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Birth:          1 Feb 1207 Montpelier
Death:          25 Jul 1276 Valencia
Burial:         Cabret

Notes
Historian of Aragon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_I_of_Aragon
James I the Conqueror (Catalan: Jaume el Conqueridor, Aragonese: Chaime lo 
Conqueridor, Occitan: Jacme lo Conquistaire, Spanish: Jaime el Conquistador; 2 
February 1208 – 27 July 1276) was King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of 
Montpellier from 1213 to 1276; King of Majorca from 1231 to 1276; and Valencia from 
1238 to 1276. His long reign—the longest of any Iberian monarch—saw the expansion of 
the House of Aragon in three directions: Languedoc to the north, the Balearic Islands 
to the southeast, and Valencia to the south. By a treaty with Louis IX of France, he 
wrested the county of Barcelona from nominal French suzerainty and integrated it into 
his crown. His part in the Reconquista was similar in Mediterranean Spain to that of 
his contemporary Ferdinand III of Castile in Andalusia.

As a legislator and organiser, he occupies a high place among the Spanish kings. 
James compiled the Llibre del Consolat de Mar,[1] which governed maritime trade and 
helped establish Aragonese supremacy in the western Mediterranean. He was an 
important figure in the development of the Catalan language, sponsoring Catalan 
literature and writing a quasi-autobiographical chronicle of his reign: the Llibre dels 
fets.
Early life and reign until majority[edit]

James was born at Montpellier as the only son of Peter II of Aragon and Marie of 
Montpellier.[2] As a child, James was a pawn in the power politics of Provence, where 
his father was engaged in struggles helping the Cathar heretics of Albi against the 
Albigensian Crusaders led by Simon IV de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who were trying 
to exterminate them. Peter endeavoured to placate the northern crusaders by 
arranging a marriage between his son James and Simon's daughter, when the former 
was only two years old.[2] He entrusted the boy to be educated in Montfort's care in 
1211, but was soon forced to take up arms against him, dying at the Battle of Muret 
on 12 September 1213. Montfort would willingly have used James as a means of 
extending his own power had not the Aragonese appealed to Pope Innocent III, who 
insisted that Montfort surrender him. James was handed over to the papal legate Peter 
of Benevento at Carcassonne[3] in May or June 1214.

James was then sent to Monzón, where he was entrusted to the care of Guillem de 
Montredó,[4] the head of the Knights Templar in Spain and Provence; the regency 
meanwhile fell to his great-uncle Sancho, Count of Roussillon, and his son, the king's 
cousin, Nuño. The kingdom was given over to confusion until, in 1217, the Templars 
and some of the more loyal nobles brought the young king to Zaragoza.[5]

In 1221, he was married to Eleanor, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile. The next six 
years of his reign were full of rebellions on the part of the nobles. By the Peace of 
Alcalá of 31 March 1227, the nobles and the king came to terms.[5]

Acquisition of Urgell[edit]

In 1228, James faced the sternest opposition yet from a vassal. Guerau IV de Cabrera 
occupied the County of Urgell in opposition to Aurembiax, the heiress of Ermengol VIII, 
who had died without sons in 1208. Although Aurembiax's mother, Elvira, had made 
herself a protegée of James's father, upon her death in 1220 Guerau occupied the 
county and displaced Aurembiax, claiming that a woman could not inherit.

James intervened on behalf of Aurembiax, to whom he owed protection. He bought 
Guerau off and allowed Aurembiax to reclaim her territory, which she did at Lleida, 
probably also becoming one of James' earliest mistresses.[6] She surrendered Lleida to 
James and agreed to hold Urgell in fief for him. On her death in 1231, James 
exchanged the Balearic Islands for Urgell with her widower, Peter of Portugal.

Relations with France and Navarre[edit]
From 1230 to 1232, James negotiated with Sancho VII of Navarre, who desired his 
help against his nephew and closest living male relative, Theobald IV of Champagne. 
James and Sancho negotiated a treaty whereby James would inherit Navarre on the 
old Sancho's death, but when this occurred in 1234, the Navarrese nobles elevated 
Theobald to the throne instead, and James disputed it. Pope Gregory IX was required 
to intervene.[7] In the end, James accepted Theobald's succession.

James endeavoured to form a state straddling the Pyrenees in order to counterbalance 
the power of France north of the Loire. As with the much earlier Visigothic attempt, 
this policy was victim to physical, cultural, and political obstacles. As in the case of 
Navarre, he declined to launch into perilous adventures. By the Treaty of Corbeil, 
signed in May 1258, he ended his conflict with Louis IX of France, securing the 
renunciation of French claims to sovereignty over Catalonia. [3]

Reconquest[edit]

 After his false start at uniting Aragon with the Kingdom of Navarre through a scheme 
of mutual adoption, James turned to the south and the Balearic Islands in the 
Mediterranean Sea. On 5 September 1229, the troops from Aragon, consisting of 155 
ships, 1,500 horsemen and 15,000 soldiers, set sail from Tarragona, Salou, and 
Cambrils[8] to conquer Majorca from Abú Yahya, the semi-independent Almohad 
governor of the island. Although a group of Aragonese knights took part in the 
campaign because of their obligations to the king, the conquest of Majorca was mainly 
a Catalan undertaking, and Catalans would later make up the majority of Majorca's 
settlers. James conquered Majorca on 31 December 1229, and Minorca (1232) and 
Ibiza (1235) were later acquired during the reconquest.

Valencia capitulated to Aragonese rule on 28 September 1238,[3] following an 
extensive campaign that included the Siege of Burriana and the decisive Battle of the 
Puig, where the Aragonese commander, Bernardo Guillermo de Entenza, who was also 
the king's cousin, died from wounds received in action. Chroniclers say he used 
gunpowder in the siege of Museros castle.

During his remaining two decades after Corbeil, James warred with the Moors in 
Murcia, on behalf of his son-in-law Alfonso X of Castile. On 26 March 1244, the two 
monarchs signed the Treaty of Almizra to establish their zones of expansion into 
Andalusia so as to prevent squabbling between them. Specifically, it defined the 
borders of the newly created Kingdom of Valencia. James signed it on that date, but 
Alfonso did not affirm it until much later. According to the treaty, all lands south of a 
line from Biar to Villajoyosa through Busot were reserved for Castile.

Crusade of 1269[edit]

Abaqa, the "Khan of Tartary" (actually the Ilkhan), corresponded with James in early 
1267, inviting him to join forces with the Mongols and go on crusade.[9] James sent 
an ambassador to Abaqa in the person of Jayme Alaric de Perpignan, who returned 
with a Mongol embassy in 1269.[10] Pope Clement IV tried to dissuade James from 
crusading, regarding his moral character as sub-par, and Alfonso X did the same. 
Nonetheless, James, who was then campaigning in Murcia, made peace with 
Mohammed I ibn Nasr, the Sultan of Granada, and set about collecting funds for a 
crusade. After organising the government for his absence and assembling a fleet at 
Barcelona in September 1269, he was ready to sail east. The troubadour Olivier lo 
Templier composed a song praising the voyage and hoping for its success. A storm, 
however, drove him off course, and he landed at Aigues-Mortes. According to the 
continuator of William of Tyre, he returned via Montpellier por l'amor de sa dame 
Berenguiere ("for the love of his lady Berengaria") and abandoned any further effort at 
a crusade.

James's sons Pedro Fernández and Fernán Sánchez, who had been given command of 
part of the fleet, did continue on their way to Acre, where they arrived in December. 
They found that Baibars, the Mameluke Sultan of Egypt, had broken his truce with the 
Kingdom of Jerusalem and was making a demonstration of his military power in front of 
Acre. During the demonstration, Egyptian troops hidden in the bushes ambushed a 
returning Frankish force that had been in Galilee. James's sons, initially eager for a 
fight, changed their minds after this spectacle and returned home via Sicily, where 
Fernán Sánchez was knighted by Charles of Anjou.

Patronage of art, learning, and literature[edit]
James built and consecrated the Cathedral of Lleida, which was constructed in a style 
transitional between Romanesque and Gothic with little influence from Moorish styles.
[1]

James was a patron of the University of Montpellier, which owed much of its 
development to his impetus.[1] He also founded a studium at Valencia in 1245 and 
received privileges for it from Pope Innocent IV, but it did not develop as splendidly.
[1] In 1263, James presided over a debate in Barcelona between the Jewish rabbi 
Nahmanides and Pablo Christiani, a prominent converso.

James was the first great sponsor and patron of vernacular Catalan literature. Indeed, 
he may himself be called "the first of the Catalan prose writers."[11] James wrote or 
dictated at various stages a chronicle of his own life in Catalan, Llibre dels fets, the 
first autobiography by a Christian king. As well as being a fine example of 
autobiography, the "Book of Deeds" expresses concepts of the power and purpose of 
monarchy, examples of loyalty and treachery in the feudal order, and medieval military 
tactics. More controversially, some historians have looked at these writings as a 
source of Catalan identity, separate from that of Occitania and Rome.

James also wrote the Libre de la Saviesa or "Book of Wisdom." The book contains 
proverbs from various authors, reaching from the time of King Solomon to nearly his 
own time with Albertus Magnus. It even contains maxims from the medieval Arab 
philosophers and from the Apophthegmata Philosophorum of Honein ben Ishak, which 
was probably translated at Barcelona during his reign. A Hebrew translator by the 
name of Jehuda was employed at James's court during this period.[11]

Though James was himself a prose writer and sponsored mostly prose works, he had 
an appreciation of verse.[12] In consequence of the Albigensian Crusade, many 
troubadours were forced to flee southern France and many found refuge in Aragon. 
Notwithstanding his early patronage of poetry, by the influence of his confessor 
Ramon de Penyafort, James brought the Inquisition into his realm in 1233 to prevent 
any vernacular translation of the Bible.[12]

Succession[edit]

The favour James showed his illegitimate offspring led to protest from the nobles, and 
to conflicts between his legitimate and illegitimate sons. When one of the latter, 
Fernán Sánchez, who had behaved with gross ingratitude and treason toward his 
father, was slain by the legitimate son Peter, the old king recorded his grim 
satisfaction.

In his will, James divided his states between his sons by Yolanda of Hungary: the 
aforementioned Peter received the Hispanic possessions on the mainland and James 
received the Kingdom of Majorca, which included the Balearic Islands, the counties of 
Roussillon and Cerdanya, and the Lordship of Montpellier. The division inevitably 
produced fratricidal conflicts. In 1276, the king fell very ill at Alzira and resigned his 
crown, intending to retire to the monastery of Poblet, but he died at Valencia on 27 
July.

His mummified body was later exhumed in 1856, when the monastery was under repair. 
A photograph of the king was taken. The photograph of the head of the mummy 
clearly shows the wound in the left eyebrow that the king himself explained in a 
passage from his Llibre dels fets (Book of Deeds):


As I was coming with the men, I happened to turn my head towards the town in order 
to look at the Saracens, who had come out in great force, when a cross-bowman shot 
at me, and hit me beside the sun-hood, and the shot struck me on the head, the bolt 
lighting near the forehead. It was God's will it did not pass through the head, but the 
point of the arrow went half through it. In anger I struck the arrow so with my hand 
that I broke it: the blood came out down my face; I wiped it off with a mantle of 
"sendal" I had, and went away laughing, that the army might not take alarm.[13]
Marriages and Children
James first married, in 1221, Eleanor, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor 
of England. Though he later had the marriage annulled, his one son by her was 
declared legitimate:
Alfonso (1229–1260), married Constance of Béarn, Viscountess of Marsan

In 1235, James remarried to Yolanda, daughter of Andrew II of Hungary by his second 
wife Yolande de Courtenay. She bore him numerous children:
Yolanda, also known as Violant, (1236–1301), married Alfonso X of Castile
Constance (1239–1269), married Manuel of Castile, son of Ferdinand III
Peter III (1240–1285), successor in Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia
James II (1243–1311), successor in Balearics and Languedoc
Ferdinand (1245–1250)
Sancha (1246–before 1275), died in the Holy Land.[14]
Isabella (1248–1271), married Philip III of France
Maria (1248–1267), nun
Sancho (1250–1275), Archbishop of Toledo
Eleanor (born 1251, died young)

James married thirdly Teresa Gil de Vidaure, but only by a private document, and left 
her when she developed leprosy.
James (c.1255–1285), lord of Xèrica
Peter (1259–1318), lord of Ayerbe

The children in the third marriage were recognised in his last will as being in the line 
of succession to the throne, should the senior lines fail.

James also had several lovers, both during and after his marriages, and a few bore him 
illegitimate sons.

By Blanca d'Antillón:
Fernán Sánchez (or Fernando Sánchez) (1240–1275), baron of Castro

By Berenguela Fernández:
Pedro Fernández, baron of Híjar

By Elvira Sarroca:
Jaume Sarroca (born 1248), Bishop of Huesca from 1273-1290

Parents
____ Pedro II "the Catholic" (ABT 1175 - 14 Sep 1213)
DE MONTPELIER Maria (1182 - 21 Jan 1213)

Siblings
____ Jaime I "The Conqueror" (1 Feb 1207 - 25 Jul 1276)

Marriage To ____ Yolande (Jolan) (ABT 1215 - 12 Oct 1251)
    m. 8 Sep 1235 Barcelona

Notes

Parents
____ Andrew (Andras) II "Masodik Endre" (1176 - 21 Sep 1235)
DE COURTENAY Yolanda (Iolande) (ABT 1194 - ABT 1233)

Children by ____ Yolande (Jolan) ABT 1215 - 12 Oct 1251
OF ARAGON Yolanda (Violante) (8 Jun 1236 - 1301)
OF ARAGON Pedro III "the Great" (1239 - 2 Nov 1285)
OF ARAGON Isabel (1248 - 28 Jan 1271)

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