Alfonso III of Aragon

Who was Alfonso III of Aragon?

Alfonso III, called the Liberal or the Free, was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1285. He conquered the Kingdom of Majorca between his succession and 1287.

He was a son of Peter III of Aragon and Constance of Sicily, daughter and heiress of Manfred of Sicily. His maternal grandmother Beatrice of Savoy was a daughter of Amadeus IV of Savoy and Marguerite of Burgundy, Countess of Savoy.

Soon after assuming the throne, he conducted a campaign to reincorporate the Balearic Islands into the Kingdom of Aragon - which had been lost due to the division of the kingdom by his grandfather, James I of Aragon. Thus in 1285 he declared war on his uncle, James II of Majorca, and conquered both Majorca and Ibiza, effectively reassuming suzerainty over the Kingdom of Majorca. He followed this with the conquest of Minorca - until then, an autonomous Muslim state within the Kingdom of Majorca - on 17 January 1287, the anniversary of which now serves as Minorca's national holiday.

He initially sought to maintain Aragonese control over Sicily early in his reign by supporting the claims to the island of his brother, James II of Aragon.