As soon as the Admiral Roger de Lauria received his orders he left Messina with sixty-six well-armed galleys in search of the French fleet, steering for a rendezvous at the island of Cabrera. Here he received tidings from the Captains Marquet and Malliol that there were eighty-five French galleys in Rosas Bay. They informed the Admiral that they would join him, with sixteen galleys, off a cape known as Aygua Freda, near some small islets called the Formigueras.[9] Admiral Lauria ordered that each galley should have three lights ready—one in the bows, another amidships, and a third at the stern. If the French fleet approached at night, all were to be suddenly lighted, that the enemy might believe each light to be on a separate vessel. Towards dawn the French fleet approached, and all the lights suddenly appeared between the fleet and the shore. Before it was broad daylight Lauria had entirely defeated his adversary, capturing fifty-four galleys, driving fifteen on shore, and putting twenty-five Genoese auxiliaries to flight. Marquet and Malliol completed the rout by capturing the remaining French galleys in Rosas Bay, and taking or destroying all the stores and provisions for the French army. The admiral proceeded to Barcelona, having by this great naval victory obtained complete command of the sea.
There was nothing left for the great French army but an ignominious flight. The Cardinal Legate said that the Aragonese must be devils. King Philip told him that they were nothing of the kind, but brave and loyal soldiers, defending their King against an unjust invasion; and he expressed his regret that he had ever undertaken it at the Pope’s urgent call. The Cardinal remained silent. En Pedro assembled his army on the hill of Panisars to intercept the retreat. The French King raised the siege of Gerona and fell back on Peralada with the remnant of his forces. Many had died of sickness, while the losses in numerous harassing encounters had been most serious. The King of France was very ill, anxiety and regret hastening his end. Feeling that he was dying, he sent for his son, and said: ‘You were wiser than I. Had I followed your advice I should not now be on my death-bed; nor would the many brave men have been lost who have died and will die in this war. Send a message to your uncle of Aragon and ask him to allow my body to pass with yourself and your brother. For I am certain that it rests with him whether a single Frenchman shall ever return, dead or alive.’ The dying King then obtained a promise from his son that he would be a friend and protector of his brother Charles. The King died on September 30, 1285, in the house of a knight named Vilanova, about two miles from Peralada. When En Pedro received the message from the young King Philip he sent orders that the late King’s body was to be allowed to pass with its escort, and requested his brother of Majorca to meet it with a body of cavalry and protect it from attacks. For Lauria and his sailors were watching on one side, and bands of wild almogavares on the other. But safety could only be assured to those who passed with the corpse and the oriflamme. The Count of Foix with five hundred horsemen went first, then the young King and his brother with the oriflamme, following their father’s body. The Cardinal Legate came close behind, careful of his own safety. He said that the rest would go to Paradise. The Aragonese could no longer be restrained, and fell furiously on the remainder of the retreating host and on the baggage. The Cardinal was so terrified that he died of fright a few days afterwards; while the King of Majorca escorted his nephew, the young King of France, with his brother Charles and the body of the late King, through his dominions.
The victorious King En Pedro, after making liberal grants to the towns of Peralada and Gerona, returned to Barcelona with his principal nobles. On the same day the Admiral Roger de Lauria arrived with the fleet, and there was great rejoicing.
This time the Pope’s curses went home to roost with a vengeance. En Pedro was firmer on his throne than ever. Sicily was safe. The Pope’s protégé was in prison at Barcelona. The Pope’s King of Aragon was only king of what was under his own cap. The Pope’s machinations were scattered to the winds.
Yet the papal intrigues continued to cause trouble and dissensions.
Jayme II., the King of Majorca, was obliged, owing to the exigencies of the times, to reside in his Continental dominions. By his wife, Esclaramunda, sister of the Count of Foix, he had four sons, Jayme, Sancho, Fernando, and Felipe, and two daughters named Isabel and Sancha. Isabel was the wife of the Infante Juan Manuel, brother of the King of Castille. Sancha married King Robert of Naples. Jayme and Sancho were at Paris, detained by the King of France, practically as hostages. Fernando’s age was then about eight, the elder brothers ten and twelve.
There had been an understanding between the brothers Pedro and Jayme during the war, and communications had passed between them respecting the safe passage of the French King’s body, and on other matters. Soon after the final rout of the French strange tidings reached En Pedro from his agents in Italy. He was assured that the Pope would induce the King of France to seize Majorca, and that Jayme would be forced to give his consent, because his two sons were in the French King’s power in Paris, and Montpellier, Roussillon, and Conflent would otherwise be taken from him. En Pedro resolved to prevent this. He did not see how, in the face of these threats, his brother could refuse, and he must therefore act promptly; but he sent a letter to his brother Jayme explaining the motives of his action. The force destined for Majorca was placed under the command of the King’s eldest son, Alfonso, and consisted of knights, men-at-arms, and two thousand almogavares.
The King of Aragon was incensed with his nephew Sancho IV., the usurping King of Castille, because he had broken his promise and given him no help whatever in the war with France. Fernando, the eldest son of Alfonso X., had died before his father, leaving two sons, Alfonso and Fernando, known as the ‘Infantes of La Cerda.’ The next son, Sancho, had usurped the throne, and the ‘Infantes de La Cerda’ had escaped into Aragon. En Pedro was having them educated in the castle of Jativa in Valencia. He was so angry with Sancho that he contemplated setting up the eldest Infante as a claimant for the throne of Castille. Having taken leave of his son on the eve of his departure for Majorca, En Pedro commenced a journey to Jativa to see the Infantes of La Cerda. He was feeling unwell when he started, and on reaching the town of Villafranca de Panales he was in a high fever. His son was on board, but had not sailed, when he got the news. He hurried to Villafranca, but his father ordered him to return to his ship and make sail at once. Receiving his father’s blessing, the young Prince departed and embarked at the port of Salou. He landed with his forces at Porrasa, and no resistance was made to his occupation of the capital of Majorca. En Pedro was dying. He had made his will and received the Sacraments, but neither wife nor sons were at his bedside. He died on November 11, 1285, and was buried in the abbey of Santa Creus, about twenty miles from Villafranca. His great admiral, Roger de Lauria, died a few years afterwards, and his body was laid to rest near that of the King he had served so well. In 1835 a vile mob of ruffians destroyed the church and scattered the remains to the winds. By his wife Constance he left four sons and two daughters. The eldest succeeded him as Alfonso III. The second succeeded his brother as Jayme II. Federigo, the third, was King of Sicily. The fourth was Pedro. Of the daughters, Isabel was Queen of Portugal, and Violante of Naples.
Pedro III., if not equal in all respects to his father, was a great king. Fortune smiled upon him. He was happy in all relations of life. His career was one long romance. Chivalrous to recklessness, he was at the same time prudent and circumspect—a rare combination. Even in his wild gallop into imminent peril at Bordeaux he thought out every part of the enterprise down to the minutest detail. He was invariably well served, and invariably successful. This cannot be ascribed to luck. A king who succeeds in all he undertakes must have rare gifts of head and heart to plan out the details of his undertakings and to secure the sympathy and devotion of those who serve him. Pedro was thus gifted, while his administrative ability ensured the prosperity of his country. Under him Aragon became a great naval Power, and Sicily was freed from a foreign yoke.