Siege of Albarracín ( 1284 ) The Siege of Albarracín was a battle fought during the reign of Peter III of Aragon , King of Aragón from the months of April to September of 1284 . Albarracín , which had for some time belonged to Juan Núñez I de Lara , the head of the House of Lara , was besieged by an Aragonese force . The siege resulted in the successful taking of the city by Aragonese forces after which , Peter III handed gifted the city to his illegitimate son , Ferdinand of Aragón . Context . Albarracín was a Señorío of Muslim origin that formed part of the Muslim Kingdom of Valencia . The Señorío was formed when a Navarese noble from the House of Azagra militarily helped the Valencian kingdom . The Señorío de Albarracín was granted to this noble who repopulated the city with people from Navarre . After the conquest of Valencia by James I of Aragon , the territory was left in a legal vacuum . The local nobility , taking advantage of the questionable legal status , declared their independence ( de facto ) from both Valencia and Aragon . After the death of the infante Ferdinand de la Cerda , the eldest son of Alfonso X of Castile , the forces of the infante Sancho and those of Alfonso de la Cerda , the began a period of war for succession to the throne of the Kingdom of Castile . The contemporary lord or Señor de Albarracín was Juan I Núñez de Lara . In 1284 , he was supporting the claim of the Infantes de la Cerda ( although his allegiance would shift various times ) and along with them , he had forged an alliance with the Kingdom of Navarre and the Kingdom of France , the alliance stipulated in the Treaty of Ágreda of 1281 . In an effort to strike at Juan I Núñez de Lara , Sancho IV made a deal with the Kingdom of Aragon which ceded sovereignty over the Señorío de Albarracín , which had up until then been a part of the Kingdom of Castile , to Peter III of Aragon upon its capture by either Castilian or Aragonese forces . Prior to his support of the de la Cerda claims to the throne , Juan I Núñez of Lara was a subject of the Castilian crown . Shortly after the , Juan Núñez I ambushed Peter III of Aragon with the goal of taking him prisoner back to France to be presented to Philip III of France . In June of 1283 , Peter III was in the area of Tarazona conducting attack on Navarre and Aragón in which he conquered and sacked various towns , the Castillo de Ull amongst them . The Battle . In winter of 1283 , whilst Juan Núñez I de Lara was in Treviño raising Navarese reinforcements to defend his city from the Aragonese who had by then declared war against him , he was besieged by Peter III of Aragon at Albarracín with only around 200 knights . From April until September of 1284 , the besieging forces built their camp in the streets of the town of Albarracín ( literally on " Calle de los Palacios " ) for their soldiers to remain under cover and in comfort with stores and housing for the winter . On 29 September 1284 , after many months of siege , the city surrendered and was occupied by troops of the Crown of Aragon . The Aragonese king , upon capturing the city , gave it as a gift to his illegitimate child with Inés Zapata , Ferdinand of Aragon . Consequences . Although Juan Núñez II de Lara , son of the defeated Juan Núñez I attempted various times to retake his ancestral property of Albarracín back from the Aragonese , the city eventually passed to the Aragonese Crown .