The Story of Majorca and Minorca

by Sir Clements R. Markham

CHAPTER XII
Relates the adventures of Jayme and Isabel, describes the memorial chair, and records the end of the Majorcan dynasty

Never did sovereign ascend a throne under such appalling circumstances as did Jayme IV., the last King of Majorca. The young Prince was little more than fifteen years of age, yet he fought by his father’s side and was severely wounded. He was carried to Belver Castle by the side of his father’s corpse. As soon as he was well enough to be moved, he was again taken to Barcelona and thrown into prison, where his uncle, the Ceremonious one, intended him to rot and die. The intercessions of his relations and of the Pope were all useless.

There were people in Catalonia to whom this tormenting of children was hateful and intolerable. The escape was no easy task. The guards were carefully chosen, and changed every week. The prison was a disgrace to Pedro IV. as a place for the confinement of an innocent relation. The boy had to sleep in a sort of iron cage, and the guards never left him by night or day. Jayme de San Clemente, an official of the cathedral, was shocked at the treatment of the young Prince. He and a few friends succeeded in getting impressions of the keys of the castle doors and in making false ones; and they had the aid of some merciful officials within. The rescuers killed Nicolas Rovira, the captain of the guard, and liberated the prisoner, who escaped out of Barcelona. It does not appear where he was during the next two or three years, but probably in some safe refuge with his mother and sister. The brother and sister were devoted to each other.

In 1362, the year when her second husband died, a handsome youth appeared at the court of Queen Juana of Naples. She fell in love with him, and they were married in the same year. This was Jayme IV., King of Majorca, who thus became also King of Naples. Juana committed many crimes, especially as regards her first husband; but all may be condoned in consideration of her unchanging loyalty and generosity to young Jayme. The exiled King told his wife from the first that his life must be devoted to the recovery of his dominions and to avenge the cruel treatment of his father. With these objects he opened communications with Pedro of Castille, who was at enmity with his namesake, the Ceremonious one of Aragon. Jayme, supported by funds supplied by his Queen, joined the Black Prince, and distinguished himself by his valour in the battle of Najara.

Soon afterwards the cause of Pedro of Castille became hopeless. His illegitimate brother Henry of Trastamara, aided by the Ceremonious tyrant of Aragon, advanced into Spain with an army and besieged the castle of Burgos, which had been occupied by Jayme and his troops. The King of Majorca made a gallant defence, but at last he was obliged to surrender. His odious uncle of Aragon tried to get his unfortunate nephew into his clutches again; but love was ready to make greater sacrifices than hatred. The Queen of Naples ransomed her husband for sixty thousand doblas.

In March 1369 Jayme was safe in the territory of the Count of Foix. Thence he proceeded to Avignon and began to collect troops, intending to invade Roussillon, which had been unjustly occupied by the usurper. His whole heart was devoted to what he considered the duty of avenging his father’s death. He looked upon his uncle Pedro as a usurper and murderer, and his hatred for the Ceremonious one was intense. Friends represented to him that he should be satisfied with the kingdom of Naples and a devoted wife. But he answered that he was bound to avenge his father. When it was represented to him that attacks with inadequate forces on so powerful an enemy could only lead to his own destruction, he replied that he could not die in a better cause.

The Companies were then overrunning France. Young Jayme enlisted Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Provençals, the funds being supplied by his Queen. He advanced with his little army to Narbonne, and thence to Toulouse. His beloved sister Isabel, who had become the wife of the Marquis of Monserrat, joined her brother when he invaded his own territory of Roussillon. The town of Perpignan was too strong for attack, and the Ceremonious one was making great preparations for the defence of Catalonia. His army was assembled in the Ampurdan to oppose an entry by the Pass of Panizas. The young King of Majorca therefore crossed the Pyrenees, entering by the Puig-cerdan Pass, and occupied the county of Urgel. His uncle of Aragon resorted to a way more in accordance with his nature than a fair fight. He poisoned his nephew. The secret crime was perpetrated at Valderan, near Urgel. Jayme died in his sister’s arms, rendering up a life which had been devoted to the memory of his unhappy father. It was in January 1375 that the last King of Majorca and King Consort of Naples expired within his own rightful dominions of Cerdaña. His body was buried in the Franciscan monastery of Soria. His sister Isabel returned into Gascony, and died in 1379, the last of her race.

Pedro IV., the Ceremonious, after a turbulent reign of fifty years, occupied chiefly in unjust quarrels with his relations and neighbours, at last died in 1396. His sons, Martin and Juan, were rightful heirs to Majorca, the family of their Majorcan cousins having become extinct. His daughter Leonor, wife of Juan I. of Castille, was the mother of Henry III. of Castille, and also of Fernando (surnamed of Antequera from having taken that town from the Moors), who, when the male line of Aragon failed on the death of King Martin, became King of Aragon.

An ancient and most touching memorial of Jayme IV. and his sister Isabel is still preserved at Alfavia by the descendants of their true and faithful friends of the Santa Cilia family. The estate was held by the Santa Cilia family for five generations, when the heiress Leonor married Gabriel de Berga. The heiress of Berga married Zaforteza, and Don Josè Burguez Zaforteza is now the owner of Alfavia and guardian of the relic.

The country seat of Alfavia, at the foot of the mountain pass leading to the valley of Soller, is surrounded by enchanting scenery. In front there are two fir-clad mountain-peaks, with just a peep between them of the garden of Palma, the cathedral, and the blue Mediterranean. All round there are precipitous mountains, the lower slopes in terraces planted with lemon and orange trees. The beautiful garden is famous for a long pergola covered with flowing creepers, having a fountain in each arch on either side. The entrance to the courtyard is by a wide and lofty passage, and the first compartment of its roof is a reminder of the Moorish origin of the house. It is a dome in the style of the roofs at the Alhambra, the colours still visible. Round the margin, or cornice, there is an Arabic inscription, which has been thus translated: