Ferdinand of Mallorca

Ferdinand of Mallorca ( Catalan : Ferran de Mallorca ; * 1278 in Perpignan ; † July 1316 in the Peloponnese ) was an infant of the Kingdom of Mallorca and a titular prince of Achaia from the House of Barcelona .

Ferdinand was a younger son of King James II of Mallorca and his wife Esclarmonde von Foix. He led the restless life of a mercenary and commanded the Catalan company in Greece on behalf of his cousin, King Frederick II of Sicily . There he fought with other mercenaries about the leadership of the company and was temporarily captured in Venice . After his release in 1310, he fought against the Moors in Spain.

In 1313 he moved back to Sicily , where he married Isabella of Sabran . Her mother was Marguerite de Villehardouin, who made a claim to the Principality of Achaia against her niece Mathilde von Hainaut and her husband Ludwig von Burgundy . Marguerite ceded this claim to her daughter and Ferdinand. Both the mother-in-law and the wife died in 1315, whereupon Ferdinand set out for Greece with a small army, captured Glarentza and proclaimed himself regent of Achaia in the name of his underage son. There he married Isabella d'Ibelin, a daughter of the Seneschal of Cyprus , Philip of Ibelin . In the spring of 1316, Mathilde von Hennegau and her husband Ludwig von Burgund returned to Greece with Venetian support and gathered an army. On July 5, 1316 Ferdinand lost the Battle of Manolada against his opponents and was subsequently beheaded.

His only son from his first marriage was the future King of Mallorca, Jacob III. (* April 5, 1315 in Catania ; † fallen on October 25, 1349 near Llucmajor ).

From the second marriage the son Fernando de Mallorca (born May 5, 1317, † 1343/47), who was born posthumously in Cyprus and married Princess Eschiva, a daughter of King Hugo IV of Cyprus .

source

• The Chronicle of Ramón Muntaner , translated into English by Lady Goodenough (PDF file; 1.33 MB)