ABSTRACT
The Crown of Aragon was established in the twelfth century through a dynastic union between the queen of Aragon and the count of Barcelona, the highest-ranking noble in the earldoms that would form the Principality of Catalonia in the fourteenth century. This chapter focuses on the voting systems of the parliaments of the main territories that composed the nucleus of the Crown of Aragon, called the 'cismarinis lands' due to their location in the Iberian Peninsula – that is, the Kingdom of Aragon, the Principality of Catalonia, and the Kingdom of Valencia. The chapter analyses the voting procedures of the courts of Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia between the fourteenth and the seventeenth centuries – a long period during which the polity of the Crown of Aragon changed remarkably, but parliamentary institutions maintained their power. It provides more general debate on the evolution of medieval and modern parliaments and their role as a decision-making body.
