CHAPTER II

Conquest of Minorca by Alfonso III.--The Barbary pirates

The young King Alfonso III. of Aragon, having usurped the government of Majorca, as has been related in the story of that island,[33] came to a sudden determination to drive the Moors out of Minorca. He made a pretext that the Almojarife had thwarted his father’s designs on the coast of Barbary by giving early information to his co-religionists. Alfonso also said that when his uncle’s dominions were restored to him, the acquisition of Minorca would make up for the temporary deprivation. This hopeful young king had not begun well. He was unjust, wayward, and sometimes cruel. He acted on the spur of the moment. Had he lived, the promised son-in-law of the great King Edward of England might have become a more stable and right-minded prince. At this time he cared very little for a pretext in making war, and his resolutions were very hastily formed.

The consequence was that he chose the stormiest period of the winter for his expedition, sending to his brother Fadrique, in Sicily, to supply him with forty well-armed galleys. He then assembled the nobles of his kingdom at Tarragona, and was granted five hundred cavalry and a large army of _almogavares_.[34] The fleet of armed ships and transports numbered 120 sail. En Pedro Cornel was appointed general of the forces, and knights of the families of Luna, Entenza, Anglesola accompanied the King. Garcia Gorcas de Aracuri of Aragon and Acart de Mur of Catalonia were masters of the camp.

The terrible news reached the Almojarife[35] of Minorca. His consternation was great, for the danger was imminent. The impulsive young king cared less than nothing for the written grant given by En Jayme to the Moorish chief. The Almojarife sent to Barbary to entreat for help from the chiefs of Bugia, Bona, Tremecen, and Constantia. In a short time 900 cavalry and 5,000 foot soldiers arrived from Africa, which would enable the Moors to face their enemies with a respectable force.

The King of Aragon left Salou with his fleet, arriving at Majorca on December 2, 1285, where he passed Christmas. Muntaner tells us that the cold of that winter was intense, and that a man might as well have been in the frozen steppes of the Don. The hands of some of the oarsmen were frostbitten, and the troops suffered from the severity of the winter.

After the Christmas festivities were over, the King ordered the fleet to make sail in the worst possible weather. The ships were scarcely clear of the land when a furious gale sprang up and scattered the fleet. Alfonso arrived at Port Mahon with only twenty galleys, and occupied one of the rocky islands in the harbour, waiting for the rest of his forces.

The Moors were ready to receive him. They had a large army, composed partly of the auxiliaries sent from Africa and partly of natives of the island. Seeing them drawn up in battle array, the impetuous young King resolved to attack them without waiting for reinforcements. He had a few companies of _almogavares_ and four hundred horse. A very desperate and well-contested battle was the result. Alfonso was in the thick of the fight, giving many proofs of valour and dexterity as a swordsman. In spite of the great inferiority in numbers, the Catalans were victorious, the Moors retreating in confusion to a hill which, owing to the great slaughter, received the name of ‘El Degollador.’ The battlefield was situated on a plain a little to the westward of the present castle of San Felipe.

A day or two afterwards there was another fight, owing to the conduct of a young knight named Berenguer de Tornamira, who, to show his own valour, attacked the Moors without orders with a small force. If succour had not been promptly despatched he would certainly have been overwhelmed. As it was, the Moors were driven back. The Almojarife then took refuge, with the remnant of his forces, in the castle on Mount Santa Agueda. Alfonso, always hasty and violent, ordered Tornamira’s head to be cut off; but he afterwards yielded to the prayers and remonstrances of his nobles and consented to spare the young knight’s life. The losses in these two battles were very heavy, especially on the side of the Moors. By this time the rest of the fleet, with troops on board, had arrived at Port Mahon.

Alfonso then advanced to the castle of Santa Agueda, and made preparations for a siege; but the Almojarife saw that all hope was gone, and sent four of his principal ministers to ask for the acceptance of the terms he offered. They were that he would surrender the castle and the whole island if he and his people were provided with shipping to proceed to Barbary, paying 7-1/2 _doblas_ a head for every Moorish man or woman that embarked. The Almojarife also asked to be allowed to take his books, clothes, and fifty swords. The ship was to take him to Ceuta or some other port in Africa. The King consented to the terms, and his favourite, Blasco Jimenes de Ayerba, was instructed to make the necessary arrangement. There was a Genoese vessel at Port Mahon, which was hired and supplied with provisions, and the unfortunate chief, with his family and about a hundred other people who were able to pay the ransom, embarked. Whether the ship went down in a gale of wind, or whether there was foul play, no one will ever know. It is certain that she never was heard of again. The story of Carbonell that the unfortunate fugitives were thrown overboard by order of the King, after paying their ransoms, need not be believed.

The rest of the population was at the mercy of the conquerors, to the number of about twenty thousand. They were either forced to work at the new buildings ordered to be erected, or sent to Sicily and Barcelona to be sold as slaves.

The date of the capitulation was January 17, 1288, St. Anthony’s Day, which was ever afterwards kept as a holiday, with processions and other festivities. Alfonso remained in Minorca until the following March, leaving orders for a town to be built, with a fortified wall, at Port Mahon. He died three years afterwards at Barcelona, aged twenty-seven.

Don Juan Ramis y Ramis, the chronicler of Minorca, recorded the prowess of the young King and the conquest of the island in a poem entitled ‘Alonsiada.’

Pedro de Lesbia, a native of Valencia, was left as the first Christian Procurator-General of Minorca. The whole Moorish population appears to have been rooted out of the island and replaced by Catalan settlers. Ciudadela, at the western end, became the capital, as it was in Moorish times; while Port Mahon was the principal commercial port.

In a small island like Minorca a population could soon be extirpated by ruthless invaders without pity or remorse and actuated by unreasoning bigotry. Their cruelties were not only condoned but encouraged by their priests. It is a revolting picture. There was an industrious and happy people, engaged in cultivating a not very grateful soil, which needed much toil and no little skill to induce it to yield harvests sufficient for the wants of a frugal population. In homes endeared to them by centuries of occupation, and surrounded by their wives and children, they were living in peace and comparative prosperity, and enjoying the hard-earned fruits of their toil. The land tax, paid in kind, was the regular source of revenue in all Muhammadan countries. In Minorca the Almojarife, or collector, appears to have been the hereditary chief of the island. Suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, in a few days total destruction came upon them. Thousands were killed, all their chief men with their families disappeared, all their property was seized, wives were torn from husbands, children from parents, and sold into slavery.

Turning away from the horrors of this scene of cruelty and wrong, we may assume an interval of confusion, and then the farms and villages of the Moors are occupied by Catalan families equally industrious and hard-working. The Christians were exposed to heavier exactions and suffered under a less enlightened rule, so that perhaps we should give them even greater credit than their predecessors for the way in which they extracted the means of supporting themselves and their families from the stony fields.

Minorca continued to share the fortunes of the larger island under her own kings, under the Kings of Aragon, and under the Austrian dynasty of Spain. The form of government was the same as that granted to Majorca by En Jayme.

The smaller island suffered equally with Majorca from the raids of Barbary pirates, who carried off many unfortunate people into slavery. All the islanders rejoiced at the campaign against Tunis, led by the Emperor Charles V. in person, who liberated several thousands of Christian slaves in 1535. Yet the piracies did not cease, or only for a time. Barbarossa, the piratical leader, undeterred by the fall of Tunis, fitted out a fleet of eleven galleys and made sail for the Balearic Islands. His fleet entered Port Mahon with Christian banners flying, to deceive the soldiers in the fort and the inhabitants, who were completely taken in. Bells were rung and guns fired in honour of what was supposed to be a part of the Emperor’s fleet. A boat with some Franciscan friars approached the galleys and discovered the mistake. They pulled back to the shore, raised a warning, and the gates of the town were closed.

Barbarossa landed 2,500 Moors and some guns, with which he battered the walls of the town and made a breach. His assault was, however, repulsed. The people of Ciudadela assembled three hundred men, but seeing that the enemy was so powerful they did not venture upon an attack at first. They sent a messenger to warn the besieged that they should be ready to make a sortie when the relief approached. Then most of the three hundred advanced, and occupied the attention of the enemy while the besieged hastily repaired the breaches in the walls. A second assault was gallantly repulsed, and the pirate chief began to feel rather insecure at Port Mahon, expecting the return of the Emperor’s fleet from Tunis.

Fortunately for Barbarossa, the besieged lost heart and surrendered the town to him on terms which he never dreamt of keeping. He made slaves of eight hundred of the inhabitants. The churches were pillaged and profaned. The Guardian of San Francisco had partaken of the Sacrament to save the Host from profanation. The Moors entered and seized all the valuables, but did not find the Host in the pyx. Barbarossa asked where it was, and when the Franciscan replied that he had eaten it to preserve it from profanation, he was ordered out for execution and suffered death with two other friars.

This was in the year 1536. The Governor of the island had remained at Ciudadela, and when six citizens arrived from Port Mahon, who had been released by Barbarossa because they advised the surrender, the Governor ordered them to be put to death. Barbarossa and his Moors evacuated Port Mahon and departed with his plunder and with many wretched people to be sold into slavery. The Emperor was greatly distressed at these repeated acts of piracy, and in 1541 he fitted out a second expedition, this time against Algiers. Again he led the expedition in person; but it was a failure owing to the furious gales and deluges of rain.

The islands were kept in a constant state of alarm. In 1558 a Turkish fleet of 140 vessels hove in sight. Ciudadela and Port Mahon had been put in the best possible posture of defence, when fifteen thousand Turks were landed, under a leader named Mustapha. Having occupied the open country, they laid siege to Ciudadela, which was held by a garrison of seven hundred men. A battery of artillery was planted against the walls, and, after making a breach, three assaults were delivered and gallantly repulsed. The besieged Minorcans were resolved to defend the place to the death, and they would have done so if it had not been for a disastrous accident. The magazine caught fire and all their powder was destroyed. The men proposed to their leaders, Arquimbau, the Lieutenant-Governor, and Captain Noyet, to attempt to fight their way to Port Mahon. They came out, the men of Alayor and Mercadal leading, women and children in the centre, and the rest of the garrison bringing up the rear, under Arquimbau. The Turks attacked them furiously, and only 150 got back into the town. On July 10 another assault was delivered, and at last the place was taken. Many of the besieged were killed in cold blood, and the rest were carried off to be sold as slaves. On the same day the Turks embarked and made sail.

The Viceroy, Don Guillermo Rocafull, was not in the island. He returned at once and proceeded to repair the fortifications of Ciudadela, bringing several families to re-people the place from Majorca and Valencia. The castle of San Felipe at Port Mahon was also repaired and strengthened.

The piracies continued until well into the eighteenth century, and kept the people in a constant state of terror and alarm; but confidence slowly returned, and Minorca had long been free from actual invasion when the War of the Succession broke out, after the death of Charles II., the last of the Austrian Kings of Spain.