of Hungary. Yolande's eldest son, Pedro, was married to
Constance, daughter of King Manfred of Sicily, for purely political
reasons; and when the King of France opposed this alliance as one
detrimental to the best interests of the pope, who was being much aided
at this time by Gallican support, Jayme cleverly silenced this complaint
by marrying his daughter Isabel to Philip, the French dauphin. This
daring King of Aragon had dreams of a great Romance Empire which might
extend all over the southern part of Europe, with Aragon as its centre,
and it was to this end that he bent all his energies. While he was not
able to realize this fond hope, he was remarkably successful; and not a
little of his success must be attributed to his lack of sentiment and
his practical view of the matrimonial question.

With his conquests and the corresponding prosperity which is to be seen
in Castile at the same general period, Christian Spain slowly became the
most civilized and enlightened country in all Europe. Spain was rich,
there was much culture and refinement, and her artistic manufactures
excited the wonder of the world. With the knights who were coming in
ever increasing numbers to do battle against the Moors, now that the
time of the Crusades had passed, there came a goodly number of the
troubadours and minstrels who had recently been driven from Provence by
the cruel Simon de Montfort at the time of the Albigensian massacres,
and the whole condition of Spanish society was such that the stern
simplicity of the early Spaniards quickly disappeared. So great was the
craze for poetry and for glittering entertainments and a lavish display
of wealth, that Don Jayme felt called upon to take some restraining
measures. Aragon, as well as Castile, was filled with the wealth of
captured Moorish cities, there was a new sense of national security with
each successive Christian victory, luxuries of all kinds were being
brought within the reach of the people as the result of a newly aroused
spirit of commercialism, and, all in all, to a warlike king, the
situation was fraught with danger. Accordingly, Jayme determined to take
matters into his own hands, and he proceeded to issue a number of
sumptuary laws which were far from mild. Food was regulated, minstrels
were not allowed to sit at the same table with ladies and gentlemen,
most rigid rules were formulated against the abuse of gold, silver, and
tinsel trimmings on the dresses of the women, an