Provincia Aragoniae Cum Confiniis

Title

Provincia Aragoniae Cum Confiniis

Description

Map shows Aragonia

ca. 1649

Artist

Montelcalerio

Historical Description

The territory of the County of Aragón initially included the valleys of Hecho, Canfranc, Borau, Aísa and Araguás, and soon those of Ansó and Acumuer. Under Count Galindo I Aznárez (around 844 to 867), the county came under the suzerainty of the Kings of Pamplona. After the death of Sancho III in 1035, his son Ramiro I inherited Aragon, which thus became an independent kingdom. Ramiro expanded his domain, which had previously been limited to the Jacetania, by acquiring Ribagorza and Sobrarbe and by successfully fighting the Moors. Petronella and Raimund Berengar's son Alfonso II (* 1157) took over the rule of Catalonia as Count Alfonso I in 1162. The resulting community of states, which included Catalonia in addition to Aragon proper and later extended to a large part of the Mediterranean, is known as the Crown of Aragon (Spanish: Corona de Aragón ). Within this community of states, the individual territories - the Kingdom of Aragon in the narrower sense, Catalonia and later also the Kingdom of Valencia and other territories - retained their internal autonomy; only in the area of foreign policy were they united under a common monarch. From 1485 to 1699, Aragon was ruled by its own viceroys in the name of the Spanish kings. During the War of Independence against Napoleon, Napoleon's troops unsuccessfully besieged Aragon in the summer of 1808. After another two-month siege, Saragossa capitulated in 1809. In the three Carlist Wars of the 19th century, Upper Aragon (roughly the area of today's Huesca province) held resolutely to Queen Maria Christina of Sicily, while Lower Aragon (roughly today's Teruel province) held to the pretender Don Carlos. In the Spanish Civil War, southern Aragon in particular was the scene of fierce battles, the most famous of which were the Battle of Belchite following a Republican offensive on Zaragoza in September and October 1937 and the Battle of Teruel between December 1937 and February 1938. In 1982, King Juan Carlos I and Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo signed the law passed by the Spanish Cortes Generales, which included the Statute of Autonomy for Aragon.