Following the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282-1302) between the House of Anjou and House of Barcelona for control of the Kingdom of Sicily, a group of Catalan and Sicilian mercenaries known as the Grand Catalan Company (Gran Companyia Catalana) left Messina to meet the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople. Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282-1328) required their presence to subdue the growing Ottoman presence in Anatolia and secure the remains of his waning empire. Their arrival in early 1303 marked a period of Catalan involvement in Byzantine Greece and Anatolia that led to the Crown of Aragon governing Athens and Neopatras until the Navarrese and Florentines took control of the duchies in the late fourteenth century. Why, then, were the Catalans and other Latins in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries?

The answer to that question begins in the joint Kingdom of Aragon and Principality of Catalonia during the reign of Jaume I “el Conqueridor” (r. 1213-1276) in the thirteenth century. As “el Conqueridor,” Jaume expanded his authority into Languedoc in modern Southern France and the Balearic Islands of Minorca, Majorca, and Ibiza. In the Balearics particularly, Jaume’s “crusade,” or Reconquista, deposed the reigning Almohad Caliphate and established a new Christian cadet monarchy in the Majorcan city of Palma. The new monarchy divided its governance between Palma and the land capital of Perpignan until Pere IV (r. 1336-1387) formally brought the Balearics under the direct authority of the Aragonese monarch and ended Majorca’s semi-autonomous royal status in 1344. Beyond Iberia, Aragon’s interest in expansion continued under Jaume’s direct successor, Pere III (r. 1276-1285) since he initiated the War of the Sicilian Vespers against the Capetian House of Anjou for the Kingdom of Sicily in 1282. Against this century-long backdrop of conquest and expansion, the Grand Catalan Company formed in 1302 out of a collection of Catalan and Sicilian almogàvers soldiers from the Vespers. Their involvement in Byzantine affairs and in ruling the cities of Athens and Neopatras are a piece of Aragon’s long history of expansion in the fourteenth and fifteenth century Mediterranean.

Figure 1. The Catalan Principality in the Crown of Aragon: Wit, Frederik de.  "Accuratissima principatus Cataloniae, et comitatuum Ruscinonis, et Cerretaniae descriptio."  Map.  1680.  Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:cj82kt23s (accessed May 02, 2021).

In addition to Aragon’s expansionist mentality, Byzantine Greece had become a battleground for Latin polities to extend their rule into the Eastern Mediterranean following the Fourth Crusade in 1204. These Latins, particularly those from Catalonia, Florence, Venice, Anjou, France, and Navarre aimed to claim parts of the fracturing Byzantine Empire and extend Latin authority into the Orthodox and Muslim lands in Greece and Anatolia. The Grand Catalan Company’s journey to Constantinople reflected a desire by the Crown of Aragon to similarly extend their authority into the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean, while also curtailing the expansion of other rival Latin polities.  

Figure 2. Randolph, Bernard, b. 1643, and Palmer, Richard, engraver.  "Greece with part of Anatolia."  Map.  1665.  Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:cj82kq34p (accessed May 02, 2021).

From 1303 to 1305, the Catalans fought a series of battles against the Ottoman Turks in Anatolia on behalf of the Byzantine royal family. This series of military campaigns led to the Emperor naming the Company’s leader, Roger de Flor (1267-1305), as “Caesar of the Empire” in 1304, which brought de Flor and the Company a high ranking social and political position at the Byzantine court. This moment of glory, however, would not last long since by 1305, the agreement between the Byzantine royal family and the Catalan Company turned sour. So sour that de Flor faced accusations of greed as rumours swirled that the Catalans intended to establish their own principality in Greece independent from Byzantine control. These accusations and growing hostilities between the Company and other Westerners in the Aegean, particularly the Genoese, led to the ordered assassination of de Flor in April 1305 at the order of co-Emperor, Michael IX Palaiologos.

Following de Flor’s death, the Company turned on their former hosts and were successful in several pitched battles against the Byzantines. After several more years of battles, sieges, and disputes with the Byzantine royal family, the Company took control of the Duchy of Athens and the Duchy of Neopatras in 1311. The Company pledged its obedience to the Aragonese monarch in Sicily, Frederick III (r. 1296-1337). Under the rulership of Frederick and his sons, Manfred of Sicily (r. 1312-1317) and William II of Athens (r. 1317-1338), the Crown of Aragon governed Athens and Neopatras through a series of lieutenant governors until it was taken by the Navarrese and Florentines in the 1390s. Despite the brevity of Aragonese rule in the region, the Catalan Company and its “expedition to the East,” as Robert D. Hughes calls it, reflects a broader history of Aragonese expansion and rule in the medieval Mediterranean and with cultures, religions, and languages across the Sea from the time of Jaume of Aragon to that of the House of Trastámara in the fifteenth century.

Title Image: Lodge, John, d. 1796, and Bew, John, d. 1793.  "A chart of the Mediterranean Sea, with part of the Atlantic Ocean and Adriatic Sea, with the islands of Minorca, Majorca, Ivica, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily and the surrounding shores of Spain, Portugal, France, Italy & Africa."  Map.  1781.  Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:xg94j167q (accessed May 02, 2021).

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Jessica L. Minieri is a PhD student at Binghamton University (SUNY) in Binghamton, New York. Her research focuses on gender, queenship, and political culture in the medieval Mediterranean world. Her current focuses on the queenship of Blanca of Navarre (1387-1441) in the Kingdom of Sicily in the early fifteenth century. She tweets @jessica_minieri.