MARTIN I, king of ARAGON and SICILY. — Last Aragonese king of the Catalan dynasty, called the Humane, born at Gerona in 1356 to King Peter IV and Eleanor of Sicily, succeeded his brother John I in 1395. He had first to contend against his widowed sister-in-law and her adherents, then had to defend his crown by arms against the claims of the Count of Foix, whose army was routed, and finally to send military legions and a strong fleet against the rebels, whom he reduced to obedience both to himself and to his son Martin of Sicily.
In religious matters he was exemplary, but he always upheld the legitimacy of the pope of Avignon against that of Rome during the Western Schism: it should be recalled that Benedict XIII was Aragonese and brother-in-law of M. I. When the said Pontiff was besieged in Avignon in 1398 by the French army, the Aragonese came to his aid with some ships that arrived via the Rhône; encouraging his brother-in-law and scorning the excommunication of Boniface IX, he took Sicily and Sardinia, the torch of the Church, and did not abandon Benedict’s cause even when the other sovereigns withdrew their obedience in 1408. Indeed, the refugee pope found a secure asylum at Perpignan, then an Aragonese city, where he was able to hold a council in opposition to that of Pisa. King M. died at Barcelona in 1410, leaving the nation in dire crisis for want of a clear heir.
Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti