Editing History of Catalonia (section)

=== Expansion and institutionalization of the Principality ===
{{Main|Principality of Catalonia}}
[[File:Jaime I de Aragón en las pinturas murales de la conquista de Mallorca.jpg|thumb|upright|James I of Aragon with the bishop of Barcelona Berenguer de Palou, Bernat de Centelles and Gilabert de Cruïlles during the conquest of Majorca (1229)]]
During the reign of Alfonso, in 1173, Catalonia was regarded as a legal entity for the first time, while the Usages of Barcelona were compiled in the process to turn them into the law of Catalonia (''Consuetudinem Cathalonie'').<ref>Sesma Muñoz, José Ángel (2000). ''La Corona de Aragón. Una introducción crítica.'' Zaragoza: Caja de la Inmaculada. ISBN 84-95306-80-8</ref> Apart from the Usages, between 1170 and 1195 the ''[[Liber feudorum maior]]'' and the ''[[Gesta Comitum Barchinonensium]]'' were also compiled and written, being considered together as the "three milestones of Catalan political identity".<ref>Cingolani, Stefano Maria (2006). "Seguir les Vestígies dels Antecessors. Llinatge, Reialesa i Historiografia a Catalunya des de Ramon Berenguer IV a Pere II (1131-1285)", Anuario de Estudios Medievales, p 225.</ref>

Catalonia became the base for the Aragonese Crown's sea power, which came to dominate a maritime empire that extended across the western Mediterranean after the conquest of [[Valencia (autonomous community)|Valencia]], the Balearic Islands, [[Sardinia]], and the accession in Sicily of the kings of [[Aragon]]. This period saw a large increase of maritime trade in Catalan ports, particularly of the Aragonese Crown's leading city, Barcelona.

At the end of the 12th century, a series of pacts between the crowns of Aragon and Castile delimited the zones that the two would each attempt to conquer from Muslim-ruled kingdoms, (the ''"[[Reconquista]]"''); to the east, in 1213, the defeat and death of [[Peter II of Aragon]] ("Peter the Catholic") in the [[Battle of Muret]] put an end to the project of consolidating the Aragonese influence and power over [[Provence]] and the [[County of Toulouse]].<ref name="Tucker269">''A Global Chronology of Conflict'', Vol. I, ed. Spencer Tucker, (ABC-CLIO, 2010), 269.</ref> His successor [[James I of Aragon]] did not fully consolidate his power until 1227; once he consolidated his inherited realm, he began a series of new conquests. Over the course of the next quarter-century he conquered [[Majorca]] and [[Valencia (autonomous community)|Valencia]].<ref>Mata, Jordi. ''Jaume I. Rei i Mite.'' Sàpiens (Barcelona), num. 121, October 2012, pp. 8–14. ISSN 1695-2014.</ref> The latter became a new state, the third kingdom associated with the Crown of Aragon, with its own court and a new ''[[fueros|fuero]]'' (code of laws): the ''Furs de València''. In contrast, the Majorcan territory together with that of the counties of Cerdanya, [[Vallespir]], [[Capcir]] and [[Roussillon]] and the city of [[Montpellier]] were left as a kingdom for his son [[James II of Majorca]] as the [[Kingdom of Majorca]]. This division began a period of struggle that ended with the annexation of that kingdom by the Crown of Aragon in 1344 by Peter IV "the Ceremonious".

In 1258, James I and [[Louis IX of France]] signed the [[Treaty of Corbeil (1258)|Treaty of Corbeil]]: the French king, as the heir of Charlemagne, renounced his claims of feudal overlordship over Catalonia, which it was effectively independent from French rule since the end of the 10th century, while James renounced his claims in [[Occitania]].<ref name="Petit-Dutaillis2013">{{cite book|author=C. Petit-Dutaillis|title=The Feudal Monarchy in France and England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vXr5AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA324|date=5 November 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-20350-3|page=324}}</ref>

[[File:Cortes Catalanas.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Miniature (15th century) of the [[Catalan Courts]], presided over by [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|Ferdinand II]]]]
At the same time, the Principality of Catalonia developed a complex institutional and political system based on the concept of a pact between the [[estates of the realm]] and the king. From 1283 onwards, legislation had to be approved in the [[Catalan Courts|General Court of Catalonia]] (or Catalan Courts), regarded the first parliamentary body of Europe that banned the royal power to create legislation unilaterally.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://usuarios.multimania.es/maarian/Catalunya/historiacataluna/las_cortes_catalanas_.htm |title=Las Cortes Catalanas y la primera Generalidad medieval (s. XIII-XIV) |access-date=21 January 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019003946/http://usuarios.multimania.es/Maarian/Catalunya/historiacataluna/las_cortes_catalanas_.htm |archive-date=19 October 2010 }}</ref> The Courts were composed of the three estates, were presided over by the monarch as count of Barcelona, and approved the [[Catalan constitutions|constitutions]], which created a compilation of rights for the inhabitants of the Principality. In order to collect general taxes, the Courts of 1359 established a permanent representation of deputies, the Deputation of the General (Catalan: ''Diputació del General'') and later usually known as [[Generalitat of Catalonia|Generalitat]], which gained an important political power over the next centuries.<ref>[https://web.gencat.cat/ca/generalitat/historia/la-diputacio-del-general/ History of the Generalitat] gencat.cat</ref>

[[File:Map of the Crown of Aragon.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.25|Diachronic map of the [[Crown of Aragon]]. The Principality of Catalonia appears in light green]]
[[File:Entrada de Roger de Flor en Constantinopla (Palacio del Senado de España).jpg|thumb|Roger de Flor and the Catalan Company in [[Constantinople]]]]
The Principality of Catalonia saw a prosperous period during the 13th century and the first half of the 14th. The population increased; Catalan culture expanded into the islands of the Western Mediterranean. The reign of [[Peter III of Aragon]] ("the Great") included the conquest of [[Sicily]] and the successful defense against a French [[crusade]]; his son and successor [[Alfonso III of Aragon|Alfonso]] ("the Generous") conquered [[Menorca]]; and Peter's second son [[James II of Aragon|James II]], who first acceded to the throne of Sicily and then succeeded his older brother as king of Aragon, conquered Sardinia; under James II, and Catalonia was the center of the flourishing empire. Barcelona, then the most frequent royal residence, was consolidated as the administrative center of the domains with the establishment of the [[Royal Archives of Barcelona|Royal Archives]] in 1318.<ref name="carlos">{{cite book|title= Qué es el Archivo de la Corona de Aragón? |author= Carlos López Rodríguez |editor= Mira Editores |isbn= 978-84-8465-220-5 |date= April 2007 |pages= 32–33, 35–38, 41|publisher= Mira Editores }}</ref>{{sfn|Baydal|Palomo|2020|p=116}} The [[Catalan Company]], mercenaries led by [[Roger de Flor]] and formed by [[Almogavar]] veterans of the [[War of the Sicilian Vespers]], were hired by the [[Byzantine Empire]] to fight the Turks, defeating them in several battles. After the assassination of Roger de Flor by orders of the emperor's son [[Michael IX Palaiologos|Michael Palaiologos]] (1305),<ref>Burns, R. Ignatius (1954). "The Catalan Company and the European Powers, 1305-1311". Speculum. Vol. 29 (No. 4 Oct.) p. 752</ref> the Company took revenge sacking [[Thrace]] and later Greece, where they took the [[Duchy of Athens|duchies of Athens]] and [[Duchy of Neopatras|Neopatras]] in the name of the King of Aragon. Catalan rule over the Greek lands lasted until 1390.<ref>{{cite book | first = William | last = Miller | author-link = William Miller (historian) |pages = [https://archive.org/details/latinsinlevanta00millgoog/page/n330 303]–325 | title = The Latins in the Levant, a History of Frankish Greece (1204–1566) | publisher = E. P. Dutton and Company | location = New York | year = 1908 | url = https://archive.org/details/latinsinlevanta00millgoog | oclc = 563022439 }}</ref> The Crown became the protector of the united [[League of Lezhë|Albanian principalities]] after the [[Treaty of Gaeta]].

This territorial expansion was accompanied by a great development of the Catalan trade, centered in Barcelona, creating an extensive trade network across the Mediterranean which competed with those of the [[maritime republics]] of [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]] and [[Republic of Venice|Venice]].{{sfn|Fontana|2014|p=59}} In this line, institutions were created that would give legal protection to merchants, such as the [[Consulate of the Sea]] and the [[Book of the Consulate of the Sea]], one of the first compilations of [[maritime law]].<ref>[http://www.historyoflaw.info/maritime-law-history.html History of maritime law] www.historyoflaw.info</ref> The trade allowed the formation of [[banking]]. In 1401, the local authorities created a pioneering [[public bank]], the [[Taula de canvi de Barcelona]], in 1401,<ref>Thomas Henry Dyer [https://books.google.com/books?id=kQZOAAAAcAAJ&dq=Table+of+Exchange+Barcelona&pg=PA19 The history of modern Europe: from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the war in the Crimea in 1857, Volume 2] John Murray, 1861 Retrieved 2012-05-14</ref><ref>[http://www.lavanguardia.com/local/maresme/20121130/54356804898/banco-barcelona-fondos-segundo-viaje-colon-simposio-arenys-de-munt.html La Vanguardia – El Banco de Barcelona financia el segundo viaje de Colón]</ref> arguably the world's first-ever [[central bank]].<ref name=Bindseil>{{cite book|author=Ulrich Bindseil|title=Central Banking before 1800: A Rehabilitation|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2019}}</ref>

The second quarter of the 14th century saw crucial changes for Catalonia, marked by a succession of natural catastrophes, demographic crises, stagnation and decline in the Catalan economy, and the rise of social tensions. In 1333, known as ''Lo mal any primer'' ("The first bad year"), a severe [[famine]] affected the lands of the Crown. Between 1347 and 1497 the Principality of Catalonia lost 37 percent of its population.{{refn|{{cite book| author=John Huxtable Elliott| title=The revolt of the Catalans: a study in the decline of Spain (1598–1640)| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X2Hf-crzPjUC&pg=PA26| year=1984| publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]| isbn=0-521-27890-2| page=26}} "Between 1347 and 1497 the Principality [Catalonia] had lost 37% of its inhabitants,<ref>{{cite book |author1=J. Nadal |author2=E. Giralt |title=La Population Catalane de 1333 à 1717 |place=Paris |year=1960 |page=117}}</ref> and was reduced to a population of something like 300,000.}} The reign of Peter the Ceremonious was a time of war: the annexation of [[Majorca]], the quelling of a rebellion in Sardinia, a rebellion by an Aragonese faction who wished to extinguish local Catalan privileges in favor of a more centralized kingdom of Aragon, and an Aragonese-Castilian war. These wars created a delicate financial situation, in a framework of demographic and economic crisis, to which was added a generation later a crisis of succession generated by the death in 1410 of [[Martin I of Aragon|Martin I]] without a descendant or a named successor. A two-year [[interregnum]] progressively evolved in favor of a candidate from the Castilian [[House of Trastámara|Trastámara]] dynasty, Ferdinand of Antequera, who on the [[Compromise of Caspe]] (1412), representatives of Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia appointed him monarch as [[Ferdinand I of Aragon]].<ref name=Reilly>{{cite book |last=Reilly |first=Bernard |title=The Medieval Spain |year=1993 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-39436-8}}</ref> Opposition to Ferdinand, led by the alternate candidate [[James II, Count of Urgell]], was defeated in 1413.