The Crown of Aragon and Catalonia's Medieval Institutions
The count of Barcelona's marriage creates the Crown of Aragon, a Mediterranean power governed through pacts, parliaments and Europe's early constitutional institutions.
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
- Scots and Catalans: Union and Disunion — J. H. Elliott, Yale University Press (2018)
- Barcelona — Robert Hughes, Knopf (1992)
- The Crusader Kingdom of Valencia: Reconstruction on a Thirteenth-Century Frontier — Robert I. Burns, Harvard University Press (1967)
In 1137 Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona was betrothed to Petronila, heiress of the kingdom of Aragon. Their son ruled both, and the union became the Crown of Aragon: a dynastic federation in which Catalonia, Aragon and later Valencia and Majorca kept their own laws, courts and parliaments under one king.
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
- Scots and Catalans: Union and Disunion — J. H. Elliott, Yale University Press (2018)
Under Jaume I the Conqueror (1213–76) the Crown took Majorca (1229) and Valencia (1238), settling them with Catalan-speakers. Later kings added Sicily (1282) and Sardinia, and Catalan mercenaries, the Almogàvers, even ruled Athens for a time. Barcelona’s merchants traded across the Mediterranean under the Llibre del Consolat de Mar, a code of maritime law used far beyond Catalonia.
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
- The Crusader Kingdom of Valencia: Reconstruction on a Thirteenth-Century Frontier — Robert I. Burns, Harvard University Press (1967)
- Barcelona — Robert Hughes, Knopf (1992)
Catalonia’s laws, the Usatges de Barcelona and the “constitutions” agreed in the Corts (parliament), bound the king as well as his subjects; rulers swore to respect them. In 1359 the Corts created a standing commission to collect taxes, the Diputació del General, which became the Generalitat. This “pactist” tradition, in which power rests on agreement between ruler and realm, is the root of the Catalan claim to self-government.
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
- Scots and Catalans: Union and Disunion — J. H. Elliott, Yale University Press (2018)
The golden age faded after the Black Death of 1348 and economic decline. When the house of Barcelona died out in 1410, the Compromise of Caspe (1412) gave the crown to Ferdinand of Antequera, a Castilian Trastámara. His grandson Ferdinand II’s marriage to Isabella of Castile in 1469 linked the two crowns that became Spain.
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
- Imperial Spain 1469–1716 — J. H. Elliott, Penguin (1963)
Why it matters today
Many Catalans see their political culture, of pacts, consent and *seny* (good sense), as rooted in this period, when the Corts could bind the king and the Generalitat was born. Today's Generalitat counts its presidents back to 1359.
The Crown of Aragon was one of the two kingdoms that formed Spain. It is a reminder that Spain was built as a union of distinct realms, a point at the heart of today's debates over federalism.