A KING FOR A LAND OF LORDSHIPS

The figure of the king will always have enormous importance in the evolution of the territory controlled by the House of Lauria. Their friendship with the Crown establishes the growth in lands and privileges that will be granted to the family, increasing its patrimony, linking in an indivisible way their destiny to the evolution of its territory. The Crown will also be a fundamental part in the decisions adopted after the death of the admiral as head of the family saga, whose consequences will be capital for the territorial organization of the kingdom.

JAMES I

The Aragonese king is key to the later expansion of the Crown of Aragon towards the Mediterranean, where Ruggiero di Lauria became an instrument of enormous importance. His alliance with King Manfred I of Sicily generated the marriage between Constance of Hohenstaufen and the future Peter III, placing the Aragonese kingdom at the center of Mediterranean geopolitics in the second half of the 13th century. However, the arrival of the exiles to the court was not well regarded by the monarch, which forced him to impose them the obligation of permanent residence in the Kingdom of Valencia, a trait of Valencianness that his lineage would have.

PETER III

A good part of the growing territorial patrimony accumulated by the House of Lauria is due both to the military exploits achieved for the Crown of Aragon and to the solid friendship that Ruggiero maintained with King Peter III until his death (r. 1276-1285). His friendship and loyalty was eternal, until the death of the king on the eve of the Battle of Coll de Panissars in 1285, being buried in the Monastery of Santes Creus (Tarragona). On the death of the admiral in 1305, he arranged for his body to be buried in a simple, plain, undecorated tomb with only the “at the feet of my lord” and there he lies for eternity.

JAMES II

The relations with the grandson of James I and son of his friend and protector Peter III were complex. Recognising his military capacity, he relied on other admirals, such as Bernat de Sarrià, relegating Ruggiero to the tasks of plundering and supplying the fleet. However, he did not distance him from his side, entrusting him with the command of the fleet against Sicily in 1291 and supporting him in his lawsuit with the Sarriá family over the castrum of Calp and Altea. Likewise, he took advantage of his experience in the Sicilian affair, sending him as ambassador to the talks that led to the Treaty of Anagni in 1295 and the Peace of Caltabellota in 1302.

PETER IV

His role in the end of the House of Lauria is key to understand the decision to reaffirm Margarita de Lauria y Entenza as feudal dómina of the castrum of Calp and Altea in 1325, thanks to the arbitration of James II and the will of Saurina de Entenza. These agreements forced the marriage with Nicolás de Joinville and the assumption as administrator of Lorenzo Tascione, who carried out a two-sided work between the Admiral’s heiress and the Aragonese king.

The death without descendants of Margarita caused the castrum of Calp to pass into the hands of the Crown, being the last piece left to the king to recover the territory that his ancestors had given to the nobility, allowing the creation of the County of Denia, territorial base of what is now the Marina Alta.