Roger de Flor and His Catalan Company: From Grand Duke to Caesar – Part II
Military adventurer and mercenary for hire, Roger de Flor was as shrewd a businessman as he was a skillful sailor and fighter. Through his rich services to kings and the elite, he established a reputation and became master mercenary of a dangerous force, the Catalan Company.
Roger’s new promotion to vice-admiral by Frederick III (Fadrique), king of Sicily, and being given castles were both tremendous gifts that needed to be repaid in his mind. Roger decided to double his efforts and made his way to Messina where he equipped five galleys “and proceeded to scour all the Principality and the Roman shore, and the strand of Pisa and Genoa and of Provence and of Catalonia and Spain and Barbary. And all he found, belonging to friend or foe, in coin or valuable goods, which he could put on board the galleys, he took.” Roger made sure that any wealth taken from his friends would be repaid once the war was over. Roger also went out of his way to spare the lives and ships of his enemies. When Roger returned to Sicily with gold and grain, “all the soldiers, horse and foot, were awaiting him as the Jews do the Messiah.”
Roger’s plundering along the Italian coasts would soon end, as King Fadrique made peace with Charles II. King Fadrique was able to keep Sicily, thus ending the war between Aragonese kings of Aragon and the French kings of Naples over the control of Sicily on 31 August 1302 in what became known as the Peace of Caltabellotta. Because of this, Roger and his men were out of job. With no money flowing to Roger’s coffers, the king understandably had no use for the mercenaries. Therefore, Roger sought employment elsewhere and found it in Byzantium.
