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

a sovereign crisis 45

king, for instance, entrusted his doctor to carry special messages to the

queen and prince, and the letters between these men evince an unusual

familiarity in both tone and content.^39 But Samuel’s superior knowledge of

Arabic also made him indispensable to the Crown.^40 For instance, in 1280 ,

when negotiating with the Mudéjares of Játiva, King Pere signed a “certain

Arabic letter,” trusting only in Samuel’s translation.^41 Samuel wrote and

delivered the peace treaty with Granada in 1282 that paved the way for this

mission.^42 He traveled on secret missions to Tunis.^43 On the domestic front,

he managed the sale of captives from Valencia’s Mudéjar rebellion.^44 And

most significantly, Samuel had already acted as a recruiter among Muslims.

Three months prior to the mission to Granada, he visited the Mudéjar

communities of Aragon and Valencia, seeking “well- appointed crossbow-

men and lancers” in return for a “good salary,” suggesting that these Mus-

lim soldiers were needed for extraordinary service.^45 As a reward, Pere

similarly granted Samuel privileges as well as lands in Valencia.^46

Thus, as leaders for this mission, Pere chose two trusted representa-

tives with ties to local Muslims as well as sultans. One might be tempted

to argue that this mission both reflected and leveraged the cosmopolitan

character of the Aragonese court, and that it demonstrated the manner

in which religious and political boundaries were easily pierced or ignored

in this world. The deeper implication of this presumed cosmopolitanism

is that religious and political identities were shibboleths that could be

shrugged off by men of a certain perspective and status like old clothes.

But such logic, however much it satisfies a democratic and inclusive vision

of the world, did not drive Pere’s choice. Indeed, the fact that Pere relied

heavily upon a foreigner and a Jew brings to the surface a rather different

motivation for his recruitment of the jenets.

The Sicilian Vespers

What follows is a story that revolves around Sicily, a history of repetitions:

the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.^47 It begins twenty years ear-

lier, in 1262 , around the same time the Ghuzāh first arrived in the Iberian

Peninsula, when Pere’s father, King Jaume I, arranged the marriage of

the young Prince Pere to fourteen- year- old Constanza ( 1249 – 1302 ), the

granddaughter of the Emperor Frederick II and daughter of Manfred

of Sicily as well as half- cousin to Conrad Lancia.^48 Constanza arrived at

the Aragonese court with her royal household, including a school- aged