James II of Aragon
King of Aragon and Valencia, Count of Barcelona and King of Sicily (1267-1327)
James II (Catalan: Jaume II; Aragonese: Chaime II; Spanish: Jaime II; 10 April 1267 or c. 1264 – 2 or 5 or 3 November 1327), called the Just, was the King of Aragon and Valencia and Count of Barcelona from 1291 to 1327. He was also the King of Sicily (as James I) from 1285 to 1295 and the King of Majorca from 1291 to 1298. From 1297 he was nominally the King of Sardinia and Corsica, but he only acquired the island of Sardinia by conquest in 1324. His full title for the last three decades of his reign was "James, by the grace of God, king of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia and Corsica, and count of Barcelona" (Latin: Iacobus Dei gratia rex Aragonum, Valencie, Sardinie, et Corsice ac comes Barchinone).
Born at Valencia, James was the second son of Peter III of Aragon and Constance II of Sicily. He succeeded his father in Sicily in 1285 and his elder brother Alfonso III in Aragon and the rest of the Spanish territories, including Majorca, in 1291. In 1295 he was forced to cede Sicily to the papacy, after which it was seized by his younger brother, Frederick III, in 1296. Two years later rom Pope Boniface VIII returned the island to the king of Majorca along with rights to Sardinia and Corsica. On 20 January 1296, Boniface issued the bull Redemptor mundi granting James the titles of Standard-bearer, Captain General and Admiral of the Roman church.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “James II of Aragon” as king of Aragon and Valencia, Count of Barcelona and King of Sicily (1267-1327). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as king of Aragon and Valencia, Count of Barcelona and King of Sicily (1267-1327). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q312735. VIAF identifies the subject as 70299199. The Library of Congress control number is n83032210. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1267, 1264, 1327 and 1291.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
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Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “James II of Aragon”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow James II of Aragon primary sources, James II of Aragon archive and James research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “James II of Aragon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.