War, Government, and Society in the Medieval Crown of Aragon

by Donald J. Kagay

The focus of this collection of articles by Donald J. Kagay is the effect of the expansion of royal government on the societies of the medieval Crown of Aragon. He traces how, in the long conflicts against Spanish Islam and neighbouring Christian states during the 13th and 14th centuries, the relationships of royal to customary law, of monarchical to aristocratic power, and of Christian to Jewish and Muslim populations, all became issues that marked the transition of the medieval Crown of Aragon to the early modern states of Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia.

The focus of this collection of articles by Donald J. Kagay is the effect of the expansion of royal government on the societies of the medieval Crown of Aragon. He shows how the extensive episodes of warfare during the 13th and 14th centuries served as a catalyst for the extension of the king's law and government across the varied topography and political landscape of eastern Spain. In the long conflicts against Spanish Islam and neighbouring Christian states, the relationships of royal to customary law, of monarchical to aristocratic power, and of Christian to Jewish and Muslim populations, all became issues that marked the transition of the medieval Crown of Aragon to the early modern states of Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia, and finally to the modern Spanish nation.

344 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 2007

About the author

Donald Joseph Kagay, Ph.D. (1981) Fordham University, is currently a Full Professor at Albany State University. As a specialist on medieval Spain focusing on the law and institutions of the Crown of Aragon, Kagay has published translations of two important eastern Spanish legal texts: the Usatges of Barcelona (1981) and the Commerationes of Pere Albert (2002).