Sancho left a will in the custody of his friend Bernardo Truyolls. In it he declared his infant nephew Jayme to be his heir, and appointed his brother, the priest Felipe, to be Regent during the minority. His widow, daughter of Charles II. of Naples, married secondly Jayme, Lord of Ezerica, son of another Jayme, the illegitimate son of Jayme I. (the Conqueror).
Sancho was a wise and just sovereign, and secured a period of peace and prosperity for the islands and the islanders he loved so well.
There is a very rare gold coin of King Sancho, a two-real piece, and a dobler de potin, the two latter resembling those of Jayme II.
CHAPTER XI
King Jayme III. of Majorca
The little child who was brought home with such care and through so many dangers from Catania now succeeded his uncle Sancho as Jayme III., King of Majorca, Count of Roussillon, Conflent, and Cerdaña, Lord of Montpellier, and, in his own right, as the heir of his mother, Lord of Clarencia in the Morea[17] and of Matagrifon.
Jayme had a happy childhood, and there was no premonition of the sorrows and calamities of his after-life. His clerical uncle Felipe was accepted as Regent by the Ricos Hombres of Majorca and the Cortes of Aragon, and, after some demur, by Roussillon and Cerdaña. The young King received a good education under the supervision of En Felipe, and was brought up with his elder half-brothers Fernando, Pagano, and Sancho, who trained him in martial exercises. Among his dearest friends was Arnaldo de Santa Cilia. This noble and loyal Majorcan was the son of Pedro Juan Santa Cilia, a knight of the conquest, whose original home was a castle of the same name on the banks of the river Ter, near Vich in Catalonia. Pedro Juan married Leonor Ben-nasser, the baptized heiress of the Arab chief Benahabet, who helped King Jayme in the conquest. Through her the Santa Cilias became the owners of the beautiful country seat of Alfavia.
The Regent Philip continued the wise policy of his brother. He took the boy King to Barcelona to do homage to King Jayme II. of Aragon, and furnished a strong contingent to his suzerain for the Sardinian war. He also negotiated a marriage between Jayme III. of Majorca and Constance, the young granddaughter of the King of Aragon, daughter of his heir Alfonso (who succeeded as Alfonso IV. in 1327) by Teresa de Entensa of Urgel.
Jayme III. was an amiable and gallant prince, always loyal and correct in all his dealings with his suzerain and beloved by his subjects. Of his elder half-brothers, Fernando appears to have retired to Italy. But Pagano and Sancho were his tutors in arms, counsellors, staunch and loyal friends through life. Pagano was married to Blanca, daughter of Ramon Sabellos, and Sancho to Sauria, daughter of Ferrario Rossello.
All went well until the accession, in 1335, of Pedro IV., son of Alfonso IV. and brother of Constance, the wife of Jayme III. of Majorca. She had another brother, Jayme, Count of Urgel, a far better man. Pedro was an odious character. Jayme III. came to Barcelona with his wife Constance, and did homage to his brother-in-law for his Balearic and Continental dominions, proceeding thence to Perpignan. There he was joined by Pedro, and the two Kings went together to Avignon—Pedro to do homage to the Pope for the new conquests of Sardinia and Corsica.
On his return to Aragon Pedro soon began to show himself in his true character. From the first he coveted the Balearic Islands, and resolved to seize them in defiance of right and justice. With such a man, a hatred of his unfortunate brother-in-law and cousin, who stood in the way of his ambition, was the inevitable consequence of his greed.