The Mercenary Mediterranean_ Sovereignty, Religion, and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon - Hussein Fancy

44 chapter two

Crown. Before the mission of 1284 , some jenets were already willing to

enter into its service. The relationship of the jenets and the Crown of Ara-

gon may have been as old as the Ghuzāh. In other words, the cluster of

documents highlighted in the previous chapter, in which the jenets appear

attacking the lands of the Crown of Aragon during the Mudéjar uprising

in Valencia, represents only part of the picture and masks a deeper con-

tinuity. Second, the evidence for these early dealings point exclusively to

the future King Pere. During his lieutenancy, Pere may have employed the

jenets in his personal entourage, as members of his household. Third and

finally, the Crown had not only used Muslim soldiers in its armies but also

experienced challenges in dealing with them, a fact that would shape its

history with the jenets. The first known recruitment of the jenets therefore

did not represent a clean rupture from this past.

The Sicilian and the Jew

In and of itself, Pere’s choice of leaders for the mission to Granada to

recruit jenets was telling. One of Pere’s closest confidants, his childhood

companion, and relative of his wife, Conrad Lancia was not an Aragonese

nobleman but rather a Sicilian one. More precisely, he was the illegitimate

grandson of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II ( 1194 – 1250 ).^30 With

Pere’s ascent to the throne, Conrad rose to fortune as well, becoming

commander of the Aragonese navy in 1278.^31 A year later, in that capac-

ity, Conrad boldly invaded the North African port of Ceuta (Sabta), from

which the Marīnid sultan had been providing support for al- Azraq’s rebel-

lion in Valencia.^32 In the same year, Conrad participated in the dramatic

coup that placed Abū Isḥāq (r. 1279 – 1283 ) on the Ḥafṣid throne at Tunis.^33

According to the chronicler Muntaner, Conrad had the Aragonese flag

raised above Tunis’ citadel.^34 For such service, Pere rewarded him with a

castle and lands and made him governor of the Mudéjar- dominated king-

dom of Valencia in 1280.^35 By 1284 , Conrad was also the head of the king’s

household as well as his master of accounts.^36

Although his name does not appear in the letter of introduction above,

the prominent figure Samuel Abenmenassé accompanied Conrad.^37 A

member of the royal household (de domo regis), Samuel served as the

king’s physician (alfaquimus et fisicus) as well as his Arabic secretary

(scriptor de arabico), a dual role that was not uncommon for Jews at the

court.^38 Like Conrad, Samuel was a confidant and intimate of Pere. The