ARAGON

[Jurand of Cracow]

I. General information

This thread is meant to gather all information about the faction and to conduct discussions on the faction related issues.
The entries should be developed by both the SSHIP team and the interested players.

It continues the discussion conducted in this thread.

[Jurand of Cracow]

II. Strategy & gameplay


To be developed in due course. If you've played the game with this faction and have insights how to help fellow players, please write a proposal for this section.

[Jurand of Cracow]

III. Provinces (incl. names, provincial titles, resources, map features etc.)

The provinces that have historically been assigned to this faction are listed here - it's usually defined by the "faction_creator" in the "descr_strat.txt" file.


A. Map features, resources
No comments yet.

B. Province names, settlement names, provincial titles

Provincial titles:
General explanations to be found in the relevant thread on the PTs.
Catholic: I considered the use of the Hungarian term “Ispán”. However, because the title will be used also by other catholic factions, I've decided to use the Latin term "Comes".
Orthodox, Muslim: generic "Knyaz of" and "Emir of".
Coast of arms: have been reviewed and updated to be as historical as possible.
Names of provinces: should be in Latin, so some adjustments are still needed - tbd.

[Jurand of Cracow]

IV. Faction specific features (Crown, Offices, Bloodline, Traits, Buildings)

The Crown of Spain / Crown of Aragon is discussed in this entry. The map is below.

The Offices are described in this thread.

If the Miguel_80 inheritance sysem would be implemented in the SSHIP, then the starting position should be modified for historical reasons:

Alfonso II of Aragon inherited the Crown of Aragon in 1162 thanks to the marriage in 1137 of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona, with Petronila of Aragon, future Queen of Aragon

Aragon has access to some buildings that may be not available to every faction: Castle Library, University (highest level), Tourney Fields.
(note: this might be important for getting certain traits).

Aragon Blood: not checked.

Specific traits: not checked.

[Jurand of Cracow]

V. Starting position in 1132 (incl. settlements, armies, generals, traits, political situation)

Provinces

Armies

Characters & politics

I tested Aragon and the family tree only shows the King and Heir, not the thirs family member in Navarre.
The king passed away on turn 2.

The 3rd family member, who became heir, is not visible on the family tree. I suppose when the newly crowned king (aged 50+) dies, the family tree will be useless....

[Jurand of Cracow]

VI. Units

to be developed in due course

[Jurand of Cracow]

VIII. Reserve

to be used if needed

[j.a.luna]

About capital for Crown of Aragón is clear: Zaragoza. But also they had another "little capitals" as Valencia or Barcelona. Here some information.


The seat of the coronation was the Seo de Zaragoza since Pedro II (12th century) The General Courts almost always met in Monzón (13th-16th centuries), the rest of the occasions took place in Fraga, Zaragoza, Calatayud and Tarazona. The seat of the Chancellery (13th-15th centuries) was Barcelona and Naples was during the reign of Alfonso V. In a period between the end of the reign of Martín el Humano and the beginning of Alfonso V, it is considered that the de facto capital of the Crown of Aragon was Valencia. On the other hand, the General Archive of the Crown of Aragon, which was the official deposit of royal documentation of the Crown from the reign of Alfonso II (12th century), was found first in the monastery of Sigena until the year 1301 and then finally in Barcelona. The historian Domingo Buesa points to Zaragoza as the permanent de facto political capital, although not so in other areas such as economic or administrative.


The kings of the Crown were buried mainly in the monastery of Poblet. Other places were the monastery of Santes Creus, the monastery of Sigena, the convent of San Francisco de Barcelona, ​​the cathedral of Lleida and the cathedral of Granada (Fernando el Catolico, the last exclusive king of Aragon before the union with Castile).

*ZARAGOZA
With the help of his Occitan allies and Frankish crusaders, and his army of Aragonese, Alfonso I the Battler was able to conquer Zaragoza in 1118, which would soon become the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon, and was the seat where the kings were crowned of the Crown of Aragon. The Muslim population had to move outside the city walls, where they founded the new neighborhood of Morería, while the urban nucleus was repopulated by Franks and given as a fiefdom to Gaston IV of Bearne.


From the end of the 13th century it was the center of the Aragonese Union (association of nobles to limit the royal power and maintain their privileges), until it was defeated by Pedro the Ceremonious in 1384. The dynastic union of the Crown of Castile and that of Aragon transformed it into another city of the Habsburg monarchy. The establishment of the Inquisition was the cause of major revolts and the assassination of the inquisitor Pedro Arbués in 1485. In the 15th century the suburbs of farmers from San Pablo and fishermen from Las Tenerías were incorporated into the city. During the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic, the university was founded and the Lonja was built. The expulsion of the Jews in 1492 and the Moors in 1609 caused a certain stagnation in its growth, but despite that, it was still an important city (with 25,000 inhabitants in 1548).

*BARCELONA
-Barcelona was the city stood out among the Catalan lands and the entire domain of the Crown of Aragon, and it was, together with other ports of the Crown, such as Tortosa, Palma de Mallorca, Naples or Valencia, from where numerous troops and resources towards the enterprise of taking new possessions. The city flourished and would become one of the main cities in the western Mediterranean in the 13th and 14th centuries. The city stood out on the commercial plane, although below Genoa and Venice, which dominated trade in the Mediterranean and between Europe and Asia.

[j.a.luna]

Speaking about independent kingdoms or regions I have realized that Pamplona should be INDEPENDENT, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Navarra until Fernando the Catholic of Spain in 1512 was able to conquer it, this kingdom was always influenced by the French, Basques and they were always among Brawls with Aragonese and Castilians, very few times they supported their conquests (1212 in the famous battle of Las Navas de Tolosa with the charge of the 3 kings, Castilla, Aragon and Navarra)
In the game it should be independent, with a large garrison to be difficult to conquer, its PTF should be "King of Navarre" with high authority for the one who owns it and command over the troops and defense against the walls (great resistance to invasions external). For foreigners it should be difficult to control this region, the Basque people have always been reluctant and have rejected the union with Castilla, Aragon or other countries. But on the other hand, it should provide great mineral resources and have unique Basque troops (it would be necessary to make 1 or 2 regional Basque troops and eliminate the non-historical Basque longbows, which is a horror to see)
I leave you broadly the history of the reinl of Navarra and Pamplona by wiki.

I can add more information and think about adding Basque units.

But in my opinion this fact should be corrected as soon as possible because it is not historical.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Navarre

[Laiesken]

In case this project is still alive, I want to leave some important data.



First, during the XI/11th century the count of Barcelona got the feudal rule over the rest of catalan counts in Catalonia, and after the Al-Mansur attack of 985 the Barcelona's count started acting as an independent state. So Catalonia was already an independent state in the XII/12th century, not ruled by a king, but by a count, the Count of Barcelona. That's why it's called a Principality, a country ruled by a noble who is not a king. While some catalan counties like Urgell were still ruled by minor branches of the Barcelona's dynasty, all of them were vassals of Barcelona's Count.

For that reason, the early campaigns before 1137-1161 should start with Catalonia as an independent reign at the same level as other kingdoms like the Aragon one. It was not an unknown name, because the first appearance is from 1111, and some of the laws recorded to give structure to the country began in the XIth century, like the Barcelona's Traditions, the civil law that was applied in Catalonia, a mixture of visigothic, roman and frankish laws codified later. Along its history, Catalonia existed as same as the other kingdoms of medieval Iberia.




Second, there are important political issues about how happened the formation of the Crown of Aragon, and it is important to be informed about it to avoid making historical errors. Some fake historians have published investigations with political bias to try to minimize the role of Catalonia in the Middle Ages, and have been rebutted by the academic historians and investigators. For example, those fake historians tried to spread the idea that the catalan dynasty from the counts of Barcelona extinguished when the Barcelona's Count married with the Aragon's Queen because they used an aragonese system of female-line marriage. They also published that the red bars over golden or yellow background were originated by copying the colours of the Papacy coat of arms, because some papal documents related to Aragon still had yellow and red tissue fibers.

Nowadays no academic historians give credit to the idea that the Barcelona's count voluntarily decided to extinguish his own family, and the first evidence of the red bars coat of arms (Called "Senyal Reial" or "Royal Sign", nowadays "Senyera") is from a seal in a document dated in 1155, and signed by the Barcelona's Count Ramon Berenguer IV, the one who married with Peronella (Petronila in castilian) and who was ruling Aragon without the king's title. So the flag that centuries later identified catalans was first used by the Count of Barcelona (when ruling Aragon), but not by the King of Aragon.

The documentation of the pacts made between Ramon Berenguer IV and Ramiro II of Aragon said it was a donation, as Ramiro was giving ("tibi dono", in latin) the kingdom of Aragon to Ramon Berenguer, to rule it until the adulthood of the children he would have with Peronella. After the pacts, Ramiro abdicated and went back to the monastery, as he was a monk and a bishop, and leave all the ruling issues to Ramon Berenguer, who had to deal with templars and hospitallers to make them accept those pacts and retreat about the Alfonso I the "Batallador"'s testament. In case Peronella died before having children, Ramon Berenguer IV could have had right to inherit the king's title. But Ramiro and Peronella kept the titles of king and queen of Aragon, and the rule in Aragon was exercised by Ramon Berenguer as a "princeps", an old latin word used on that context as a ruler in the place of the king, something that was also stablished in the pacts between Ramon Berenguer and Ramiro. The heir, Alfons I in Catalonia but II in Aragon gathered 2 ruling titles: The King of Aragon to rule Aragon, and the Count of Barcelona to rule Catalonia. However, as a king he had that dignity in Catalonia without perjudice that the true title to rule Catalonia was the Count of Barcelona. That's why Catalans called "king" to their ruler without being a kingdom.

Although, most of the kings of the dynasty adopted names linked with the aragonese tradition, remaining few members of the dynasty with names like Ramon or Berenguer, left normally to the last male sons, while most of the kings and rulers were named Pere or Alfons, adding later names like Jaume (Jaime in castilian) or Joan (John in english).

All that means that the name "Crown of Aragon", or "Corona d'Aragó" in catalan; is the name of the lands ruled by the king-count, as the term "Crown" refers to the person who exercises the government. That's because before the formation of the Crown of Aragon, the Kingdom of Aragon did not include other territories rather that the very same Kingdom of Aragon, so it would be unnecessary to specify if it is the Crown, the King or the Kingdom because they were all the same up to 1137. So the name Crown of Aragon is the name of the ensemble of lands ruled by the count-king; while the names Kingdom of Aragon ("Reino de Aragón" in castilian) and Catalonia (or "Principat de Catalunya" in catalan) are the names of the individual territories ruled by the same noble, so the names of the diferent parts of the ensemble. That's why it is an error to refer to all the ensemble with the names of Kingdom of Aragon (or "Reino de Aragón" in castilian) or Catalonia, because they were part names, not global names. Calling "Reino de Aragón" to all the ensemble is a common error that have politial bias, as it is hiding Catalonia as one of the main territories of the ensemble, and the same happens in the opposite way, because Aragon it is not part of Catalonia, as neither was Catalonia part of the Kingdom of Aragon. A useful modern name is to call it the catalano-aragonese crown, as it happens with other historical composite states, like the contemporanian austro-hungarian empire. In fact, historians call "composite monarchy" to this type of ruling, where a single person is keeping the titles to rule different territories with their own laws all together.

So, if the game starts before the formation of the Crown, the Kingdom of Aragon should not include Catalonia and can be named Kingdom of Aragon (a kingdom which had its own coat of arms, the Alcorisa's Cross), while Catalonia can exist as a separated country from Aragon, in which can be applied the coat of arms of the red bars over yellow because it was first used by the Count, not by the King of Aragon.

But, if the game starts after the formation of the Crown, it can include all the territories (Aragon and Catalonia) with the red bars coat of arms and the name "Crown of Aragon", or better "Corona d'Aragó" in catalan.

Regarding on coats of arms, while the main one is the "Senyal Reial" of the red bars and the Alcorisa's Cross is the one for the Kingdom of Aragon, the St George Cross was adopted as a coat of arms by the Principality of Catalonia as they made this saint their own patron in the 15th century, but it could be used with the "Senyal Reial" one. This means that it is not correct to use the St George Cross as the coat of arms for Catalonia (as it happens in an another MIITW mod of iberian Middle Age, where the Barcelona's Count is given with the St George cross as coat of arms) for the same reason it is not used for the Kingdom of England: The coat of arms of the ruler is higher than the coat of arms of the land, ando also because it was not used until the 15th century, and was popularised in Europe after the Holy Land crusades.




Third, despite medieval countries did not have static capitals, the access to the sea, to the trade and the birthplace of the ruling dynasty of the Crown of Aragon meant that Catalonia was the core territory of the ensemble. The same dynasty founded by the Counts of Barcelona who was ruling the Crown of Aragon until Martí I l'Humà (who died without heir at the beginning of the XV/15th century) had several kings during the 12, 13 and 14 centuries, and half of them died naturally in some place of Catalonia, but not in Aragon. Barcelona was the first place to stablish some institutions that were first set for all the Crown of Aragon, like the administrator (the "Mestre Racional" in catalan), the Treasury and the Archive. Soon these institutions were replicated by the different states of the ensemble, but it is an evidence that Catalonia had the role of the core territory, without forgiving that the Kingdom of Aragon was important enough to pair with Catalonia, as both were equal territories ruled by the same person. That's why many of the Courts, the assembly called by the king to rule its lands, were made in a place of Aragon near to Catalonia, (not always, however) because allowed them to make courts of Aragon and Catalonia together, saving money and efforts.

Other evidences of the core role of Catalonia were that the count-king gave to Catalonia the right to use his own "Senyal Reial" as a land flag, while set a different coat of arms to Aragon, the Alcorisa's Cross. That same king, Pere III (Peter the IV for Aragon), ordered a genealogy of his dynasty, and showed clearly its origins linked to the first Count of Barcelona of the dynasty, Guifré el Pilós who died in 890. He even left written that the Ramon Berenguer branch of the dynasty was his same dynasty, so that it was not extinguished because that count married with Peronella, or because the fact they used the "d'Aragó" surname to call himself, as they were already kings of Aragon and it was their first and most important ruling title. That did not meant they became aragonese, all the kings of that ruling dynasty remained mainly ethnically catalan, without perjudice to the aragonese to be their king. Remember that the ruling dynasty in Castile and León had french origins, from Burgundy, and only few generations later they became ethnically castilian.

Other facts are that the main literary works of the period, such as the chronicles made by the kings or some other court people to hail their conquests were written in catalan, despite latin (and aragonese for the Aragon's Kingdom) was still used as a main language for written documents. The way catalan was written in the Royal Chancellery marked the standard catalan to be written in the Late Middle Age, and most of the people, warriors and feudal lords who participated in the conquests of Balearic Islands, Sicily and Sardinia were catalans. Aragonese people had a good representation in the campaigns to conquer Balansiya-València, and even there catalan is still spoken nowadays because most of the coastal lands were inhabited mostly by catalans. So the main wage of the ruling, expansion and growing of the Crown of Aragon was on the shoulders of Catalonia and the ones of catalan warriors, lords and traders. Even the catalan sea-trading law (and the network of trade places, the "Consolats de Mar") was the mainly used in the Late Middle Age, forming the basis for the nowadays sea-trade laws. In far places like Italy and Greece the people from the Crown of Aragon were called catalans, not aragonesians. Only in the Modern Age with the Hispanic Empire and Monarchy began to be called spanish, and it is only as far as nowadays Spain and spanish nationalism consider the Crown of Aragon an only-aragonese medieval state, but not a catalan (or catalano-aragonese) one; have started to spread the use of "aragonese" to refer to the people of the Crown of Aragon in the sicilian and italian lands ruled by them.

For all that reasons, without prejudice of aragonese provinces, military units and characters being named in aragonese or castilian, catalan should be the main language in the game when playing as the Crown of Aragon, because it was the main language used by the rulers and their environment, and also by most of its warriors, lords and traders.

[j.a.luna]

To help sship team and especially my friend kostic in his work on the coat of arms of the different factions I have been able to find valuable information and images about the Aragonese:





-It is worth mentioning that the heraldry par excellence of Aragon is the "Señal Real de Aragón or Señal del Rey de Aragón" (in Aragonese and Catalan usually written with the spelling Senyal Reyal or Senyal Reial), traditionally known in Spanish since ancient times3 as bars or sticks de Aragón, is a coat of arms or heraldic composition that, graphically reproduced, alternates five vertical stripes of yellow with four stripes of red.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-the third flag with eagles is from Crown of two Sicily, when Crown of Aragon annexed them...




***IMAGES ON THE EMBLEMS AND COAT OF ARMS OF THE CROWN OF ARAGON:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

***Valuable web pages on the emblems and shields of Aragon.
@kostic if you need more help for castilians or portuguese I can give it to you!

https://www.cortesaragon.es/fileadmi..._de_Aragon.pdf

https://espanafascinante.com/cultura...gon-sena-real/

[j.a.luna]

***IMAGES OF ARAGONESE TROOPS AND THEIR COATS OF ARMS TO BE ABLE TO REPRESENT THEM WELL IN THE GAME.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[kostic]

@j.a.luna: Thank you for all this documentation!
It seems that the Iberian knights wore less closed helmets than their contemporaries in Europe... what do you think? Can I adapt my models so that there are fewer closed helmets for Spain?

[j.a.luna]

@j.a.luna: Thank you for all this documentation!
It seems that the Iberian knights wore less closed helmets than their contemporaries in Europe... what do you think? Can I adapt my models so that there are fewer closed helmets for Spain?

Glad to serve the sship team and you my friend.
With respect to the lesser use of closed helmets by the Iberians, I have also noticed seeing numerous historical documents, I think that perhaps it is due to the climate (hotter in the south) and due to the style of warfare more of "guerrillas" or frequent skirmishes so they used equipment not as heavy or closed as their European contemporaries.
I think you could modify them a bit and do it like this, so we would differentiate them a bit from the others, also look at their painted helmets, they are impressive and striking.

***As a personal request, I would ask you to add the "Casa de Luna" (House of Moon) to the coats of arms of the Aragonese knights, a very old Aragonese noble house from which I process my personal surname, in the images that I provided you there are knights with those shields.
Also it would be great if surname "Luna" will appear in differents aragonese characters as nobles or priest!!
I leave you more information in the following link:

https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_de_Luna

https://origendelosapellidos.es/apellido-luna/amp/


-ARAGONESE NOBLE KNIGHT FROM THE NOBLE HOUSE OF "LUNA" WEARING HIS COAT OF ARMS AND EMBLEM FOR THE BATTLE IN THE SHAPE OF A CRESCENT RAMBERESED MOON:




I can help you with more information for others factions as Castilians or Norwegians

[kostic]

I see your post after replying to your private message. Yes, I can take inspiration from the "Luna" house to dress an Aragonese knight. I like the idea.