James I and his Era. Brief Analysis of a Major Political and Cultural Inheritance

James I, like his contemporaries Emperor Frederick IIand Fernando III of Castile, was a major figure of theMediterranean and Iberian Middle Ages. The scope of hisachievements fully justifies the scientifically rigorous andforward-looking analysis of his work and inheritance beingundertaken in 2008 by the peoples who were once partof the Catalan-Aragonese crown. For indeed, thoughsome of his enterprises reveal insufficient foresight, a lackof vision of the future, much of what we are today in thedemographic, economic, social, political and culturalspheres — and much of what we are not — was initially forged during his reign.