THE MEDITERRANEAN IN THE AGE OF JAMES II OF ARAGONisland's grain trade-can be paralleled by similar arguments
in favour of a gradual takeover of the trade networks of main-
land southern Italy on the part of the Florentines and other
north Italians.^4 In particular, the loss of Sicily forced the
Angevin kings of Naples into the arms of the north Italian
bankers, because a crucial source of income, grain sales
from Sicily, was no longer available once the island was in
Aragonese-Catalan hands. What grain southern Italy could
offer was effectively mortgaged to the businessmen of Flor-
ence. More recent research by Stephan Epstein has modified
the force of Brese's argument, but the link between war fin-
ance, foreign loans, privileges to alien merchants and grain
sales remains a prominent feature of government policy both
in Angevin Naples and in Aragonese Sicily after 1282."
The division of Sicily from Aragon in 1285 in fact helped
the papacy negotiate a truce between Alfonso of Aragon,
James of Sicily and their Angevin captive. Charles II was in
sufficient despair at his captivity in Spain to agree to sur-
render all rights over Sicily, but Honorius rejected these
drastic terms. An arbiter, Edward I of England, suggested
instead that Charles II be released and that three of his sons
be sent to Aragon in his place as hostages. Charles would
promise to negotiate a proper peace within the next three
years. Edward's adjudication was published during a papal
vacancy and the College of Cardinals, lacking leadership,
reluctantly agreed to it. Immediately on his election as pope,
Nicholas IV promised the French king that he would not
permit such an ignominious truce, but it was essentially these
terms which Alfonso of Aragon accepted in 1288.^6 Charles
II himself seems to have been keen to find a way to peace,
but even after he was released the king of France bullied him
and insisted on renewing the war. The French king, Philip
the Fair, notorious later for his vituperative attacks on the
- H. Brese, Un monde mediterraneen. f·ronomie et societe en Sicile, 1300-1450,
2 vols (Rome/Palermo, 1986); G. Yver, Le commerce et les marchands dans
l'ltalie meridionale (Paris, 1903); David Abulafia, 'Southern Italy and the
Florentine economy, 1265-1370', Economic History Revirw, ser. 2, vol. 33
(1981), pp. 377-88. - S.R. Epstein, An island for itself Economic development and social change in
late medieval Sicily (Cambridge, 1992). - S. Runciman, The Sicilian Vespers. A history of the Mediterranean world in
thf' thirteenth century (Cambridge, 1958), pp. 264-6.