To fight the enemies of the faith

The massacre of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282 worked to the advantage of Peter of Aragon, who wanted the crown of Sicily for himself. This might be seen as greedy, since he was already King of Aragon, King of Valencia and Count of Barcelona, but one can never have too many hats. In 1262 he married Constance, daughter of Manfred, king of Sicily and bastard son of the Emperor Frederick II. Ever since his marriage Peter had regarded himself as the champion of the Hohenstaufen right to Sicily.

Peter was almost certainly involved in the anti-French resistance movement in Sicily, and with the Byzantine emperor, Michael VIII. In 1281 he gathered fleet of 140 ships and 15,000 men to invade Tunisia, where the Muslim emir had thrown off the yoke of Aragonese suzerainty. A few months later, while the fleet was still gathering, he received a message from the Sicilians, asking him to come and replace Charles of Anjou.

The whole of Europe watched nervously to see which way Peter would jump. He kept his intentions a secret from everyone. From the hour of the departure of his fleet from Portfangos, near the mouth of the Ebro, his own sailors did not know their destination. In July Peter wrote to Edward I in England, informing him that the fleet was indeed destined for Tunisia, ‘to fight the enemies of the faith, if pleasing to the pope’.

It was a lie. On 30 August Peter crossed to Trapani on the west coast of Sicily, and on 1 September was crowned king of Sicily at Palermo. Those Angevins that remained on the island after the Sicilian Vespers were driven out. Pope Martin IV was outraged and hurled bulls of excommunication at Peter, who ignored them.

In desperation, Charles of Anjou issued an extraordinary challenge. Instead of fighting a war over Sicily, he offered to fight Peter to the death in a tourney with a hundred knights on either side. It would take place at Bordeaux, on neutral territory, with Edward I invited to act as umpire.

The image is from the Nuova Chronica or New Chronicles of Florence in the 14th century, depicting Peter receiving envoys from the Holy Roman Emperor and Michael VIII, begging him to intervene in the war against Charles of Anjou.