Principality of Catalonia
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Principality of Catalonia (from Latin Principatus Cathaloniae), is a historic territory in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula, mostly in Spain and with an adjoining portion in southern France.
The first reference to Catalonia and the Catalans appears in the Liber maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus, a Pisan chronicle of the conquest of Minorca by a joint force of Italians, Catalans, and Occitans. At the time, Catalonia did not yet exist as a political entity, though the use of this term seems to acknowledge Catalonia as a cultural or geographical entity.
The counties that would eventually make up the Principality of Catalonia were gradually unified under the rule of the Count of Barcelona. In 1137, the County of Barcelona was unified dynastically to the Crown of Aragon, but Aragon and the Catalan Counties retained their own political structure and legal traditions. Because of these legal differences and their use of different language—Aragonese and Catalan—an official recognition of the Catalan Counties as a distinct political entity became necessary.
Under Alfons the Troubador, Catalonia was first used legally. Still, the term Principality of Catalonia was not used legally until the Fourteenth Century, when it was applied to the territories ruled by the Court of Catalonia.
The term "Principality of Catalonia" remained in use until the Second Spanish Republic, when its use declined because of its historical relation to the monarchy. Today, the term is used primarily by Catalan nationalists and independentists to refer collectively to the French and Spanish-administered parts of Catalonia.
See also
- Catalan constitutions, from 1283
- Catalan Countries
- Cuisine of Catalonia
- Famous Catalan People
- Catalan nationalism
- Generalitat de Catalunya
