[Transcriber's Note:
Bold text delimited with equal signs and italics with underscores.]
THE STORY OF MAJORCA AND MINORCA
THE STORY OF
MAJORCA AND MINORCA
BY
SIR CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, K.C.B.
AUTHOR OF
‘RICHARD III: LIFE AND CHARACTER’ ‘THE LIFE OF THE GREAT LORD FAIRFAX’
‘EDWARD VI: AN APPRECIATION’ ETC.
_WITH TWO MAPS_
LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1908
[All rights reserved]
PREFACE
The story of the Islands of Majorca and Minorca has never been told
in our language in a condensed form, although the interest is great
from an historical point of view, and the materials sufficient, though
not perhaps abundant. It is so closely connected with the history of
Aragon and the recovery of the Sicilies from the intruding Angevins
that the two cannot be altogether separated. The most that can be done
is, as far as practicable, to treat the Aragonese and Sicilian events
from a Majorcan point of view. This has been attempted. The stirring
events of the conquest of Majorca by Jayme I., the latter part of the
reign of his son, and the reigns of Sancho and Jayme III., as well
as the adventures and death of Jayme IV., the last of his race, all
belong strictly to Majorcan history, as do the chapters on Balearic
navigators and the revolt of the ‘Comunidades.’ The story fills a gap
in the history of Mediterranean countries which may not be altogether
unacceptable to students. This has been one object of the writer.
Another object has been to supply more detailed information respecting
the events of former times in the islands, for the use of the
considerable number of visitors who resort to them. The interest of the
scenery and of many localities cannot fail to be much increased by a
detailed knowledge of the historical associations connected with them.
My principal authorities have been the autobiography of Jayme I., the
Chronicle of Muntaner, Desclot, Zurita, and the histories of Dameto
and Mut, edited by Bover. My thanks are due for much courtesy and
assistance from the Count of Montenegro, H.M. Consul Don Bartolomè
Bosch y Cerda, and Señor Albareda of the Grand Hotel at Palma, and
to Mr. Gilbert Ogilvy for having kindly made sketches for me of the
memorial chair at Alfavia.
The story of Minorca necessarily embraces an account of the several
British occupations, and of some of the operations of the British fleet
with Minorca as a base.
September 1908.
CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE v
PART I
_MAJORCA_
CHAPTER I
Of King Jayme I. of Aragon, and how he resolved to conquer
Majorca and drive out the Moors 1
CHAPTER II
Tells how King Jayme won a victory over the Moors of
Majorca, and gives some account of the Moorish capital 16
CHAPTER III
Tells how En Jayme besieged and took the capital, conquered
the whole island, and became the first Christian King of
Majorca 25
CHAPTER IV
King Jayme’s last visits. Settlement of the island--Acts
and death of Jayme I. 39
CHAPTER V
Tells how the King of Aragon took up Conradin’s glove,
how the Pope’s curses went home to roost, and how En
Pedro kept his tryst 54
CHAPTER VI
Tells how the Queen of Aragon went to Sicily with her sons,
how Admiral Lauria won new victories, and how more of
the Pope’s curses went home to roost 76
CHAPTER VII
Tells how young Federigo held Sicily against all odds, how
the Catalan Company went to the east, and how Jayme II.
of Majorca was restored to his island home 96
CHAPTER VIII
Tells how King Jayme II. at last reigned in peace, and how
his page, Raymondo Lulio, attained the crown of martyrdom 107
CHAPTER IX
The career of Prince Fernando of Majorca, and tells how the
orphan was taken home to its grandmother 120
CHAPTER X
King Sancho of Majorca 136
CHAPTER XI
King Jayme III. of Majorca 141
CHAPTER XII
Relates the adventures of Jayme and Isabel, describes the
memorial chair, and records the end of the Majorcan
dynasty 151
CHAPTER XIII
Relates the story, so far as it concerns Majorca, of the last
Kings of Aragon 160
CHAPTER XIV
The Majorcans as navigators 170
CHAPTER XV
The ‘Comunidades’ 180
CHAPTER XVI
The Majorcan historians--War of Succession--Families
ennobled--Cotoners, Raxa, and Cardinal Despuig--Country
houses 190
CHAPTER XVII
The Marquis of Romana and the patriot Jovellanos 201
CHAPTER XVIII
Conclusion 213
PART II
_MINORCA_
CHAPTER I
Minorca--Its prehistoric remains--Mago the Carthaginian 219
CHAPTER II
Conquest by Alfonso III.--Barbary pirates 230
CHAPTER III
British occupation 242
CHAPTER IV
Minorca as a base 253
CHAPTER V
Minorca under British rule 263
CHAPTER VI
Minorca twice lost 272
CHAPTER VII
Third occupation--Loss of British rule 282
INDEX 291
MAPS
MAJORCA _to face p._ 218
MINORCA ” 290
THE STORY OF MAJORCA AND MINORCA
PART I
_MAJORCA_
CHAPTER I
Of King Jayme I. of Aragon and how he resolved to conquer Majorca and
drive out the Moors
Majorca has a very interesting history under its Aragonese princes, and
a history which has been well told by those princes themselves and by a
loyal vassal who was a diligent seeker after truth. But to understand
it we must turn first to the gorges of the Pyrenees and the ports of
Catalonia.
By the middle of the eighth century the Moors had overcome Spain up
to the Pyrenees, and established their rule and their religion in all
parts of the country. But there they had to stop. They could not subdue
the mountaineers of Asturias and the Basque provinces. Strong in their
almost inaccessible valleys in the southern slopes of the Pyrenees,
the ancestors of the nobles of Aragon also held their Moslem enemies at
bay. Wild as those valleys were, they were beautiful and productive.
Evergreen oaks clothed the lower slopes, succeeded by pine forests,
and still higher up are the bushes and trees of box so characteristic
of the Pyrenees. The mountaineers had their flocks and herds, crops of
barley and oats, and abundance of timber. But there was a long struggle
before them.
The little kingdom of Navarre was founded by Garcia Jimenes as early
as 758, and Louis, the son of Charlemagne, drove the Moors out of
Barcelona and established a Christian country there about fifty years
afterwards. At length the kingdom of Aragon was founded by Ramiro I.,
a son of the King of Navarre, and Buesca was taken from the Moors and
became the first capital of Aragon. Then the great Alonso, surnamed ‘El
Batallador,’ having firmly established his power in the plains, drove
the Moors out of Zaragoza in 1118, which was thenceforth the capital of
Aragon.
The marriage of Petronilla, the heiress of Aragon, with Raymond
Berenger, the Count of Barcelona, raised the kingdom to a position
of importance among the nations of the Middle Ages. The Counts of
Barcelona during three centuries had ruled over a maritime people
of great energy. These rulers were, for the most part, capable men,
whether in war or peace. The Berengers were great warriors. It is
related that the first of the family passed his hand, covered with
blood, down the face of his golden shield after a battle, and ever
afterwards the arms of Barcelona, granted by the Emperor Charles the
Bald in 873 and eventually adopted by Aragon, were _or four pales
gules_.[1] The old arms of Aragon were a cross of St. George between
four Moors’ heads. They were quartered with those of Barcelona after
the union; but latterly those of the Counts of Barcelona only were
used. Sicily was _per saltire_ the arms of Aragon (Barcelona) above and
below, imperial eagles dexter and sinister. As rulers of a maritime
and commercial people, the Counts were not found wanting. Count
Raymond, called the ‘Old,’ gave the Catalans a code of laws and began
the cathedral at Barcelona, and his successors fostered the rising
importance of Catalan enterprise.
Aragon, like England, was a constitutional monarchy, with the ‘Fueros
de Sobrarbe’ as its Magna Charta. The King could do nothing, in peace
or war, without the counsel of the nobles, called ‘Ricos Hombres,’[2]
and there was a court of appeal in the ‘Justicia Mayor.’ The Parliament
was composed of the ‘Ricos Hombres’ and the ‘Syndicos’ of the towns.
Next in rank to the ‘Ricos Hombres’ were the ‘Infançones,’ equivalent
to ‘Hidalgos’ in Castille. The prefix ‘En’ was used in Aragon as
equivalent to ‘Don’ in Castille. The Catalan language, allied to
the Provençal, was spoken by the people, and written by lawyers,
chroniclers, and troubadours. It was extended to Valencia and the
Balearic Isles, and claims great antiquity. It was the language of an
enterprising commercial people, and was well adapted to be a vehicle
for romantic and national songs.
The exact identity of duration of the two dynasties of Plantagenets
and Aragonese sovereigns invites comparison. The heiress Petronilla
was the contemporary of our Empress Maud; and Ferdinand, the last male
of his race, was the contemporary of our last Plantagenet, Richard
III. They were neighbours, the Pyrenees only separating Gascony of
the Plantagenets from Aragon and Catalonia. They were cousins through
Eleanor of Provence. They were more than cousins, for Raymond, the
husband of Petronilla, chose our Henry II. for the guardian of his
children, and the greatest of our kings, Edward I., was the trusted
umpire selected by Pedro III. of Aragon, and the intended father-in-law
of his son. Both families were composed of remarkable men, renowned for
chivalry, bravery, and, in more instances than was the case in most
dynasties, for wisdom as rulers.
Pedro II. of Aragon reigned from 1196 to 1213. He and his cousin En
Nuño de Sans fought at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa side by side
with the kings of Castille and Navarre. It was the great conflict which
finally settled the preponderance of Christians over Moors. After that
famous victory the expulsion of the latter was only a question of
time. Pedro married the heiress of Montpellier and became the Lord of
that barony, as well as of Roussillon and Cerdaña. This brought him in
contact with Simon de Montfort; and the King of Aragon appears to have
made an agreement with Simon by which he gave his only son Jayme to be
brought up at Carcassonne with a view to his eventual marriage with a
daughter of De Montfort. Afterwards a war broke out between Aragon and
Carcassonne, and Pedro was slain in a battle near the castle of Muret.
The heir of Aragon was at Carcassonne, in the power of his father’s
enemy, and was only six years of age. He was born on February 8,
1208. Simon de Montfort at first refused to give him up; but, owing
to the intervention of the Pope, he was restored to his subjects, and
arrived at Montpellier in safety with his cousin Ramon Berenguer of
Provence, who was the same age. This companion of Jayme was the future
grandfather of Edward I. of England.
Jayme I. of Aragon, surnamed the Conqueror, was among the greatest
sovereigns in an age of great sovereigns, the age of Edward I. of
England, of St. Louis of France, of St. Fernando of Castille, of
Frederick II. of Germany. Accepted by his Parliament and guarded by his
nobles during his minority, Jayme entered upon his duties as ruler of a
free people with every advantage. His person is described by Desclot.
He was very tall--over six feet--with broad shoulders, small waist, and
well-proportioned limbs. He had a fair rosy complexion, blue eyes, and
auburn hair. He was strong and active, very expert in all exercises on
foot or horseback, valiant and well-practised in arms. He was courteous
and affable to all classes of people, and he was as merciful as he was
brave. There is one charming incident which throws a very pleasant
light on his character. It is related in his own journal. His tent had
been pitched in one place for a considerable time, and when the camp
was moving it was found that a swallow had built its nest between the
tent-poles. The King ordered that the tent was to remain pitched and
guarded until the young swallows could fly, saying that the mother-bird
had put herself under his protection, and that he could not disappoint
her. Jayme, when a boy, was married to a princess of Castilla and had
a son by her named Alonso, who died young. But the mother of his other
children was Violante, daughter of King Andrew of Hungary and sister of
St. Isabel.
The first great enterprise undertaken by King Jayme was the expulsion
of the Moors from the Balearic Islands, which they had possessed for
five hundred years.
Majorca, with its satellites Minorca and Iviça, forms a very fine
possession. The largest of the islands, with its fifty miles of extent
and area covering 1,300 square miles, is nearly square, with its two
large bays of Palma and Alcudia on either side and a projection to the
south-west; but the grace and beauty of its outline should have saved
it from being called a ‘quadrilateral trapezoid.’ A fine range of
mountains, mainly of Jurassic limestone (lias), occupies the western
and northern sides of the island, with peaks rising to near 5,000
feet. The ‘Puig Galatzo,’ in sight from Palma, is 3,500, and the ‘Puig
Major,’ farther north, 4,700 feet in height. The mountainous part
contains lovely valleys, with much terrace-cultivation of oranges and
olives, many flowering shrubs, and with the higher slopes clothed in
forests of Aleppo pines. From this deep green vegetation perpendicular
cliffs and peaks of white marble stand out against the deep blue sky.
There are lower hills near the south coast, but the rest of the island
is a most fertile _huerta_ or garden, covered with almond and apricot
trees, and crops or pasture beneath them. In the early spring the whole
is one vast sea of almond-blossom. Ancient olive and carob trees take
the place of almonds near the skirts of the mountains. On the northern
side of the mountains, especially at Miramar, with the sea far below
and the white peaks shooting up into the sky, the scene is a perfect
dream of loveliness.
The Arab conquerors fully appreciated the beauty and advantages of
Majorca, with its inheritance of Carthaginian and Roman traditions,
ruins, and aqueducts. For does not the chronicler Ask-shakandi describe
the island as ‘one of the most fertile and best cultivated countries
that God ever made, and the most abundant in provisions of all kinds’?
while the poet Ibn-al-labneh tells us that to its capital ‘the ringdove
lent the prismatic colours of his collar, and the peacock his beautiful
variegated plumage’!
It was in 716 that Abdallah, the son of Musa, overran the Balearic
Islands, and they became part of the empire of the Beni Umiyyah.
During this period they were fully occupied by Moors and Arabs. When
the great Cordovan empire fell to pieces, a man of remarkable courage
and ability was governor of the town of Denia, on the Valencian coast.
This was Mujahid ibn Al Amíri, surnamed Abu-l-jayush, or the father
of the army. He was a Cordovan, and a freed man of Abdu-r-rahman,
son of the great conqueror Almanzor. Mujahid retained possession of
Denia, and made himself Amir of the Balearic Islands in 1015. He was
an undaunted warrior, an experienced sailor, and his large fleet
dominated the eastern Mediterranean. His son Ali, surnamed Al Muhtadi,
succeeded him in 1045, and was in close alliance with the Christian
Count of Barcelona, Raymond Berenger I. A remarkable grant has been
preserved by which Ali ordered that all the Christian clergy of Denia
and the Balearic Islands were to be under the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of Barcelona. It is a proof of the liberal and tolerant spirit
which actuated the Spanish Muhammadan princes. Ali was dethroned by
one of this officers named Mubashir, who reigned until 1114, and
from that time, though the islanders throve and their capital was
enriched, the rulers became aggressive and piratical. They were kept in
check to some extent by the fleets of the republic of Pisa; but they
made raids on the Catalonian coast, and even sacked Barcelona on one
occasion and killed its Count. No Christian ship was safe, and at last
the cup of their iniquity was full. King Jayme resolved that Majorca
must be conquered and that the Moorish must be replaced by a Catalan
population. It was time. The chroniclers call the Moor who was then
ruling at Majorca ‘Sheikh Bohibe,’ but his real name appears to have
been Abu Yahye ibn Ali Imran At-tinmeleli.
King Jayme, by keeping a journal, had an immense advantage over other
sovereigns. His autobiography is deeply interesting in itself: its
truthfulness is self-evident, and it checks and sometimes disproves the
tales of careless chroniclers. It was printed at Valencia in 1474 in
Catalan, the language in which it was written; was printed in Spanish
for Philip II. in 1557; and Mr. Forster’s English translation, edited
by Don Pascual Gayangos, was published in 1883. Here we have a detailed
narrative of the conquest of Majorca at first hand.
The young King was only in his twentieth year when the great enterprise
was undertaken. He ruled over a free people, and it was necessary to
call together the Ricos Hombres, the prelates, and the procurators of
towns, and to submit his project for their approval. They assembled in
the old palace of the Counts of Barcelona. Their assent was unanimous
and enthusiastic. The Archbishop of Tarragona, too old to go himself,
promised to equip one hundred knights and one thousand infantry. Then
up rose En Berenguer de Palou, the Bishop of Barcelona, who was not
to be outdone. He declared that he would go himself with 130 knights,
one thousand soldiers, and a galley, and that he would not return
until the conquest was complete. Other prelates--canons, abbots, and
monks--followed these examples, down to the sacristan of Gerona, who
promised to equip ten knights. The most able and experienced general
among the nobles was the King’s cousin En Nuño Sans, the Count of
Roussillon, and he spoke in the names of the principal Ricos Hombres,
who were En Guillem de Moncada, Viscount of Bearne by marriage, a very
great vassal; Ponce Hugo, Count of Ampurias; Ramon de Moncada; Bernardo
de Santa Eugenia de Torrella; Jofre, Viscount of Rocaberti; Hugo de
Mataplana--all promising to equip knights and foot soldiers according
to their means. The young son of a German count, named Carroz, and many
other volunteers, also followed the King.
Ramon de Plegamans, a wealthy merchant of Barcelona, contracted to
supply arms, siege equipage, and provisions; and the thoroughness with
which this was done impresses the reader, more than the numbers of
troops, with the wealth and resources of the great Catalonian seaport.
As many as 143 vessels were assembled, including 25 full-sized ships,
18 undecked ‘taridas,’ and 100 flat-bottomed boats. The largest ship
came from Narbonne, and had three decks. The army consisted of 15,000
infantry and 1,500 cavalry. All the latest machines for hurling
stones and protecting the besiegers were provided by the enterprising
Plegamans.
The vessels were assembled at the small ports of Salou and Cambrils,
near Tarragona, and the expedition sailed on September 1, 1229. The
King’s orders were that the ship of Captain Nicolas Bonet, with En
Guillermo de Moncada on board, should lead, and that young Carroz
should command the rear ship. The King was in a galley belonging to
Montpellier, his birthplace. There was a light wind from the shore,
but before evening it began to blow hard from the south-west, with
a very heavy sea. The ships were close-hauled, and making such bad
weather that the pilot wanted to put back. The King would not hear of
it. Towards sunset of the following day the land was in sight, and
next morning the fleet was off Pollenza, the north-east extreme of
Majorca. But suddenly a strong ‘Provençal’ wind sprang up, and the
ships were in great danger of being driven on shore. By advice of an
experienced sailor, they stood along the north-west coast of the island
until the south-west extremity was reached at a place called Palomera.
The King’s galley arrived first, and was followed by the rest of the
fleet, not one being missing. There was a consultation with En Nuño and
the Moncadas, when it was agreed that the galleys should examine the
south-west coast for a good place to land, while the rest of the fleet
remained at anchor. The King landed on a rock between the island of
Dragonera and the main, called Pantaleu, where he passed the following
Sunday. The Moors had discovered the hostile fleet, and lined the shore
with a strong force of horse and foot.
At midnight the fleet was got under way, with all lights out, and in
profound silence. The main portion anchored in the bay of Santa Ponza,
and the rest in a neighbouring roadstead called Porrasa. Thence the
coast runs south to Cape Calafiguera, and sweeps round the bay of
Palma. Here King Jayme landed with his army.