THE WESTERN MFDITFRR\NEAt\ Klt\GDOMS I ~00-1 !'>00The sharing of power among potential rivals also involved
the exclusion of other great barons from any share; and it
was Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada, a non-vicar, who spirited
Maria away from Catania to Barcelona, and to marriage with
Prince Martin of Aragon. The implications of this move were
clear at once; towards the end of his long reign (1337-87)
King Peter IV of Aragon had been contemplating the res-
toration of Aragonese rule in Sicily, and the Catalan duchy
of Athens had already broken its formal, and weak, links to
the crown of Sicily, taking the king of Aragon as its nominal
overlord. It was especially obvious after^1377 that Sicily lay
open to conquest, the more so once the Great Schism and
internal rivalries within the house of Anjou diverted the
rulers of Naples from reactivation of their own now ancient
claim to the island.
The invasion of Sicily by Aragonese armies, in 1392, was less
readily welcomed by the island's nobles than had been the
earlier Aragonese invasion of 1282: Manfredi Chiaramonte
resisted in Palermo, and paid the price of execution. His
lands passed to the leader of the invading army, Bernat
de Cabrera. Prince Martin became Sicilian king as Martin I;
he was not himself king of Aragon, but heir to Aragon's
throne, and it was only on his premature death in^1409 that
the island was reunited to the Catalan-Aragonese complex
of territories, when he was succeeded by his own father, con-
fusingly, in the circumstances, known as King Martin II. The
death of Martin II a year later reopened, not just for Sicily,
the question of who would control the five kingdoms and one
Sorietri nella Sicilia aragonese (Palermo, 1963); V. d 'Alessandro, Tf-rra,
nobili e borghesi nella Sicilia rnedievale (Palermo, 1994); C. Fisber Polizzi,
Amministmzione della rontea di ~·entimiglia nella Sicilia aragom~se (Supple-
ment to vol. G of Atti dell'Accademia Agrigentina di scienze lettere c
arti, Padua, 1979); E. Mazzarcsc Fardella, I Fmdi romitali di Sir·ifia dai
Norrnrmni agli Aragone.1i (Milan/Palermo, 1974); L. Sciascia, Ledonne P
i mvalier, gli ajj(mni e gli a~-,ri. Famiglia1' fwlne in Sicilia /m Xffp XI\' serolo
(Messina, 1993); A. Romano, ed., /sti/uzirmi j10/itirhe e giuridirhe I' slrullure
del jwlere jJO!itirn ed eumomim nelle rittri dell'l:'urojm meditnranm medievale
e modem a. La Siri/ia (Messina, 1992); I. Peri, IJt Sirilia dojio if \'esjno.
L'omini, rittri e mmjHlgne, 1282-1376 (Bari, 1981; the middle volume of
a series of three by Peri. on the society and economv of medieval
Sicily); I. Peri, \'i/lrmi e mvalien nella Sicilia medif"(lfl/e (Bari, 1993); F.
Benigno and C. Torrisi, eds, Elites e potere in Sirilia rial mf'dionto ad og,!fl
(Catanzaro, 199.'J), with essays lw d'Alessandro, Epstein. Corrao. e/ a/.