This book surveys the history of a great Mediterranean federation whose homelands were Catalonia and Aragon. It incorporates the results of recent research into the archives of Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, and other Mediterranean lands.
The first study of its kind in English in more than fifty years, this book surveys the history of the medieval Crown of Aragon from its early origins in counties of the eastern Pyrenees. Reviewing the most recent research into the well-preserved archives of the region, Bisson recreates a sense of the energy, drama, and color of these creative and expansionist people between the 12th and 15th centuries. Throughout, the book duly stresses individual achievement and personality while at the same time providing a balanced overview of political and dynastic evolution, institutional foundations, economic and cultural affairs, and the socio-economic weaknesses that eventually led to a crisis in the federated realms in the late Middle Ages.
`Professor Bisson has multiplied his claims upon our gratitude by presenting us with The Medieval Crown of Aragon ... a masterly synthesis of recent research which deserves a warm welcome.'
The English Historical Review
