Roger de Llúria (17.1.1250-19.1,1305), was Catalan Admiral from Italian origin. The term “admiral” was used for the first time by King Roger II, in
its Latin form “amiratus amiratorum” in 1133, to designate his adviser
George of Antioch as the “commander of commanders”, a role that can be
considered as analogous to the modern “prime minister”. At that time the
honorific was not related to the command of the naval fleet. Indeed,
only in 1177 was this title, given by William II of Sicily to Walter of
Moac, related to the command of the royal fleet. Since then, many people
have had the honor of receiving this title, but of them Roger of Lauria
has always been considered as the most valiant and important admiral of
Middle Ages.
The
life of Roger of Llúria, whose invincibility, with over twenty years of
naval combat activity and no defeats at sea (the only one was the Battle
of Catanzaro in 1297, due to the inadequacy of the Angevins), has never
been equaled, not even by the great Horatio Nelson. Despite his
victories and the efficiency of his naval strategies, Roger of Lauria’s
fame hasn’t reached further because, according to John Pryor, many
medievalists were more interested to the Hundred Years War.
Roger’s origins are not clear. His surname is
perhaps related to Lauria, a small town in the province of Potenza, in
Basilicata, where there are still the ruins of the fortress belonging to
his family, but the historian Ramon Muntaner, who personally knew him,
refers to Roger of Lauria as a Calabrian, probably from Scalea. The same
halo of mystery regards the origin of Roger’s father, while his mother
is identified as Donna Bella (“Lady Bella”), who was the nursemaid of
Constance II of Sicily, Manfred’s daughter, and through which was
related to the Hohenstaufen family.
In 1262 Roger moved to the court of Aragon with his mother and
Constance II, the future Queen of Aragon, who was married to Peter of
Aragon, the son of James I the Conqueror. Since then, his life has been
always linked with the fate or Aragon and later of Sicily, where he made
his strategic genius available for the protection of the island.
Roger’s military activity started in the late 1260s, and after having
repressed the Saracen rebellion in Valencia he was appointed admiral of
the royal fleet in 1278. After the death of James I of Aragon, the
expansionist aims of his son, Peter III of Aragon, were directed to the
conquest of Sicily, that was assigned to Charles I of Anjou by the Holy
See after the death of Conrad I, the eldest son of the Emperor Fredrick
II.
Both Roger and Peter’s life were strictly connected to the fate of the Regno
(Southern Italy and Sicily). The first according to the tradition lost
his father, Richard (who would have been at King’s Manfred side at the
final moments of his life), at the Battle of Benevento in 1266. The
second was betrothed to Constance, Manfred’s daughter and heir of the Regno.
The insurrection that triggered the War of Sicilian Vespers occurred
in Palermo in 1282 and was the perfect opportunity for Peter to
establish the influence of the Aragon Kingdom over Sicily, historically
considered as the most strategic point in the Mediterranean Sea.
The role of Roger of Lauria was to establish the supremacy of the
Catalan-Sicilian fleet over the Angevins, due to his incredible
strategic ability and to the quality of his fleet, compound by
almugavars (devastators in Arabic) and by the Catalans crossbowmen,
considered the most feared in all Europe.
The first opportunity for Roger to show his qualities, after having
been appointed Admiral of the Kingdom of Catalonia, Valencia and Sicily
in 1283, was the Battle of Malta on the 8th of June. The
strategic intelligence of Roger of Lauria allowed his fleet, that
consisted of less vessels than the flotilla commanded by Prince Charles
of Salerno, to block the Angevin ships at the Grand Harbour in Malta. A
peculiar strategy adopted by Roger was to bridle his vessels together in
an open alignment, using iron cables, called flanella.
After the defeat of the Angevins in Malta, the fleet commanded by
Roger of Lauria was able to inflict other sound defeats on the Angevins,
drastically reducing their aspiration of dominating the Southern Italy.
The first of these victories was the Battle of Naples in 1284 and
that allowed the Aragonese to take as hostage Charles the Lame (the
Prince of Salerno), the son of Charles of Anjou. The use of iron cables
to bridle the Aragonese ships was fundamental also in this battle to
catch a big part of the Angevin fleet. In this battle, Roger of Lauria
turned the fact of having less vessels than the Angevin flotilla to his
advantage. Roger understood that the
confusion of the battle could compromise the communication between his
ships and that the only solution “… was a well-devised but simple battle
plan, easily executed in the heat of the combat”.
Roger’s assaults on Nicotera and on the cities of both Tyrrhenian and
Ionian Calabria, contributed to distract Charles of Anjou from
attempting to invade Sicily, and consequently, the defeat inflicted on
the French fleet at Les Formigues in 1285 made Roger of Lauria the most
feared admiral by the enemies of the Kingdom of Aragon.
After the death of Peter III of Aragon, Roger of Lauria found himself
to serving two masters: King Alfonso, heir to the crown, and James,
appointed King of Sicily. Roger of Lauria showed again his strength at
the Battle of the Counts, fought in the Gulf of Naples in 1287.
After James I agreed in 1295 to the Treaty of Anagni, that provided
the concession of Sicily to the Angevins in change of their renunciation
to invade the Kingdom of Aragon, the position of Roger of Lauria became
more problematic, and between the loyalty to the King James I and the
link with Sicily, he chose to stay at the side of Frederick of Sicily in
order to defend the island from Charles of Artois.
The relationship between Frederick of Sicily and Roger soon showed
signs of strain and after two years Roger of Lauria found himself to
fight on the side of the Aragonese-Angevin army against the Sicilians,
defeating their fleet at Capo D’Orlando, which was followed by the
Angevin’s defeats at the Battle of Falconaria, near Trapani in 1299, and
at the Battle of Gagliano in 1300. The Battle of Ponza represented
Roger’s last victory, before the Treaty of Caltabellotta ended the War
of the Sicilian Vespers in 1302.
To know more:
Roger of Lauria (c.1250-1305): "Admiral of Admirals"
