alternatehistory.com

What begins here is the brainchild of my endless love for history, what ifs and dislike for some turns of history. Let's see that I "just" aim to rewrite the history of Aragon from 1299 to 1490 or so...


Alfonso IV if Aragón, the Kind (Naples, 1299 – Barcelona, 1364*).
King of Aragon, of Valencia, de Sardinia, Corsica and earl of Barcelona
from 1327 to 1364.

Alfonso IV of Aragon is noted for his military successes and the expansion of his kingdom, that became one of the military powers in Europe. His reign saw vital developments in legislation and government as well as the ravages of the Black Death.

He came to the throne after her brother, Jaime, renounced the throne to become a monk in 1319 and after the death of his father, Jaime II (1267 – 1327). As Ramon Muntaner states in his Crònica, a chronicle of his life and the age he lived, Alfonso had a very stressing beginning of his kingdom, as his wife, Teresa of Entenza, was very ill after giving birth to their seventh children ** when his father died.

Alfonso had to face several and deep troubles during his reign. The first was the conquest of Sardinia, a long and complicated enterprise that was to last for a whole century and that led to long wars (1351-55 and 1377–81) with the Republic of Genoa.

The second was the economical crisis, worsened by the wars with Castille (1356-1361) and Genoa, that affected the commerce of Aragon through the Mediterranean sea, that were to last until the final defeat of Genoa in 1380, during the fourth war between Venice and Genoa, that began the decline of the Republic.

The third trouble was the Black Death, that added to the damage caused by the economical crisis by decimating the population of the kingdom. Meanwhile, the fiscal pressure on the kingdom caused by Alfonso's expensive wars and alliances led to discontent at home. The king purged the royal administration of a great number of ministers and judges, but, in the end, he had to negotiate with parliaments of his kingdom, that forced the king to accept a deal.

By the early 1360s, it was clear that Alfonso's policy of alliances was too costly, and yielded too few results. A major change came in July 1361, when Alfonso staged a major offensive, advancing deep in Castille a force of 10,000 men. His army sacked several cities and, when he was withdrawing back to Aragon, he was intercepted by Pedro's forces. Amazingly, on 11 September 1361, the Aragonese army defeated a far larger Castillian army in the Battle of Villena, causing heavy casualties to Pedro, who, faced with the threat of a Muslim invasion from Granada and the ongoing civil war with his bastard brother, decided to cut expenses and offered a peace treaty to Alfonso, that the Aragonese king was eager to accept.

Alfonso's later years were marked by inertia and political strife. He lost the appeal for the day-to-day affairs of the state so during the 1360s he increasingly relied on the help of his subordinates, some of them deeply hatred not only by his subbdits, but also by his sons. The political institutions that existed in the kingdoms he ruled (Aragon, Valencia and the county of Barcelona) reinforced their own privileges, weaking the powers of the king, something that, in the future, was to be cause of deep troubles between the crown and the parliaments of those kingdoms.

Thankfully those later years were of relative tranquillity, without wars, but with the discontent caused by the fiscal pressure of constant campaigns. Those problems were to arise only after Alfonso's death.

Alfonso IV died on June 21st, 1364, in Barcelona. He was succeeded by his fourteen-year-old grandson, King Juan I.

__________________________________________________
Children of Alfonso IV of Aragon & Teresa of Entenza ****:

Alfonso (b. 1315 — d. 1317)
Constanza (b. 1318 - d.1346)
Pedro (b. 1319 — d. 1361)
Jaime I (b. 1320 - d. 1379), earl of Urgel
Isabel (b. 1323 – d. 1327)
Fadrique (b. 1325 — d. 1350), earl of Montblanc
Sancho (b. 1326 — d. 1387), earl of Girona
Jaime (b. 1328 - d. 1370), earl of Ribagorza
Juan (b. 1330 - d. 1358)


---

* Here you have the first butterfly: Alfonso lived 25 years longer than he did IOTL.

** Here you have the second butterfly: Teresa didn't die whilst giving birth to her son Sancho on 20 October 1327 at Zaragoza, only days before her husband became king of Aragon.

*** Third butterfly

*** Until Sancho, those are the OTL sons and daughters of Alfonso and Teresa, althought some of the have their life expenctacies a bit... changed. From then on, butterflies...
Top