Ancestral Trails 2016 » JAIME I d'ARAGON (-1276)

Personal data JAIME I d'ARAGON 

• He was born on February 2, 1207/08 in Montpellier, Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France.
• Title: King of Aragon
• (Nickname) : "El Conquistador".
• He died on July 25, 1276 in Huesca, Huesca, Aragon, Spain, he was 69 years old.
• A child of PEDRO II d'ARAGON and MARIE de MONTPELLIER

Household of JAIME I d'ARAGON

(1) He is married to VIOLANTE OF HUNGARY.

They got married on September 8, 1235 at Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, he was 28 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Pedro d'ARAGON  1239-1285 
2. Jaime d'ARAGON  1243-1311 
3. Violante d'ARAGON  1236-1301 
4. ISABELLA d'ARAGON  1247-???? 
5. Constance d'ARAGON  1238-1268 

(2) He is married to Eleanor de CASTILE.

They got married on February 6, 1220/21 at Huesca, Huesca, Aragon, Spain, he was 13 years old.

Notes about JAIME I d'ARAGON

James I the Conqueror; (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 saw the expansion of the House of Aragon in three directions: Languedoc to the north, the Balearic Islands to the south, and Valencia to the southwest. 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 Consulat de Mar, which governed maritime trade and helped establish Catalan 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.

James was born at Montpellier as the only son of Peter II of Aragon and Marie of Montpellier. 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. 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 in May or June 1214.

James was then sent to Monzón, where he was entrusted to the care of Guillem de Montredó, 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.

In 1221, he was married to 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.
Isabella (1248-1271), married Philip III of France
Maria (1248-1267), nun
Sancho, Archbishop of Toledo (1250-1279)
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
SOURCE: Wikipedia

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Timeline JAIME I d'ARAGON

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