THE EMERGENCE OF ARAGON-CATALONIAapplication of the count's law (the Usatges de Barcelona), and
over the ruler's rights of taxation. By 1205 the barons were
able to force Peter to keep the coinage stable, to abandon
the much disliked bovatge tax, and to consult them on the
appointment of the comital vicars who were generally lesser
knights beholden to the count of Barcelona. The count's
own claims had been expressed in the Liber feudorum maior
('great book of fiefs') of 1194.^1 H Yet it is important to dis-
tinguish the rights the count-king claimed, and those he
could actually exercise; in many respects he remained within
Catalonia merely the greatest star in a galaxy of counts, and
territories on the edges of Catalonia such as Roussillon and
Urgell moved in and out of the count-king's direct purview
well into the thirteenth century; the lesser counts did not
necessarily enjoy antagonistic relations with the count of
Barcelona, often in fact functioning as regional judges. While
care was taken to ensure that the ruler could live of his own,
by 1200 this did not guarantee him the autonomy he craved,
and Peter's reign saw a growing dependence on the Templars
as royal creditors; they were becoming known for their fin-
ancial expertise, which originated in the need to hold funds
and transmit them in due course to their headquarters in the
Holy Land. Peter also made extensive use of Jewish financial
advisers who were able to anticipate his income and manage
his budget; many of his financial documents carry signatures
in Hebrew by his Jewish officials. Despite such efforts, Cata-
lonia, and, pari passu, Aragon, remained loose confederations
which themselves made up the two elements in a super-
confederation whose only real bond was the person of the
count-king himself. In other words, the count-kings had ambi-
tions; but there were also powerful brakes on those ambitions.
JAMES THE CONQUEROR IN MAJORCA
James I (1213-76) transformed the character of the mon-
archy. His birth was widely viewed as a miracle, not least
because of the cordial loathing of Peter II for Maria of
Montpellier; but the true miracle was the survival of Peter II's
bloodline. Others such as the Aragonese count of Provence
- T.N. Bisson, Fiscal accounts of Catalonia under the early Count-Kings (1151-
1213), 2 vols (Berkeley/Los Angeles, 1984), especially vol. 1, pp. 118-
19.