Peter III's "Crusade"

When the revolt broke out in Sicily, Peter III of Aragon was assembling a fleet for his crusade against the Maghreb. If he used John of Procida and the Lancias to instigate a revolt in his favor, the timing of the uprising caught him by surprise. Yet, there is no indication that Peter hurried his preparations, and he seems to have handled the question of his intentions carefully and deftly. That he was preparing a large armada at Tortosa could scarcely be hidden. To assemble the fleet, he had to mobilize virtually every port from Colloure in the north to Valencia in the south, as well as raise the necessary funds for the expedition. These preparations took time, and the expedition was not ready until the end of May.

The scale of preparations could not be disguised and Muntaner proclaimed in his chronicle that "the whole world noticed." In fact, a number of potentates were concerned. The king of England, the king of Castile, and the king of Mallorca all asked Peter about his intentions, but received only vague answers. Even when Pope Martin IV sent an emissary with the promise of money and indulgences, Peter evaded the question and asked the pope not to be displeased with his refusal to answer. Philip III of France had little doubt that the fleet was ultimately directed at Sicily. In a message delivered to Peter at Port Fangos on the delta on May 20th, the king of France threatened war if Peter used the fleet against Charles. Despite the concern of virtually every other monarch in Western Europe about Peter's intentions, there is no evidence that Charles had any particular interest in his preparations.

The fleet sailed from Port Fangos on June 3rd, 1282 under sealed orders to be opened out of the sight of land. Despite a storm, the ships made their way to the island of Minorca in the Balearic Islands to reprovision. The choice of Minorca and not Mallorca indicates that Peter tried to keep the fleet as isolated as possible to prevent the information leaks. Again, the fleet put out under sealed orders that revealed the port of Collo on the Algerian coast as the destination. According to the chronicles, the goal of the expedition was support for the king of Constantina against his brother, but landing at Collo, the fleet discovered that the king's brother had taken the city and beheaded the king. Despite eventually taking Collo, resistance prevented Peter from moving against Constantina. If the real objective of the fleet was making a large part of the Maghreb subject to the Crown of Aragon, in early August the undertaking was less than successful, regardless of feats of arms noted in the chronicles. In fact, Peter was still encamped at the harbor of Collo and had not moved inland against Constantina. The expedition to the Maghreb may have been genuine, but it also put Peter in an excellent position to intervene swiftly in Sicily if the opportunity presented itself.