated the backing of a strong government. In
addition, certain democratic towns in Valencia and Aragon joined Pedro,
as well as many individuals who resented the tyranny of the recently
victorious Union. In 1348 Pedro crushed the Aragonese opposition at the
battle of Épila, and then overwhelmed his opponents in Valencia,
punishing them afterwards with a ruthless hand, displaying a rather
vitriolic humor when he made some of his enemies drink the molten metal
of which the bell for calling meetings of the Union had been composed.
The legal effect of these victories was little more than the
nullification of the Privilege of the Union and a reduction of the
powers of the _Justicia_ and of the exaggerated pretensions, social and
otherwise, of the nobles, while the General Privilege and other royal
charters remained in force. In fact, however, a death-blow had been
struck at feudal anarchy, and the tendency henceforth was toward
centralization and absolutism.
[Sidenote: Pedro’s successful foreign policy.]
The reign of Pedro was not without note, also, in foreign affairs. Even
before settling his dispute with the Union he had accomplished something
for the aggrandizement of Aragon. He somewhat treacherously provoked a
quarrel with the king of Majorca, and then conquered the island in 1343.
Proceeding at once against the same king’s possessions in southern
France he incorporated them into his kingdom. Pedro had also assisted
Alfonso XI of Castile against the Benimerines, contributing to the
victory of the Salado in 1340. The war with Genoa and the uprisings in
Sardinia which had filled the reign of his predecessor gave trouble also
to Pedro, but after a campaign in Sardinia in person he was able
temporarily to get the upper hand. His intervention in the civil wars of
Castile has already been noted, and from these he came out with some not
greatly important advantages. He also cast his eyes upon Sicily with a
view to restoring it to the direct authority of the Aragonese crown,
although this was not accomplished in his reign, and he encouraged
commercial relations with the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. In
1381 he accepted an offer to become the sovereign of the Catalan duchy
of Athens. These events were more indicative of a conscious Catalan
policy of predominance in the Mediterranean than important in
themselves.
[Sidenote: Juan I and Martín I.]
[Sidenote: The dispute over the succession and the crowning of Ferdinand
I.]
The reigns of the next two kings, Juan I (1387-1395) and Martín I
(1395-1410), were more important from the standpoint of social
institutions than in external political events. In the former reign
occurred the loss of the duchy of Athens. In the latter, the island of
Sicily, as foreseen by Pedro IV, returned to the Aragonese line when
Martín of Sicily succeeded his father as king of Aragon. On the death of
Martín without issue, a dispute arose as to the succession to the
throne. The most prominent claimants were Ferdinand of Antequera, then
regent of Castile, a son of Martín’s sister, and Jaime, count of Urgel,
son of a cousin of Martín. Ferdinand was supported by the Aragonese
anti-pope, Benedict XIII,[33] by the ecclesiastical and popular
elements of most of Aragon proper, by various nobles, and by the
political influence of the Castilian state, while Jaime counted on the
popular support of Catalonia and Valencia and of part of Aragon, as well
as on various noble families. Jaime had the advantage of being a native
of the kingdom, while Ferdinand was looked upon as a foreigner, but as a
matter of law Ferdinand had the better claim. For two years there were
serious disturbances on the part of the noble families, which united
their personal rivalries to the question of the dynastic succession.
Finally, the matter was left to a commission of nine, three each from
Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia, and this body rendered a decision, in
1412, in favor of the Castilian claimant, who thereby became Ferdinand I
of Aragon (1410-1416). Jaime resisted for a time, but was soon obliged
to submit, and was imprisoned in a castle, although well treated there.
[Sidenote: Alfonso “the Magnanimous” and Aragonese expansion into
Italy.]
Ferdinand was succeeded by his son, Alfonso V, called variously “the
Learned” or “the Magnanimous” (1416-1458) under whom the Catalan Policy
of Mediterranean expansion advanced to a stage far beyond anything
previously attempted. Most of his reign was passed by him in warfare in
Italy. Invited by the queen of Naples, who adopted him as her heir, to
assist her against the house of Anjou, Alfonso was at length able to
dominate the land and to set up a brilliant court at the city of Naples.
He also intervened successfully in other wars, and even thought of
attempting to reconquer Constantinople from the Turks, for that city had
been taken by them in 1453. Meanwhile, his absence from his Spanish
dominions permitted of a revival of internal disorders, which were to
come to a head in the next reign. Alfonso gave Naples (southern Italy)
to his illegitimate son Ferdinand, and the rest of his domains,
including Sardinia and Sicily, to his brother Juan.
[Sidenote: Juan II, Juana Enríquez, and Charles of Viana.]
[Sidenote: The revolt of the Catalans.]
Prior to his succession to the Aragonese throne Juan II (1458-1479) had
married the queen of Navarre, and at her wish, consented to by their
son, Charles, Prince of Viana, had continued to act as king of that land
after his wife’s death. He had contracted a second marriage with a
Castilian lady, Juana Enríquez, and her intrigues against Charles of
Viana had already caused that prince no little trouble. In the interests
of her own children (one of whom, the later great King Ferdinand, was to
be a worthy exemplar of the scheming traits of his mother) she plotted
to deprive him of his rights, first to the throne of Navarre, and later,
after Juan had succeeded to the Aragonese crown, to that of Aragon. The
Catalans took up the cause of Charles of Viana with enthusiasm, and when
Juan refused to declare him his heir civil war broke out, not only in
Catalonia, but also in Aragon and Navarre. Charles was at first
successful, and his father consented to recognize him as his successor
and to appoint him governor of Catalonia, but the agreement had hardly
been signed when the young prince died. Public opinion ascribed his
death to poisoning at the instigation of his step-mother, and so great
was the general indignation over this event that civil war in Catalonia
broke out afresh. The Catalans were at a legal disadvantage in not
having a legitimate lord to set up against Juan II. They elected various
individuals as count of Barcelona, and even thought of organizing a
republic, but the successive deaths of their chosen rulers, and the
length of the war, which had already lasted twelve years, inclined many,
toward the close of the year 1470, to make peace with the king. The very
misfortunes of the latter, despite the crimes which he had committed,
tended to this end, for he had again become a widower, and was blind and
alone, for his son, Ferdinand, had remained in Castile after his
important marriage with Isabella in 1469. Finally, in 1472, a peace
satisfactory to both sides was arranged. It is to be noted that this war
had nothing to do with the earlier struggle of the lords against the
king, but was sustained rather by the city of Barcelona and the
permanent committee, or deputation, representing the _Cortes_ of
Catalonia, against the king, being fought mostly in Catalonia, and being
involved also with the attempts of the Catalan peasant classes to shake
off the social burdens which they had so long been obliged to bear. The
former seigniorial stronghold of Aragon proper was in this war the most
powerful royalist element. The closing years of Juan’s reign were
devoted to a war against France for the reconquest of Cerdagne and the
Roussillon, which had previously been granted by Juan to the French king
in return for support against the former’s Catalan enemies. This war was
still going on when, in 1479, Juan died, and Ferdinand ascended the
throne, to rule, jointly with Isabella, the entire realms of Castile and
Aragon. Thus had the evil intrigues of Juana Enríquez redounded to the
benefit of Spain.
_Navarre_
[Sidenote: Navarre re-enters the current of peninsula history.]
From 1285 to 1328 Navarre was a French province, but recovered its
independence under the house of Evreux on the death of Charles IV of
France without succession. The next heir after Charles of Viana was his
sister Blanche, but her father, Juan II of Aragon, had her imprisoned,
and a younger sister, Leonor, was enthroned in her stead.[34] Leonor and
her husband, the count of Foix, established a new dynasty which was
destined to be of short duration, for in 1512 Ferdinand of Aragon
conquered Spanish Navarre. French Navarre remained for a time under the
rule of the house of Foix, but presently became a part of the kingdom of
France.
_The Basque Provinces_
[Sidenote: Early history of the Basque provinces and their ultimate
incorporation in the kingdom of Castile.]
The three Basque provinces of Álava, Vizcaya, and Guipúzcoa had more of
interest in their internal organization than in their external political
history, since in the latter respect they were closely united to Navarre
and Castile, which states disputed the dominion of these provinces. They
were usually subject to one power or the other, although some of their
towns, together with others of the Castilian north coast, formed
themselves into leagues (_hermandades_), and enjoyed a certain amount of
independence in their dealings with England and France. A number of
popular beliefs exist with regard to the history of these provinces, one
of which is that they have never been conquered. It is true that no
conqueror ever stamped out the indomitable spirit and the customs of the
people, but the land was rarely independent. It is believed that the
Moslem invasion of the eighth century did not extend to these provinces,
but at a later time they did suffer from Moslem incursions. With the
organization of the kingdom of Asturias, both Álava and Vizcaya seem to
have been either dependent on that realm or at least in close
relationship with it. At times, from the eighth to the tenth centuries,
the counts of Álava were also counts of Castile. Passing into the hands
of Sancho the Great of Navarre, Álava was incorporated in that kingdom
until the reign of Alfonso VIII of Castile. Alfonso VIII won the battle
of Vitoria, and conquered the land in 1200. Thenceforth it remained
under the sovereignty of the Castilian monarch, although with an
assembly, the _Cofradía_ (Fraternity, or Association) of Arriaga, of its
own. In 1332, in the reign of Alfonso XI, the incorporation with Castile
was made complete, although with a retention of the charters and
liberties of the province. Vizcaya also vacillated between Navarre and
Castile as a more or less independent, protected country, until in 1370
it passed over to the Castilian crown by inheritance of the wife of
Henry III. The course of events in Guipúzcoa was very similar. In 1200
the province submitted to the conqueror of Vitoria, and from that time
forth the external political history of Guipúzcoa was that of Castile.
_Granada_
[Sidenote: Inconsequential character of Granadine political history.]
The Moslem state of Granada was of very slight political importance in
this period, despite its by no means insignificant territorial extent,
wealth, and population. It was a mere political accident, annoying to
the Christians at times, but as a rule not worthy of serious
consideration as an enemy. It was precisely because it was not greatly
to be feared or very troublesome that it was permitted to maintain its
independence. It is to be noted, also, that there was very little of
the crusading spirit in these centuries; if there had been, Granada
would soon have been conquered. On several occasions, when the rulers of
Granada called in the Benimerines and others from Africa, the Moslems
were a serious peril to Christian Spain, but the battle of the Salado in
1340 proved decisive, being followed by a decline of the political
strength of the Moslem states of northern Africa. After 1340 the rulers
of Granada limited themselves, in their relations with the Christian
states, to intervening in Castile during periods of civil war, or to
asking Castilian aid at times of internal strife in Granada. Uprisings
and dethronements were of frequent occurrence, but so too were Moslem
raids into Castilian territory.