famous ‘Catalan Company’ of mercenaries. The Company’s history
would have been well known to him. It had formed under the leadership
of the German ex-Templar Roger de Flor (or‘Blum’), and had fought
with distinction in the War of the Vespers. The Peace of Caltabellotta
had left Roger and his men unemployed, and so they had taken service
with the Byzantines instead. However, the relationship went horribly
wrong. Amidst growing tensions, Roger himself was murdered, and large
numbers of his followers were massacred at Adrianople. The survivors
turned westward, vengefully plundering and pillaging their way into
central Greece.^176 It is easy, of course, to be wise after the event and,
hence, to observe that Walter should have learnt from the Byzantines’
unhappy experience. But he would also have been cognizant of the
Company’s supremefighting skills, and he certainly would not have
wanted them to be hired by his enemies instead.
Walter’s brief accord with the Company is described, in a very partisan
fashion, by Ramon Muntaner. He tells us that Walter engaged the
Company for more than six months at a rate of 4 oz. for each heavy
cavalryman, 2 oz. for each light horseman and an ounce for every foot
soldier. In return, he says, the mercenaries more than fulfilled their side
of the bargain, capturing‘more than thirty castles’over the course of the
period. Whilst this is surely a typical exaggeration, the alliance was clearly
very effective, forcing Walter’s Greek opponents to sue for peace.^177 In
many ways, though, the Company had been rather too successful. One
problem was simply that Walter was falling behind in his obligations to
pay. Another, far more significant, was that the mercenaries were looking
to settle in the places that they had conquered, offering to hold them as
vassals of the duke.^178 Walter was looking to cut his costs, though, and
was well aware of the perils of sowing dragon’s teeth. Muntaner is surely
quite right, then, when he says that Walter selected the cream of the
Company and tried to dismiss the rest.^179 In this way, though, the duke
set the scene for the catastrophe that he had tried so hard to avoid–a sort
of proxy continuation of the War of the Vespers.^180
(^176) The fullest account of all this, in English, can be found in A. Laiou,Constantinople and
the Latins: The Foreign Policy of Andronicus II, 1282– 1328 (Cambridge, Mass., 1972),
127 – 226.
(^177) The Catalan Expedition to the East, ch. 44. Captured towns included Demetrias,
Zeitouni, Domokos and Halmyros (Laiou,Constantinople and the Latins, 227).
(^178) The Catalan Expedition to the East, chs. 44–5. See also Setton,Catalan Domination of
Athens,8.
(^179) The Catalan Expedition to the East, ch. 45. Indeed, according to Muntaner, when the
dismissed mercenaries came to Walter to ask for their arrears, the duke threatened them
180 with the gallows.
See Abulafia,The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms, 132.
138 The Angevins and Athens (c. 1267–1311)