As we have moved around the Mediterranean, we have encountered references to Aragon's involvement in some of the most unexpected places. Zaragoza is the heart of the Aragon region... so, today we had the goal of finding out about the Aragon Empire. There are no museums dedicated to the topic. Our non-existent Spanish skills made it impossible to question the walkers at other museums. So, in desperation, we had to search the Web and piece together information collected along the way.
For those of you unwilling to learn the lessons of history, please stop reading... this blog has turned into a history lesson... my apologies! Those of you yearning to taste the richness of medieval European intrigue ... please read on.
Since Roman times, Aragon had its own language and own currency. The house of Aragon became influential when it played its part in removing the Moors from its region. Success in Aragon encouraged other states within ancient Spain to launch military action against the Islamist rulers. Aragon gained more influence when it joined through marriage with the House of Barcelona in 1137. They succeeded in expanding their territory within Spain... but quickly the House of Castile organised an effective army that blocked western expansion. Aragon had significant success in the Provence and neighbouring areas of France... but the small size of the home base population put limits on its growth. You may recall that the Cathar religion sprang up in the Aragon sections of Provence... which caused the Roman Catholic Church to ask France to occupy the territory and clean up the mess of the religious landscape that Aragon had allowed to develop... but that was in 1229.
Aragon started to have success with diplomatic conquests. They approached a number of smaller states around the Mediterranean and offered them membership into a confederation of states... while swearing loyalty to the king of Aragon, each state was allowed to retain its existing government structures... their own taxes... religion... culture... and classes. Aragon collected additional taxes from each state... but at a reasonable rate. The benefit for the individual states was that they claimed membership of a larger group that reduced the risk of smaller neighbours picking fights.
The Crown of Aragon eventually included the Kingdom of Aragon, the County of Barcelona, the Kingdom of Valencia, the Kingdom of Majorca, the Kingdom of Sicily, Malta, the Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sardinia. For brief periods the Crown of Aragon also controlled Montpellier, Provence, Corsica, the Duchy of Neopatria in Latin Greece and the Duchy of Athens.
Given its size and location, Aragon had no right to gain such a large empire in a period when other states had much larger armies. Their dominance came to a peaceful end when the House of Aragon and the House of Castile united in marriage in 1469. (There was probably considerable diplomatic pressures that lead to the marriage... but large scale conflict was avoided... for the time being). Having an empire that survived for over 300 years is not bad... not up to the Roman standards... but pretty good! Aragon did not rape and pillage its colonies... its army was only of modest size... so their expenditure was low.... signs of wealth within Zaragoza are not as ostentatious as some other seats of empire. But the churches in Zaragoza are huge... the collection of medieval art is extensive... the city's design is grand. It remains a mystery to me why Zaragoza takes a low profile in displaying itself as a seat of empire. Perhaps there are other chapters of the story yet to be discovered.
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