Women as Frontier‐Makers in the Llibre dels fets of James I of Aragon

Abstract

Much of the reign of James I of Aragon (1213–76) was devoted to the conquest and colonisation of Islamic Majorca and Valencia, as he elaborates in his Llibre dels fets, or Book of Deeds. This article offers a close reading of the role of women and feminine figures in the Llibre, arguing that James portrays them as frontier‐makers who signal and embody the Christianisation of previously Islamic territory. It also explores what the relationship between women and the frontier can tell us about the gendered construction of power in thirteenth‐century Aragon.