View source for Kingdom of Aragon

{{Refimprove|date=May 2009}}
{{Infobox Former Country
|native_name = ''Reino d'Aragón'' {{an icon}} <br>''Regne d'Aragó'' {{ca icon}} <br>''Regnum Aragonum'' {{la icon}} <br>''Reino de Aragón'' {{es icon}}
|conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Aragon
|common_name = Aragon
|national_motto = 
|continent = Europe
|region    = Iberian Peninsula
|country   = Spain
|era       = Middle Ages
|government_type = Feudal monarchy
|year_start  = 1035
|year_end    = 1706
|event_start = County of Aragon established as independent kingdom
|event_end   = [[Nueva Planta decrees]] dissolved Aragonese institutions in 1707
|p1          = 
|flag_p1     = 
|s1          = Crown of Aragon
|flag_s1     = <!-- Estandarte de la Corona de Aragon.svg -- hidden for neutrality, see talk page, ''wrong flag'' -->
|image_coat  = <!-- Royal arms of Aragon (Crowned).svg -- hidden for neutrality, see talk page, ''wrong flag'' -->
|image_flag  = <!-- Siñal d'Aragón.svg -- hidden for neutrality, see talk page, ''wrong flag'' -->
|image_map   = Localización de Aragón.svg
|image_map_caption  = In red, the modern territory of Aragon within Spain
<!-- |image_map2  = Aragonese Empire 1443.svg
|image_map2_caption  = In red: the medieval Crown of Aragon including the former kingdom of Aragon, c. 1250 -->
|capital          = [[Jaca]], [[Huesca]], [[Zaragoza]] (in chronological order)
|common_languages = [[Aragonese language|Aragonese]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and [[Latin language|Latin]]
|religion         = [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]]
|today        ={{flag|Spain}}
}}

The '''Kingdom of Aragon''' ({{lang-an|Reino d'Aragón}}, {{lang-ca|Regne d'Aragó}}, {{lang-la|Regnum Aragonum}}, {{lang-es|Reino de Aragón}}) was a [[medieval]] and [[early modern]] [[Monarchy|kingdom]] in the [[Iberian Peninsula]], corresponding to the modern-day [[Autonomous communities of Spain|autonomous community]] of [[Aragon]], in [[Spain]]. It should not be confused with the larger [[Crown of Aragon]], that also included other territories — the [[County of Barcelona]] and other [[Catalan Counties]], the [[Kingdom of Valencia]], the [[Kingdom of Majorca]], and other possessions nowadays part of [[France]], [[Italy]], and [[Greece]] — that were also under the rule of the [[King of Aragon]], but were administered separately from the Kingdom of Aragon.

== History ==

=== Independent kingdom ===
Aragon was originally a [[Carolingian Empire|Carolingian]] [[feudal]] [[county of Aragon|county]] around the city of [[Jaca]], which in the first half of the 9th century became a vassal state of the kingdom of [[Pamplona]] (later [[Kingdom of Navarre|Navarre]]), its own dynasty of counts ending without male heir in 922. The name ''Aragón'' is the same as that of the [[river Aragón]], which flows by Jaca. It might derive from the [[Basque language|Basque]] ''Aragona/Haragona'' meaning "''good upper valley''" ("haran+goi+ona", where "haran" = valley, "goi"= upper, high, and "ona"= good).

On the death of [[Sancho III of Navarre]] in 1035, the [[Kingdom of Navarre]] was divided into three parts: (1) [[Pamplona]] and its hinterland along with [[Basque Country (autonomous community)|western and coastal Basque districts]], (2) [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]] and (3) [[Sobrarbe]], [[Ribagorza]] and [[Aragon]]. Sancho's son [[Gonzalo of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza|Gonzalo]] inherited Sobrarbe and Ribargorza, whereas his illegitimate son [[Ramiro I of Aragon|Ramiro]] received Aragon, but Gonzalo was killed soon after and all the land he owned went to his brother Ramiro, thus becoming the first [[de facto]] king of Aragon,<ref>[http://www.caiaragon.com/en/arbol/index.asp?idNodo=50&idNodoP=21 CAI Tourism of Aragon]. Retrieved 2010-03-05</ref> although he never used that title.

By defeating his brother, [[García Sánchez III of Navarre]], Ramiro achieved independence for Aragon. His son [[Sancho Ramírez]], who also inherited the kingdom of Navarre, was the first to call himself "King of the Aragonians and Pamplonese".<ref>Antonio Ubieto, ''Creación y desarrollo de la Corona de Aragón'', Anubar, Zaragoza, 1987, pp. 58-59.</ref> As the Aragonian domains expanded to the south, conquering land from [[Al Andalus]], the capital city moved from Jaca to [[Huesca]] (1096), and later to [[Zaragoza]] (1118). After [[Alfonso the Battler]] died childless in 1135, different rulers were chosen for Navarre and Aragon, and the two kingdoms ceased to have the same ruler. By 1285 the southernmost areas of what is nowadays [[Aragon]] had been taken from the [[Moors]].

=== Dynastic union with Catalonia ===
{{See also|Crown of Aragon}}
The Kingdom of Aragón gave the name to the [[Crown of Aragon]], after the [[dynastic union]] in 1150 of the Queen of Aragon ([[Petronilla of Aragon]]) with a [[Count of Barcelona]] ([[Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona|Ramon Berenguer IV]]), their son inheriting all different territories in the [[House of Aragon]] and the [[House of Barcelona]]. The Kings of Aragon had also the title of Count of Barcelona and ruled territories that consisted of not only the present administrative region of Aragon but also [[Principality of Catalonia|Catalonia]], and later the kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Majorca|Majorca]], [[Kingdom of Valencia|Valencia]], [[Kingdom of Sicily|Sicily]], [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]] and [[Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica|Sardinia]]. The King of Aragón was the direct King of the Aragonese region, and held also the title of [[Count of Provence]], [[Count of Barcelona]], Lord of [[Montpellier]], and [[Duchy of Athens|Duke of Athens]] and [[Duchy of Neopatria|Neopatria]]. Each of these titles gave him sovereignty over a certain region, and these titles changed as he lost and won territories. In the fourteenth century, his power was greatly restricted by the [[Union of Aragon]].

The [[Crown of Aragon]] became a part of the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish monarchy]] after the dynastic union with [[Crown of Castile|Castile]], which supposed the ''de facto'' unification of both kingdoms under a common monarch. After this happened, Aragon kept its own institutions, such as the [[Aragonese Corts|Corts]], until the [[Nueva Planta decrees]], promulgated between 1707 and 1715 in the aftermath of the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], finally put an end to it.<ref>I. Ruiz Rodríguez, ''Apuntes de historia del derecho y de las instituciones españolas'', Dykinson, Madrid, 2005, [http://books.google.es/books?id=38I0BeDpwLsC&pg=PA179&dq=nueva+planta+aragon&hl=es&sa=X&ei=cCoBUcrsA6mu0AHY8IGICw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=nueva%20planta%20aragon&f=false p. 179]. (In Spanish)</ref> The decree removing the rights of Aragon and Valencia was issued in 1707.<ref name="albareda">{{cite book |last=Albareda Salvadó |first=Joaquim |authorlink=Joaquim Albareda  |title=La Guerra de Sucesión de España (1700-1714) |year=2010  |publisher=Crítica |location=Barcelona |isbn=978-84-9892-060-4 |pages= 228-229}}</ref> A new Nueva Planta decree in 1711 restored some rights in Aragon, such as the Aragones Civil Right, but preserved the end of the political independence of the kingdom.<ref name="albareda"/>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Reino d'Aragón en a Corona d'Aragón.svg|Location of Aragon in [[Crown of Aragon]]
Image:Petronila Ramon Berenguer.jpg|[[Petronilla of Aragon]], and [[Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona]] depicted later in a 16th-century painting.
File:Cortes de Aragón.jpg|Aljafería Palace
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[List of Aragonese monarchs]]
*[[List of Aragonese consorts]]
*[[List of Navarrese monarchs]]
*[[List of Counts of Barcelona]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

{{Spanish Kingdoms |state=expanded}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Aragon, Kingdom of}}
[[Category:Disestablished in 1707]]
[[Category:Crown of Aragon|Kingdom of Aragon]]
[[Category:Former countries in Europe]]
[[Category:Former monarchies of Europe]]
[[Category:History of Spain]]
[[Category:Established in 1035]]
{{Usedwps}}