James I of Aragon captures Valencia

1238

After a two-year siege, the Aragonese king entered the walled port and celebrated mass in its chief mosque. Valencia would become a Christian kingdom in union with Aragon, its irrigation canals inherited and its Moorish peasantry left to work them under new overlords. The Tribunal de las Aguas, a water court James inherited from the Muslims, still meets every Thursday outside Valencia's cathedral.