CHAPTER 18(a) THE CROWN OF ARAGON Alan Forey IN the fourteenth century the Crown of Aragon’s external policy focused mainly on islands in the western Mediterranean and on the Iberian peninsula itself, and it was in these areas that most of its military activity was centred. At the beginning of his reign James II (1291–1327) ruled not only the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia and the county of Barcelona, which made up the lands of the Crown of Aragon in the Iberian peninsula, but also the Balearics and Sicily. Mallorca had been conquered from the Muslims in 1229 by James’s grandfather, James I (1213–76), although the latter had used it, together with Roussillon, Cerdagne and Montpellier, to constitute a kingdom for his second son. Pedro III of Aragon (1276–85) had, however, asserted overlordship over the Mallorcan kingdom in 1279,and in 1285 his eldest son Alfonso, shortly to become Alfonso III (1285–91), had taken Mallorca by force from his uncle, though not the mainland parts of the Mallorcan kingdom; Alfonso later also asserted direct rule over Minorca, which until then had been a dependent Muslim state. Sicily had been brought under Aragonese rule in 1282,when Pedro III had occupied the island following the rebellion of the Sicilian Vespers against Charles of Anjou. This action led to ecclesiastical censure by the French pope Martin IV and the award of the kingdom of Aragon to Charles of Valois, the younger son of Philip III of France; and this in turn occasioned an unsuccessful French invasion of Aragon in 1285. Despite these international pressures, however, coupled with opposition inside Aragon, Sicily passed on Pedro’s death in 1285 to his second son, the future James II of Aragon; but the latter lost the support of his brother Alfonso III, who shortly before his death tried to make peace with the Church and France. James, as Alfonso’s successor, sought to rule Sicily as well as the other Aragonese lands, appointing his younger brother Frederick as his representa- tive on the island. But James was subject to many of the same pressures as his predecessors and in an agreement made at Anagni in 1295, following pro- tracted negotiations, he abandoned his claims to Sicily, and also undertook to 595 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 596 ALAN FOREY restore the lands taken from his uncle James of Mallorca; it was agreed that the Aragonese king should marry Blanche, daughter of the Angevin Charles II of Naples; and in compensation for Sicily, Pope Boniface VIII promised James II the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, although the Aragonese king did not receive investiture of these until 1297. The question of the Balearics was settled in 1298 when they were transferred to the king of Mallorca, although James II reasserted the overlordship which had been imposed by Pedro III. In the meantime the return of Sicily to the Angevins, as envisaged at Anagni, was prevented by the setting-up of James’s brother Frederick as king of Sicily. It became necessary to remove him, and the pope expected James II to assist in this task. The Aragonese king did in fact launch expeditions against his brother in 1298 and 1299, but Frederick remained in power and it was not until the treaty of Caltabellotta in 1302 that a settlement was reached, whereby Frederick was to retain Sicily for life, though abandoning claims in Calabria; after his death the island was to revert to the Angevins. In fact Sicily continued to be ruled after Frederick’s death by his descendants. Although James had been awarded Sardinia and Corsica it was not until towards the end of his reign that an expedition was launched to secure the former island, where authority rested mainly in the hands of Pisa, although the Genoese and local families, especially the Judges of Arborea, also had rights there. In the meantime the Aragonese king became involved on other fronts. Although at the beginning of his reign, when he needed support, James had made an alliance with Sancho IV of Castile, relations soon became strained, and James took the opportunity provided by uncertainties concerning the Castilian succession following Sancho’s death in 1295 to advance the claims of Alfonso X’s grandson Alfonso de la Cerda, in return for the cession of Murcia. In 1296 James occupied much of that district. Yet altered circumstances in Castile and Granada led James to accept a compromise in 1304 which allowed him to retain merely Guardamar, Alicante and certain other lands to the north of the Segura. Changing relations with Castile paved the way for joint action against Granada: it was agreed that the Aragonese king should receive a sixth of the Muslim kingdom. In 1309 James attacked Almería, while Fernando IV of Castile turned against Algeciras. Although Gibraltar fell to the Castilians, nothing was achieved from the siege of Almería, which lasted from August 1309 until January 1310.Further proposals by James II to attack Granada came to nothing, while during the minority of the Castilian king Alfonso XI, who succeeded in 1312, James sought to exercise influence in the neighbouring Christian kingdom merely by diplomacy and family connections: his son John was even made archbishop of Toledo in 1319. It was also by diplomacy that James in 1313 secured recognition of his rights to the Valle de Arán in the Pyrenees, which was of strategic importance and which had been occupied by Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 The Crown of Aragon 597 the French in the 1280s, though in 1298 it had passed under the control of Mallorca. For much of the opening two decades of the century the Aragonese king was also conducting negotiations about Sardinia, especially with the papacy, the Tuscan Guelfs who were opposed to Pisa and some families based in the island: at one stage Pisa itself even offered to submit to Aragonese lordship. But the island was gained by an expedition led by the infante Alfonso in 1323. Initial conquest took a little over a year, but James II was soon faced by rebel- lions on the island, occasioned in part by the conduct of the officials imposed by the Aragonese crown; and the Genoese sided with the Pisans. These devel- opments – together with papal intervention – hindered any determined attempt on the part of James II to reclaim Mallorca on the death of its king Sancho, who died without a direct heir in 1324.The throne passed to the late king’s nephew, who became James III. In the first part of his short reign, James II’s son Alfonso IV (1327–36), whose health was not strong and who at times displayed indecisiveness, was mainly concerned with Granada. An alliance between the latter and the Marinid ruler of Morocco prompted a pact between the Aragonese king and Alfonso XI of Castile in 1329.But in 1331, when Alfonso IV was still seeking aid from the pope and before he had personally entered the conflict, the Castilian king made peace with Granada. In that and the following year Aragonese lands were in fact subject to raids from Granada. There were also problems in Sardinia, where there was a rebellion in 1329 which had the support of Genoa, and this led to conflict with Genoa in the western Mediterranean. In 1339,when Morocco was planning an invasion ofthe peninsula,Alfonso’s son Pedro IV (1336–87), of whom it has been said that ‘the Battler’ would be a more appropriate epithet than the generally accepted ‘the Ceremonious’,1 entered into an alliance with Alfonso XI and provided ships against the Marinids; and shipping was similarly provided for the Castilian attack on Algeciras, which fell to the Christians in 1344.But in Pedro’s early years there was the further preoccupation of Mallorca. His intention was to bring the island kingdom under his direct control. James III of Mallorca had done homage to the new Aragonese king only belatedly, and had also made a treaty with the Marinids in 1339.James was summoned to Barcelona to answer a manufactured charge of unlawfully minting money in Roussillon, and when he failed to appear sentence of confiscation was pronounced. James was unable to call on French help, and Mallorca, where he was unpopular, quickly came under Aragonese control in 1343.Although stronger resistance was provided on the mainland, 1 Pere III, Chron.,p.95. Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 598 ALAN FOREY the Mallorcan king surrendered in July 1344.But he was soon seeking to re- establish himself, and was killed in Mallorca in 1349 when trying to reassert his claims. The whole of the Mallorcan kingdom, except Montpellier, was reincor- porated into the Aragonese realms. But Sardinia and the Genoese were still causing problems for Pedro. There was a rebellion on the island in 1347,and the situation was made more difficult by the alienation of Mariano IV of Arborea, who came out in open opposition in 1353.The Judges ofArborea had found that they did not enjoy the independence which they had expected under Aragonese rule. To counter the Genoese threat, Pedro allied with the Venetians in 1351,and in the following year an inconclusive victory was gained over the Genoese fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, while in 1353 the Genoese were more decisively defeated off Sardinia. But opposition on the island was still maintained, and although Pedro himself led an expedition in 1354,this did not bring the ‘good order’ claimed in his Chronicle.2 In the mid 1350s Pedro had to turn his attention, however, to his western borders.