The death of Pedro II brought to the throne the greatest Aragonese monarch of the period, Jaime I “the Conqueror” (1213-1276), a worthy contemporary of Ferdinand III of Castile. At the outset of his reign he was a mere child in the dangerous possession of Simon de Montfort. On this occasion the tremendous influence of the great pope, Innocent III, was beneficial to Spain, for Montfort was constrained to surrender the boy king to his people. Then followed the usual troubles which beset the early years of a youthful monarch in that period. There were wars brought about by ambitious nobles fighting for the possession of the king, wars of the nobles among themselves, and wars of the nobles against the king. Though only a boy, Jaime took a hand in the fighting, and was many times in danger,--twice he was captured by hostile nobles,--but thanks to his courage and coolness was always able to free himself from the perils which beset him. Not until 1228 was he in full command of the situation. Meanwhile, civil wars had been taking place in southern France, resolving themselves finally into a struggle between the count of Toulouse, aided by the Catalans, and Simon de Montfort. In this war Montfort lost his life, and the French power in that region for the time being vanished. [Sidenote: The conquests of Jaime.] Backed by the sentiment of most of Catalonia, which desired territorial and commercial expansion in the Mediterranean, Jaime now planned a career of conquest. Many of the Aragonese and western Catalonian nobles declined to join him in this enterprise; so he had to find means as best he could without their aid. In 1229 he entered the island of Majorca, which for centuries had been successively a pirate and Moslem stronghold. Having achieved the conquest, which proved an easy matter, Jaime distributed the lands among his Catalan followers. In 1232 Minorca was subjected, and in 1235 Ibiza, too. Thus the Balearic Islands fell into Jaime’s power and received a Catalan civilization, which they still possess. The greatest prize, however, was the rich kingdom of Valencia. Although handicapped by the lukewarm support of his nobles Jaime proceeded to the conquest with such success that he won the aid of those who had previously failed to help him, and in 1238 the city of Valencia fell,--an event comparable with the capture of Seville by Ferdinand III. The rest of the kingdom was not long in falling into Jaime’s power, and the lands were distributed among his nobles, but the Moslems were so numerous that they were able to rise in rebellion on two occasions before the end of the reign. On achieving the conquest of Valencia, Jaime had agreed with the king of Castile that the southern boundary of that kingdom should be the limit of the Aragonese conquest, while Murcia, which became tributary to Ferdinand III in 1241, was reserved for the ultimate definitive conquest of Castile. The unquenchable