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.

This book is the first in English in more than half a century to survey the history of a great Mediterranean federation whose homelands were Catalonia and Aragon. Based on recent research, it seeks to convey a sense of the energy, drama, and colour of a creative and expansionist people between the twelfth and the fifteenth century. T.N. Bisson lays due stress on individual achievement and personality, while at the same time providing a balanced survey of political and dynastic evolution, institutional foundations, economic and cultural matters, and the socio-economic weakness which led eventually to a crisis in the federated realms in the late Middle Ages.

`excellent and useful survey ... work which, with a long and intelligently descriptive bibliography at the end, will serve as an introduction to its complex and difficult subject for many years to come.' David J. Wasserstein, Mediterranean Historical Review