Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/103

lxxxv ARAGON. Ixxxv The Catalan navj successfully disputed the empire section of the Mediterranean with the fleets of Pisa, and '- — still more of Genoa. With its aid, the Aragonese monarchs achieved the conquest successively of Sicily, Sardinia, and the Balearic Isles, and an- nexed them to the empire.^ It penetrated into the farthest regions of the Levant ; and the expedition of the Catalans into Asia, which terminated with the more splendid than useful acquisition of Athens, forms one of the most romantic passages in this stirring and adventurous era. ^ But, while the princes of Aragon were thus en- larging the bounds of their dominion abroad, there was probably not a sovereign in Europe possessed of such limited authority at home. The three great states with their dependencies, which con- stituted the Aragonese monarchy, had been de- clared by a statute of James the Second, in 1319, inalienable and indivisible.^ Each of them, how- ever, maintained a separate constitution of govern- 5 ment, and was administered by distinct laws. As it would be fruitless to investigate the peculiarities of their respective institutions, which bear a very the crossbow ; for a more perfect ^ Hence the title of duke of instruction in which, the munici- Athens, assumed by the Spanish pality of Barcelona established sovereigns. The brilliant fortunes games and gymnasiums. Ibid., of Roger de Flor are related by tom. i. p. 113. count Moncada, (Expedicion de 3 Sicily revolted to Peter III., in los Catalanes y Aragoneses contra 1282. — Sardinia was conquered Turcos y Griegos, Madrid, 1805,) by James II., in 1324, and the in a style much commended by Balearic Isles by Peter IV., in Spanish critics for its elegance. 1343-4. Zurita, Anales, tom. i. See Mondejar, Advertencias, p. fol. 247; tom. ii. fol. 60. — Her- 114. milly, Histoire du Royaume de 5 ft was confirmed by Alfonso Majorque, (Maestricht, 1777,) pp. III., in 1328. Zurita, Anales, tom 227-268. ii. fol. 90.