Knight of Cardona, 1325

The Crown of Aragon, the dynastic union between the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona, experienced a great economical and territorial expansion during the XIV century.

Such expansion transformed the original territories of the Eastern coast of Spain in a thalassocratic empire in the Mediterranean Sea, with possessions including the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, Naples and parts of Greece.

That situation signaled the rise of powerful families that combined many polyvalent attitudes. They were merchants, soldiers, men of the church, diplomats and seafaring adventurers, sometimes all in one. From the Catalonian Principality, the powerful family of Cardona would certainly leave its mark in history. First documents from the viscounts of Osona-Cardona already date from X century, but their rise to power came from the later management of their territories and the expansion on the Mediterranean, where they had possessions in every corner of the Aragonese main. They were the only noble family from the Crown of Aragon who were honored with the title of “Great of Spain”.

Our figure portrays a member of that noble family with typical warfare equipment of the first half of the XIV century and it is inspired on the tomb images of Ramon Folc IV of Cardona, Ramon Berenguer II and Alvar II d’Àger. It sports the coat of arms of the Cardona family but, of course, can be painted in many different ways in order to portray other contemporary subjects.