| 1113–1115 Balearic Islands expedition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theCrusades | |||||||
 Thetaifa of the Balearics (green), with its capital (Mallorca), the Crusaders' chief target, indicated. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Republic of Pisa Catalan counties County of Provence Giudicato of Torres Papal States | Taifa of Majorca Almoravids | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Pietro Moriconi Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona Hug II of Empúries Saltaro of Torres | Abu-l-Rabi Sulayman (POW) Abu al-Mundhir † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 300 Pisan ships 150 Catalan and Provençal ships | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | High | ||||||
In 1114, anexpedition to theBalearic Islands, then aMuslimtaifa, was launched in the form of aCrusade. Founded on a treaty of 1113 between theRepublic of Pisa andRamon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, the expedition had the support ofPope Paschal II and the participation of many lords ofCatalonia andOccitania, as well as contingents from northern and centralItaly,Sardinia, andCorsica. The Crusaders were perhaps inspired by theNorwegian kingSigurd I's attack onFormentera in 1108 or 1109 during theNorwegian Crusade.[1] The expedition ended in 1115 in the conquest of the Balearics, but only until the next year. The main source for the event is the PisanLiber maiolichinus, completed by 1125.
In 1085Pope Gregory VII had granted suzerainty over the Balearics to Pisa.[2] In September 1113 a Pisan fleet making an expedition toMajorca was put off course by a storm and ended up nearBlanes on the coast of Catalonia, which they initially mistook for the Balearics.[3] The Pisans met with the Count of Barcelona in the port ofSant Feliu de Guíxols, where on 7 September they signed a treatycausa corroborandae societatis et amicitiae ('for strengthening [their] alliance and friendship'). Specifically the Pisans were exempted from theusagium and thejus naufragii in all the territories, present and future, of the Count of Barcelona, thoughArles andSaint-Gilles, in the recently acquiredMarch of Provence, were singled out for special mention (three times).[4]
The only surviving copy of the treaty between Pisa and Barcelona is found interpolated in a charter ofJames I granted to Pisa in 1233. It affirms that the meeting was unplanned and apparently arranged by God.[5] Some scholars have expressed doubt about the lack of preparation, citing the Catalans' rapid response to the presence of the Pisans as evidence of some previous contact.[6] The attribution of the meeting toProvidence alone may have been concocted to add an "aura of sacredness" to the alliance and the crusade.[4]
The treaty, or what survives of it, does not refer to military cooperation or a venture against Majorca; perhaps that agreement was oral, or perhaps its record has been lost, but a Crusade was planned for 1114. The chief goal was the freeing of Christian captives and the suppression of Muslim piracy.[7] Most of the Pisan fleet returned to Pisa, but some ships damaged by the storm remained to be repaired and some men remained behind to constructsiege engines.[8] In the spring of 1114 a new fleet of eighty ships arrived from Pisa, following the French coast, briefly staying atMarseille.[9]
The fleet brought with itCardinal Bosone, an envoy from Paschal II, who vigorously supported the expedition, authorising it in abull as early as 1113.[2] Paschal had also granted the Pisans theRomana signa, sedis apostolicae vexillum ("Roman standard, the flag of the apostolic see"),[10] and his appeals for the expedition had borne fruit. Besides the 300 ships of the Pisan contingent, there were 120 Catalan and Occitan vessels (plus a large army), contingents from the Italian cities ofFlorence,Lucca,Pistoia,Rome,Siena, andVolterra, and from Sardinia and Corsica underSaltaro, the son ofConstantine I of Logudoro. Among the Catalan princes there were Ramon Berenguer,Hug II of Empúries, andRamon Folc II of Cardona.[11] The most important lords of Occitania participated, with the exception of theCount of Toulouse,Alfonso Jordan:William V of Montpellier, with twenty ships;Aimeric II of Narbonne, with twenty ships; andRaymond I of Baux, with seven ships.[11]Bernard Ato IV, the chief of theTrencavel family, also participated.[12] Ramon Berenguer and his wife,Douce, borrowed 100morabatins from theRamon Guillem, theBishop of Barcelona, to finance the expedition.[citation needed]
The combined Crusader fleet raidedIbiza in June, and destroyed its defences, since Ibiza lay between Majorca and the mainland and would have posed a continued threat during a siege. TheLiber maiolichinus also records the taking of captives, who were trying to hide incareae (probably caves), on Formentera.[13] Ibiza was under Crusader control by August.[12] The CrusadersinvestedPalma de Majorca in August 1114.[14] As the siege dragged on the counts of Barcelona and Empúries entered into peace negotiations with the Muslim ruler of Majorca, but the cardinal andPietro Moriconi, theArchbishop of Pisa, interfered to put an end to the discussions. Probably the Catalan rulers, whose lands lay nearest the Balearics, expected an annual payment ofparias (tribute) from the Muslims and the cessation of pirate raids in return for lifting the siege.[14]
Muslim reinforcements,Almoravids from the Iberian port ofDenia, surprised a Pisan flotilla of six in the waters off Ibiza, with only two of the Pisan vessels making it to safety, which consisted of the remains of a fortress burned by the king of Norway a decade earlier.[13] In April 1115 the city capitulated and its entire population was enslaved. This victory was followed by the capture of most of the Balearics' major settlements and the freeing of most captive Christians on the islands. The independent Muslimtaifa ruler was taken back to Pisa a captive.[15] The greatest victory, however, was the annihilation of Majorcan piracy.[citation needed]
The conquest of the Balearics lasted no more than a few months. In 1115 they were reconquered by the Almoravids of peninsular Iberia.[14][16]