National Art Museum of Catalonia. Drawing, acquisition of the Casellas collection, 1911
The conquest of the island of Majorca on behalf of the Christian kingdoms was carried out by King Jaime I of Aragon between 1229 and 1231. Jaime I reached an agreement regarding the arrival of the Christian 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 September 10th 1229, on the coast where there is now the tourist resort of Santa Ponsa. 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, Jaime I divided the land among the nobles who accompanied him on the campaign. While he occupied the island, Jaime 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 Jaime II of Majorca.
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 Christian ships in the western Mediterranean, hindering trade among Pisa, Genoa, Barcelona and Marseille.
In 1114, the Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer III, gathered a group of nobles from Pisa and other Provençal and Italian cities. This group of nobles launched a retaliatory expedition to wrest Majorca from Muslim control, establish a Christian government, and thereby prevent any further attacks on Christian mercantile shipping by Muslim pirates. After an eight-month siege, Berenguer had to return home because an Almoravid offensive was threatening 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.
After the Count of Barcelona withdrew his troops, Majorca returned to uncontested Muslim control under the Almoravid family, Banû Gâniya. 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.
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 Marrakech, 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.
In 1212, having pacified their territories and having normalized economic recovery, 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.
The kingdom of Aragon then turned southward, seeing the benefits of having greater control of the Mediterranean. By then, Jaime 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.
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Jaime 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 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 Jaime I decided that he was ready to conquer the kingdom of Valencia, which capitulated after the Battle of Puig in 1237.
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In December 1228, in Barcelona, the Catalan Courts, discussed the desirability of carrying out a military campaign against the Balearic Islands. 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. Father Grony, the representative of the city of Barcelona, offered the king assistance from the city for this expedition. 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 Jaime 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. 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. 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 Jaime I with the best troops of those that took part in the conquest. Although the conquest was primarily initiated by the Catalans, there was collaboration with many other cities and towns in Provence – Montpellier, Marseilles, and Narbonne, or Italian cities such as Genoa. The cities of Tortosa, Tarragona, and Barcelona, the most affected by the pillaging of pirates, were the ones who offered the most ships. Ramón de Plegamans, a wealthy businessman in the royal service, was in charge of preparing the fleet, but later did not participate in the campaign.
Preparations for the venture intensified. Holding the papal bull that Pope Urban II had granted to Jaime I's grandfather, Peter I of Aragon, in 1095, Pope Gregory IX dispatched two documents on 13 February 1229, in which he reaffirmed his power to grant pardons in Aragon to those men who would organise themselves into military groups against the Muslims. Although the Catalan armed naval fleet had existed since the ninth century, even before the Castillian, it was Jaime I who, during his reign, led it to demonstrate its true power.
On the day of Our Lady of August, all the barons and knights of Catalonia, along with the king, travelled to Tarragona and Salou, carrying all their equipment – guns, sails, rigging, ships and táridas which were loaded with logs, flour, barley, meat, cheese, wine, water and biscuit.
A very rough estimate of the Christian army, composed of aristocratic armies, would give the figure of 1,500 knights and 15,000 footmen, divided among the following:
Army of the House of Aragon, 150/200 knights.
Army of Nuño Sánchez I of Roussillon and Cerdagne, 100 knights.
Army of Guillem II de Bearn i Montcada, 100 knights.
Army of Ramón Alemany de Cervelló í de Querol, 30 knights.
Army of Hug V de Mataplana, 50 knights.
Army of Berenguer de Palou II, 99 knights.
Army of Guillem Aycard and Balduino Gemberto, 600 knights and several ships.
Army of Hug IV of Empúries, 50 knights.
Army of the bishop of Girona, Guillem de Montgrí, 100 knights.
Army of the Abbot of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Bernat Descoll.
Army of the provost of the archbishop of Tarragona, Espárago de la Barca, 100 knights and 1,000 lancers.
Army of the Knights Templar.
Army of the Knights of Malta.
Army of Guillem I de Cervelló, 100 knights.
Army of Ferrer de San Martín, 100 knights.
Army of Ramón II de Montcada, 25/50 knights.
Army of Ramon Berenguer de Áger, 50 knights.
Army of Galçeran de Pinós, 50 knights.
Army of Bernat de Santa Eugènia, 30 knights.
Army of Guillem de Claramunt, 30 knights.
Army of Raimundo Alamán, 30 knights.
Army of Pedro Cornel, 150 soldiers.
Army of Gilabert de Cruilles, 30 knights.
According to various accounts, the Muslim king of the island, Abu Yahya, had between 18,000 and 42,000 men, and between 2,000 and 5,000 horses. The weaponry of the Muslims did not differ much from those of the Christians – meshes, spears, mallets, arrows and leather shields resistant to swords. The Muslims also had catapults and low shot machines, called algarradas by Jaime I, which were very light, rapid, and capable of destroying several enemy tents at once
The expedition left for Majorca from Salou, Cambrils and Tarragona on 5 September 1229, with a fleet of over 150 vessels. Various sources indicate an armed contingent of between 800 and 1,500 men and 15,000 soldiers. The Muslim king of the island, Abu Yahya, had between 18,000 and 42,000 men and between 2,000 and 5,000 horses.
The journey to the island was hampered by a severe storm that nearly caused the convoy to retreat. After three days, between Friday September 7 and part of Saturday, the entire Christian fleet arrived at Pantaleu island, located on the coast of the present-day town of San Telmo, a hamlet belonging to the municipality of present-day Andrach.
The battle of Portopí was the main armed conflict in open terrain between the Christian troops of James I and the Muslim troops of Abu Yahya in the conquest. It took place on September 12 halfway between Santa Ponsa and the City of Majorca, an area known locally as the "Coll de sa Batalla". Though the Christians were victorious, they suffered significant casualties. Before the start of the skirmish, the Muslim army had been deployed throughout the Portopí highlands, knowing that the Christians would have to cross these mountains on their way to Medina Mayurqa.
On the other hand, hours before the confrontation, Guillem de Montcada and Nuño Sánchez debated who would lead the vanguard of troops. However, they penetrated the Muslim defense awkwardly, falling into an ambush that left them completely surrounded, until they were killed. Jaime I, who was unaware at the time of their deaths, followed the same route, advancing with the rest of the army, intending to join them and participate in the fray with them, until he came upon the enemy in the mountains. The Montcadas' bodies were found disfigured by multiple injuries and they were interred in rich caskets at the Santes Creus monastery in the present municipality of Aiguamúrcia, in the province of Tarragona. At night, Jaime I's army stopped to rest in the present town of Bendinat. The news of the death of the Montcadas was given to Jaime I by Berenguer de Palou and two days later, on September 14, they were sent to bury his remains amidst scenes of grief and sadness.
While the Christian army camped outside the Medina, they received a visit from a wealthy and well-regarded Muslim named Ben Abed who appeared before the king and told him that he was in command of 800 Muslim villages in the mountains and wanted to offer all kinds of help and hostages, provided the king maintain peace with him. Along with advice on the practices of the besieged, this alliance represented powerful help to the Christians. As a first test of submission, Abed gave Jaime I twenty horses laden with oats, and goats and chickens, while the king gave him one of his banners, so that his messengers could appear before the Christian hosts without being attacked.
The response from the besieged was immediate and they answered with fourteen algarradas and two trebuchets. Faced with the unstoppable advance of the king's troops, the Moors tied several Christian prisoners completely naked on top of the walls to prevent it from being bombed. However, the prisoners instead screamed exhortations to their compatriots to continue firing. Jaime I, hearing the pleas in which they said that their death would bring them glory, commended them to God and redoubled the discharges. Despite the discharges going over their heads, this caused the Muslims to return the prisoners to their cell, seeing that their blackmail was unsuccessful. In response to the Muslim ploy, Jaime I catapulted the 400 heads of soldiers who had been captured in a skirmish (commanded by Lieutenant Vali, Fati Allah) while trying to reopen the water supply to Medina Mayurqa that the Christians had previously blocked.
Knowing they were losing, the Muslims offered various negotiations to discuss the surrender of Abu Yahya. Jaime I, in order to minimize losses, save lives and keep the city intact, was in favour of reaching an agreement, but the relatives of the Montcadas and the bishop of Barcelona demanded revenge and extermination. Abu Yahya then withdrew from negotiations as the king was not accepting the conditions. The Wali assured that from then on every Saracen would be worth twice as much. The king was left with no choice but to yield to the desires of his allies and continue with the campaign that culminated in the taking of Palma de Mallorca.
The strategy used to conduct a siege on a walled city usually involved encircling the city and waiting for its defenders to suffer from thirst and starvation. Due to the weather conditions on the island during that time of year and the low morale and energy of his troops, the king elected to break down the walls and assault the towers in order to end the venture as soon as possible.
After heavy fighting that lasted for months during the siege, the Christians began making inroads, knocking down walls and defence towers. One of the main strategies of the Christian attack was to use mines to destabilize the walls, but the Muslims countered with countermines. Finally, on 31 December 1229, Jaime I managed to take Medina Mayurqa. The initial moment occurred when a gang of six soldiers managed to place a banner on top of one of the towers of the city and began to signal to the rest of the army to follow, while shouting, "In, in, everything is ours!" The soldier who went ahead of the rest of the troops, waving the banner of the Crown of Aragon on that tower and encouraging the other five to follow was Arnaldo Sorell, and was subsequently knighted by James I in return for his courage. The rest of the Christian army entered the city shouting, "Santa Maria, Santa Maria," an act that was typical of medieval times.
It is said that, after taking the city, the Christians apprehended Abu Yahya and tortured him for a month and a half to make him confess where the pirates kept their treasure. They even cut the throat of his 16-year-old son in his presence, while his other son was converted to Christianity to save himself. Abu Yahya was tortured to death before he would reveal where the treasure was stored. At the same time, they burned the city and slaughtered the people who had failed to escape through the north door and had been left behind in the houses, although a few converted to Christianity to save themselves. The slaughter was so widespread that the resulting thousands of corpses could not be buried; as a result, the Christian troops were soon depleted by a plague epidemic due to the putrefaction of the bodies.
According to the Chronicles of Jaime I, though it appears to be literary information according to the epic atmosphere of the campaign, 20,000 Muslims were killed, while another 30,000 left the city without being noticed. On the other hand, in the Tramuntana Mountains and in the region of Artà, they had managed to shelter some 20,000 people including civilians and armed men, but were ultimately captured by the Christians.
As soon as they entered the city, the conquerors began to take over what they saw, and soon discord began to emerge among the troops. To avoid conflict here, the king suggested first dealing with the Moors who had fled to the mountains, to avoid a possible counter-attack, but their desire to seize the goods of the vanquished prompted the Bishop of Barcelona and Nuño Sánchez to propose that a public auction be held. The spoils collected during the early days were abundant, with each taking what they wished. When it was revealed that they had to pay, they revolted, which ended in them storming the house where the pavorde of Tarragona had been installed. In response, Jaime I ordered that they bring everything they had gotten to the castle where the Templars were settled. He then said to the people that the distribution would be fair, and that if they continued looting homes they would be hanged.The sacking of the city lasted until 30 April 1230, a month before the master of the house of San Juan had arrived on the island with some of his knights. He requested that, in addition to land, they be given one building and some property. Jaime I gave in to their demands and gave them the deracenal house, plus four galleys that the wali had captured from the island. Another of the problems that Jaime I faced was the abandonment of the city by the troops once the military targets were achieved. Thus he sent Pedro Cornel to Barcelona to recruit 150 knights to finish conquering the rest of the island.
As a result of internal disputes among the conquerors over the distribution of the spoils, the Muslims who escaped were able to organise in the northern mountains of Majorca and last for two years, until mid-1232, when the complete conquest of the territory was accomplished. However, the majority of the Muslim population did not offer much resistance and remained disunited, facilitating the invasion.
To combat pockets of resistance that had been organised in the mountains, several cavalcades were organised. The first one, led by Jaime I, failed because the troops had little strength and were plagued with illness. The second raid took place in March, against the Muslims who had been hiding in the Tramuntana Mountains. A group of rebels were found there and they surrendered on condition that they agreed not to receive assistance from other Moorish groups who were in the mountains. While the Christians fulfilled the agreement, they took the opportunity to look for new arrivals. A detachment under the command of Pedro Maza found a cave where a large number of Muslims had hidden; the Muslims eventually surrendered.
Jaime I, having solved the major problems and eager to return home, decided to go back to Barcelona, naming Berenguer de Santa Eugenia as his lieutenant. Berenguer de Santa Eugenia later became governor of the island and was in charge of halting the Muslim resistance in the castles and mountains of Majorca.
Jaime I's return trip to Catalonia was carried out on 28 October 1230, arriving three days later in Barcelona. However, shortly afterwards, it was rumoured that a large Muslim squadron was forming in Tunisia to fight back and wrest control of the island. Thus, he returned to Majorca and managed to take the castles where part of the Muslim resistance was found: the castles of Pollensa, Santueri in Felanich, and the Alaró in the town of the same name. The last stronghold of the Saracen forces was in Pollensa, within what is known as the castle of the King, located on a hill 492 metres above sea level. Once he had taken these fortresses and was convinced that no army would come from Africa to confront him, he again returned to Catalonia.
During the period from 31 December 1229 to 30 October 1230, the towns located in the Pla, Migjorn, Llevant and the northeast of the island were taken. Finally, those who did not manage to flee to North Africa or to Menorca were reduced and turned into slaves, although a few managed to remain on their land.
The last pocket of resistance caused James I to again return to the island in May 1232, when about 2,000 Saracens, who had taken shelter in the mountains, refused to surrender or yield to anyone aside from Jaime I himself.
The mural paintings of the Conquest of Mallorca come from the old manor house of the Caldes family on Montcada street in Barcelona, later known as the Aguilar palace and which currently houses the Museu Picasso. Discovered and uprooted in 1961, these paintings are one of the most relevant examples of early Gothic or Linear Gothic Catalan painting. This magnificent example of historical-themed painting narrates the conquest of the island of Majorca by James I the Conqueror, which occurred in the year 1229. As if it were a painted chronicle, the episodes follow the detailed narration in Catalan medieval chronicles such as the Llibre dels Feits of King Jaime I and the Chronicle of Bernat Desclot.
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