Pact of Caspe

Compromise of Caspe

Original deed of the compromise.
Date	29 March - 28 June 1412
Location	Caspe, Aragon.
Participants	Nine compromisarios (delegates) of the peninsular territories of the Crown of Aragon.
Outcome	Proclamation of Ferdinand of Castile as King of Aragon. Establishment of House of Trastámara in Aragon. County of Urgell was dissolved and merged with the Crown.

The Compromise of Caspe made in 1412 was an act and resolution of parliamentary representatives of the constituent realms of the Crown of Aragon (the Kingdom of Aragon, Kingdom of Valencia, and Principality of Catalonia), meeting in Caspe, to resolve the interregnum following the death of King Martin of Aragon in 1410 without a legitimate heir.

The Aragonese succession laws at that time were based more on custom than any specific legislation, and even case law did not exist. All successions after the union of Catalonia with Aragon in 1137 had been to the eldest son, to the next younger brother, or to the only daughter. However, earlier successions indicated that agnates (males in the male line) of the Aragonese royal family had precedence over daughters and descendants of daughters; for example, Martin himself had succeeded over daughters of his late elder brother, King John I.

However, very distant agnates had lost out to the daughter of the late king in the 11th century, when Queen Petronilla succeeded over claims of the then agnates (second cousins or the like), the kings of Navarre.

J. N. Hillgarth writes: "Among the descendants by the male line, the closest relation to Martin was James II, Count of Urgell." T. N. Bisson writes that "the issue was (or became) political rather than simply legal, a utilitarian question of which candidate with some dynastic claim would make the best king."

The major candidates for succession were:

The parties had agreed to a parliamentary process to resolve the issue, but coordinating deliberations between the cortes (parliaments) of Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia was made difficult by their diverging interests. Thus, a general cortes was demanded by the governor of Catalonia to meet in Montblanch, but the meeting was delayed and ended up in Barcelona, starting in October 1410 and only being Cortes of the Principality of Catalonia. As the Cortes dragged on, the situation became violent.