«To Serve the Crown of Aragon». Urban identity and political discourse in the Kingdom of Valencia’s south frontier: Orihuela in the Crown of Aragon, 13th-15th centuries

Abstract

From the Orihuela Observation Group, this paper analyses the mechanisms behind the political discourse and urban identity that developed in the city of Orihuela following its incorporation into the Crown of Aragon in 1296, as well as the evolution of these two phenomena during the 14^th and 15^th centuries. We used a study method that can be applied to medium-sized towns and cities that evolved in unique historic or territorial settings. The political development of Orihuela between 1243 and 1304, which included three changes in political leadership, together with the fact that it was named capital of a territorial demarcation, granted city status in 1437 and converted into a key geostrategic and frontier location for both the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Valencia, led local leaders to develop a political discourse and identity that emphasised the city’s frontier position and the monarchy’s need for its services, its position as a territorial capital and the secular aspirations for a diocese of its own. All of this occurred in a pivotal area that played a key part in the bellicose tension that existed between the Iberian Peninsula’s two main powers in the period spanning from the mid-13^th to the 15^th century, and bore witness to such decisive events as the War of the Two Peters and the concentration of significant military efforts by both Crowns in their battle to win over the lands of southern Valencia.