ALMOGAVARES (from the Arab. Al-Mugavari, a scout),
the name of a class of Spanish soldiers, well known during
the Christian reconquest of Spain, and much employed as
mercenaries in Italy and the Levant, during the 13th and 14th
centuries. The Almogavares (the plural of Almogavar)
came originally from the Pyrenees, and were in later times
recruited mainly in Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia. They were
frontiersmen and foot-soldiers who wore no armour, dressed in
skins, were shod with brogues (abarcas), and carried the same
arms as the Roman legionaries--two heavy javelins (Spanish
azagaya, the Roman pilum), a short stabbing sword and a
shield. They served the king, the nobles, the church or the
towns for pay, and were professional soldiers. When Peter
III. of Aragon made war on Charles of Anjou after the Sicilian
Vespers--30th of March 1282--for the possession of Naples and
Sicily, the Almogavares formed the most effective element
of his army. Their discipline and ferocity, the force with
which they hurled their javelins, and their activity, made
them very formidable to the heavy cavalry of the Angevin
armies. When the peace of Calatabellota in 1302 ended the
war in southern Italy, the Almogavares followed Roger di
Flor (Roger Blum) the unfrocked Templar, who entered the
service of the emperor of the East, Andronicus, as condottieri
to fight against the Turks. Their campaign in Asia Minor,
1303 and 1304, was a series of romantic victories, but their
greed and violence made them intolerable to the Christian
population. When Roger di Flor was assassinated by his Greek
employerin 1305, they turned on the emperor, held Galhpoh and
ravaged the neighbourhood of Constantinople. In 1310 they
marched against the duke of Athens, of the French house of
Brienne. Walter of Brienne was defeated and slain by them with
all his knights at the battle of Cephissus, or Orchomenus, in
Boeotia in March. They then divided the wives and possessions
of the Frenchmen by lot and summoned a prince of the house
of Aragon to rule over them. The foundation of the Aragonese
duchy of Athens was the culmination of the achievements
of the Almogavares. In the 16th century the name died
out. It was, however, revived for a short time as a party
nickname in the civil wars of the reign of Ferdinand VII.
AUTHORITIES.---The Almogavares are admirably described by
one who fought with them, Ramon de Muntaner, whose Chronicle
has been translated into French by J. A. Buchon, Chronioues
etrangeres (Paris, 1860). The original test was reprinted and
edited by K. Lanz at Stuttgart, 1844. See also the Expedition
des "Almugavares" ou routiers catalans en orient, de l'an
1302 a l'an 1311 by G. Schlumberger (Paris, 1902). (D. H.)
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
encyclopedia, which is out of copyright here in the U.S. It is in the
public domain and you may copy, download, print and distribute this work
as you see fit.
Every effort has been made to present this text accurately and
cleanly, but no guarantees are made against errors. Neither Melissa
Snell nor About may be held liable for any problems you experience with
the text version or with any electronic form of this document.
