House of Barcelona
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The House of Barcelona was a medieval dynasty which ruled over various territories in the Western Mediterranean. It should not be confused with its senior branch, the Counts of Barcelona, who came to be kings of Aragon and Valencia as well, normally using the title of kings of Aragon as their main style because of its precedence to the title of mere counts of Barcelona. Other branches of the family ruled as Counts of Provence, Kings of Majorca, Kings of Sicily and so on. The House of Barcelona ceased to reign in 1410 with the death of Martin the Humanist, although some cadet branches of the House (such as Count of Urgel and Duke of Gandia) survived yet for some decades. The Aragonese crown passed to the House of Trastámara through the act known as Compromise of Caspe.
NOTE: While Kings of Naples from 1442 to 1500 are usually referred to as Aragonese and they were indeed Kings of Aragon or related to them, they did not belong to the House of Barcelona, but rather to the Trastámara dynasty that had replaced the House of Barcelona in Aragon after 1410.