THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN KINGDOMS 1200-EiOOThere was, of course, a reaction. James of Urgell invaded,
hoping for English aid from Aquitaine, and penetrated to
Lleida in Catalonia. But support inside the Spanish lands
was not to hand. Indeed, the Aragonese and Catalan par-
liaments gave financial and moral support to Ferdinand
I, in return for the usual guarantees that the king would
respect the rights of the Carts and Cortes. This straightfor-
ward approach appealed to his subjects, and helped earn
him the sobriquets conferred by later historians, Ferdinand
the Just and Ferdinand the Honest.~^1 Before long Count
James was in Ferdinand's hands, and safely in prison.
Well aware of the dangers that stemmed from his contested
succession, Ferdinand rapidly obtained papal confirmation
of his title to both Sicily and Sardinia. He even appointed
his second son John viceroy of Sicily, thereby hinting politely
that Sicily would neither be neglected nor be allowed to
resume its complete independence from the kings of Aragon;
later, in 1469, the heir of John II, Ferdinand II, would even
take the title 'king of Sicily' while remaining based in Spain.
Winning the approval of Benedict XIII was a clever enough
move at the time, but the continuing scandal of the schism
in the papacy was accentuated by Pope Benedict's refusal to
resign the Holy See, which was now contested by two other
would-be popes. As the Council of Constance unwound the
Great Schism, with the result that Martin V was eventually
elected pope in 1417, Benedict became increasingly isolated,
and by 1416 Ferdinand himself had realised that there was no
advantage in supporting this obdurate old man. It is perhaps
an exaggeration to asssign to Ferdinand a key role in end-
ing the schism, given that Pedro de Luna paid no attention
to his abandonment by the king of Aragon, holding out in
deluded isolation in his palace at Pei'iiscola.~~ Looking west-
wards, Ferdinand had no difficulty in securing the approval
of Castile for his acquisition of the Aragonese crown, though
in the longer term the acute instability of Castile meant that
few advantages were to be gained from cooperation between
the kingdoms.
- The short work by I. MacDonald, Don Frrnando ofAntequem (Oxford,
1948) is not entirely satisfactory. - A. Glasfurd, The Antipope (Pt>ter de Luna, 1342-1423) (London, 1965)
offers a quirky biographv of Benedict XIII.