So, erm, the Principality of Catalonia was actually a thing.
Yes. It was a juridical term created in the 14th century, and its jurisdiction included several Counties without political unity that belonged to the Crown of Aragon. Just as a province is also a juridical term to define a jurisdiction but has no political value. Its sovereign was the King of Aragon.
So much for no such thing as a Kingdom of Catalonia.
Never existed such a thing as the Kingdom of Calonia.
If you want to argue that that it was subsumed by the Kingdom of Aragon, then I'd just like to point out that the County of Barcelona, its precursor, is what inherited that kingdom.
Simply the King of Aragon change the name of his possessions from Kingdom of Aragon to Crown of Aragon when he inherited the County of Barcelona.
So the County of Barcelona became part of the Crown of Aragon. Later on the Crown of Aragon conquered the Kingdom of Valencia, the Kingdom of Mallorca, the kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples. But it never had a Kingdom of Catalonia because it never existed. Just a bunch of other Counties with no political unity such as the County of Barcelona.
The Kingdom of Aragon was split between the Catalans and the Aragonese
The Crown of Aragon was the King of Aragon's possession. Catalonia did not even exist (not even the Principality of Catalonia). It was a Kingdom and belonged only to the Aragonese King.[/quote]
so I really have no idea what you are talking about when you keep referring to them as never having existed independent. Maybe not as a kingdom, sure, but still rather close enough.
No, not enough. Some of the Counties that today conform Catalonia were subject of the franc King while others were independente for a short period and others were part of the Crown of Aragon whose sovereign was the Aragonese King. Some of them changed loyalties. But they never, ever, ever, were a political unit before being part of Spain. They were never recogniced as Kingdoms by anybody. It is important to understand that Catalonia was created inside Spain by the emperor Charles V in 1521, unifying those Counties that had never been together before.
And yes, I know that the Principality of Catalonia happens to be what is used by the Catalan nationalists as the reason for why they have a right to be independent- it says it right there in the article. What bothers me is that you didn't know this, despite clearly living in Spain and having to deal with these nationalists. It would be silly to say that there was some mythical Kingdom of Catalonia, yes, but the Kingdom of Aragon was a kingdom ruled by the Catalonians and the Aragonese, not the Castillians.
The Crown of Aragon was never, ever, ever, etc. ever, ruled by the Catalonians. I repeat, despite of what you read in the wikipedia, that can and will be edited by the Catalan separatists, there was a Crown of Aragon ruled by Aragonese people. And everybody in the Crown of Aragon were Aragonese subjects. Catalonia did not even exist. Barcelona was a County. Gerona was another County, etc. Catalonia was created from unifying 7 or 8 Counties in 1521.
Its not his fault. For all his talk about "nationalist indoctrination", he's as subject to propaganda as he says Catalonians are, if not more. Central goverments have systematically used nationalists as a boogeyman for decades, and as a consequence many people in the Peninsula have tremendously distorted views not only about those nationalists, but about what the territories in which they reside are like. Despite more often than not being a couple of hours away by car or train.
Sure, and the foreign hispanist historians are also indoctrinated like me:
Henry Kamen says that Catalonia falsifies its historyJohn H. Elliot about a symposium of history created by the Catalan government called "Spain against Catalonia": "It is not even worth talking. With that title (Spain against Catalonia) I know I'm not interested. There is little of history in it and has no rigor. It is nonsense "I would like to see your face if your countries (or future nations if you are separatists) were cut to pieces just because. Or just a region of them were separated without reason. Just because the history-fiction of some lunatics that no historian outside that region believes.
Have a good day everybody. This time I leave this conversation, hopefully forever.