|
The Battle of Barcelona (June 9–11, 1359) was a naval engagement fought in the coastal region of Barcelona, Spain, between the navies of the Crowns of Aragon and Castile, during the War of the Two Peters. A number of months beforehand, a large Castilian fleet had been assembled at Seville by order of the King of Castile, Peter I. Consisting of 128 warships including royal vessels, ships from the King of Castile's vassals, and several others that had been sent by the Castilian-allied monarchs of Portugal and Granada, this large fleet had been entrusted to the Genoese admiral, Egidio Boccanegra, who was seconded by two of his relatives, Ambrogio and Bartolome. With Peter I also on board, as well as many distinguished noblemen and knights, the Castilian fleet set sail from Seville in April. Traversing the coast of Valencia and forcing the surrender of the Castle of Guardamar, it appeared before Barcelona on June 9. The king, Peter IV of Aragon and III of Barcelona, who was present at the city, organized the defense, together with the counts, Bernat III of Cabrera and Hug II of Cardona. The Catalans disposed of ten galleys, a nau, and several small craft garrisoned by companies of crossbowmen, besides a line of siege weapons. Despite its inferior size, the fleet managed to repulse the Castilian attacks in a two-day battle that saw the first use of naval artillery: a bombard was mounted aboard the Catalan nau and her shots heavily damaged one of the biggest naus of Peter I. ==Background== The "War of the Two Peters" broke out in 1356, when a squadron of nine Catalan galleys under Francesc de Perellós (sent by King Peter IV of Aragon to assist the House of Valois in their succession conflict with the House of Plantagenet) captured two ships under the flag of the Republic of Genoa near Sanlúcar de Barrameda. At that time, the captured ships were engaged in a war against the Republic of Venice and the Crown of Aragon. King Peter I of Castile, who was present at Sanlúcar during the event, felt offended and demanded that the Genoese vessels be liberated from Perellós.〔 Perellós refused Peter's demands and was chased by Castilian warships as far as the Portuguese coast. Peter of Castile complained afterwards to King Peter IV of Aragon, but as he did not obtain the desired results, he declared war on the Crown of Aragon.〔 While both crowns promptly engaged in a bloody frontier war by land, in mid-1358 the naval campaign began with the landing of a Castilian army at the Valencian town of Guardamar. Led by Peter I, they quickly occupied the town. Its castle, however, held out for longer, and when a storm drove most of the Castilian fleet ashore, including six hired Genoese galleys, Peter I had to set them on fire and return to Castile through Murcia, defeated.〔 The following year Peter of Castile organized a larger expedition. Numerous ships were built at the shipyards of Seville, and many others were requested from Cantabria.〔 The king, Peter I of Portugal, and Muhammed V, Sultan of Granada, also contributed ships to the increase in Peter's fleet. In all, the Castilian expedition numbered 128 vessels, of which twenty-eight galleys and two galiots were royal ships.〔 Eighty others were Atlantic naus from the Cantabrian ''Villas'', while the Portuguese and the Granadines sent ten and three galleys, respectively; a Venetian nau was also hired.〔 Peter hoisted his flag in a large nau captured from the Marinids during the Siege of Algeciras by Alfonso X, which had been reinforced with three castles, one of them entrusted to the chronicler and naval captain, Pedro López de Ayala; another was entrusted to Arias González de Valdés, while the third was overseen by García Álvarez de Toledo.〔 The ship's crew consisted of 100 men-at-arms and 120 crossbowmen, along with its sailors and Peter's entourage.〔 This fleet set sail on April and moved along the coast of Valencia, where the Castle of Guardamar was captured. On June 9 it was within sight of Barcelona. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Barcelona (1359)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|