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

76 chapter four

and into the ancient Mediterranean. These same ideas would also rattle

forward into the modern world.

The Tunisian Matins

The wars between the Aragonese and Angevins over claim to the title

of Holy Roman emperor — which framed the first part of this book—

were also fought in North Africa. After the Angevin seizure of Sicily in

1266 , Hohenstaufen loyalists, men like Federico Lancia, who was Con-

rad Lancia’s father, took refuge in Tunis.^2 The Ḥafṣid sultan, al- Mustanṣir

(r. 1249 – 1277 ), had been a tributary of Frederick II and refused to rec-

ognize the authority of the Angevins. It was in this context that King

Louis IX decided to launch a crusade against Tunis in 1270. Louis, who

supported the Angevin claim to Sicily, aimed to destroy the remaining

Hohenstaufens.

As these events unfolded, King Jaume I watched cautiously from the

margins. He tacitly offered support to the Hohenstaufen loyalists in Tunis

by permitting Aragonese subjects abroad to participate in defense of the

city. Pleading before the pope, Jaume even gained approval for the Chris-

tian militias in the service of the Ḥafṣids.^3 To put this plainly, both French

crusaders and Aragonese defenders of Tunis had papal permission for

their opposing actions. In the end, however, the destructive effect of the

French crusade convinced Tunis to pay both allegiance and annual tribute

to the Angevins at Sicily. Many of the surviving Hohenstaufen loyalists

thus fled to the Aragonese court, to the protection of Constanza, the wife

of the future King Pere II.

Given Pere’s pretension to style himself the rightful heir to Freder-

ick II, it is not surprising that he was more aggressive than his father on

the matter of Tunis. A new sultan, al- Wāthiq (r. 1277 – 1279 ), was patently

hostile to the Aragonese.^4 Thus, in an effort to find a more pliable and pre-

disposed ruler, Pere entered into an alliance with a Ḥafṣid prince named

Abū Isḥāq, who was living in exile in Muslim Granada. Ten Aragonese

galleys, under the command of Conrad Lancia, supported the coup that

placed Abū Isḥāq (r. 1279 – 1283 ) on the Ḥafṣid throne.^5 This sultan, how-

ever, was less of a puppet than Pere had hoped. In response, the king

briefly contemplated imposing “Peter of Tunis,” a son of Abū Isḥāq who

had converted to Christianity, on the Ḥafṣid throne but abandoned this

prospect.^6