However, the main concerns of the new king will be the affirmation of royal power and dynastic continuity (Lapeña, 2008). Such continuity was intended to be ensured in a document issued in Barbastro on August 11, 1137, according to which the newborn daughter of the king-monk was delivered to the Count of Barcelona[1] in a legal act that has generated rivers of ink between historians and jurists. , all of them determined to determine its exact nature and effects.
From the point of view of Political Law, the structure created has a diaphanous interpretation:a personal union of states [2] :a state composed of juxtaposition and mere adjacent sum of domains and lordships (Lalinde, 1974). Now, to decipher the legal business hidden under the drawn lines, domini regis precepto , by Pontius, county clerk, leads to further complexities.
First facies , the unilateral nature of a document that responds to the sole expression of the will of King Ramiro and does not contain any signature other than yours, it does not allow you to attribute the condition of pact, agreement, marriage or treaty between international agents , a character that could be predicated of its immediate antecedent, the letter of deposit granted by Alfonso I the Battler in favor of Urraca de León (1109), to which the queen corresponds with the donation of her father's domains.[3 ]
Old times, the thesis that these "capitulations" instrument an integriter donation is generally defended of the kingdom and the extinction of the Ramirense dynasty in the Bellónida (García-Gallo, 1966). However, any donation, if it is pure and not modal, entails the immediate and complete transfer of control and ownership, which pass from the donor to the estate of the donee, who acquires full powers over the thing, disposal and alienation included. Such features do not occur here, nor does the document meet the formal characteristics of the Navarro-Aragonese donation letters of the time (Lema, 1990). Therefore, Ramiro, after the «dono tibi , Raymond» , explains that only, once the queen has died without common progeny, Ramón will freely and immutably dispose of the kingdom, if Ramiro himself dies first.[4] This clause evidences to contrary that, without both deaths, Ramón cannot dispose at will . So much so that, in a document with no confirmed date or location[5], the Barcelonan is obliged, under the formula of vassalage, not to alienate any part of the kingdom that is delimited.[6] In subsequent acts, Ramiro reiterates that the kingdom was granted to the count and his sons who were from Petronila's progeny [7] and not from another. The same line is shown in Petronila's will in labor (1154), whereby she, during her husband's lifetime, transmits per se the kingdom to the nasciturus [8], or in the last and definitive (1164).[9]
Years later, Ubieto (1987) formulated, with great prestige in the Aragonese historiographical field, the thesis of the marriage at home . Through this customary institution, someone from outside a traditional Aragonese house[10] without a capable heir joins it by marriage and contributes their labor force and administrative capacity, regulating the matrimonial economic regime and future succession in matrimonial chapters, although the elders of the house, as long as they live, they will maintain the major domain . Ramiro's preservation of royal dignity , now extended to the domains of the count[11], the acts of disposition mortis causa of Petronila or the fact that the princeps et dominator regni Aragonum governs "save due fidelity" to the king and queen, would enable this interpretation, but the Barbastro document does not conform to the proper meaning of custom, whose true purpose is to exempt the common rules of widowhood, by which, after the death of the titular spouse , the survivor, if a widower, retains the usufruct. However, the home wedding It will allow you to retain administration and usufruct, even if you celebrate a second marriage, and even transfer it to the new spouse. In no case does the institution imply that, in the absence of common children, the widower inherits, excluding consanguineous collaterals with the right to it, a circumstance that the Barbastro donation does establish.
The figure of the donation propter nuptias fits better to all this. This has, in Aragonese and Navarrese historical law, the essential nature of a succession agreement, so that the transmission of the patrimony only reaches full virtue for after the days of the donor, who can reserve assets and/or faculties (Luquin, 2010) . These traits are reflected, as regards the reservation of title and potestas regia, in the historical documentation we examined. Moreover, as a result of such donation, Ramón receives the effective administration of the kingdom that will only maintain constant marriage and that brings together strokes similar to those used by the Aragonese monarchs when they give honor from the kingdom to a vassal who has it, enjoys and governs manu sua.[12]
Given the foregoing, the question of whether the so-called Capitulations of Barbastro establish the title of sovereignty of the Barcelona dynasty over the kingdom of Aragon and whether it empowers him to transmit the dignitas regia , must be answered in the negative, since the covenant propter nuptias I would only have allowed that dignity to fall on the beautiful house for the contest of absence of common children with the pre-deaths of Ramiro and Petronila. They did not occur, Ramón died first and the donation did not become effective, nor did the succession agreements of Alfonso I and Urraca in 1109[13], due to the dissolution of the marriage, which only differed in the fact that, not surviving Mutual offspring, the throne of León would go to Urraca's previous son, although the Battler would retain government and administration of the kingdom until his death.[14]
In conclusion, both instruments are ineffective due to breach of their conditions, Alfonso II , received from his grandfather, through his mother, and by the natural order of succession, the royal dignitas and full ownership of the family kingdom, without the need for capitulation or enabling agreement, or any change of dynasty.
Bibliography
- Garcia-Gallo, A. (1966). The succession of the throne in the Crown of Aragon, Anuario de Historia del Derecho Español, 36 , 5-188.
- Lalinde Abbey, J. (1974). Spanish historical law , Barcelona:Ariel.
- Lapeña Paúl, A. I. (2008). Ramiro II of Aragon. The Monk King (1134-1137). Gijon; Trea Editions.
- Lema Pueyo, J.A. (1990). Diplomatic Collection of Alfonso I of Aragon and Pamplona (1104-1134) .San Sebastián:Society for Basque Studies.
- Luquin Berganeche, R. (2010). The donation propternuptias in the common and regional regime:its challenges in the current social context. Legal Review of Navarra , 50, 59-143.
- Ubieto Arteta, A. (1987). Creation and development of the Crown of Aragon . Zaragoza:Anubar.
Notes
[1] «(…) Ego, Ranimirus (…), dono tibi, Raimundo (…), filiam meam in uxorem, cum tocius regni aragonensis integritate”, ( HERE. Barcelona. Royal Chancery. Scroll 86, dup. of Ramon Berenguer IV. [Miguel Rosell, 1945, nº 7]).
[2] Taken as the term «state» in a broad sense.
[3] RAH. Traggia Collection, vol. II, manuscripts 9/ 5220, fol. 55r – 56 v.
[4] «(…) donationis prephati regni libere et inmutabiliter habeas (…) post mortem meam», (ACA, Pergaminos, fold. 35, no. 86, contemporary copy B).
[5] AHN. Madrid. Clergy. Scrolls. Folder 623, nº 13. Copy of the 13th century
[6] «Tu vero convenís mihi in verbo verítatis, et mittis manus tuas inter manus meas ut non alienes neque facías alienare regnum istud quod ego dono tibi a generatione filiorum filia mee”, (AHN Clergy, Montearagón, fold. 623, nº 13, copy of the 13th century).
[7] «Hoc dono tibi et concedo filiis filiorum qui fuerint de generatione de mea filia», (AHN Clergy, Montearagón, fold. 623, nº 13, copy of the 13th century).
[8] HERE. Barcelona. Royal Chancery. Parchment No. 250 of Ramon Berenguer IV. [Miguel Rosell, 1945, no. 16].
[9] «(…) dono et laudo et concedo tibi, electo filio meo Ildefonso (...) regnum integriter (...) et sicut unquam avus et proavus meus melius ipsum regnum Aragonis» , (ACA. Barcelona. Royal Chancellery. Liber Feudorum Maior, ff. 10c-11ª. [Miguel Rosell, 1945, nº 17]).
[10] The house of Aragon which is understood, legally and economically, as a patrimonial unit and a joint family company in strict terms of regional law.
[11] «Rex, dominus et pater in prephato regno et in totis comitatibus tuis, dum mihi placuerit», (ACA, Pergaminos, fold. 35, no. 86, contemporary copy B), and similar dictions in various documents.
[12] And in fact this is how Ramiro expressly explains Barbastro's business when he confirms it in Ayerbe on August 27:«donavit filiam suam cum suo honore, et suos homines et in hominio comendavit apud Barbastrum », ( ACA, Scrolls, carp. 35, no. 87, contemporary copy B), or on November 13 in Zaragoza, «dedi filiam meam Raimundo, comiti barchinonensi, cum omni regni mei honore »,(ACA, Pergaminos, fold. 35, no. 85, contemporary copy B).
[13] «Quod si filium ex vobis non habuero et vos me supervixeritis, quod ad vos remaneat tota illa mea terra et ut eam habeatis ingenuam et liberam ad vestram propriam hereditatem per facere inde totam vestram voluntatem de post meis diebus”, (RAH. Traggia Collection, t. II, manuscripts 9/ 5220, fol. 55 r. – 56 v.).
[14] «Et si Deus omnipotens filium ex bobis mihi dederit, et vos posta mihi supervixeritis, quod tota illa mea terra remaneat ad vos et ad illo vestro filio quem of me habueritis. Quod si ex bobis filium non habuero, similiter remaneat ad vos tota mea terra, et habeatis eam ad vestram propriam hereditatem per facere inde totam vestram voluntatem in vestra vita, et post vestris diebus quod totam remaneat ad filio meo, (RAH. Traggia Collection, t. II, manuscripts 9/ 5220, fol. 55 r. – 56 v.).