Jayme was happy in his two sons Pedro and Jayme, both brave, accomplished, and dutiful. He determined to provide for both. Pedro was to succeed his father as King of Aragon, King of Valencia, and Count of Barcelona. He thus, by the addition of Valencia, gave to his heir far more extensive dominions than he had himself inherited. To his second son, Jayme, he gave the kingdom of Majorca, the counties of Roussillon, Cerdaña, and Conflent in the Pyrenees, inherited from En Nuño, and the barony of Montpellier, the inheritance of his mother. He declared his resolution to make this division on January 19, 1248, and his act was recognised and confirmed by the Cortes in 1251, and again in 1262. Pedro could have no cause for complaint, because he succeeded to all that his father had inherited and a great deal more. The division was confirmed many years before the death of King Jayme, so that both his sons had ample time to become reconciled to an arrangement which was perfectly fair and just in itself. Young Jayme, indeed, assumed his position in Majorca as heir-apparent, and ruled there under his father for several years.

One of the last acts of En Jayme was to attend a Papal Council at Lyons, where he was magnificently fêted. This led to his contemplating the command of a crusade, and his fourth and last visit to Majorca was undertaken to raise recruits; but it came to nothing. The great King died at Valencia on July 27, 1276, in his seventieth year, after a reign of sixty-four years. He was buried with great pomp, but amidst the heartfelt sorrow of his people, in the monastery of Poblet, near Tarragona. Here his body rested in peace for 560 years. But in 1835 a vile mob sacked and destroyed the monastery. The King’s coffin was eventually taken to the cathedral of Tarragona. It has found a final resting-place at Valencia, where his sword is also preserved.

King Jayme I. of Aragon, ‘El Conquistador,’ was a remarkable man—one of the greatest men of the thirteenth century. In his long reign he consolidated his dominions, while preserving the autonomy of each part which possessed a separate history and separate interests. He rendered the national assemblies more popular. He granted privileges most liberally to his subjects, encouraging agriculture and commerce. He gave an impulse to municipal government by the appointment of jurados and by instituting the ‘Council of One Hundred’ at Barcelona, a model for a popular magistracy. By the publication of his ‘Libro del Consulado de Mar,’ the first code of maritime law of its kind, he formed a pattern which was adopted by all other naval Powers. He compiled the Fueros of Aragon and Valencia, and granted those of Huesca on the model of the famous Fueros of Sobrarbe. He was a patron of learning; and the arts, especially architecture, flourished under his fostering care. He founded the university of Lerida. In his warlike undertakings he planned all his operations with such care and forethought that he was always successful. The institutions perfected by King Jayme were so thoroughly based on the interests and genius of the people, that they lasted, with modifications, for more than four centuries. Just, affable, and sympathetic, the memory of Jayme the Conqueror is enshrined in the hearts of the descendants of his people, and when the seventh centenary of his birth came round, on February 8, 1908, it was seen that the great King is not forgotten. In Majorca, on the day of St. Silvester, the day on which Palma was taken, there was an annual procession in which the bishop and the authorities joined, with En Jayme’s banner borne before them; followed by a high Mass in the cathedral, when all the people prayed for the soul of their beloved King. Relics of King Jayme, consisting of his saddle, a stirrup, and a helmet, were long preserved at Palma. They are now in the royal armoury at Madrid; and the procession which revived old memories and aroused patriotic feelings has itself become a thing of the past.

CHAPTER V
Tells how the King of Aragon took up Conradin’s glove; how the Pope’s curses went home to roost; and how En Pedro kept his tryst

For fifty years after the death of Jayme I. we have the guidance of that delightful old chronicler En Ramon Muntaner, who had seen many years of active service in the field before he took up his pen to record the events of which he had personal knowledge. He was born in his father’s house at Peralada, near the frontier of Catalonia and Roussillon, and thought he could just remember the great King Jayme having been his father’s guest for one night. But he left his home when only eleven years of age, having been born in 1275, the year before the death of the ‘Conquistador.’ After knocking about the world for half a century and doing much faithful and honourable service by sea and land, the old warrior retired to a farm in the ‘garden’ of Valencia, called Xiluella. There, in the year 1335, and at the age of sixty, he tells us that a vision appeared to him when he was sleeping on his couch. It was revealed to him that it was God’s will that he should arise and write the story of his life and of the great marvels he had witnessed, that they might be made manifest. So the veteran wrote his story for the honour of God, of His blessed Mother, and of the House of Aragon. Muntaner is the Froissart of Catalonia.[5]

Transparently honest and trustworthy, the warrior-historian is a sure guide through the very complicated events in which Jayme II., the first separate King of Majorca, and his sons were more or less concerned during those fifty years of which Muntaner treats.

Pedro III. succeeded to the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia and the county of Barcelona. His brother Jayme was present at the coronation at Zaragoza. Jayme then proceeded to Majorca, and was crowned King in the cathedral. He had practically ruled the Balearic islands for several years before his father’s death, and was very popular with the islanders. He also took possession of his Continental dominions of Roussillon, Cerdaña, Conflent, and Montpellier.

The two brothers appear to have had very different dispositions. Pedro was ambitious, bold almost to rashness, and enterprising. Jayme was more inclined to a life of quiet and peace. Both had been devotedly loyal to their great father during his life. Circumstances almost forced upon Pedro a very glorious career of successful warfare in a good cause. The same circumstances placed Jayme in a position of extreme difficulty as regarded his relations with his brother.

Jayme I. was scarcely in his grave when the troubles commenced in the south of Italy and Sicily with which the House of Aragon became so closely connected. They arose entirely from the malignant hatred of the Popes for that great and enlightened Emperor, Frederick II., King of Sicily, and from their unscrupulous ambition. When the Emperor was succeeded by his son Manfred, the papal enmity was transferred to him; and the Pope appealed to all the Christian kings to drive him from his dominions. St. Louis of France refused to perpetrate this iniquity, being a friend of the late Emperor. King Edward of England refused, his aunt having married Frederick II. The King of Castille refused. Above all, the King of Aragon denounced the scheme, his wife Constance being a daughter of Manfred.

Still the Pope succeeded in his wicked design in an unexpected way. The Kings of England, France, and of the Romans, and Charles of Anjou, brother of the King of France, had married four sisters, the daughters of the Count of Provence.[6] All were queens except the wife of Charles of Anjou, and she was the eldest. This filled her with envy and jealousy, and she tormented her husband until he bethought him of a way to make her a queen by doing the Pope’s dirty work and becoming the papal King of Sicily. So, without his brother’s knowledge or consent, he went to Rome, and made the offer on condition that the treasure of the Church was placed at his disposal. The compact was made, the Pope crowned Charles, and he raised an army to invade the territory of King Manfred.