Diputación del General del Reino de Aragón
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Diputación del General del Reino de Aragón, Diputación del Reino de Aragón or Generalidad de Aragón was an Aragonese institution in force between 1364 and 1708 whose function was the representation by the estates of the realm of the Kingdom of Aragon in periods between Cortes before the King of Aragon and the rest of the peninsular kingdoms. It was in charge of intervening in internal and external fiscal, administrative and political affairs and of safeguarding and ensuring compliance with the aragonese Fueros.
The Diputación General de Aragón was an institution of permanent power whose origin was in the urgency of Peter IV of Aragon to raise funds in the face of the economic needs caused by the War of the Two Peters (1356–1369), for which convened in 1362 the Cortes in Monzón to the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia and the Catalan principality. In its beginnings, the Diputación del General responded to the same fiscal functions as the Catalan and Valencian Generalidades of the same name, born of the collection purpose established from the creation of the tax of the Generalities, which began to be applied in Aragon from the Cort held in Zaragoza in 1364.
However, the institution soon became a key body for the management of the resources dedicated to the defense of the Kingdom, with administrative, political, military and representative attributions of the power emanating from the Cortes by delegation. It remained active uninterruptedly from the last third of the 14th century until the Nueva Planta decrees for Aragon and Valencia promulgated in 1707.
Eventually, it came to function de facto as the government of the Aragonese territory within the set of institutions of the Crown of Aragon until its dissolution. Before this collegiate body, the kings of the Aragonese Crown and, later, of the Spanish Crown, swore loyalty to the privileges and observances of the kingdom until the advent of the Bourbons after the War of the Spanish Succession.
It had its headquarters in the Palace of the Diputacion, or "Casas del Reino", a civil Gothic building located next to the Puerta del Ángel ("Angel's gate"), at the mouth of the Puente de Piedra, between la Seo and the Lonja de Zaragoza, constituting the political, economic, judicial and religious nerve center of the city and the kingdom. In its noble hall there was a gallery with the paintings of all the kings of Aragon and it housed the Archive of the Kingdom, which was partially destroyed after a dreadful three-day fire during the Sieges of Zaragoza, along with a large part of the palace. Some of the saved documents are preserved in the Archive of the Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza.[1] Another part is still missing and in private hands as an auction in 2017 brought to light.[2]