I

The Dynasty

Of Pedro

III

And

Jaime II

By Maria Encinas

Roger Ibars

II

Chapter I: Pedro III

One day in 1285 Pedro III was in his

bed, where there was a beautiful painting;

he was very ill and with a fever. For a

moment, he closed his eyes, remembering

the 13 of June of 1262, the day he was

married in the cathedral of Montpellier with

Constance of Hohenstaufen, daughter and

heiress of Manfred I of Sicily.

Pedro III was a tall and elegant man, with long hair and a long

beard. His eyes were browns and with a powerful looked. He was

kind and generous; he always looked after his family and friends.

This situation between the dynasty Hohenstaufen and the Crown of

Aragón, being Constanza the heiress of Manfred, caused the

antipathy of Clement IV who request help from Charles I of

Anjou, brother of his allied Louis IX of France. So the troops of

Charles of Anjou went into the island and the first thing he did was

raise the prices. Sicilians rebelled against the Anjou family in the

Sicilian Vespers. To confront the Angevins, the Sicilians gave

the Kingdom to Pedro III.

He also started remember his sons and daughters: Alfonso III,

Jaime II, Isabel de Aragón, Federico II, Violante and Pedro

de Aragón.

III

Arnau de Vilanova, his doctor was beside him measuring his

temperature and looking after him.

Arnau was an adult man with an elegant beard and short and

brown hair.

His eyes were darks and his nose small and turned-up. He was the

doctor who looks after the king. When the doctor was a novice,

King Pedro

Doctor Arnau didn’t know how to cure some illness but he gave

some medicines to the king.

Elvira, the housekeeper, was a woman who often wears a long and

gray dress, sometimes dirty.

She always wore a bun and a smile which glad everyone around

her. Her eyes were big and green and her mouth was big and

happy.

The king always had very regard to her because she always looked

after Pedro III and his family.

Elvira gave a soup to the king Pedro who was in his bed.

el rey no respondía demasiado bien. El doctor Arnau de Vilanova

estudiaba la manera en que el cuerpo de Pedro el Grande

respondía, y así intentaba hacerle mejorar. Por desgracia el doctor

no pudo hacer nada y el rey falleció el 11 de noviembre de 1285 en

la festividad de san Martín.

Days later the king was better. At the end of October of 1285, the

king travelled to Barcelona, but he had to stay in San Climent.

IV

Doctor Arnau was always beside him all the trip and he gave him

medicines and cures.

The king didn’t was so good. Doctor Arnau studied how the body

of Pedro responds, and trying to treat him. Unfortunately the

doctor couldn’t do anything and the king died on the 11 November

of 1285 on the feast of St. Martin.

His son, Jaime II, a young and strong man, with

green eyes and a look similar of the look of his

father, was the next king of the Crown of Aragón

and Sicily.

After his coronation, the King ordered an alchemist

who transformed a crown made of a metal, into a

beautiful golden crown.

The alchemist done a wonderful crown, but one day, a wise showed

him that the crown didn’t was of gold:

-Took me this bastard! - shouted the king.

Immediately, majesty- said one of his subjects.

When the alchemist arrived, the king was very angry and he

humiliated him in public.

V

Chapter II: Conquest Of The Kingdom Of Murcia

In 1296 Jaime II started a

feud with Castilla to conquer

the Kingdom of Murcia.

Alicante was the first city to

fall in April despite the

resistance of the mayor at the castle of Santa Barbara, and after

her Elche, Orihuela, Guardamar of Segura and Murcia. The

conquest was facilitated by the Catalan population that lived in the

kingdom, but it had the opposition of Castilian garrisons of the

castles and the Bishop of Cartagena.

In 1298 he won Alhama of Murcia and Cartagena and the 21

December of 1300 the war ended with the conquest of Lorca.

King James II thought articulate the kingdom of Murcia as one

of the territories of the Crown of Aragon to grant Jurisdictions,

however, after the age of majority of Fernando IV the political

crisis in Castilla ended , so both crowns preferred came to an

agreement, Castilla and Aragon needed peace, and then they signed

the Treaty of Torrellas in 1304 and the amendment expressed in

the Treaty of Elche 1305 , which returned the kingdom to the

Spanish jurisdiction and definitely changed the borders between

VI

Castilla and Aragon established in the Treaty of Almizra ,

incorporating the Crown of Aragon , the Kingdom of Valencia, the

regions of Valle del Vinalopó , Campo of Alicante and the Vega

Baja of Segura.

Chapter III: 25 Years After The Death Of King

On 1 September of 1300,

through the foundational privilege

granted by King Jaime II at the

request of municipal structures

was created the University of

Lleida. Previously, at the request of the king, Pope Boniface

VIII had granted the 1 April of 1297, the papal bull approving the

creation of a General Survey on the lands of the King of Aragon

and Catalonia.

25 years after of the death of Pedro III, Jaime II went to visit

the University accompanied by Arnau de Vilanova. Jaime was

interested because the University of Lleida was the first to perform

autopsies to investigate.

VII

The king let Arnau de Vilanova went to see the University and to

learn more and be more professional.

After the visit, back to the castle, Don Arnau had asked nurses

bring two recent graduates of the University to assist him in the

hospital where he worked for the king and the people.

In the castle it was Elvira, the housekeeper, a woman who had

cared for Jaime when he was a child.

The castle was sad, Doctor Arnau de Vilanova was disappointed

for the death of Pedro and to couldn’t do anything to save him, then

he continued analyzing the results and the course of the illness of

the king. The doctor suggested exhuming the tomb of King Pedro

III to take samples, so he proposed it to the king.

-Are you crazy? How dare you ask me such a thing about the grave

of my father? - Said angry King Jaime II.

-I'm sorry but I had to tell you, but do not think to investigate the

causes of the death of his father could save thousands of lives?

VIII

Chapter IV: A Great Exhumation

After talking, King Jaime II decided to accept the proposal of Dr.

Arnau . So, the doctor with a couple of subjects of the king

exhumed the grave.

Between tears and for a few days, Don Arnau investigated the

remains of the ancient king's body.

Day and night spent studying every detail, until the discovery that

one of the travel of the king before his death, hunting he caught the

virus that had a wild boar and that it found in some animals.

The doctor told the discovery to the king and he made to make this

discovery to all the doctors in the crown knew it.

Thousands of doctors, novices and experts investigated this virus

for many years.

King James II , proud of the work had done the doctor, let it work

outside the castle teaching other doctors discovery so we can

investigate best long as it was available at the castle if there was

any urgency.

IX

Arnau de Vilanova not only progressed

in his profession, but also was better

person and he helped many people.

Meanwhile, in the castle Elvira received

more maids who would help with

cleaning and organization with the maids

who were already living in it.

Months later, Don Arnau received a statement where the king

asked him to return to the castle urgently. Arnau de Vilanova took

the first ship sailed des London that was where he was, to San

Sebastian in the Basque country.

When he arrived to the castle he found Elvira in her bed next to her

doctors, Arnau de Vilanova asked for information doctors

proceeded to give him some information. The first said:

- Good Arnau de Vilanova, we performed a series of tests to Dona

Elvira- said the first doctor.

- Doña Elvira had a severe fever, intestinal pain, dizziness and

respiratory difficulty- said the second doctor.

- Have you managed to stabilize it - ask Arnau de Vilanova.

X

At that time doctors noticed that Dona Elvira was not breathing

and Arnau de Vilanova concluded that came into cardiac arrest,

Arnau de Vilanova gave improved a drug that had created a while

ago thanks to his research and that which could be solved dose some

people heart problems .

When they got stabilize entered into the room Jaime II.

- Elvira, how are you?

- Your Majesty, I must thank all these years with you and your

father have been fantastic, I have given the family he had never had.

- Do not fire you, Elvira, is going to recover, it will be much

longer at my side.

- My road ends here sir; you must remain firm on his throne until

the end, as it has been doing so far.

And with those words, Elvira closed his eyes and left the castle

forever.

Jaime never again was the same, like Dr. Arnau , but they lived in

the castle fighting together until the end.