The Story of Majorca and Minorca

by Sir Clements R. Markham

The rest of the population was at the mercy of the conquerors, to the number of about twenty thousand. They were either forced to work at the new buildings ordered to be erected, or sent to Sicily and Barcelona to be sold as slaves.

The date of the capitulation was January 17, 1288, St. Anthony’s Day, which was ever afterwards kept as a holiday, with processions and other festivities. Alfonso remained in Minorca until the following March, leaving orders for a town to be built, with a fortified wall, at Port Mahon. He died three years afterwards at Barcelona, aged twenty-seven.

Don Juan Ramis y Ramis, the chronicler of Minorca, recorded the prowess of the young King and the conquest of the island in a poem entitled ‘Alonsiada.’

Pedro de Lesbia, a native of Valencia, was left as the first Christian Procurator-General of Minorca. The whole Moorish population appears to have been rooted out of the island and replaced by Catalan settlers. Ciudadela, at the western end, became the capital, as it was in Moorish times; while Port Mahon was the principal commercial port.

In a small island like Minorca a population could soon be extirpated by ruthless invaders without pity or remorse and actuated by unreasoning bigotry. Their cruelties were not only condoned but encouraged by their priests. It is a revolting picture. There was an industrious and happy people, engaged in cultivating a not very grateful soil, which needed much toil and no little skill to induce it to yield harvests sufficient for the wants of a frugal population. In homes endeared to them by centuries of occupation, and surrounded by their wives and children, they were living in peace and comparative prosperity, and enjoying the hard-earned fruits of their toil. The land tax, paid in kind, was the regular source of revenue in all Muhammadan countries. In Minorca the Almojarife, or collector, appears to have been the hereditary chief of the island. Suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, in a few days total destruction came upon them. Thousands were killed, all their chief men with their families disappeared, all their property was seized, wives were torn from husbands, children from parents, and sold into slavery.

Turning away from the horrors of this scene of cruelty and wrong, we may assume an interval of confusion, and then the farms and villages of the Moors are occupied by Catalan families equally industrious and hard-working. The Christians were exposed to heavier exactions and suffered under a less enlightened rule, so that perhaps we should give them even greater credit than their predecessors for the way in which they extracted the means of supporting themselves and their families from the stony fields.

Minorca continued to share the fortunes of the larger island under her own kings, under the Kings of Aragon, and under the Austrian dynasty of Spain. The form of government was the same as that granted to Majorca by En Jayme.

The smaller island suffered equally with Majorca from the raids of Barbary pirates, who carried off many unfortunate people into slavery. All the islanders rejoiced at the campaign against Tunis, led by the Emperor Charles V. in person, who liberated several thousands of Christian slaves in 1535. Yet the piracies did not cease, or only for a time. Barbarossa, the piratical leader, undeterred by the fall of Tunis, fitted out a fleet of eleven galleys and made sail for the Balearic Islands. His fleet entered Port Mahon with Christian banners flying, to deceive the soldiers in the fort and the inhabitants, who were completely taken in. Bells were rung and guns fired in honour of what was supposed to be a part of the Emperor’s fleet. A boat with some Franciscan friars approached the galleys and discovered the mistake. They pulled back to the shore, raised a warning, and the gates of the town were closed.

Barbarossa landed 2,500 Moors and some guns, with which he battered the walls of the town and made a breach. His assault was, however, repulsed. The people of Ciudadela assembled three hundred men, but seeing that the enemy was so powerful they did not venture upon an attack at first. They sent a messenger to warn the besieged that they should be ready to make a sortie when the relief approached. Then most of the three hundred advanced, and occupied the attention of the enemy while the besieged hastily repaired the breaches in the walls. A second assault was gallantly repulsed, and the pirate chief began to feel rather insecure at Port Mahon, expecting the return of the Emperor’s fleet from Tunis.

Fortunately for Barbarossa, the besieged lost heart and surrendered the town to him on terms which he never dreamt of keeping. He made slaves of eight hundred of the inhabitants. The churches were pillaged and profaned. The Guardian of San Francisco had partaken of the Sacrament to save the Host from profanation. The Moors entered and seized all the valuables, but did not find the Host in the pyx. Barbarossa asked where it was, and when the Franciscan replied that he had eaten it to preserve it from profanation, he was ordered out for execution and suffered death with two other friars.