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Phase
c. 1302–1311
At the beginning of the fourteenth century, experienced Almogavar mercenaries from the western Mediterranean entered Byzantine service to fight Turkish forces in Anatolia. Under Roger de Flor, the Catalan Company won important victories but quickly became difficult for the imperial government to control.
The murder of Roger de Flor in 1305 triggered a violent Catalan retaliation across Thrace and Macedonia. The company survived attempts to destroy it, moved into Greece and defeated the forces of the Duke of Athens at Halmyros in 1311.
The episode combines mercenary warfare, Byzantine factional politics, crusading-era rivalries and the collapse of authority in the eastern Mediterranean.
Series
The Catalan Chronicles follow Luca Baldi, a Sicilian shepherd forced into the company of the Almogavars at the beginning of the fourteenth century. The four novels carry him from Constantinople and the Byzantine campaigns in Anatolia through the murder of Roger de Flor, the Catalan Vengeance in Thrace…
