| Battle of Barcelona | |||||||
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| Part of War of the Two Peters | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Crown of Castile Kingdom of Portugal Kingdom of Granada[1] |
Crown of Aragon | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Peter I of Castile |
Peter IV/III |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 81 naus, 41 galleys, 3 galiots, 3 lleños[2][3][4] |
10 galleys and a nau, several small vessels, several catapults and bombards[4][5] |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
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The Battle of Barcelona was a naval engagement fought off the city of Barcelona from 9 to 11 July 1359 between the navies of the Crowns of Aragon and Castile during the War of the Two Peters. Some months before a large Castilian fleet had been assembled by orders of the king of Castile Peter I at Seville, comprising royal vessels as well as ships from the King of Castile's vassals and some others sent by the Castilian-allied monarchs of Portugal and Granada. This large fleet, numbering 128 sailing and rowing warships, had been entrusted to the Genoese admiral Egidio Boccanegra, who was seconded by two of his relatives, Ambrogio and Bartolome.
Carrying aboard Peter I himself and many distinguished noblemen and knights, the Castilian fleet set sail from Seville on April and sailed along the coast of Valencia, surrendering the Castle of Guardamar and appearing before Barcelona on 9 July. 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 10 galleys, a nau and several small craft garrisoned by companies of crossbowmen, besides a line of siege weapons. Despite its inferior size, they managed to repulse the Castilian attacks in a two-day battle that saw the first use of artillery with naval purposes: a bombard was mounted aboard the Catalan nau and her shots heavily damaged one of the biggest naus of Peter I.[6]
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The War of the Two Peters broke in 1356 when a squadron of 9 Catalan galleys under Francesc de Perellós sent by the king Peter IV of Argon to assist the House of Valois in their succession conflict with the House of Plantagenet, captured near Sanlúcar de Barrameda two ships under the flag of the Republic of Genoa,[7] at that time engaged in a war against the Republic of Venice and the Crown of Aragon. The king Peter I of Castile, who was present at Sanlúcar during the event, feel offended and demanded Perellós the free of the Genoese vessels.[7]
Perellós refused Peter's demands and was therefore chased by Castilian warships till the Portuguese coast[8] Peter of Castile complained afterwards to the king Peter IV Aragon, but as he did not obtained the desired results, he declared war on the Crown of Aragon.[7] Wile both crowns promptly engaged in a bloody frontier war by land, on mid-1358 the naval campaign began with the landing of a Castilian army led by Peter I at the Valencian town of Guardamar, which was rapidly occupied.[9] Its castle, however, hold loger, and when a storm drove ashore most of the Castilian fleet, which included 6 hired Genoese galleys, Peter I had to set fire to them and return to Castile through Murcia, defeated.[2]
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.[2] The king Peter I of Portugal and Muhammed V, Sultan of Granada, also contributed to increase the size of Peter's fleet with some ships. In all, the Castilian expedition numbered 128 vessels, of which 28 galleys and 2 galiots were royal ships.[2] 80 other were atlantic naus from the Cantabrian Villas, while the Portuguese had sent 10 galleys and the Grenadines 3. A Venetian nau was also hired.[2] Peter hoisted his flag in a large nau captured to 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, other to Arias González de Valdés and the third to García Álvarez de Toledo.[2] The ships' crew consisted of 100 men-at-arms and 120 crossbowmen, besides its sailors and Peter's entourage.[2] This fleet set sail on April and sailed along the coast of Valencia, where the Castle of Guardamar was captured. On 9 July it was on sight of Barcelona.[10]
The naval forces gathered at the port of Barcelona when Peter I appeared off the city consisted of 10 well-armed galleys and some sailing ships, among them a huge one.[4] They were under the command of the generals Bernat III of Cabrera and Hug II of Cardona, with captains as Bernat and Gilabert de Cruilles, Bernat Margarit and Pere Asbert.[4] The king Peter of Aragon took the command of the fleet and detached the galleys in a line along the beach, with the huge nau in middle of the line.[4] All the vessels were covered by a shoal known as "Las Tascas", just before the Convent of Sant Nicolau de Bari till the road of Regomir. Four machines named brigoles were installed near the shores to give additional coverage to the ships, which were reinforced by many companies os crossbowmen arrived from the Vallès under the knights Ramón de Pujol, Ramón and Bernat Planella, Bernat de Perapetusa, Ramón Berenguer de Vilafranca and Humbert de Ballestar. Armed parties of Barcelona's civilians organized according to their office were also divided along the perimeter to support the fleet.[4]
According to the Castilian chronicler and captain López de Ayala, during the night the Catalans ran down numerous anchors before their line with the aim of keep the Castilian ships as they approached the port to began the attack.[6] Were true or not, the Castilian fleet sailed through the shoals and a stubborn battle ensued.[6] At the nightfall Peter I withdrew his vessels and the battle renewed at 10 AM, the following day.[5] Then the Catalan crossbowmen inflicted heavy casualties upon the Castilian seamen and soldiers, and the Catalan artillery also caused serious damage to many ships.[6] One of the biggest Castilian naus was hit twice by the fire of a bombard mounted aboard the largest Catalan nau, which demolished its castles and dismasted it.[6]
The Castilian fleet divided and part of the ships headed to the Llobregat river to get water, where they were confronted by many peasants of Barcelona and Sant Boi.[6] Peter I reorganized his forces and sailed to Ibiza, whose castle they put under siege. Peter IV had gathered a force of 50 galleys collected from Collioure which he entrusted to the admiral Count of Osona with Cardona as vice-admiral and relieved the island.[6] The Castilian army left the siege and was reembarked. Though he had numerical advantage, Peter I did not accept to battle and withdrew. He was pursued by 15 or 20 galleys under Bernat de Cabrera.[6] This force then anchored at the estuary of Denia. The Castilians were then willing of fight, but as the Aragonese position was strong and supported by lands forces, Peter I decided to sail back to Seville.[11] At his arrival Peter found that his armies had been defeated on 22 September in the largest land battle of the war at Araviana.[12]