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

46 chapter two

Conrad, our main protagonist, as well as Roger de Lauria, the future

admiral of fame.^49 This marriage alliance, which drew together the Ara-

gonese and Hohenstaufen dynasties, immediately met objections from

many, including King Louis IX of France (r. 1226 – 1270 ). Both Jaume and

Louis desired control of the central Mediterranean and through it, right

to the title of Holy Roman emperor.^50 And the tension between them

only mounted when four years later, in 1266 at Benevento, Louis’ brother,

Charles of Anjou, killed Constanza’s father and then seized the island

kingdom. These maneuvers marked the beginning of a protracted and

violent struggle between the Angevins and the Aragonese.

Initially, Hohenstaufen loyalists and rebels, championing a young

nephew of Manfred, sought refuge with Sicily’s longtime tributary, the

Ḥafṣid sultan of Tunis.^51 Among those who traveled to North Africa was

Federico Lancia, Conrad’s father, who subsequently entered the service

of the sultan as a member of his Christian guard, a phenomenon that ran

parallel to and intersected with that of the jenets.^52 Federico and other

exiles defended the city from Louis’ crusaders in 1270 , extending the

Hohenstaufen and Angevin war into North Africa.^53 In fact, Conrad’s

support of a coup in Tunis less than ten years later should be seen as a

continuation of this same struggle, the effort to restore Hohenstaufen rule

to Sicily.^54 Nevertheless, when the efforts of these rebels in Tunis were

foiled in 1268 , King Jaume pushed Constanza, his daughter- in- law, to pro-

claim herself the rightful heir to the Hohenstaufen throne. And thus, in

the years that followed, a variety of Sicilian exiles — noblemen, jurists, of-

ficers, and administrators — arrived in the lands of the Crown of Aragon,

where they would gain extraordinary sway over Prince Pere.^55

In the decades after this marriage, the Aragonese court also took on

the appearance of Frederick’s. For instance, under Constanza’s influence,

Pere issued a set of sweeping palatine ordinances that implemented so-

phisticated innovations from Sicily related to dress, diet, and diversion.^56

Like Frederick, Pere now maintained Arabic secretaries — including

Samuel Abenmenassé— for translating “Saracen books.”^57 Institutionally,

Pere borrowed whole cloth the idea of an independent royal treasury as it

existed in Sicily and tellingly made Conrad Lancia its first maestre racio-

nal, master of accounts.^58 He established the royal pantheon at Santes

Creus on the model of the Sicilian one at Palermo.^59 Most significantly,

it is also at Frederick’s court that one finds a precedent for the jenets.

Both Frederick II and Manfred had recruited Muslim soldiers from the

colony of Lucera in Apulia to serve in their armies as well as their courts