From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Alfonso III of Aragon

King of Aragon and Valencia from 1285 to 1291

Field	Value
name	Alfonso III
image	Alfons III (cropped).jpg
caption	Medieval miniature of Alfonso III,
succession	King of Aragon and Valencia
Count of Barcelona
reign	November 1285 – 18 June 1291
coronation	2 February 1286, Valencia
9 April 1286, Zaragoza
predecessor	Peter III
successor	James II
house	House of Barcelona
father	Peter III of Aragon
mother	Constance II of Sicily
birth_date	4 November 1265
birth_place	Valencia, Kingdom of Valencia
death_date	18 June 1291 (aged 25)
death_place	Barcelona, Principality of Catalonia
burial_place	Barcelona Cathedral; prev. Convent de Sant Francesc, Barcelona

Count of Barcelona 9 April 1286, Zaragoza

Alfonso III (4 November 1265 – 18 June 1291), called the Liberal (el Liberal) and the Free (also "the Frank", from el Franc), was king of Aragon and Valencia, and count of Barcelona (as Alfons II) from 1285 until his death. He conquered the Kingdom of Majorca between his succession and 1287.

Life

Alfonso was the son of King Peter III of Aragon and Constance, daughter and heiress of King Manfred of Sicily.

Soon after assuming the throne, he conducted a campaign to reincorporate the Balearic Islands into the Crown of Aragon, which had been lost due to the division of the realm by his grandfather, James I of Aragon. Thus in 1285 he declared war on his uncle, James II of Majorca, and conquered both Majorca (1285) and Ibiza (1286), effectively reassuming suzerainty over the Kingdom of Majorca. He followed this with the conquest of Menorca – until then an autonomous Muslim state (Manûrqa) within the Kingdom of Majorca – on 17 January 1287, the anniversary of which now serves as Menorca's national holiday.

Alfonso initially sought to maintain Aragonese control over Sicily by supporting the claims of his brother James II to the island. However, he later retracted his support for his brother shortly before his death and instead tried to make peace with the Papal States and with France.

His reign was marred by a constitutional struggle with the Aragonese nobles, which eventually culminated in the articles of the Union of Aragon – the so-called "Magna Carta of Aragon", which devolved several key royal powers into the hands of lesser nobles. His inability to resist the demands of his nobles was to leave a heritage of disunity in Aragon and further dissent amongst the nobility, who increasingly saw little reason to respect the throne, and brought the Kingdom of Aragon close to anarchy.

During his lifetime a dynastic marriage with Eleanor, daughter of King Edward I of England, was arranged. However, Alfonso died before meeting his bride, at the age of 25 in 1291, and was buried in the Franciscan convent in Barcelona; since 1852 his remains have been buried in Barcelona Cathedral.

In culture

Dante Alighieri, in the Divine Comedy, recounts that he saw Alfonso's spirit seated outside the gates of Purgatory with the other monarchs whom Dante blamed for the chaotic political state of Europe during the 13th century.

References

Sources

References

(2000). "C.1300-c.1415". Cambridge University Press.
Pedro IV, King of Aragon, 1319?-1387.. (1991). "The chronicle of San Juan de la Peña : a fourteenth-century official history of the crown of Aragon". University of Pennsylvania Press.
O'Callaghan, Joseph F.. (1975). "A history of medieval Spain". Cornell University Press.
Alighieri, Dante. (1308–1321). "Purgatorio". Flame Tree.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1265-births 1291-deaths 13th-century-aragonese-monarchs counts-of-barcelona valencian-monarchs house-of-aragon burials-at-barcelona-cathedral people-of-the-war-of-the-sicilian-vespers aragonese-infantes sons-of-queens-regnant

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Alfonso III of Aragon — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report