Martin I of Aragon
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Martin I (1356 – 31 May 1410), "the Elder", "the Humane", "the Ecclesiastic", King of Aragon (1396 - 1410) and King of Sicily (1409 - 1410), was the last direct descendant in legitimate male line of Wilfred "the Hairy", Count of Barcelona to rule Aragon.
[edit] Biography
Martin was born in 1356, either in Girona or in Perpignan. He was the second son of King Peter IV of Aragon and Eleanor of Sicily (Leonora of Trinacria), princess of the Sicilian branch of the House of Aragon.
As a cadet prince of the Aragonese royal family, Martin was given the Duchy of Monblanch (Montblanc). In 1380 his father appointed him lord and regent of the island of Sicily, then known also as Trinacria, since its queen Mary of Sicily, who was Martin's cousin, was underage (Mary's father, Frederick III of Trinacria, died in 1377). As a son of Eleanor of Sicily Martin was himself an heir to the island, should Mary's family die out.
Martin's son Martin the Younger was later married to the young heiress. The island of Sicily was thus intended to be a fief of Martin's descendants. Martin the Younger became King Martin I of Sicily in his father's lifetime.
In 1396, Martin succeeded his elder brother John I, who had died sonless, on the throne of Aragon. However, Sicilian nobles were causing unrest and Martin was kept in Sicily. In the meanwhile, Martin's wife Maria de Luna claimed the throne on behalf of Martin and acted as his representative until he arrived in 1397. Still, the delay opened the way for more problems and quarrels to surface in Aragon. His right to the throne was contested, first by Count Matthew of Foix on behalf of his wife Joanna, elder daughter of John I. However, Martin succeeded in quashing the invasion by the troops of the count.
After the death of the childless Joanna, John's second daughter, Yolande of Aragon, married the Angevin King Louis II of Naples and continued the claim, as did her sons.
Martin launched crusades against the Moors in North Africa in 1398 and 1399.
Aragon had been trying to subjugate Sardinia since the reign of James II, and gradually the Aragonese had conquered most of the island. However, in the 1380s, in the reign of Martin's father Peter IV, the remaining independent principality of Arborea became a fortress of rebellion and the Aragonese were rapidly driven back by Eleanor of Arborea, so that practically the whole of Sardinia was lost. King Martin sent his son Martin the Younger, King of Sicily, to reconquer Sardinia. Just before his own death, the son won the Battle of Sanluri (San Luis, San Luigi) in 1409, drove away the Genoese allies of the Sardinians, and subjugated a vast number of Sardinian nobles. This soon caused Arborea's total loss of independence.
Martin succeeded his son as King of Sicily, as Martin II. Overall, the Kingdom of Aragon enjoyed external peace during Martin's reign and he worked to quell internal strife caused by nobles, factions and bandits. He supported the Avignon line of Popes and an Aragonese, Pope Benedict XIII, held the seat throughout Martin's reign. Martin's military intervention rescued the imprisoned Benedict in 1403 from the clutches of his rivals and the Pope settled in Valencia's countryside.
After the death of his legitimate children, King Martin appointed his cousin Jaume II of Urgell, the closest legitimate agnate of the Royal House of Aragon, as Governor-General of all the kingdoms of Aragon, which position belonged traditionally to the heir presumptive.
When Martin died, in Barcelona in 1410, his legitimate descendants, born of marriage with queen Maria, were already dead. Martin's second marriage, with Margarita of Aragon-Prades, did not produce any children. Only a bastard grandson, Fadrique, Count of Luna, continued the line of Martin. Fadrique was the bastard son of Martin the Younger. The king, despite his desire and some efforts, was not able to obtain sufficient confirmation to Fadrique as his successor.
Thus, Martin's death led to a two-year interregnum, which was ended by the Pact of Caspe, in which Martin's nephew (a younger son of a sister of Martin's) Ferdinand I of Aragon, infante of Castile's House of Trastámara was chosen as the next king from among at least five contenders.
| Preceded by John I |
King of Aragon and Valencia, Count of Barcelona 1396-1410 |
Succeeded by Ferdinand I |
| Preceded by Martin I |
King of Sicily 1409-1410 |
[edit] See also
