they imposed themselves on the emperor and insisted that he pay them. The Catalans and Aragonese who served Byzantium under de Flor initially comprised
some 1,500 cavalry and 5,000 or more infantry. More troops arrived
subsequently, bringing the total to some 7,800 men by 1304. The core of their army was the Almugavari [Greek: Amogavaroi], light and mobile infantrymen, initially numbering 4,000.
The first contingent arrived at Constantiople in September 1303.
Their leader was Rutger von der Blume, 36 years old in 1303, a Sicilian-
German whose name was rendered in Romance as ‘Roger de Flor’; his father had been falconer to Frederick II of Sicily and Germany (d.1250). While still a boy, Rutger or Roger served with the Aragonese (whose kingdom incorporated Catalonia) in North Africa and Sicily in 1281 and later joined the Templars in Palestine: he fought in the siege of Acre in 1291.
The troops of Rutger or Roger de Flor, according to his companion Ramon de Muntaner [vol. ii. p. 137], were 1,500 ‘men at arms’ (heavy cavalry), 4,000 Almogavares, and 1,040 other foot, besides the sailors and mariners: total over 6,540. Treadgold, in Harris 2005: 81, suggests that the combined total of Byzantine armed forces was probably fewer than this (say 5,000 men). As we have said, more troops arrived subsequently, bringing the Catalans to some 7,800 men by 1304.
The emperor Andronicus II accepted de Flor’s offer of service; and in September 1303 Roger with his fleet and army arrived at Constantinople. He was adopted into the imperial family, was married to a grand-daughter of the emperor, and was made grand duke (megas doux) and commander-in-chief of the army and the fleet.
The Catalans had no sooner arrived in Constantinople [September 1303] than they got involved in a bloody melee in the street with the local Genoese
community. Soon afterwards [1303-04] they were shipped to Anatolia ahead of an expedition to relieve Philadelphia [today’s Alasehir], an inland Byzantine town entirely surrounded by the Turks for some years. (Philadelphia was wedged between three ghazi emirates: Karasi, Germiyan and Aydin.)
After some weeks lost in dissipation, intrigues and bloody quarrels, Roger and his men were sent into Asia, and after some successful encounters with the Turks (probably the Karesi or Saruhans), they went (late 1303) into winter quarters at Cyzicus (“Artaki”) on the southern coast of the Sea of Marmara.
The Company was reinforced by, briefly, some “8,000” Alans (imperial mercenaries: the figure is exaggerated) and a small force of Romaniyan troops under the general Maroules (Lowe 1972: 23). Most of the Alans would refuse to join the Catalans for the march to Philadelphia in 1304; but even so, the
expedition may have numbered about 15,000 all told in the first phase, and over 7,000 when it departed for Philadelphia. Specifically, Pachymeres (II.424: cited in Bartusis p.155) says de Flor led south 6,000 of his Westerners, 1,000 Alans and an unspecified number of Byzantines (say 500).
They took the field in May 1304 (see entry below) and rendered the important service of relieving Philadelphia [today’s Alasehir], then invested
(blockaded) and reduced to extremities by the Turks.
Syria: A Muslim army led by Egyptians (Mamelukes) defeats the last-ever Mongol invasion.
Italy: d. Boniface VIII, called “the last medieval pope” - in the sense of a clergyman dictating to kings. Cf 1309.
Above: Almugavars. Note the absence of shields. Catalan-Aragonese soldiers
James I of Aragon’s (d. 1276) contribution to the Spanish Reconquest.
“Unencumbered”, writes Morris, “by the ubiquitous heavy plate arms and armour* that characterise warfare of [a later period], the Almogavars excelled in the use of light projectile weapons such as the azcona, a short, light lance
[throwing spear**], and they usually carried three or four [heavy] javelins, which they would fling with enough force to pierce through the best armour of the age [i.e. usually mail; sometimes lamellar]. They also carried a coutel or colltell, a long, cruel-looking dagger [or better: short sword***] whose potency was … noted by Muntaner: ‘And of the Almogavars [he writes] I can tell you the deed of one called Porcell, who was afterwards of my company in Romania [Greece]. He gave such a cut with his coutel to a French knight that the greaves with the leg came off in one piece and besides it entered half a palm into the horse's flank’ (Muntaner, 463).”
‘”Their armament consists of a strong combat knife, a long sword, a lance and arrows. They wear on the head a kind of protective casque in the form of an iron skullcap (calotte) consisting of a wire lattice intersecting as a cap.* A leather bag enables them to carry victuals and tools and supplements their equipment. They are Catalans, Aragonese and mountaineers” (thus the Catalan chronicler Desclot, fl. 1285; my translation from a French website, MO’R).
Their technique was to throw their weapons from fairly close range, aiming for the horses rather than their riders; once a cavalryman was unseated they would close in to kill with sword or dagger (Dougherty 2008: 149). Horse-archers carried fairly small bows with limited range, so presumably the Almogavars sprinted forward before throwing their javelins.
(*) The later Catalan writer, Moncada, d. 1635, wrote in his Expedicion de Catalanes y Argoneses al Oriente of “an iron network worn on the head like a helmet” (quoted in Freely 2008: 105). Presumably this meant a mail coif. (**) Moncada’s “pointed staff”.
(***) In pictorial sources, it is worn at the waist but does not reach the knee. “When an Almogavar was mounted, he would place the azcona [short spear or javelin] in his stirrup, bracing it with one foot, thus piercing, on the first charge, the chest of his adversary's horse. At the Battle of Gagliano (Sicily) against the 300 handpicked French knights, ironically calling themselves the Knights of Death, more than 100 of them fell victim to these tactics. The Almogavars "went about amongst them as if they were walking in a garden" (Muntaner, 458). — Morris 2000.
c.1303: Padua: Giotto’s fresco painting of The Lamentation: = “post- Byzantine” art in Italy. Cf 1315.
Romania and Anatolia
The memoirist of the Catalan Company, Ramon Muntaner, consistently calls the European side of the Empire ‘Romania’, while the Asian side is called ‘Anatolia’. This reflected an emerging Latin style, by which for Westerners the name
‘Romania’ came to mean greater Greece. In Greek ‘Romania’ simply meant the Empire fullstop, in both Europe and Asia.
By 1304:
Asia Minor: Recurrent Turkish raids had again reached Ephesus and Caria, the SW coast. Most of the regions between the Meander and the Cayster Rivers, i.e. inland from Ephesus, were in the hands of the Turkmen. So severe were the Turkish raids, said Pachymeres, that imperial rule in “the inland regions of Bithynia, Mysia, Phrygia, Lydia and enchanted Asia, except only for the fortified towns, came to an end” (quoted in Vryonis). ‘Mysia’ meant the region that included Pergamum. ‘Asia’ meant the central-western segment of Asia Minor (west of Amorium).
In other words, Byzantium controlled only parts of the coast and a few inland towns; the hinterlands were dominated by the pastoralist Turkomans.
Andronicus did not raise a native army for further campaigning. As noted, he turned to the Catalans and to diplomacy. Some time before May 1304, he attempted to bring Persian (Mongol) pressure to bear on the Anatolian emirs through an embassy to Ghazan Khan in Tabriz, and, after Ghazan's death, to his successor Uljaytu. The llkhans, recent converts to Islam, did not see the offer of a marriage alliance as inducement sufficient for a Mongol attack against the west. The Expedition into Asia Minor 1304
The Catalans based themselves at Erdek (“Artaki”: ancient Cyzicus) on the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara. In late 1303 they fought with a force of Turks camped not far from Erdek (presumably Karesi Turks) who had been making spasmodic attacks on the isthmus wall that guarded the ‘neck’ of the peninsula. There were women and children on the Turkish side. This perhaps suggests they may have been herding their herds through the region, or more likely that they had established a semi-permanent base-camp.
The Turks fought hard, but were defeated, more than 3,000 horsemen and more than 2,000 men on foot being killed (Muntaner: trans. Goodenough p.409). The 17th C writer Moncada says the Catalans left the site of the battle near Cyzicus “strewn with 3,000 dead horsemen and 10,000 (foot) men” (quoted in Freely 2008: 106), but this is contradicted by Muntaner. The Turkish women and children were taken as slaves and sent to Constantinople.
and Byzantines, the Company marched south. Advancing rapidly, they defeated a Germiyanid army in western Phrygia and then freed Philadelphia and Ephesus (by October 1304).
Also at Cyzicus a brawl between the Catalans and Alans had led to large-scale fighting. Thus, when the expedition headed south to relieve Philadelphia, only about 1,000 Alans were prepared to continue under de Flor’s command. The expedition probably numbered fewer than 8,000 men: some 6,000 Catalans, mainly infantry; about 1,000 Alans, all cavalry, and a small contingent of
Byzantines, also cavalry, under Marules (Lowe 1972: 29).
From Cyzicus, de Flor’s men proceeded up the valley of the River Macestus, the modern Simay River to Achyraous, i.e. to the east of the lake Kus Golu and then south-west in the direction of modern Balikesir. The Turkish tribe of the Karesi had recently entered this region, but most of its Greek towns must have been still unsubdued. Immediately to the east were the lands of the Germiyan Turks.
Our imperial mercenaries pressed on south-westward to the Turkish
(Germiyanid) fortress at modern Soma, Byzantine Germes, which lies east of Pergamon-Bergama. The Germiyanid capital was far to the east at Kutahya. The Turks at Soma had heard of the Catalans’ fierce reputation, and were preparing to abandon the fort when they were surprised and quickly defeated by the Catalan vanguard.
The expedition then turned south-east and proceeded via Thyatira, modern Akhisar, into the valley of the Hermes River (Gediz Nehri). The modern highway from Akhisar to Alasehir (medieval Philadephia) indicates the general direction that they took. Having crossed the river, they proceeded past old ruined Sardis— an ‘acropolis settlement’ inland from Smyrna: see discussion below—which lay just south of the river itself. Thence they continued ESE towards Philadelphia, today’s Alasehir. The town was a Greek enclave surrounded on all sides: by the domains of the Saruhan Turks on the west, the Aydin Turks on the south-west, and the Germiyan Turks on the north and east (map in Nicolle 2008: 33). Muntaner says extravagantly that it was “one of the largest cities in the world” with a perimeter measuring “18 miles” [presumably 4.5 km x 4.5 km] (trans. Hughes p.55)
Philadelphia was under siege by “20,000” Turks led by the emir Ya’qub ibn Ali-Shir of Germiyan. An alternative figure is 12,000 Turkish infantry and 800 cavalry. A battle was fought on the plain NW of Philadelphia in which de Flor’s men crushed the Turks, who Muntaner calls “the tribes [or bands] of Sara- Khan [Saruhan] and Aydin”. He claims that only about 1,000 Turkish horse and 500 foot survived (Hughes trans. pp. 55-56; Lowe 1972: 33; also Chaytor, cited below: curiously Norwich 1996: 267 says the Turks were from Karaman, further west).
It seems curious that light infantry should be able decisively to defeat highly mobile light horse, but the Catalans were, somehow, a very powerful force – presumably due to their esprit de corps and battle-hardened condition as much
as their technique. As we remarked earlier, they threw their weapons from fairly close range, aiming for the horses rather than their riders; once a cavalryman was unseated they would close in to kill with sword or dagger (Dougherty 2008: 149). Horse-archers carried fairly small bows with limited range, so probably the Almogavars sprinted forward as soon as they reached arrow-range, throwing their javelins on the run.
Next, from Philadelphia, the Company travelled south-west to Tyre (Tire) which is 80 km SE of Smyrna/Izmir. There a raiding party of Turks appeared, being the survivors from Philadelphia “along with others from the tribe of Menteshe” (Muntaner: Hughes p.57; in the Catalan text Menteshe is rendered as
“Mondexia”: Goodenough p.415). Moncada calls their chief ‘Sarkan’, i.e. possibly Saruhan (cited by Freely 2008: 106). The Company, or a detachment of it
numbering just 1,200, attacked and defeated them (Muntaner s. 206; Hughes p.57). According to Moncada, 1,000 Turkish cavalrymen and 2,000 of their foot soldiers were killed; but this actually refers to later clash at Anaia (see later). Muntaner says “over 700 horse and many afoot” died on the Turkish side at Tyre (Goodenough p.415).
The Catalans then retired NW to the old Nicaean capital of Nymphaion - today’s Kemalpasha, inland from Izmir/Smyrna, - and further NW thence again, to Magnesia [Manisa]. So outraged were the local Greeks at the plundering of the Catalans that the people of Magnesia refused to let them in, and the town was then besieged. There arose great friction between the local Byzantines and their new masters, who exacted limitless tribute in preference to regular (but lower) taxation from those they had liberated (Lindner, Nomads and Ottomans, 1983). Roger had begun the siege of Magnesia when he was recalled by an urgent message from Andronicus, who wished him to support his nephew Michael in a war against the Bulgarians.
A further 1,300 Catalans landed at Gallipoli towards the end of 1304 and they too forced Andronicus to hire them. They proceeded by ship to the port of Anaia (on the Asia Minor coast below Ephesus), where, after a brief stop at Ephesus, de Flor had established winter quarters.* The reinforcements had only just arrived when “the cry of alarm was raised that the Turks of the band (tribe) of Atia [sic: Aydin] were raiding the huerta [irrigated land, orchards, kitchen gardens] of Ani
[Anaia]”. The Company went out to attack them and killed 1,000 Turkish horsemen and “full 2,000 men afoot” (Goodenough p.418).
(*) The treaty of 1261 with the Genoa had given Genoese traders the right to use Anaia as a waystation.
De Flor himself was called back to Constantinople and he travelled by sea. The expedition passed back through Ephesus and Magnesia (October 1304), and then marched north broadly following the line of the coast in concert with the galleys that had come to collect De Flor. By this point, the Catalans, who had recruited nearly 3,000 Turkic horsemen into their ranks, were considered by the
Finally the Company re-crossed the Dardanelles to land at Neapolis on the Gallipoli peninsula, where it went into winter quarters around the town of
Gallipoli. Muntaner speaks of the Gallipoli peninsula as “the most fertile country in the world”, there being bread, wine and fruit of every kind, while the towns provided good houses and other amenities of life. This is further evidence for the prosperity of the early Palaeologan period.
In order to afford the Catalans, Andronicus raised (1304) taxes and further debased the hyperpyron, reducing it to 12 carats, i.e. just 50% gold. The new taxes led (1305) to a rebellion in Bithynia (Treadgold, State p.751).
1304:
1. W Asia Minor: Loss of the Cayster Valley, inland from Ephesus. Seeing the