JAMES I., THE CONQUEROR (1208-1276), king of Aragon, son of Peter II. and of Mary of Montpellier, was born at Mont pellier on Feb. 2, 1208. Peter, whose possessions in Provence en tangled him in the wars between the Albigenses and Simon de Montfort, arranged an alliance between James and Simon's daugh ter, and in 1211 he entrusted the boy to Montfort's care. At his death (Sept. 12, 1213) the Aragonese and Catalans appealed to the pope for the surrender of the child, and he was put in the care of the Templars, who brought him in 1216 to Saragossa. In 1221 he married Leonora, daughter of Alphonso VIII. of Castile, but divorced her later on the ground of consanguinity and married Yolande, daughter of Andrew II. of Hungary. James was astute and patient, of gigantic stature and immense strength, and by 1228 he had so far reduced his unruly vassals that he was able to under take the conquest of the Balearic islands, which he achieved in four years. He then turned his attention to the territory of the decadent Mohammedan princes of Valencia, conquering the town on Sept. 28, 1238. Physical, social and political obstacles were against his endeavours to form a southern State on both sides of the Pyrenees, and on May II, 1258, he signed the Treaty of Cor beil with Louis IX., contenting himself with the surrender of
antiquated French claims to the overlordship of Catalonia.
During the last 20 years of his life James carried on war with the Moors in Murcia on behalf of his son-in-law, Alphonso the Wise of Castile. As a legislator and organizer he occupies a high place among the Spanish kings. Though orthodox and pious, he had an ample share of moral laxity and the favour he showed his bastards led to protest from the nobles and to conflicts between his sons, legitimate and illegitimate. He divided his States between his sons Pedro and James, leaving the Spanish possessions on the mainland to the first, the Balearic islands and the lordship of Montpellier to the second—a division which inevitably produced fratricidal conflicts. James died at Valencia on July 27, 1276.
See Gestas del Rey Don Jaime de Aragon, edit. R. Foulche-Delbosc (1909) ; The Chronicle of James I., trans. from the Catalan by . . .
John Foster . . . with introd., notes . . . by P. Gayangos (2 vols., 1883) ; F. Darwin Swift, The Life and Times of James the First, the Conqueror (1894).