If Charles of Anjou
was concerned about
his son, his activities did not reflect it, for after putting down the
revolt in Naples he moved south on June 24th with a large army and a fleet
he had assembled at Brindisi. Charles recaptured much of the lost
territory in Calabria and moved on to lay siege to Reggio in
late July
1284 (A 16th century depiction of Reggio to the right). In no position to
challenge the Angevin fleet directly, Roger kept his fleet in Messina
until an opportune moment presented itself. Possibly because of the lack
of immediate resistance from the Aragonese fleet, or the expectation that
Reggio would be captured swiftly, Charles decided to cross over to Sicily,
landing at Catona.
Despite his capture of Catona, Charles was unable to
expand his control of the area around the city and after repeated attempts
the Angevin forces were unable to capture Reggio, thus leaving this enemy
port astride the French lines of communication. Moreover, a storm had
arisen that not only severely damaged the Angevin squadron supporting the
assault on Catona, but which also allowed Roger of Lauria to slip out of
Messina, get behind the Angevin fleet, and threaten it from the rear.
In response to this threat, Charles lifted the siege of Catona and
sailed back to Reggio.
What had started with such success for Charles soon turned into another Angevin rout. Roger joined with a squadron of fourteen Catalan galleys sent to Sicily by Peter III under the command of Raymond Marquett and began to raid the Tyrrhenian coast, resulting in the capture of several towns, including Nicotera and Castrovillari. Charles was unable to counter these attacks because his retreat from Sicily and the failure to take Reggio had demoralized the Angevin forces and led to widespread desertions. He also was plagued by a lack of supplies, which only acerbated the situation. To avoid the Aragonese and Catalan raiders, Charles retreated inland towards Brindisi on August 7th, and in doing so forfeited all of Calabria. Prince James quickly crossed the Straits and took possession of the new territory captured by Roger. Moreover, Charles lost a large portion of southern Apulia when a force of almugavars under Matthew Fortuna landed and seized most of the towns in the Val di Crati region. What had started as an attempt to oust the Crown of Aragon from its foothold in Calabria had resulted in the Angevins being evicted from Calabria and a large portion of Apulia. The Catalan-Aragonese fleet had just given the Angevins a taste of the aggressive amphibious warfare that it was capable of waging. This would not be the last time.
