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Sixth Centennial of the Death of King Martin the Humane CATALAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 4: 137-143 (2011) Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona DOI: 10.2436/20.1000.01.55 · ISSN: 2013-407X http://revistes.iec.cat/chr/ Sixth centennial of the death of King Martin the Humane: The International Conference Martin the Humane, the Last King in the Barcelona Dynasty (1396-1410): The Interregnum and the Compromise of Caspe Josep M. Palau i Baduell* Historical Consulting Office Institut d’Estudis Catalans The year 2010 marks the six hundredth anniversary of the The first section, “The Government of the Kingdoms”, death of King Martin I of Aragon, also known as Martin entailed a brief survey of the political situation in the dif- the Humane, the last king in the Barcelona dynasty (1396- ferent kingdoms within the Crown of Catalonia and 1410). He was a distinguished king who brought Sicily Aragon during Martin’s day. into the Crown of Catalonia and Aragon and undertook First of all, in his lecture entitled “The Government of an expedition to Sardinia which ultimately led to total do- the Kingdoms: The Legal System of Catalonia”, Tomàs de minion over the island. Nevertheless, in the last years of Montagut from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the his life he was lacking the forces he needed to pacify the IEC analysed aspects of Martin the Humane’s reign relat- factional infighting in Valencia and Aragon. The mon- ed to the political constitution and the law of the Crown arch’s main mistake was not having named a successor of Aragon, as well as the legal and political significance upon the death of his son, his only legitimate heir, which and the regulations produced by the Courts of Perpignan, unleashed an institutional crisis and the last enthrone- Sant Cugat del Vallès and Barcelona held between 1405 ment of a Castilian dynasty. and 1410. After an introduction to the political and legal To commemorate King Martin, the History-Archaeol- aspects of the courts, Montagut conducted a study of the ogy Section of the IEC, in conjunction with the Spanish legal system in place in Catalonia during the reign of King National Research Council,** organised an international Martin and the reforms of this system by the Catalan conference entitled Martin the Humane, the Last King in Courts. He compared the drafts and the regulations that the Barcelona Dynasty (1396-1410): The Interregnum and were ultimately approved. Montagut concluded his talk the Compromise of Caspe. This conference was held at the with several opinions by jurist Tomàs Mieres (1400-1474) headquarters of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC) in on the meaning of the courts of Martin the Humane, Barcelona from the 31st of May to the 4th of June 2010. stressing that the regulations issued by these courts was The conference was divided into eight main sections an essential milestone in validating Catalonia’s political categorising the 30 lectures and seven papers about King constitution based on the rule of law and legal pactism. Martin delivered by the diverse international experts over In his talk entitled “The Government of the Territory the course of the week. and Factions”, Flocel Sabaté from the Universitat de Lleida The opening session featured a welcome by IEC Presi- analysed how the land was organised in the different king- dent Salvador Giner and a keynote lecture by Maria Teresa doms. He stressed the importance of the municipalities in Ferrer, Scientific Coordinator of the conference, who spoke politics given the legal fragmentation of the Crown. In this about the figure of Martin the Humane and his reign. context, Professor Sabaté highlighted each municipality’s reaction aimed at its own benefit, and he stressed that this was not incompatible with the fact that they were inter- nally divided into factions. These factions ended up char- * Contact address: Josep Maria Palau i Baduell. Historical Consulting Of- fice. Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Carme 47. E-08001 Barcelona, Catalonia, EU. acterising all late mediaeval politics and can be seen in the Tel. +34 932 701 620. E-mail: [email protected] division of municipal power. This factional system was ** Through the financed research project The Crown of Aragon in the Me- even more evident once the crisis of succession broke out. diaeval Mediterranean: Bridge among Cultures, Mediator between Christi- anity and Islam (HUM2007-61131) and the consolidated research groups In her talk “The Courts and the Generalitat de Catalun- on the Crown of Catalonia and Aragon, Islam and the Mediterranean ya”, Maria Teresa Ferrer of the IEC and the Institució World (2009SGR 1452) and Feudal Income and Taxation in Late Mediaeval Milà i Fontanals explained the content of the parliaments Catalonia (2009SGR 1367) from the Department of Mediaeval Studies of the Institució Milà i Fontanals. which we are aware were held during the reign of Martin 001-164 Catalan Historical 4 (Eng).indd 137 15/09/11 17:49 138 Cat. Hist. Rev. 4, 2011 Josep M. Palau i Baduell Figure 1. Close-up of the altarpiece of Saint Severinus from Barcelona’s Sant Sever Hospital, which includes a depiction of King Martin the Humane. Trasllat de les reliquies de Sant Sever a la Catedral de Barcelona (Transfer of the Relics of Saint Severinus to the Cathedral of Barcelo- na). Pere Nunyes and Enric Fernandes. Oil and tempera on wooden panel. Barcelona (1541-1542). (Source: Diocesan Museum of Barcelona. inv. no. 38). the Humane between 1396 and 1397. However, some au- tance of drawing up a population census for taxation and thors believe that they constituted a single court aimed at revenue purposes. Sarasa stressed that the courts of preparing Catalonia’s defence against the threat posed by Aragon followed the same dynamic as the preceding the Count of Foix. She also discussed the 1400 parliament courts, especially the ones of Peter the Ceremonious, and held in Tortosa to discuss the defence of Sardinia and the dealt with the same concerns and difficulties that would sea routes. Professor Ferrer mentioned that the absence of later continue in the Interregnum. Nevertheless, the re- the King, who was in Sicily, prevented the courts from sults were favourable for the kingdom in terms of govern- meeting. The only general court was the Perpignan-Sant ance issues, territorial administration, taxation and the Cugat-Barcelona one held from 1406 to 1410, which nev- institutions of the Diputación del General in Aragon. er concluded due to the monarch’s death. There, the le- In a similar vein, in her talk entitled “The Courts and the gality of the cavalry branch was discussed and the king Generalitat Valenciana during the Reign of Martin the Hu- secured aid to help fight against the Arborea Kingdom on mane”, Rosa Muñoz from the Universitat de València ana- Sicily. The talk also addressed the vicissitudes of the Gen- lysed the courts of Valencia held between 1401 and 1407. eralitat de Catalunya, founded just a few years earlier The goal of the courts was, in the words of the monarch (1359) during the reign of Peter the Ceremonious. himself, to fulfil the code of law, resolve grievances and se- In his talk entitled “The Courts and the Government of cure revenues to redeem the royal assets. These courts were Aragon during the Reign of King Martin the Humane”, marked by social conflicts and the economic hardships Esteban Sarasa from the Universidad de Zaragoza studied arising from the expansionist policy of Peter the Ceremo- the courts and the government of Aragon, the Diputación nious and John I’s poor oversight. Professor Muñoz del General. The courts were only convened twice in the stressed that the importance of these courts lay in their Kingdom of Aragon: specifically, in Zaragoza in 1398 and consolidation of the structure of the Generalitat Valencia- 1400, where the grievances submitted to the monarch na, even though it did not gain solid ground as a perma- were discussed, and in Maella in 1404, which revealed the nent entity until 1418, along with the creation of a 32-mem- concern with the public and private order and the impor- ber commission (eight per branch and eight on behalf of 001-164 Catalan Historical 4 (Eng).indd 138 15/09/11 17:49 Sixth centennial of the death of King Martin the Humane Cat. Hist. Rev. 4, 2011 139 the king) which was later dissolved in 1407 when the courts The third section, entitled “The Consolidation of Power in were brought to an end once the new code of law and the the Central Mediterranean”, featured international experts expansion of contributions had been approved. who analysed the power struggles in Sicily and Sardinia. The paper by Josep Alanyà from the Diocesan Archive In his talk “A Kingdom for Martin, Duke of Montblanc of Tortosa entitled “The Governance of Martin the Hu- and his Children: The Restoration of Queen Maria of Sic- mane in the Territory of the Bishopric of Tortosa” studied ily”, Henri Bresc from the Université Paris X (Paris-Nan- the records of King Martin’s governance in the diocese of terre) examined the motives behind the marriage of Maria Tortosa, including the ones that reveal the monarch’s of Sicily, the daughter of Constance of Aragon, and Mar- concern with the status of Tortosa’s church as a result of tin the Younger, the son of Martin the Humane, and its the Western Schism, as well as the records that show the consequences on the political situation in the Kingdom of social problems of the day and provide us with an over- Sicily. He stressed how Queen Maria of Sicily was the le- view of society and the church in Tortosa between 1350 gitimate ruler of the Sicily, the heir to a long struggle and 1410.
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