Kingdom of Valence

The kingdom of Valence was created in 1238 by the king Jacques Ier d' Aragon called “the Conqueror”, within the framework of the Reconquista, after having conquered old the Taïfa of Balansiya . It was increased by posterior annexations of other territories.

Jacques Ier, by seeing that it will be difficult to repopulate so many conquered territories, tried to preserve some of the privileges of the population of origin by respecting their religions and coutumes ; he proclaimed '' Los Furs '' ( los fueros in Castilian). He organized the area with an entity of kingdom but belonging to the Crown of Aragon. It was thus dependant on the crown but with an administration belonging to him into clean.

The creation of the kingdom caused an irritated reaction of the nobility Aragonese and Catalan, which thus saw become impossible the prolongation of their seigniories in the Valencian grounds. Integrated into the Crown of Aragon, the kingdom of Valence followed the political destiny of the Royaume of Aragon. Its territory corresponds about to current the Valencian Communauté.

History

Low Middle Ages

After having been the cradle of the Iberian culture and the receptacle of various ancient cultures (Greek, Roman, cartaginois, Phéniciens, Byzantine, etc), in 1233, king Jacques Ier the Conqueror undertakes the conquest of the Valencian territory then marked by three centuries of Moslem presence: the kingdoms Taïfa S of Balansiya, Alpuente, Denied, and Murcie.

The conquest of Valence was carried out the October 9th 1238 ; the last grounds to be built-in, will be those of the south of Alicante, which had been reconquered by the Castille, under the terms of the Traité of Almizra ; they were incorporated in the Couronne of Aragon in 1296, as well as the remainder of the Royaume of Murcie.

Into 1305, this kingdom will be divided: Castille recovers the Western zone, which will constitute inside the crown of Castille, the Kingdom of Murcie ; Aragon recovers the Eastern zone, which will belong to the Kingdom of Valence, under the terms of the Award of Torrellas and of the Traité of Elche.

The kingdom, at the beginning in majority Mudéjar and Moslem, was repopulated with Christians of Catalan origin mainly on the Aragonese coast and inside. These populations associated with the Jews, created a multiconfessionnelle company and multiculturelle ; but in fact the chrêtiens had the full rights compared to other cultures. They established the bases of an economic system which benefitted from the existing Arab infrastructures (stoppings, usable airfields in terraces, systems of irrigation, mosques, turns of watchtower, etc…), as well as already established agricultural produce (dry citrus fruits, grapes, almond trees, rice, shoveler duck, vegetables, date palms, etc).

While imposing the same sovereign as for the territories of the Crown of Aragon (Catalonia, Aragon, Andorra and Balearic Islands), king Jacques Ier founded the Fors de Valence , flux in this manner a kingdom with a clean political identity, with his own institutions, his own culture and his traditions, his currency, his language, his administration, and customs duties. These fors will be maintained until 1707, with the centralization of the Bourbons.

Modern time

The Kingdom of Valence economically finances the expansion of the Couronne of Aragon during and 16th centuries, and it reaches its greater splendor during the Siècle of gold, thanks to the maritime trade with the new Hispanic extra territories of the Crown (Corsica, Sicily, Naples, etc), and the creation of its own Consulat of Sea, and the Taula de Canvis , the first purse of values of the history. This time coincides, moreover, with a notable literary explosion in Valencian ; it was one of the first companies to enter the time of the Renaissance, with important writers, humanistic and philosophical.

With the effective dynastic union of the Crown of Castille and Crown of Aragon in the person of the emperor Charles I, the Kingdom of Valence continues to maintain its independence political. However, the kingdom starts to be seen subjected to the pressure of an increasingly centralizing policy in favor of the hegemony of the Crown of Castille. That gave place to important social conflicts as the Revolt of the Germanías carried out by the Valencian corporations and farmers against various viceroys and lieutenants. The other important problem is the drastic demographic reduction (until one the third of the population) because of various expulsions of Jews and Morisque S of the Kingdom. This depopulation involved the economy in an serious attack, mainly, because of the lack of cheap labor which constituted the Valencian morisque population (called the tagarins ), and because of the credit and capital flight accumulated by the Séfarade S.

The culminating point of the centralizing pressure Castilian took place during the War of succession of Spain. After the Battle of Almansa in 1707, the new king bourbon Philippe V dismantles the kingdom by the Décrets of Nueva Planta and integrates it in the new Kingdom of Spain. However, to be comparable with the legislation and the political system Castilians, king Bourbon had to choke many social risings and revolts in all the territory, especially with Xàtiva, Altea and Alicante. Later, the same facts will reproduce in all the Crown of Aragon, leading little by little to its disappearance.

Kings de Valence

See List of the monarchs of Valence.

Internal bonds

Family Borja
'' Drawing the White ''
Century from Valencian Gold

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