Otro
rey de
la Corona de Aragón
He was possibly born in Naples, the year
1299, being his mother Dña. Blanca from Naples. His life was
short, because he died in Barcelona the day 27 of January of
1336, when he was 37 years old. He was crowned king in 1327. Alfonso
IV of Aragon, nicknamed the Benign. besides King from Aragon, was
also of Valencia, of Sardinia, regular king from Corsica and count
from Barcelona (1327–1336) and of Urgel (1314–1336).
Second son of Jaime II of Aragon
and his second wife, Blanca of Anjou, transformed into king
after the renouncement to throne by his brother Jaime that took the
habits in 1319. He married twice; in 1314, with Teresa de Entenza,
thanks to that he got the county of Urgel, and in 1329 with
Leonor of Castile and of Portugal.
During his father's reign, being the
infant Alfonso attorney of the Crown, he led the Aragonese expedition
that took the island of Sardinia (1323–1324) that had been awarded
to the king from Aragon by Pope in the treaty of Anagni (1295). For
the conquest of Sardinia he entered in a conflict with Pisa and Genoa
since both Italian cities had possessions and commercial interests
in it. For the conquest he had 80 big ships and many more than smaller
size, 1.000 gentlemen, 4.000 infants, 2.000 archers and 3.000 assistants.
By the resistance pisana could not take Cagliari before one year.
To the return of his conquest of Sardinia put the first stone of Santa
María del Mar temple in Barcelona.
While - during his reign - Catalonia
began a decline demographic and economic; the Kingdom of Valencia
began to have an importance that would continue increasing in later
reigns.
During his reign the first signs of
a demographic strong crisis began, mainly in Catalonia that would
extend from half-filled of the XIV century until final of the XV one,
mainly due to the black pest. Although the year 1333 cannot consider
the beginning of the shortages that affected as much to his states
as to the rest of the peninsula, France and Italy. People perceived
these with more intensity and that year was called "mal any
primer" (a bad first year); year in which a strong famine
made appearance due to the wheat shortage due to the bad crops and
mainly to the blockade made by the Genoese fleet that impeded the
wheat arrival coming from Sardinia and Sicily. The famine affected
so much to the rural areas as to the cities. It is calculated that
the city of Barcelona lost about 10.000 inhabitants.
In the Kingdom of Valencia the
fights continued for the distribution of benefits of the exploitation
of the powers of justice exercised by the gentlemen on the vassals;
and among those in favor of the jurisdiction of Aragon and Valencia,
since both coexisted, using that of Aragon the noblemen of Aragonese
origin.
These confrontations finish in 1328–1329,
moment in which Alfonso promulgates the "alfonsina"
jurisdiction, in which the Valencian jurisdiction was altered, and
in that had tendency to make it more elegant, proliferating the gentlemen
without being of noble origin; fact that propitiated that many noblemen
accepted the jurisdiction of Valencia between 1329 and 1330.
As consequence of his second marriage
with Leonor of Castile and after his wife's pressures, Alfonso
planed in 1332 that the children of this union obtained considerable
possessions in the border regions of the Crown, mainly in the Kingdom
of Valencia; consisting mainly, in separating of his jurisdiction
the most important cities in the Kingdom and that passed to his son
Fernando, like a kind of own feud. This way in 1333 he donated
to his son Fernando the dominions and villages of Játiva,
Alcira, Morvedre, Sagunto, Alicante, Morella, Castellón and Burriana,
infringing the promises made in 1329 and 1330 in the Parliament. This
represented the possibility of a division of the Kingdom, to what
with determination were opposed the Valencian and the heir and son
of the first marriage, Pedro.
In the year 1333 the juries of the
city of Valencia headed by the "jurat in cap"
Francisco de Vinatea admonished the king. The king that was
in the city with the rest of the Court, didn't have more remedy than
to cede before the pressure of his citizens that made him know that
before they would die that would consent these donations contrary
to the jurisdictions and privileges of the Kingdom; and he reaffirmed
his father's ordinance that declared indivisible the Kingdom.
He continued with his father's politics
of carrying out matrimonial links between the real house and the barons
to try to diminish the power of these last. As for the treatment that
gave to the Muslims, this was more tolerant than the that his father
gave and the one that would give his successors. He tried to promote
the culture and to give stability to the universities. In 1328 he
committed to give a fair wage to the professors (that it never took
place) and to endow of four new classrooms for the studied of Law
in the University of Lérida.
The relationships with the Kingdom
of Castile and its king Alfonso XI was good and in a principle
the friendship reigned between both kings. In fact, being already
king and widower of Teresa de Entenza, Alfonso IV the
Castilian king, offered to his sister Leonor in marriage. This
matrimonial alliance looked for the Aragonese help in the reconquest
that was given in form of blockade of the strait on the part of Aragonese
ships to impede the way of Muslim troops to the peninsula.
Alfonso tried to carry out a crusade
against the Kingdom of Granada that Alfonso XI from Castile
didn't second, since he had good relationships with the Kingdom of
Granada until the point of getting its vassalage in 1331.
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Alfonso began the crusade against
Granada the year 1329 and in 1331 the Muslim Kingdom attacked
the South of the Kingdom of Valencia, taking Orihuela and
Elche that were recovered. Between 1330 and 1333 the conquest
of Almería was attempted but the tentative ended up in failure
and finally the peace was signed in 1335.
In 1329 he signed alliance treaties
in economic terms with the sultans of Bugía and Tunisia.
He had to suffocate a rebellion in
Sardinia due to a bad management of the Catalan administrators. For
the domain of the island, he had distributed the territory among the
barons and gentlemen that had accompanied him in the conquest. The
domain was reinforced with the setting-up of the feudalism, the colonization
and the foundation of the city of Bonaire. The sardinians rebellious
had the support of the Ligur Republic (Genoa) with the objective of
taking the island and in a smaller measure, of Pisa. The war against
Genoa was prolonged between 1329 and 1336, year in which Alfonso
died and a precarious peace was gotten but at these moment assured
the possession of the island. The conflict would be prolonged until
well entered the XV century and in it Genoa and the Aragonese Crown
were disputed - especially Barcelona - the domain of the trade
in the West of Mediterranean; as well as the possession of the island.
The city of Sassari, key for the domain of Sardinia, would be rebelled
in three occasions since was taken by Alfonso in 1323, although
was taken again, the same thing that Cáller. Alfonso promoted
the repopulation of Sardinia by people coming from the peninsula between
1329 and 1330.
He married in first nuptials Teresa
de Entenza in the cathedral of Lérida September 10 1314.
Teresa was the heiress of the county of Urgel, last
independent Catalan county of the Crown; for that during this reign,
he passed to be part of the real domains, thanks to this matrimonial
link. Of this marriage they were born:
Infante Don Alfonso (1315–1317).
Dead in the childhood and buried in the Church of Santa María de
Almatar de Balaguer, according to Pedro IV's Chronicle. Some sources
point out that later, the sepulcher with the infant's remains, was
transferred to the Convent of Sacred Domingo of Balaguer,
where would be destroyed during Spanish Succession War.
Pedro IV, the Ceremonious (1319–1387).
Buried in the Monastery of Poblet.
Jaime I, count of Urgel,
who also inherited Entenza and Antillón (1320–1347).
Buried at the moment the high altar im the Cathedral of Barcelona,
in a sepulcher shared with his brother Jaime and with the king
Alfonso III the Liberal.
Constanza de Aragon and Entenza
that contracted marriage with Jaime III of Majorca (1322–1346).
Infanta Doña Isabel (1323–1327).
Buried together her mother and her brother Sancho in the missing
Convent of San Francisco of Zaragoza.
Infante Don Fadrique who died
very young (1325-?). Buried at the moment the high altar in the Cathedral
of Barcelona, in a sepulcher shared with his brother Jaime
and with the king Alfonso III the Liberal..
Infante Don Sancho (1326–1327).
Buried together his mother and his sister Isabel in the missing
Convent of San Francisco of Zaragoza.
In second nupcias he married Leonor
from Castile and of Portugal, daughter of Fernando IV of Castile
in the Church of San Francisco of Tarazona, the day
5 of February 1329. Leonor had been the engaged of the heir
and brother bigger than Alfonso, the infant Jaime, and
with this marriage came to normalize the relationships with the Kingdom
of Castile after the rebuff received on the part of the Aragonese.
Fruit of this marriage was born:
Infante Don Fernando, Marquis
of Tortosa. Contracted marriage with Doña María de Portugal,
daughter of Pedro I of Portugal. He was murdered in Burriana
by order his brother Pedro IV the Ceremonious. (1329–1363).
Infante Don Juan de Aragon and
Castile. Hemarried Doña Isabel Núñez de Lara and was murdered
byorder his cousin Pedro I of Castile. (c. 1330–1358).
The king Alfonso IV died in
Barcelona January 27 1336. The Kingdom of Aragon, Valencia
and Sardinia, as well as the County of Barcelona and the other
territories subordinated this, they were inherited by his second son,
Pedro, while his first wife's possessions, the county of Urgel
and the dominions of Entenza and Antillón were inherited
by his third son Jaime. Two months before his death, when he
had already got sick, his wife and the second marriage's two infants
escaped to Castile helped by Pedro de Jérica, fearing the reprisals
of the heir Pedro.
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