History: During the reign of King Joan (John) II of Trastámara, civil wars erupted in Navarre. Soon after it was pacified, a much greater revolt took place in Catalonia. The revolted people took the city of Girona, where the Queen and the Prince had been seeking refuge. They were both killed, and the king died without direct descendants during this war. With such a view, the Aragonese nobles revolted, seceding, and Catalonia appointed Jaume IV d’Urgell as the new king, which was refused by Valencian and Balearic peoples.
So Catalonia, in the end, became a particular entity. Keeping intact its traditions and institutions, it became the Principality of Catalonia in 1479, after 7 years of inter-territorial disputes, border skirmishes and peace talks, Jaume IV d’Urgell was crowned Prince of Catalonia. Soon, great works were made. The Parliament approved a series of expenses to be invested in the building of the new shipyards of the city of Barcelona, which was and would continue to be the main focus of economic activity in the country.
In 1486, after 7 years of works, the shipyards had been built. New fleets of merchant ships sailed the Mediterranean, setting commercial enclaves and restoring old one, all along the southern coast. The wars against Islam had been fought and won in the 13th Century, and there were no reasons for fighting anymore. The rich ports of Alexandria and Tripoli were the first Muslim cities to see the Catalan Sea Consulates. But not only that; Catalonia is a buffer zone between Aragon and France, and vice versa. A country to be crossed by merchants from Castille and Aragon and Valencia heading for France. So the Catalan network of Sea Consulates in the most important ports of the Mediterranean was extended inland in France, Aragon, Castille, and beyond.
In the year of our Lord of 1475, Jaume IV converted to Catharism. This created great discussion among the populace, who were about to rise in arms when the situation was most critical. But some Occitan predicators came, and Catalan poets who knew and were Cathars themselves spread the word of Catharism though their rants and raves and hymns and songs, and although the Generality was now reticent towards him, there were no more legitimate candidates to the throne. After his enthronization, Jaume declared Catharism the state religion, although he also gave the people freedom of religion. The vaults were nigh empty and the army was low on morale, and this measure avoided another uprising. Still, only 25% of the people are Cathars.
Jaume IV started his reign with this proclaim, and he ordered new levies raised and new expenses. But the pactist Catalan system objected. The army was left as a symbolic institution, although several units were trained among the people who would remain idle until an exterior threat made the need of an army imperative. Taxes were lowered and, in fact, the Catholic church was deprived of its rights on the peasants crops and of most of the terrains, which passed to jurisdiction of the local magistrate, who was to administrate them properly according to the wishes of the people and of His Majesty the Prince. New lands covered in woods were converted into farming fields, and the wood went to Barcelona, to become ships and galleys.
Thus, the Principality of Catalonia arrives to the new century with a growing economy and thriving society. The Royal Chancellery, tasked with writing administrative papers, has created the standard norms of Catalan, and a new brand of ships has been built in the shipyards in the past few years that mat lead the country beyond any borders encountered before, following the Portuguese.