James ivan Aragon

Chaime lo Conqueridor, Occitan: Jacme lo Conquistaire, Spanish: Jaime el Conquistador; 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—the longest of any Iberian monarch—saw the expansion of the House of Aragon in three directions: Languedoc to the north, the Balearic Islands to the southeast, and Valencia to the south. 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 Consolat de Mar,[1] which governed maritime trade and helped establish Aragonese 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.[2] As a child, James was made 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, when the former was only two years old.[2] 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[3] in May or June 1214.James was then sent to Monzón, where he was entrusted to the care of Guillem de Montredó,[4] 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.[5]In 1221, he was married to Eleanor, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile. The next six years of his reign were full of rebellions on the part of the nobles. By the Peace of Alcalá of 31 March 1227, the nobles and the king came to terms.

James first married, in 1221, 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[14]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 CastileConstance (1239–1269), married Manuel of Castile, son of Ferdinand IIIPeter III (1240–1285), successor in Aragon, Catalonia, and ValenciaJames II (1243–1311), successor in Balearics and LanguedocFerdinand (1245–1250)Sancha (1246–before 1275), died in the Holy Land.[15]Isabella (1248–1271), married Philip III of FranceMaria (1248–1267), nunSancho (1250–1275), Archbishop of ToledoEleanor (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 XèricaPeter (1259–1318), lord of AyerbeThe 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 CastroBy Berenguela Fernández:Pedro Fernández, baron of HíjarBy Elvira Sarroca:Jaume Sarroca (born 1248), Bishop of Huesca from 1273-1290