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James I of Aragon, The Conqueror > 
James I the Conqueror was the King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276. His long reign saw the expansion of the Crown of Aragon on all sides: into Valencia to the south, Languedoc to the north, and the Balearic Islands to the east. By a treaty with Louis IX of France, he wrested the Principality of Catalonia from nominal French suzerainty and integrated it into his crown. His part in the Reconquista was similar in Mediterranean Spain to that of his contemporary Ferdinand III of Castile in Andalusia.
As a legislator and organiser, he occupies a high place among the Spanish kings. James compiled the Libre del Consulat de Mar, which governed maritime trade and helped establish Catalan supremacy in the western Mediterranean. He made Catalan the official language of his domains and sponsored Catalan literature, even a quasi-autobiographical chronicle of his reign: the Llibre dels fets.
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