Aragonese Crusade
The Aragonese Crusade of 1284 and 1285 was a conflict between King Philip III. of France and King Peter III. of Aragon .
background
Pope Martin IV was close to the French crown. Before his pontificate he was Chancellor of King Ludwig IX. been. During the so-called Sicilian Vespers , Peter had conquered Sicily from the French vassal Charles of Anjou in 1282 . As a result, said Martin IV. About Peter the excommunication and his Crown of Aragon from (the Kingdom was among the vassals of the Holy See) and gave it to Charles of Valois on, the son of Philip III. He also stated that a war against Peter and the rebels in Sicily should be seen as a crusade against "infidels".
The Franco-Catalan conflict was supplemented by an internal family dispute in the Aragonese ruling house when James II , King of Mallorca and brother Peter III, allied with Philip. In fact, Jacob, who was also Count of Roussillon and was thus wedged between Philip and Peter, could only ally himself with Philip, as his brother never concealed his dissatisfaction that part of his inheritance had gone to Jacob.
course
The French army therefore marched into Roussillon in 1284 with the permission of the sovereign, but encountered local resistance there, for example at the town of Elne , which was commanded by a knight named Bastard von Roussillon , undoubtedly an illegitimate son of Nuno Sanchez von Roussillon , and which had to be conquered by force. Despite the presence of papal envoy, Philip III hesitated. not to set fire to the cathedral where the city's residents had fled.
In 1285 Philipp besieged Girona , which he conquered despite strong resistance from the inhabitants. Charles of Valois was now crowned king, for lack of a crown with a cardinal's hat , which earned him the nickname of a king of the hat . The situation turned on the one hand thanks to the skill of Roger de Llúrias , Peter III. Admiral, who was able to destroy the French fleet, on the other hand through the Ruhr , which got stuck in the French camp. Philip III, infected himself, had to dissolve the camp. His son and heir Philip IV traded with Peter III. the withdrawal over the Pyrenees . Philip III died in Perpignan and was buried in Narbonne . Peter III. only survived the crusade briefly.
consequences
With the death of Pope Martin in 1285, the excommunication against Peter and with it the call for a crusade became obsolete. The new Pope, Honorius IV , supported the peace negotiations between France and Aragon, mediated by the English crown.
Even if the war had few consequences for France, it had considerable consequences for Mallorca: the Balearic Islands were taken over by Peter's son and successor Alfons III. confiscated . It was not until 1295 that the Peace of Anagni put an end to the conflicts that this crusade had sparked.
Literature and web links
- Joseph R. Strayer: The Political Crusades of the Thirteenth Century . In: RL Wolff, HW Hazard (Ed.): A History of the Crusades. Volume II. The Later Crusades, 1189-1311. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1969, pp. 343-375.
