Aragonese Empire

Crown of Aragon
Corona d'Aragón (Aragonese) Corona d'Aragó (Catalan) Corona Aragonum (Latin) Corona de Aragón (Spanish)
Composite monarchy,confederation of kingdoms, or individual polities ruled by one king
1162–1716
Standard Coat of arms
Territories subject to the Crown of Aragon at varying times
Capital		see Capital below
Languages		Official languages: Aragonese, Catalan, Latin Minority languages: Occitan, Sardinian, Corsican, Neapolitan, Sicilian, , Castilian, Basque, Greek, Maltese, Andalusian Arabic, Mozarabic
Religion		Majority religion: Roman Catholic Minority religions: Sunni Islam, Sephardic Judaism, Greek Orthodoxy
Government		Feudal monarchy subject to pacts
Monarch
•	1162–1164	Petronilla (first)
•	1479–1516	Ferdinand II
•	1700–1716	Charles III (last)
Legislature		Cortes Aragonesas Corts Catalanes Corts Valencianes
Historical era		Middle Ages / Early modern period
•	Union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona	1162
•	Conquest of the Kingdom of Majorca	1231
•	Conquest of the Kingdom of Valencia	1238–1245
•	Conquest of the Kingdom of Sardinia	1324–1420
•	Conquest of the Kingdom of Naples	1501–1504
•	Nueva Planta decrees	1716
Area
•	1443	250,000 km² (96,526 sq mi)
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Aragon County of Barcelona Bourbon Spain Habsburg Spain
Today part of		Andorra  France  Greece  Italy  Malta  Spain  Tunisia

The Crown of Aragon (/ˈærəɡən/; Aragonese: Corona d'Aragón, Catalan: Corona d'Aragó, Spanish: Corona de Aragón) was a composite monarchy, also nowadays referred to as a confederation of individual polities or kingdoms ruled by one king, with a personal and dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona. At the height of its power in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Crown of Aragon was a thalassocracy (a state with primarily maritime realms) controlling a large portion of present-day eastern Spain, parts of what is now southern France, and a Mediterranean "empire" which included the Balearic Islands, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, Southern Italy (from 1442) and parts of Greece (until 1388). The component realms of the Crown were not united politically except at the level of the king, who ruled over each autonomous polity according to its own laws, raising funds under each tax structure, dealing separately with each Corts or Cortes. Put in contemporary terms, it has sometimes been considered that the different lands of the Crown of Aragon (mainly the Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia and the Kingdom of Valencia) functioned more as a confederation than as a single kingdom. In this sense, the larger Crown of Aragon must not be confused with one of its constituent parts, the Kingdom of Aragon, from which it takes its name.