POLITICS AND RELIGION IN THE ERA OF RAMON LLULLThe chivalric playboy James I was succeeded in Aragon-
Catalonia by a canny ruler whose programme of action can
be reduced to a simple formula: the defence of the rights of
the house of Barcelona, which now included also the rights
of his wife Constance as legitimate heiress (so it was main-
tained) to Sicily and southern Italy. He was 'that rarity in
history: the greater son of a great father', in Bisson's words.^2
Aware that it was necessary to keep relations with Castile on
an even keel, he took into custody the Infantes de Ia Cerda,
disinherited members of the Castilian royal house. Peter
was not prepared to tolerate his younger brother's claim
to independence, forcing James II of Majorca, in 1279, to
acknowledge Peter as his overlord; he had the added motive
of wishing to punish James of Majorca for supporting his
enemies in a renewed struggle for mastery of Urgell. Argu-
ably this was a serious miscalculation; Peter hoped to draw
James away from the French court, which was the obvious
source of support for a Majorcan kingdom that ruled over
Roussillon and Montpellier, on the edges of France, and
was afraid of being swamped by Aragon-Catalonia. But the
resentment that James of Majorca felt for his brother only
pushed him the more rapidly into the French camp when
conflict between France and Aragon finally broke out. James
found himself obliged, technically at least, to attend the Corts
of Catalonia as Peter's vassal, an odd humiliation seeing that
Catalonia was not even a kingdom; he was denied the right
to mint his own coins in Roussillon, which Peter treated not
as counties within the Majorcan state but as Catalan counties
that happened to be held from him by the lord of Majorca.
Under Peter's jurisdiction, James became to all intents a
powerful baron distinguished by an especially grand title;
and not surprisingly he and his successors worked hard to
re-establish the parity with Aragon that James I had envisaged
in his will: all to no avail.^3
- T.N. Bisson, The Medieval Crown of Aragon. A short history (Oxford, 1986),
p. 86. - Could one king be subject to another? Edward I of England certainly
thought so in regard to Scotland at about this time: M. Prestwich,
Edward I (London, 1988), pp. 356-75; W. Ferguson, Scotland's relations
with England. A survey to 1707 (Edinburgh, 1 977), pp. 22-8; G.W.S.
Barrow, Robert Bruce (3rd edn, Edinburgh,^1 988), pp. 1-53.