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Roger of Lauria
Roger of Lauria | |
|---|---|
 Statue of Roger of Lauria in Barcelona. | |
| Born | 17 January 1245 |
| Died | 19 January 1305 (aged 60) |
| Spouse | Saurina de Entenza |
| Children | See Marriages and issue |
| Relatives | Riccardo di Lauria (father) Donna Bella d'Amico (mother) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  Kingdom of Sicily Crown of Aragon |
Branch | Navy |
Rank | Admiral |
Conflicts | War of the Sicilian Vespers |
Roger I of Lauria (or of Loria, Ruggiero di Lauria in Italian)[lower-alpha 1][1] (Scalea, Calabria, Kingdom of Sicily, 17 January 1245 – Cocentaina, Kingdom of Valencia, 19 January 1305) was an Italian seaman and military man from the peninsular Mezzogiorno of the Italian Peninsula,[2] in the service of the Crown of Aragon.
He was admiral of the fleet of the Crown of Aragon and of Sicily, which he led brilliantly throughout the reign of Peter III the Great of Aragon. He was granted the County of Cocentaina (Alicante) as a reward for his military career in the service of the Crown of Aragon.
Biography
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He was born on 17 January 1245 in Scalea (Calabria), the son of Riccardo di Lauria and Donna Bella d'Amico (wet nurse of Constance Hohenstaufen, later wife of Peter III of Aragon), whom he accompanied as a child.[3] He was the nephew of Count Guglielmo d'Amico, Baron of Ficarra, brother of Donna Bella.[4] The family held fiefs in Sicily and Lucania (Lauria, 37 km from Scalea, the fief that gave its name to his paternal family: di Lauria), although both his mother's family (d'Amico) and his father's lost all their property and possessions, which were confiscated by Charles of Anjou.
He took advantage of his stay at the court of Aragon to train in the art of arms, as well as to cultivate his intellect. The chronicle of Ramon Muntaner states that he was educated in Catalan culture: «en axí apreseren del cathalanesch de cascún loch de Cathalunya e del regne de València»[5] This closeness strengthened the bonds of friendship with Peter III of Aragon, the future King, who later knighted him together with Corrado Lancia, who in the course of time would become his brother-in-law, since a sister of Corrado married Ruggiero.[6]
In Messina, on 20 April 1283, King Peter III of Aragon appointed him Admiral of the Crown of Aragon.[7][8][9]
He defended Sicily and the rights of the kings of the Crown of Aragon against the Angevins after the Sicilian Vespers, defeating a French fleet under the command of Charles of Anjou in the vicinity of Malta. In 1284 he defeated the Prince of Taranto (heir to the Neapolitan throne) in the Bay of Naples and carried out a spectacular campaign in Calabria. He then went to Catalonia, at the request of Peter III of Aragon, to confront the French. The most notable victory he won was over the French fleet of Philip III, at the Battle of Les Formigues, on 3 and 4 September 1285. In this way he broke the lines of communication of the French invaders in Catalonia and completely ruined the French naval power of the time. He also took part in the Battle of the Col de Panissars (in Catalan, Coll de Panissars) in 1285. Utterly defeated, the French troops abandoned the territories of the Crown of Aragon in Catalonia that same year.
The triumphs of Admiral of Lauria were based on technical innovations. The attacks did not rely solely on boarding and the use of the sword, but on the use of rams and crossbows, whether hand-held or, in the case of the largest ones, mounted on parapets placed on the ships.
The seaman's feats in the Mediterranean Sea were remarkable. Questioned by the Count of Foix, emissary of the King of France, the chronicler Bernat Desclot puts these words in the mouth of Roger of Lauria (1285):
«Sir, not only do I not believe that any galley or other vessel would attempt to sail the sea without a safe-conduct from the King of Aragon, nor any galley or leño either, but I do not believe that any fish would attempt to rise above the sea unless it bears on its tail the seal with the ensign of the King of Aragon to show the safe-conduct of the Aragonese King.»
When James II acceded to the throne of Aragon, he should have ceded the Sicilian throne to the Angevins, with whom he had signed peace. However, his younger brother Frederick accepted the crown that the Sicilians had offered him and fought for the crown against the Angevins and his brother. Although Roger at first supported Frederick, shortly afterward he placed himself in the service of James. With his Sicilian territories confiscated and branded a traitor, he defeated the Infante Frederick at Capo d'Orlando and Ponza. Once the Peace of Caltabellota had been signed in 1302 between the two brothers, Roger retired to his county in Cocentaina, where he died.
He was buried at Santes Creus, a Cistercian monastery, at the foot of the tomb of Peter the Great of Aragon. A monument was also dedicated to him at the end of the Rambla Nova in Tarragona, the work of the sculptor Feliu Ferrer Galzeran.
Influence
The Spanish Navy intended to name the F-102 Roger de Lauria, but finally decided to honor the memory of the father of King Juan Carlos I by naming it Almirante Juan de Borbón. Later, in 2006, it ordered the construction of a frigate of the F-100 series that would bear his name.
In a new change of mind, reflected in the Boletín Oficial de Defensa of 26 August 2009, it was decided that the F-105 would bear the name "Cristóbal Colón", a name equally traditional in the Navy. According to data from the Ministry of Defense, it would propose naming the second ship of the upcoming F110 frigate series after him.
The II Bandera of the Paratrooper Brigade of the Spanish Army bears his name.
Marriages and issue
In July 1279 he married Margarita Lanza (Margherita Lancia),[6][10][lower-alpha 2] daughter of Galeotto Lancia, Count of Atri, killed in combat in 1268, and of his wife Gubitosa d'Aquino, daughter of Tommaso II d'Aquino (d. 1273), Count of Acerra, a relative of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and of his wife Margherita di Svevia or di Hohenstaufen, natural daughter of Emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire,[11] and from this marriage were born:
- Roger II of Lauria, who married the noblewoman Faida de Mauleó in 1321.[12]
- Beatriz de Lauria (d. c. 1346), 1st Lady of Cocentaina, married in 1296 to James II of Jérica, 2nd Baron of Jérica, Liria, Andilla and Altura, and alférez mayor of Aragon, son of James I of Jérica and of his wife and relative Elfa Álvarez de Azagra, and paternal grandson of James I of Aragon, the Conqueror, and of his third wife Teresa Gil de Vidaure.[13] They were the parents, among others, of James III of Jérica, Peter I of Jérica —son-in-law of Hugh II of Arborea— and Beatriz de Jérica, wife of Pedro Ponce de León the Elder, and the maternal grandparents of Beatriz Ponce de León, mistress of King Henry II of Castile, with issue.
- Jofredina de Lauria, wife of Ot de Montcada, 9th seneschal of Catalonia[14]
In 1285 Roger married again, to Saurina de Entenza, daughter of Berenguer de Entenza and his wife, by whom he had issue:
- Giovanni de Lauria
- Carlo de Lauria Entenza (c. 1292–1310), Lord of Lauria from 1308 to 1310
- Margaretta de Lauria (c. 1294 – c. 1343), married to Bernat de Vilaragut
- Niccolò de Lauria Entenza, Lord of Taormina (signore della porta di Taormina) in 1338,[15] and of his wife Albertina Abbate.[16]
- Elisabetta de Lauria, Lady of Taormina,[17] who married Francesco II of Ventimiglia, 13th Count of Geraci, Viceroy of Sicily.[18]
- Ruggero Berenguer de Lauria Entenza (d. c. 1328), Lord of Lauria, Lagonegro, Ravello, Maratea, Castelluccio, Rotonda, Papasidero and Laveno in 1305; Lord of Scalea and Mileto in 1310
- Roberto de Lauria, who died before his father.
Notes
- ↑ His given name appears as Roger, Ruggier, Ruggero or Ruggiero, and his surname as Lauria, Llúria, Lloria or Loria.
- ↑ According to Moxó, Margarita was the niece of Admiral Conrado Lanza and the sister of another man of the same name, the two being frequently confused. Her brother Conrado married a sister of Roger, Margarita's husband, and they were the parents of Hugo de Lanza y Lauria, lord of Limbaccari.
References
- ↑ "Joseph R. Strayer: Medieval Statecraft and Perspectives of History. Roger of Lauria (Ruggiero di Lauria or Roger de Loria), Italian admiral died in 1305".
- ↑ "Encyclopædia Britannica: Ruggiero di Lauria, Italian admiral in the service of Aragon and Sicily who won important naval victories over the French Angevins".
- ↑ Villani, Tomo II, libro IX, capitolo XXIX.
- ↑ Della Sicilia Nobile, Volume 2, Francesco Maria Emanuele e Gaetani Villabianca (marchese di), Stamperia de Santi Apostoli, Palermo MDCCLVII, pp. 528 and 529.
- ↑ Muntaner, Ramon (1979). "Crònica": 44.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ↑ 6.0 6.1 La guerra del Vespro Siciliano, Michele Amari, Seconda Edizione, Parigi 1843, p. 89.
- ↑ La guerra del Vespro Siciliano, Michele Amari, Seconda Edizione, Parigi 1843, p. 225.
- ↑ Vidas de españoles célebres, Manuel José Quintana, Tomo II, Librería de B Cormon y Blanc, París MDCCCXXVII, p. 176.
- ↑ Sulle famiglie nobili della monarchia di Savoia, Vittorio Angius, Vol. IV, Tipografia di Giuseppe Cassone, Torino 1837, p. 316.
- ↑ Moxó 1990, p. 91.
- ↑ "Encyclopædia Britannica: Frederick II,Holy Roman emperor (Iesi, December 1194 - Castel Fiorentino, 13 December 1250)".
- ↑ Sáinz de la Maza Lasoli, Regina (1994). El Monasterio de Sijena: Catálogo de documentos del Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (in español). Vol. I (1208-1348). Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Institución Milá y Fontanals. p. 181. ISBN 84-00-07450-5.
- ↑ Moxó 1990, p. 216.
- ↑ Moxó 1990, p. 160.
- ↑ He made his will on 15 January 1372. Repertorio della feudalita Siciliana (1282-1390), la famiglie feudali, p. 444.
- ↑ Teatro genologico delle famiglie nobili titolate feudatarie ed antiche nobili del fidelissimo Regno di Sicilia viuenti ed estinte, Parte III, Filadelfo Mugnos, Stamparia di Giacomo Mattei, Messina 1670, p. 523.
- ↑ Elisabetta made her will on 15 January 1372.
- ↑ Invested in 1353.
Bibliography
- Della Sicilia Nobile, Volume 2, Francesco Maria Emanuele e Gaetani Villabianca (marchese di), Stamperia de Santi Apostoli, Palermo MDCCLVII.
- La guerra del Vespro Siciliano, Michele Amari, Seconda Edizione, Parigi 1843.
- Vidas de españoles célebres, Manuel José Quintana, Tomo II, Librería de B Cormon y Blanc, París MDCCCXXVII.
- Sulle famiglie nobili della monarchia di Savoia, Vittorio Angius, Vol. IV, Tipografia di Giuseppe Cassone, Torino 1837.
- Teatro genologico delle famiglie nobili titolate feudatarie ed antiche nobili del fidelissimo Regno di Sicilia viuenti ed estinte, Parte III, Filadelfo Mugnos, Stamparia di Giacomo Mattei, Messina 1670.
- Repertorio della feudalita Siciliana (1282-1390), la famiglie feudali.
- Infiesta Pérez, José Luis (2003). Roger de Llúria. Gent nostra n.º 126 (in català) (1st ed.). Barcelona: Infiesta. ISBN 84-931820-6-0.
- "Roger de Lauria". The 1911 Classic Encyclopedia. Based on the 11th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (pub. 1911). Archived from the original on 25 July 2008. Retrieved 15 September 1911.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: Check date values in:|access-date=(help) - Moxó y de Montoliu, Francisco de (1990). La Casa de Luna (1276-1348): factor político y lazos de sangre en la ascensión de un linaje aragonés (in español). Münster, Westfalen:Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung. ISBN 3-402-05825-1.
{{cite book}}: External link in|title=
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