Individual Details
Peter III "The Great" Aragon
(1239 - 2 Nov 1285)
Pedro was born in July or August 1240, the son of Jaime I 'the Conqueror', king of Aragón and Violante of Hungary. On 13 June 1262 at Montpellier he married Constance of Sicily, daughter and heiress of Manfredo, king of Sicily and Béatrice de Savoie. Pedro and Constance had six children, of whom four had offspring: Jaime, their second born, Isabel (the future St.Osabel of Portugal), Fadrique and Yolanda.
Pedro also became King Pedro I of Sicily from 1282 after the Sicilian Vespers, the rebellion against the Angevin King Charles I Etienne, resulted in the expulsion of the French from the island. Pedro's navy under the admiral Ruggiero de Lauria defeated the French fleet off Catalonia in 1285, and his armies crushed the retreating French crusaders at the Coll de Panissars in the same year.
Pedro himself was the great-great-great grandson and the heir-general of Mafalda de Hauteville, daughter of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia, the Norman conqueror, and his official wife Sigelgaita de Salerno, a Langobard princess. After the dukes of Apulia became extinct with Guillaume II in 1127, Mafalda's heirs (then counts of Barcelona) became de jure heirs of Guiscard and Sigelgaita, so that Pedro was a dormant claimant to the Norman succession in Southern Italy. The Two Sicilies were to be a keenly pursued inheritance for the Aragónese Royal House and its heirs for the next five centuries.
Pedro died 11 November 1285, leaving Aragón to his eldest son Alfonso, and Sicily to his second son Jaime. Pedro's third son Fadrique later became regent of Sicily and then its king.
In the Divine Comedy, Dante sees Pedro 'singing in concert' with his former rival Charles I Etienne of Sicily outside the gates of Purgatory.
Source: Leo van de Pas
Pedro also became King Pedro I of Sicily from 1282 after the Sicilian Vespers, the rebellion against the Angevin King Charles I Etienne, resulted in the expulsion of the French from the island. Pedro's navy under the admiral Ruggiero de Lauria defeated the French fleet off Catalonia in 1285, and his armies crushed the retreating French crusaders at the Coll de Panissars in the same year.
Pedro himself was the great-great-great grandson and the heir-general of Mafalda de Hauteville, daughter of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia, the Norman conqueror, and his official wife Sigelgaita de Salerno, a Langobard princess. After the dukes of Apulia became extinct with Guillaume II in 1127, Mafalda's heirs (then counts of Barcelona) became de jure heirs of Guiscard and Sigelgaita, so that Pedro was a dormant claimant to the Norman succession in Southern Italy. The Two Sicilies were to be a keenly pursued inheritance for the Aragónese Royal House and its heirs for the next five centuries.
Pedro died 11 November 1285, leaving Aragón to his eldest son Alfonso, and Sicily to his second son Jaime. Pedro's third son Fadrique later became regent of Sicily and then its king.
In the Divine Comedy, Dante sees Pedro 'singing in concert' with his former rival Charles I Etienne of Sicily outside the gates of Purgatory.
Source: Leo van de Pas
Events
| Birth | 1239 | ||||
| Marriage | 13 Jun 1262 | Montpellier - Constance of Sicily | |||
| Death | 2 Nov 1285 | ||||
| Burial | Villa Franca |
Families
| Spouse | Constance of Sicily (1249 - 1301) |
| Child | St. Elisabeth of Aragon (1271 - 1336) |
| Father | Jaime I "the Conqueror" King of Aragon and Valencia (1205 - 1276) |
| Mother | Princess Violante of Hungary (1216 - 1251) |
| Sibling | Violante Infanta de Aragon (1236 - 1301) |
| Sibling | Isabelle of Aragón (1248 - 1271) |