The Royal House

The Kingdom of Aragon was one of the small Christian kingdoms which arose in the Iberian Peninsula during the lengthy campaign for the expulsion of the Moors who had held sway over the Peninsula and its inhabitants for about seven hundred years.

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The Counts and then Kings of Aragon descended from the Kings of Navarre. By dint of conquest and marriage at its height the lands of the House of Aragon included what today we would describe as Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Roussillon, Perpignan, Provence, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Malta, Athens and Neopatras.

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These lands were later subsumed into what is today called Spain after the expiry of the senior lines of descent of the Royal House but a junior line, the House of Ayerbe, was already established in Sicily where its members flourished, came to hold vast lands, accumulated myriad titles and acquired virtual hegemony over the government of the city of Catania. The House of Ayerbe continues today as part of the most noble Family of Paternó Castello.

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