The conquest of the island of Majorca on behalf of the Roman Catholic kingdoms was carried out by King James I of Aragon between 1229 and 1231. The pact to carry out the invasion, concluded between James I and the ecclesiastical and secular leaders, was ratified in Tarragona on 28 August 1229. It was open and promised conditions of parity for all who wished to participate.
James I reached an agreement regarding the arrival of the Catholic troops with a local chief in the Port de Pollença, but the strong mistral winds forced the king to divert to the southern part of the island. He landed at midnight on 10 September 1229, on the coast where there is now the tourist resort of Santa Ponsa, the population centre of the Calviá municipality. Although the city of Madina Mayurqa (now Palma de Mallorca) fell within the first year of the conquest, the Muslim resistance in the mountains lasted for three years.
After the conquest, James I divided the land among the nobles who accompanied him on the campaign, per the Llibre del Repartiment (Book of Distribution). Later, he also conquered Ibiza, whose campaign ended in 1235, while Menorca had already surrendered to him in 1231. While he occupied the island, James I created the Kingdom of Majorca, which became independent of the Crown of Aragon by the provisions of his will, until its subsequent conquest by the Aragonese Pedro IV during the reign of James II of Majorca.
The first repopulation of Majorca consisted primarily of Catalan settlers, but a second wave, which took place towards the middle of the 13th century, also saw the arrival of Italians, Occitans, Aragonese, and Navarrese, due to a legal statute granting the settlers possession of the property seized during the conquest. Some Mudejar and Jewish residents remained in the area, with the Jewish residents receiving official status protecting their rights and granting them fiscal autonomy.
Background
Majorca's geographical location was conducive to trade. The island had become a meeting point for traders from various Mediterranean coastal areas, including Perpignan, Maghreb, Genoa, Granada, Valencia and Catalonia. Eventually, a conglomerate was formed by Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Muslim merchants who transported and sold a variety of goods.
Majorca was located in the boundary zone between Catholic and Muslim areas, at a nautical intersection close to Spain, southern France, Italy and North Africa. The island served primarily as a trade interchange and transit point, and as a result the island's economy was inextricably linked with international trade traffic. It developed an active market, monitored by the Consulate of the Sea.
In 707, the eldest son of Musa ibn Nusair, governor of the Umayyad caliphate in North Africa, landed on Majorca and plundered the island. In 903, the island was conquered by Issam al-Khawlani, ruler of the same caliphate, who took advantage of the destabilisation of the island population caused by a series of raids launched out of Normandy. After this conquest, the city of Palma, then still partially under control by the Roman Empire, became part of the Emirate of Córdoba in al-Andalus. The last governor rebuilt it and named it Madina Mayurqa. From then on, Majorca experienced substantial growth which led to the Muslim-controlled Balearic islands becoming a haven for Saracens pirates, besides serving as a base for the Berbers who used to attack Catholic ships in the western Mediterranean, hindering trade among Pisa, Genoa, Barcelona and Marseille. The local economy was supported by a combination of stolen goods from raids on Catholic territories, naval trade, and taxes levied on Majorcan farmers.
Conquest of the island by Ramon Berenguer III
In 1114, the Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer, gathered a group of nobles from Pisa and other Provençal and Italian cities, including the Viscount of Narbonne and the Count of Montpellier. This group of nobles launched a retaliatory expedition against the island to combat the pirate raids being organized on Majorca. The objective of this mission was to wrest Majorca from Muslim control, establish a Roman Catholic government, and thereby prevent any further attacks on Catholic mercantile shipping by Muslim pirates.
After an eight-month siege, Berenguer had to return home because an Almoravid offensive was threatening Barcelona. He left the Genoese in charge, but they ultimately gave up on the siege and fled with the captured spoils. Although the siege failed, it laid the foundation for future Catalan naval power and strengthened strategic alliances among Catholic kingdoms around the Mediterranean.
In Pisa there are still some remains that were moved from Mayurqa. There is also an account of the expedition in a Pisan document called Liber maiolichinus, in which Ramon Berenguer III is referred to by the appellate "Dux Catalensis" or "Catalanensis" and "catalanicus heros", while his subjects are called "Christicolas Catalanensis". This is considered the oldest documented reference to Catalonia that has been identified within the domains of the Count of Barcelona.
The siege of Majorca prompted the Almoravid Emir to send a relative of his to take over the local government and rebuild the province. The new wāli led to a dynasty, the Banû Gâniya, which, from its capital at Madina Mayurqa, tried to reconquer the Almoravid empire. King Alfonso II, using Sicilian ships, organised a new expedition and again attempted to conquer the island, but was unsuccessful.
Almoravid and Almohad Empire
After the Count of Barcelona withdrew his troops, Majorca returned to uncontested Muslim control under the Almoravid family, Banû Gâniya. As a result of the Almohad reunification, he created a new independent state in the Balearic Islands. Trade between the various Mediterranean enclaves continued despite ongoing attacks on commercial shipping by Muslim forces. In 1148, Muhammad ben Gâniya signed a treaty of non-aggression in Genoa and Pisa, which was revalidated in 1177 and in subsequent years. The wāli was one of the sons of the Almoravid sultan, Ali ibn Yusuf, which meant that his kingdom had dynastic legitimacy. He proclaimed its independence in 1146.
When Gâniya acceded to the Majorcan seat, there were temples, inns, and sanitary conveniences that had been built by the previous wāli, al-Khawlani. There were social meeting places and amenities as well as three enclosures and some 48 mosques spread across the island. There were also hydraulic and wind mills which were used to grind flour and extract groundwater. Majorcan production was based on irrigated and rainfed products – oil, salt, mules and firewood, all of which were particularly useful to the military regime of the time.
During this period, the Majorcans developed irrigation agriculture and constructed water sources, ditches, and channels. The land was divided into farmsteads and operated by family clans in collectives. Management and administrative functions were concentrated in Medina Mayurqa. Cultural and artistic life thrived, and the city soon became a trade centre between the East and West.
Although the Almoravids preached a more orthodox compliance to Islam in Barbary, Majorca was influenced by Andalusian culture, which meant their religious precepts were less strict. Pressure from King Alfonso I and the emerging Almohad power led to a crisis in the Almoravid administration and, after the fall of Marrakesh in 1147, it eventually succumbed to this new empire.
In 1203, an Almohad fleet that was leaving Denia fought a fierce battle against Gâniya, the last Almoravid stronghold of the Andalus period, incorporating Majorca into their domain. It was then ruled by different wālis who were appointed from Marrakesh, until when Abu Yahya was appointed as its governor in 1208. He created a semi-independent principality with only a formal submission to the Almohad emir.
Status of the Crown of Aragon
Having pacified their territories and having normalized economic recovery following the drought that began in 1212, the Crown of Aragon began to develop an expansionary policy. Also in 1212, the Muslims were defeated at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, an event that resulted in subsequent Almohad decline and allowed the Aragonese kingdom to reassert its power. A northward expansion was halted at the Battle of Muret, where the father of James I, Peter II of Aragon, was killed in combat. The kingdom then turned southward, seeing the benefits of having greater control of the Mediterranean. By then, James I was only five years old and, after a series of events, he was interned in the Templar castle of Monzón, in the province of Huesca, under the tutelage of Simon de Montfort, where he received an education in a religious and military environment.
Preparations
James I's motivation to conquer Valencia and the Balearic Islands was driven by a combination of economic and strategic factors. Valencia was a rich land that could be used to provide new territory for the population of the Kingdom of Aragon, and Catalonia offered new fiefdoms for the nobility. The king of Castile, Ferdinand III, had tried to take parts of Valencia that were, in principle, reserved for the king of Aragon. Meanwhile, a conquest of the Balearic Islands enabled Catalan and Provence merchants to eliminate competition from Majorcan merchants and also dismantle the Barbary pirates who used Majorca as a safe haven. The taking of the Balearic Islands represented not only a retaliatory strike for the damage caused to the merchants, but also the beginning of a planned expansion to obtain a trade monopoly with Syria and Alexandria, thereby enhancing trade with Italy and the rest of the Mediterranean. It was after the success achieved in Majorca that James I decided that he was ready to conquer the kingdom of Valencia, which capitulated after the Battle of Puig in 1237.
Catalan Courts Assembly
The Catalan Courts, an advisory council that met in December 1228 in Barcelona, discussed the desirability of carrying out a military campaign against the Balearic Islands or Valencia. The three estates took part in this assembly, in which the king guaranteed the Bishop of Barcelona the concessions from the churches on the islands.
During this period, there was a group of families of the upper bourgeoisie who formed the minority leadership of the city. These families had acquired their power and wealth at the end of the previous century and were also the leaders of the city government. Their economic interests were connected to any future conquests of the monarch. In order to increase the profitability of their investments, they demanded more and more stringency towards their nobility or proprietary rights.
Father Grony, the representative of the city of Barcelona, offered the king assistance from the city for this expedition. After that first assembly, there were others, until finally, the king had chosen the option of Majorca.
The attack on Majorcan lands was already supported by tradesmen and businessmen, so only the support of the nobles was pending; their support was essential in carrying out the expedition. According to James I, it was the expert Catalan navigator Pedro Martell who encouraged him to embark on that enterprise during a dinner banquet that the latter held in Tarragona in late 1228.
Both the political and religious agenda of the enterprise were clearly defined in the discourses of the courts. James I opened his speech by uttering a verse in Latin, whose origin is not clear but which was often used in medieval times to seek divine inspiration for the rest of the sermon: "Illumina cor meum, Domine, et verba mea de Spiritu Sancto" (Enlighten my heart, O Lord, and my words by the Holy Spirit). James I suggested that the expedition would be a "good work". The church and the influence of religion in the reign of James I is manifold, his life and work reflecting the importance of Raymond of Penyafort, the Dominicans and Peter Nolasco, and the founding of the order of Mercy.
According to the philologist Rafael Alarcon Herrera, the spiritual values of the Templars played a key role in the conquest. In 1129 the order had already included the Balearics in its list of territories to conquer a year before their recognition in the Council of Troyes. Thus, during the dinner, they apparently alluded to the monarch that the invasion was "God's will", a fact which may have encouraged the young king, given the connection of that house to his birth and education. In fact, much of the conquest was planned and executed by the Templars, proof of which is in the gift of the castle, the Jewish district, more than a third of the city and an exclusive port given to the order after the conquest. Possibly, the Templars provided James I with the best troops of those that took part in the conquest.