After their break from the Franks, the Sovereign Counts of Catalonia carved out their own identity as a loose federation of states anchored by Barcelona. The federation expanded into Southern France, and with the marriage of their Ramon Berenquer IV to the infant daughter of Aragon’s King Ramiro in 1137, Catalonia became a formidable power in the Mediterranean.
Jaume I el Conqueridor (1208-1276) is viewed as one of the greatest figures in Catalonia’s history. At the age of five we was captured by the French after his father Pere I was killed in battle. He managed to return to Catalonia when he was seventeen years old, was proclaimed king, and continued to rule for fifty years. Jaume conquered Majorca, Ibiza, and Valencia. The city of Barcelona also expanded during his reign with the construction of new city walls around the neighborhoods of Sant Pere and Ribera. Jaume also fostered legal and political development, compiling laws and practices in the Llibre del Consolat de Mar. Elections in 1283 led to creation of one of the oldest parliaments in Europe (the Consell de Cent). The Consell continued to play a municipal advisory role until 1714. One of Jaume’s successors (Pere II el Gran) set up another governing body in 1283 called the Corts de Barcelona. It became know as the Generalitat in the 14th century and continues to govern Catalonia to this day.
Pere III (1336-1387) was the ruler who saw the apex of Catalonia’s expansion. During his rule the Empire expanded northward to Montpellier, France and far into the Mediterranean from the Balearic Islands to Sicily and Sardinia. The House of Aragon even held Athens as a colony from 1311-1381. As a seat of naval and economic power, Barcelona became a magnet for imported raw materials and a major exporter of manufactured goods such as steel weaponry and textiles. Eventually that power was eroded by the growth of the Ottoman Empire in eastern Europe.
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