Battle of Les Formigues

Battle of Les Formigues
Part of the Aragonese Crusade
DateSeptember 4, 1285
Location
Formigues Islands, off the coast of Girona, Catalonia, present-day Spain
Result Aragonese victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Sicily
Crown of Aragon		 France,
Republic of Genoa
Commanders and leaders
Roger of Lauria
Ramon Marquet
Berenguer Mallol		 Guilhem de Lodeva
Henry di Mari
John de Orreo
Strength
30 galleys
10 galleys		 30 galleys
Casualties and losses
Unknown 15–20 or more galleys sunk, burnt, or captured

The naval Battle of Les Formigues (Catalan) took place probably in the early morning of 4 September 1285 near Les Formigues Islands, Catalonia, about 85 km northeast of Barcelona, when a Catalan-Sicilian galley fleet commanded by Roger of Lauria[1] defeated a French and Genoese galley fleet commanded by Guilhem de Lodeva, Henry di Mari, and John de Orrea.

There are three almost completely different accounts of this battle: from Ramon Muntaner,[2] Bernard Desclot,[3] and the Gesta comitum Barchinonensium[4]. The Gesta places the battle at Les Formigues (or Fomigas), while Muntaner favoured a location off Roses to the north. Either Lauria or the French were ashore for the night and encountered by the other, or they were both at sea when the encounter took place.

The accounts agree that it happened at night, which was unusual for medieval naval battles, but suited Lauria who was skilled at night-fighting. He used two lanterns on each galley to increase his apparent numbers. Ten to sixteen Genoese galleys under John de Orreo fled, leaving about fifteen to twenty French galleys to be captured, and some others sunk or burnt.[5]

The troubadour Joan Esteve blamed treachery for the capture of the French admiral Guilhem. It is said that three hundred French prisoners were sent back to France. All of the prisoners but one had their eyes gouged out, and that one was left with one eye to guide the others. The prisoners brought one message from Roger of Lauria to the King of France: that not even fish would be able to navigate safely through Mediterranean Sea without a shield or sign of the king of Aragon on them.[6]

  1. ^ Blumberg, Arnold (2016). "The crusade against Aragon: An unjust and unnecessary enterprise". Medieval Warfare. 6 (2): 13–15. ISSN 2211-5129. JSTOR 48578549.
  2. ^ Crònica de Ramon Muntaner/Capítol CXXXV, in the Catalan Wikisource (Vikitexts)
  3. ^ Desclot, Bernard (1928). Chronicle of the Reign of King Peter III of Aragon, 1276-85. Translated by Critchlow, F.L. Princenton University Press.
  4. ^ Nathaniel L. Taylor. "Inheritance of Power in the House of Guifred the Hairy: Contemporary Perspectives on the Formation of a Dynasty." The Experience of Power in Medieval Europe, 950–1350: Essays in Honor of Thomas N. Bisson. Robert F. Berkhofer III, Alan Cooper, and Adam J. Kosto, edd. Ashgate, 2005, pp. 129–51.
  5. ^ Le Moing, Guy (2011). Les 600 plus grandes batailles navales de l'histoire. Rennes: Marines. ISBN 978-2-35743-077-8. OCLC 743277419.
  6. ^ Le Moing, Guy (2011). Les 600 plus grandes batailles navales de l'histoire. Rennes: Marines. ISBN 978-2-35743-077-8. OCLC 743277419.