Everything about Peter Iv Of Aragon totally explained
Peter IV (
5 September 1319,
Balaguer –
5 January 1387), called
the Ceremonious (
el Cerimoniós) or
El del Punyalet ("the one of the little dagger"), was the
King of Aragon,
King of Sardinia and Corsica (as
Peter I),
King of Valencia (as
Peter II), and
Count of Barcelona (and the rest of the
Principality of Catalonia as
Peter III) from 1336 until his death. He deposed
James III of Majorca and made himself
King of Majorca in 1344. His reign was occupied with attempts to strengthen the crown against the
Union of Aragon and other such devices of the nobility, with their near constant revolts, and with foreign wars, in
Sardinia,
Sicily, the
Mezzogiorno,
Greece, and the
Balearics. His wars in Greece made him
Duke of Athens and
Neopatria in 1381.
Succession conflicts
Peter was the eldest son and heir of
Alfonso IV, then merely
Count of Urgell, and his first wife,
Teresa d'Entença. Peter was designated to inherit all of his father's title save that of Urgell, which went to his younger brother
James.
Upon succeeding his father he called a
cort in
Zaragoza for his coronation. He crowned himself, disappointing the
Archbishop of Zaragoza and thus rejecting the surrender
Peter II had made to the
Papacy, in an otherwise traditional ceremony. According to his own later reports, this act caused him some "distress". Also while he was at Zaragoza an embassy from
Castile had met him and asked that he promise to uphold the donations of land his father had made to his step-mother
Eleanor, but he refused to give a clear answer as to the legitimacy of the donations. While in Valencia he decided on the case of his step-mother's inheritance, depriving her of income and outlawing her Castilian protector,
Pedro de Ejérica. Peter was largely forced to capitulate by a new invasion from
Morocco aimed at Castile and Valencia.
In 1338 he married
Maria, second daughter of
Philip III and
Joan II of Navarre. In order not to offend France nor to support James, Peter summoned the king of Majorca to a
cort at Barcelona, to which he knew he wouldn't come, and when James or a representative of his failed to appear, Peter declared himself free from the obligations of an overlord to James. In February 1343 Peter declared James a contumacious vassal and his kingdom and lands forfeit. Though James sued for peace and Pope Clement attempted to mediate it, Peter returned to Barcelona prepared to invade Roussillon and Cerdagne.
After these were finally conquered in 1344 James surrendered on a safe conduct, only to find himself ignominiously reduced to the status of a petty lord.
In March Peter had declared his realm incorporated into the Crown of Aragon in perpetuity and ceremoniously had himself crowned its king.
Military career
By the
Pact of Madrid, Peter was constrained to aid
Alfonso XI of Castile in his successful attack on
Algeciras (1344) and his failed attempt on
Gibraltar (1349) by defending against a
Moroccan counterattack.
He found himself facing a rebellion among the nobles which would fail after he defeated the nobles in the
Battle of Epila in 1348.
In 1356, he engaged with
Peter I of Castile in what was called the "
War of the Two Peters". It ended in 1375 with the Treaty of Almazán, without a winner due to the
Black Death and several natural disasters.
He conquered Sicily in 1377 but the possession was given to his son Martin.
Throughout his reign, Peter IV had frequent conflicts with the inquisitor general of Aragon,
Nicolau Aymerich.
In 1349, James invaded Majorca, but was soundly defeated by Peter's troops at the
Battle of Llucmajor, in which he died. After James' death, Peter allowed
James IV, his successor, to retain his royal title on purely formal terms until his death in 1375. After that date, Peter assumed the titular. Majorca remained one of the component crowns of the
Crown of Aragon until the
Nueva Planta decrees.
Generalitat
At a
cortes celebrated at
Barcelona,
Vilafranca del Penedès and
Cervera in 1358–1359, Peter instituted the
Generalitat. Castile had recently invaded Aragon and Valencia and the cortes decided to streamline the government by designating a dozen deputies to oversee the fiscal and material policies of the Crown. The first "President of the Generalitat" was
Berenguer de Cruïlles,
Bishop of Girona (1359).
Toward the end of his reign (c. 1370) Peter ordered the compilation of the
Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña to record the historical basis for the authority of the crown.
Marriage and children
On 1338, he married Maria of Navarre (1329-1347), daughter of
Joan II of Navarre. She bore him two daughters:
In 1347, he married
Leonor of Portugal (1328-1348), daughter of
Afonso IV of Portugal. She died one year later of the
Black Death.
His third marriage was to Eleanor of Sicily (1325-1375), daughter of
Peter II of Sicily. Four children were born from this marriage:
Juan I
Martí I
Eleanor, who married Juan I of Castile and was the mother of Ferdinand I of Aragon.
Alfonso (died young).
His last marriage, in 1377, was to Sibila of Fortià, who bore him a daughter:
Elizabeth (1376-1424), who married her cousin James (Jaime), Count of Urgell.Further Information
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