THE END OF THE HOUSE OF BARCELONAthat permeated the policies of Peter the Ceremonious, in
the face of challenges from his half-brother Ferran, from his
cousin the king of Majorca, from rebellious towns and nobles
who sought to emphasise the limited and decentralised char-
acter of the Aragonese monarchy. Peter challenged this trend
by attempting to create a more solid bureaucracy, imitating
trends in other European monarchies: Bernat de Cabrera,
his powerful chief minister between^134 7 and 1364, issued
a set of naval ordinances in^1354 and again in 1359, while
Peter issued ordinances for the management of the royal
household; efforts were made to increase the accountabil-
ity of the senior financial official in the royal administration,
the Mestre Racional. The king also recognised that the lack
of universities in the lands of the Crown of Aragon limited
the opportunity to recruit a highly trained civil service; the
single 'Aragonese' university in the past had been that of
Montpellier, but the city was in Majorcan and French hands.
Thus in the 1350s Peter established new universities at Huesca
in Aragon proper and at Perpignan in Roussillon.
Especially valuable to the crown was learning in the law,
which could be used to bolster royal rights. The test case
at the start of Peter's reign was that of Majorca. During
the early fourteenth century, the capacity of the Majorcan
rulers to resist Aragonese pretensions was constantly being
weakened. The Majorcans made a substantial contribution, as
vassals of Aragon-Catalonia, to the fleet that invaded Sardinia
in 1323-24.^5 On the other hand, Majorca and its mainland
port at Collioure had become a flourishing trade centre, and
Majorcan commercial taxes would greatly strengthen Peter,
if he could lay his hands upon them. Apart from material
considerations, there were genuine points of law to consider.
Technically, under the terms ofKingJames l's will, the king-
dom of Majorca should have reverted to the Aragonese when
King San~ or Sancho of Majorca died without an heir in
- But the Aragonese were still facing tough resistance
in Sardinia; they grudgingly accepted that the crown could
pass to Sancho's nephew James, then a minor on whose - See D. Abulafia, A Mediterranean Emporium. The Catalan Kingdom of
Majorca (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 246-7; on the limited strength of the
Catalan fleet, see the classic study by J.A. Robson, The Catalan fleet
and Moorish sea-power (1337-1344)', English Historical Review, 74
(1959), pp. 386-408.