A History of Spain: founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael AltamiraChapman, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
History
A History of Spain: founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael Altamira
Chapman, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Spain -- Civilization; Spain -- History
The kingdom of Aragon dates from the will of Sancho the Great of Navarre
in 1035. The new state was almost insignificantly small at the outset,
but, by inheritances, wars with the Moslems, and the peaceful
incorporation of Navarre in 1076, it already included a large portion of
north central Spain by the close of the eleventh century. The era of
great conquests began with Alfonso I “the Battler” (1104-1134), the same
king whose marriage with Urraca of Castile had resulted so unfavorably.
Better fortune awaited him on the Moslem frontier. In 1118 he captured
Saragossa, an event as important in Aragon as was the acquisition of
Toledo a few years before in Castile. He carried his campaigns as far
south, even, as Murcia and Andalusia, but the principal result of these
invasions was that he brought back ten thousand Mozárabes to settle his
newly-won conquests. Having no sons he tried to leave his realm to two
military orders, but this arrangement did not prove agreeable to his
subjects. The nobles of Navarre elected a king of their own, withdrawing
from the union with Aragon, while those of Aragon chose a brother of
Alfonso, named Ramiro, who at the time of his election was a monk. The
reign of Ramiro II “the Monk” (1134-1137) was exceptionally important
for Spain, without any particular merit accruing therefor to the king.
The pope freed him from his vows and he married. From this marriage
there was born a daughter, Petronilla. Ramiro espoused her to Ramón
Berenguer IV of Barcelona, and soon abdicated, returning to his
monastery. Petronilla’s son, Ramón Berenguer, who presently changed his
name to the Aragonese-sounding Alfonso, was the first to rule in his own
right over Aragon and Catalonia in what came to be called the kingdom of
Aragon, although Catalonia was always the more important part.
[Sidenote: The act of vassalage to the pope and the French conquests in
Aragonese dominions of southern France.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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