Aragon (Occitania)

Who he is

Name

Peter II (Pedro II, Pere I), called the Catholic

Title

King of Aragon, count of Barcelona, count of Roussillon and Cerdanya, overlord north of the Pyrenees

Since

25 April 1196, when his father Alfonso II died at Perpignan

Born

1178 by most accounts (1177 in the Gran Enciclopedia Catalana); about 21

Family

House of Barcelona. Unmarried. Brother of Alfonso, count of Provence. Nephew of Archbishop Berengar of Narbonne.

Confidence

high

As in the Iberia map's Aragon realm record (Aragon), which holds the kingdom itself.

What it holds

• Roussillon, held directly (Perpignan, Collioure, Salses)
• Cerdanya, Conflent and Capcir, held directly (Puigcerda, on the Iberia map; Villefranche-de-Conflent; Prades; Formigueres)
• The Vallespir, of the royal county of Besalu
• The viscounty of Millau (consuls since a charter of Alfonso II, usually dated 1187)
• The viscounty of Gevaudan: Greze and Marvejols; the bishop of Mende holds most of the land by royal French grant
• Overlordship of the viscounty of Carlat, held by the count of Rodez
• Overlordship of the Fenouilledes and the Peyrepertuses (granted to Foix in 1193)
• Overlordship of Carcassonne and Razes (Trencavel)
• Overlordship of Bearn and Bigorre (Gascony researcher)

How it was acquired

Roussillon by the bequest of Girard II, 1172; Cerdanya in 1117-1118; Millau, the Gevaudan and Carlat by the marriage of Raymond Berengar III to Douce of Provence in 1112; the Trencavel homage for Carcassonne and Razes from 1150 onwards.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Raymond VI (since 1198); the Trencavel; Gaston VI of Bearn; Comminges (vassal for the Val d'Aran in 1201); William VIII of Montpellier. Rivals: the count of Foix and Arnau de Castellbo, at war with Urgell; Navarre beyond the mountains.

How things stand that morning

Peter governs Roussillon and Cerdanya through his officers; his uncle Sancho holds no county north of the mountains between 1188 and 1208 (Iberia map). The Millau and Gevaudan rights are governed by his bailiffs. In the high Pyrenees the Foix-Castellbo raids have been hitting Cerdanya and Urgell since 1196 or 1198.

Court in 1200

The king himself is at Jaca on 1 January 1200 (Iberia map, after charters calendared by Miret i Sans). North of the mountains he governs through his vicars and bailiffs at Perpignan, Puigcerda and Millau.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. During 1200The marriage of Peter's sister Eleanor to Raymond VI is agreed (Gran Enciclopedia Catalana); the wedding follows in 1204.Depends on: The Toulouse alliance; the end of Raymond's other marriage. Stopped by: A breach with Toulouse.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201Bernard IV of Comminges becomes Peter's vassal for the Val d'Aran.Depends on: Peter's Occitan policy. Stopped by: War with Comminges.
2. 1203The count of Foix and Arnau de Castellbo are captured by Urgell (February) and freed through Peter (September).Depends on: The Urgell war going on. Stopped by: A peace in the mountains.
3. 1204Treaty of Millau with Raymond VI (Alvira Cabrer); marriage to Marie of Montpellier (15 June 1204).Depends on: The alliances holding. Stopped by: Play.

Where the sources disagree

• Who holds Millau and the Gevaudan: French Wikipedia (Alphonse II de Provence) says Peter's brother Alfonso received 'the counties of Provence and Gevaudan' in 1185, and the Iberia map cites English Wikipedia giving Alfonso Millau; the Catalan encyclopedia says Millau stayed 'united with Provence' after 1112. Against this, the Millau treaty of 1204 is made by Peter, and Peter's heirs, not Alfonso's, keep the rights over Millau, Gevaudan and Carlat until the treaty of Corbeil (1258). Ruled here: Peter II holds them on 1 January 1200 (medium confidence).

Evidence: Roussillon and Cerdanya are well attested (Iberia map); Millau, the Gevaudan and Carlat are attested for the house of Barcelona but the split between Peter and Alfonso of Provence is not settled in the sources read.

On the map: Drawn from the records of Roussillon, Cerdanya, the Fenouilledes, Millau, the Gevaudan and Carlat, and anchors.

Primary sources for Aragon

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Toledo and other short Iberian annals (12th and 13th centuries; Anales Toledanos I to 1219). Florez's volume 23 gathers the short annals of the peninsula. Read online
• Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
• The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
• Deeds of the Counts of Barcelona, Anonymous (monks of Santa Maria de Ripoll) (first version 1162 to 1184; continued in the later 13th century; final version 1303 to 1314). The house chronicle of the counts of Barcelona.
• History of the Affairs of Spain, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada (completed 1243). The archbishop's history of the peninsula, written forty years on by a Navarrese who served Castile. Read online
• The Book of Examples: the History of the Berbers and of the Muslim Dynasties of North Africa, Ibn Khaldun (1375 to 1379 at Qal'at Ibn Salama and Tunis, revised until 1406). Ibn Khaldun's tribal histories are the standard account of the powers that Almohad chronicles treat as background: the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym in Ifriqiya and Tripolitania and their alliances with the Banu Ghaniya and Qaraqush; the Zenata of the central Maghreb (Banu Marin, Banu Abd al-Wad, Tujin, Maghrawa) before their rise; the Sanhaja and the veiled peoples of the Sahara; the Masmuda and the Almohad tribes. Read online
• The Pleasant Book: a Summary of the History of the Maghreb, Abd al-Wahid al-Marrakushi (completed in 1224, in the East, after the author left the Maghreb in 1217). Abd al-Wahid was a boy of fifteen at Fez and Marrakesh in 1200 and later moved in Almohad court circles, so his account of Yaqub al-Mansur (died January 1199) and of the first years of Muhammad al-Nasir is partly from memory and from men he knew: the character of the new caliph, the weakness that let the Banu Ghaniya overrun Ifriqiya, the Majorca expedition of 1203 and the Ifriqiya campaign of 1205 to 1206. Read online
• Official Letters of the Almohad Chancery (1140s to 1260s; the letters nearest 1200 are of the reigns of al-Mansur and al-Nasir). Circular letters from the caliphs to governors, tribes and towns announcing victories, appointments and policy, preserved in later manuscript collections.

7 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.