*Entry* **Peter IV of Aragon (1336–1387)**

**Marta Serrano-Coll**

> Department of History and Art History, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Spain; marta.serrano@urv.cat

**Abstract:** Peter IV king of Aragón (1336–1387). He was the seventh king of the Crown of Aragon, and father of Juan I (1387–1396) and Martín I (1396–1410), the last members of the dynasty to take the throne. When Martín died, the Trastámara branch occupied the throne of the kingdom. Peter IV was dazzling in his ability to use art as a tool of authority and sovereignty. With the aim of exalting the dynasty, he patronised various enterprises, among the most important of which was the abbey of Santa Maria de Poblet, which he intended to be a burial place for himself and his successors, a wish that was fulfilled, without exception, down to Juan II, the predecessor of the Catholic Monarchs. A perfectionist and zealot, he endowed important religious events with profound political significance, and promoted works of grea<sup>t</sup> symbolism such as the genealogy of the new *saló del tinell*, or the *ordinacions de la casa i cort*, to which he added an appendix establishing how the kings of Aragon were to be crowned.

**Keywords:** royal images; royal iconography; kings of Aragon; Crown of Aragon; Peter IV of Aragon

## **1. An Exceptional Reign**

On the death of Alphonse IV (1327–1336) in Barcelona, the kingdom of Aragon passed into the hands of the prince Peter, nicknamed the Ceremonious for his interest in the due magnificence of the institution he represented and in the palatine entourage, which he organised with care and attention to detail.

He was born on 5 September 1319 in Balaguer. No one foresaw that he would attain the crown: he was the second son and the kingdom then belonged to his uncle James, the first son of James II (1291–1327). James's renunciation of the throne meant that Alphonse, Count of Urgell and Peter's father, became the rightful heir, and this, added to the death of Alphonse's first-born son shortly afterwards, meant that Peter became the legitimate successor. Being in his seventies, he was so weak in health and physically puny that, as he would say in the *Crònica de Pere el Cerimoniós* written in his own hand and which covers his entire reign and that of his father, King Alphonse IV: "neither the midwives, nor those who attended our birth, thought we could live" [1].

Energetic and strong-willed, he increased the power of the monarchical institution, intervened in important foreign conflicts, and extended his dominions by incorporating Sicily, seizing Roussillon and dispossessing the Mallorcan king Jaume III (1324–1349) of his island kingdom. The chronicler Zurita summed up his complex personality: "While this prince was of the weakest and most delicate composure of body, he was also of the most ardent spirit and of incredible promptness and liveliness and of grea<sup>t</sup> vigour and execution in all that he undertook, and of spirit and courage for any undertaking and strangely ambitious and haughty and very ceremonious in preserving the royal authority and pre-eminence" [2].

He compared himself to James I (1213–1276), whom he admired with fervour. He considered that he shared several similarities with his predecessor, such as the protection of Providence, similar military exploits and certain biographical facts. His reign was the second longest reign of the Crown of Aragon, after that of the acclaimed Conqueror.

**Citation:** Serrano, M. Peter IV of Aragon (1336–1387). *Encyclopedia* **2021**, *1*, 1155–1165. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/encyclopedia1040086

Academic Editor: Mirko Vagnoni

Received: 26 August 2021 Accepted: 15 October 2021 Published: 2 November 2021

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#### **2. Cultural Personality: Profitability of Arts and Literature**

It is difficult to summarise the artistic and literary policy of this king who, in 1380, praised the Acropolis of Athens as "the most beautiful jewel in the world, such as that not even all the Christian kings put together could build anything like it" [3]. His sensitivity to art went beyond mere delight; he was aware of its value for displaying power. To this end, he promoted works of architecture, among them the *saló del tinell*, the function room of his Palace in Barcelona; the *Palau Menor* for the queen; the restoration of Santa Maria del Mar, where he reinstalled the keystone representing his father Alphonse IV; and his intervention in Poblet, designated the royal pantheon of the dynasty.

He was interested in astronomy, poetry, history and law, and in Arabic, Hebrew and Christian knowledge. He commissioned the translation of notable original works and founded the universities of Perpignan in 1350 and Huesca in 1358. He tried to revive troubadour poetry, writing in a Catalanised form of Provençal, although the most interesting documents are his speeches and personal letters kept in the royal archive, which he rigorously organised (about Peter IV, see: [4–8]).

#### **3. Coronation Ceremony and Iconographic Echoes**

When he was eight years old, in April 1328, he attended the coronation of his father, defined in his chronicle as "one of the notable festivities that took place in the House of Aragon" (See [1]; Prologue). Its solemnity also impressed the chronicler Muntaner, who described the lavish parade, the procession and the insignia of gold, pearls and precious stones, and the banquet that followed [9]. It was then that the *infante* Peter recited a sirventese he himself had composed on the allegorical interpretation of the insignia: already at such a young age, the man who was to become king showed his predilection for ceremony and the formulas and instruments of protocol.

Peter IV decided to be crowned in Saragossa along "with that trousseau which belongs to a king who is to take coronation" (See [1]; Chapter 2, par. 9). It is significant that he uses the verb "to take" instead of "to receive" the latter implying a passive attitude on the part of the king in deference to the officiating metropolitan. The ceremony took place in the Seo on Easter Sunday 1336, with the Aljafería once again bearing witness to the festivities, in which some 10,000 diners took part in the main meal. He was 16 years old, although his youth did not prevent him from showing his courage when the archbishop, Pedro <sup>L</sup>ópez de Luna, insisted before the ceremony that he would place the crown on Peter's head, an assertion that caused an argumen<sup>t</sup> in the sacristy and delayed the start of the ceremony. The future king did not like the idea; he knew that the exercise of power required symbolic practices, hence his wish to replicate the gesture of his father, who had crowned himself. Consequently, on the advice of his godfather Ot de Montcada, he was determined to demonstrate his authority and independence before the church. He led the cleric to believe that he agreed, but when the time came, he put on the crown himself, telling the prelate "not to adjust it or touch our crown, that we would do that for him" (See [1]; Chapter 2, par. 12, [10–12], more specifically [13]).

In 1353 he ordered a coronation ceremonial to be drawn up so that those who "reign after us would know and, having it written down, could not neglect or not know" [14] how the liturgy was to be performed. He regulated and consolidated each phase of the rite to reinforce the potency of the self-coronation gesture (which displayed his power in the sight of his subjects) and to confirm his idea of separation between the two parts of the ceremony: the spiritual, with the anointing of the archbishop; and the temporal, the coronation, in which the king alone took the insignia directly from the altar. Thus, by eliminating everything that hindered the image of its sovereignty, the monarchy's autocratic character became evident and can be seen in the miniatures of two of the three surviving illuminated codices: the twin copies in the Lázaro Galdiano Foundation and the National Library of France (Ms Reg 14425 and Ms Esp 99, respectively) [15,16] (Figure 1). In them, the sovereign, wearing a paly dalmatic, facing the altar and in front of individuals seated on wooden benches, holds a large fleur-de-lis crown in front of the metropolitan

of Saragossa, whose role is limited to imparting the blessing. Visually, Peter IV shows the elimination of all ecclesiastical involvement in the presentation of the crown which, in the eyes of the people, symbolised the handing over of the kingdom. The same was true of the coronation of the queen who, kneeling and praying, in the three copies receives the crown from the king's hands [17]. The copy from the Fundación March shows the sovereign kneeling, receiving the crown from the metropolitan and in the presence of several prelates [16].

**Figure 1.** *Ceremonial de consagración y coronación de los reyes y reinas de Aragó<sup>n</sup>*. Left: Ms. Esp. 99, Paris, Biblothèque Nationale de France ©; Center: Ms. Reg 14.425, Madrid, Fundación Lázaro Galdiano ©; Right: Ms. Phillips 2633, Palma de Mallorca, Fundación Bartolomé March ©. Images published in [18].

#### **4. Conquest of Mallorca: Iconographic Echoes**

One of Peter IV's first wishes was to annex Mallorca, at that time ruled by Jaume III. James I had separated it off, along with the territories of southern France, when he ceded them in his will to his second son. From then on, relations between the respective kings were not cordial, as the Aragonese constantly sought to reincorporate it into their dominions. After a previous attempt by Alphonse III in 1285, the Ceremonious finally achieved this and was crowned in Mallorca Cathedral in May 1344. Shortly afterwards on 25 October 1349, Jaume III lost his life in the Battle of Lluchmajor and his body was banished to Valencia Cathedral. The conquest would have iconographic consequences [18].
