The Crown of Aragon united three realms under one king but one capital.

Evidence

The expression “Crown of Aragon” (Corona de Arag´on) may give rise to justifiable confusion. In Spanish historical usage, it refers not just to Aragon proper but to all three contiguous political entities to the east of the Iberian Peninsula that were in the Middle Ages linked under a common monarch. Two of them, Aragon and Valencia, had the status of independent kingdoms, and the third, Catalonia, was a principality. The ruler of all these territories at the opening of the sixteenth century, Ferdinand, is usually thought of simply as the king of Aragon, but he was equally king of Valencia. Equally puzzling to the outsider is the fact that although Saragossa was the capital of Aragon proper, the administration and the royal chancery for this whole eastern political entity were normally centered on Barcelona in the principality of Catalonia. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 402

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what the historical term Crown of Aragon actually covers versus modern confusion.