CATALAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 1: 149-155 (2008) Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona DOI: 10.2436/20.1000.01.10 · ISSN: 2013-407X http://revistes.iec.cat/chr/ Commemoration of the Eighth Centenary of the Birth of James I: Conference Organized by the History and Archeology Section of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans in Barcelona Maria Teresa Ferrer* Institut d’Estudis Catalans We are commemorating this year, 2008, the eighth cente- ternational Relations). A total of two lectures and twen- nary of the birth of James I ‘the Conqueror’, the son of King ty-four papers were given. Peter I ‘the Catholic’ and Mary of Montpellier, who was At the opening session the President of the Institut born in Montpellier during the night of 1-2 February 1208. d’Estudis Catalans, Salvador Giner, and the Director of He was unquestionably the most important of our the Institut Europeu de la Mediterrània, Senén Florensa, kings, both on account of his conquests and because of both spoke about the eighth centenary celebrations and the governmental action he carried out during his long, two lectures were given. In the first of these Maria Teresa sixty-three-year reign. Ferrer of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans offered a outline To the states he inherited − Aragon, Catalonia and the biography of King James I and an assessment of his reign. seigneury of Montpellier − he added two more − Majorca She referred to the aspects of his rule that were to be stud- and the Valencian Country − which were captured from ied in each of the conferences and recalled the historian the Moors, resettled, and organized as kingdoms in their Robert I. Burns, a specialist in James I, who was unable to own right. This was the largest outward thrust ever achieved be present on account of his delicate state of health. by the Catalan-Aragonese crown and permitted the forma- The seventh centenary of the birth of James I, a century tion of the cultural area, also known as the Catalan Coun- ago, was marked by a major conference which give rise to tries, where Catalan is still spoken to the present day. a series of conferences on the history of the Crown of James I encouraged the growth of Catalan trade and Aragon. The lecture given by Salvador Claramunt of the the Catalan navy, founded the first overseas consulates, University of Barcelona provided an account of that con- and laid the foundations of what was to become the Con- ference and of the other celebrations held in 1908, which solat de Mar (Consulate of the Sea). He contributed deci- caused considerable impact in Catalonia. sively to the development of municipal government in the At the session devoted to the first of the major topics cities and towns of the braç reial (those that depended di- addressed by the conference, “Royal Power and Adminis- rectly on the crown) and set up several borough councils, trative and Representative Institutions during the Reign including that of Barcelona. In the course of his reign the of James I”, Vicent Garcia Edo of the Universitat Jaume I composition of the parliament, or Corts, was modernized: in Castelló described and analysed the monarchy of James starting from the meeting held in Lleida in 1214, which is I. No special internal characteristics distinguished it as an considered Catalonia’s first full parliament, representa- institution: power was concentrated in the hands of the tives of these same royal cities and towns were also present. king, who had the hereditary right to reign and this right, The History and Archeology Section of the Institut according to the beliefs of the period, was granted by God d’Estudis Catalans, independently or in cooperation with to a dynasty with the object of imparting justice. In order other bodies, has organized a series of conferences as part to attain this very goal, laws had to be promulgated and of these commemorations. this, in the speaker’s view, was the most important feature The conference the Section held at the Institut d’Estudis of James I’s long reign. His great legislative task was ac- Catalans in Barcelona from 31 March to 4 April, in part- complished in the different states of the Crown and took a nership with the Institut Europeu de la Mediterrània, was variety of forms. These included charters of settlement, the first in the series. It focussed on two major topics: “El privileges and different types of grants, new municipal poder reial i les institucions administratives i representa- customs and modifications to certain earlier customs, tives” (Royal Power and Administrative and Representa- overall legal codes for Valencia and Aragon (Furs and tive Institutions) and “Les relacions internacionals” (In- Fueros respectively), maritime laws, the maintenance of the Muslim population’s existing law and new legislation for the same group. All this required constant discussions with the different estates and minorities in each of the * E-mail: [email protected] king’s realms. Professor Garcia Edo underlined the im- 001-156 ANGLES.indd 149 14/04/09 09:41:31 150 Cat. Hist. Rev. 1, 2008 Maria Teresa Ferrer portance of the consolidation of the royal Chancery, José Vicente Cabezuelo of the University of Alacant which became more professionalized when lawyers and analysed the government of Valencia after the conquest. notaries entered the service of the Crown and generalized He explained how, after the city of Valencia had been cap- the use of ius commune from Italy in both the substance tured but before the conquest of the rest of the kingdom and the form of the documents they drew up. James I also was complete, the king gave shape to its political and legal enlisted the support of specialists in decretals and furs (in system, endowing it with a legal code of its own, the Furs. Spanish fueros), who advised him on special rights. The James I organized the municipalities and the government speaker went on to examine the legislation of Majorca of the new land. Initially he ruled it by delegating his pow- and Valencia, the Fueros of Aragon, the law of Catalonia, ers to other persons when he was absent, but later he ap- municipal law, and the law of the Muslim population. pointed permanent officials who acted whether he was Besides the central institution − the monarchy −, the present in the kingdom or not. These officials were given political and territorial structure of the states of the Cata- a variety of names, until eventually the term procurador lan-Aragonese crown were studied in various papers. became established. Flocel Sabaté of the University of Lleida discussed the Another topic discussed in the section devoted to this topic “Poder i territori als estats originaris, Catalunya i first major theme was the redefinition of the inner bound- Aragó” (Power and Territory in the Original States, Cata- aries, notably those between the principality of Catalonia lonia and Aragon). The king’s attempt to reinforce his and the kingdom of Aragon. In his paper entitled “La power over his territories through the deployment of del- frontera del Principat de Catalunya amb el regne d’Aragó” egated officials met with head-on opposition from the no- (The Frontier between the Principality of Catalonia and bility and more subtle resistance from the very powerful the Kingdom of Aragon), Josep Alanyà of the Tortosa Di- royal boroughs. The latter tried to appropriate the royal ocesan Archive studied the ill-defined territorial status of officials charged with exercising territorial jurisdiction the region lying between the mountain range of Els Ports and to concentrate socio-economic power in their own and the River Ebro, which has close geographical links to hands. Professor Sabaté evoked the king’s very strained the region of Lower Aragon between Alcañiz and Caspe. relations with the nobility, which more than once led Often settlers in the region were called upon by Aragon to many nobles to sever their bonds of vassalage and sparked pay taxes or take part in hosts and cavalcades, whereas off armed clashes. This process, he remarked, was still on- spontaneously they identified more strongly with Catalo- going towards the end of the reign and the king did not nia. In all likelihood, the action of the bishop of Tortosa, dare to go on posting officials throughout Catalonia and whose jurisdiction included part of the region of Matar- Aragon because the nobles, in the name of tradition, re- ranya − now within Aragon −, was partially responsible jected his Roman law arguments. for this. Pau Cateura of the University of the Balearic Islands The discussions about government would have been gave a paper entitled “Jaume I i el govern de Majorca i incomplete without a study of municipal power. This was d’Eivissa (1230-1276)” (James I and the Government of provided by Pere Verdés of the Institució Milà i Fontanals Majorca and Eivissa [1230-1276]). He described how the of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas king established Majorca as a separate kingdom after the (CSIC) and Max Turull of the University of Barcelona. conquest instead of annexing it to Catalonia and how, not They underlined the crucial importance of the reign of long afterwards, in 1230, he granted settlers on the island James I in the legal and institutional development of the a Carta de Franquesa (Charter of Liberties) in which he Catalan municipalities, occurring as it did at the period undertook not to give the kingdom away or exchange it when ius commune reached Catalonia. Roman law gave but to maintain its links to the crown. Despite this pledge, rise to the concept of the universitas − the embodiment of policy requirements at home led him to entrust the gov- the population of towns and cities − which became estab- ernment of Majorca to his cousin Prince Peter of Portugal lished at that period.