ALMOGAVARES (from the Arab, Al-Mugavari, a scout)

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 715 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ALM-ANC

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

ARMOUR, PHILIP DANFORTH (1832-1901)

, 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 Vespers3oth of March 1282for the possession of Naples and Sicily, the Almogavares formed the most effective

element

ELEMENT (Lat. elementum)

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

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

, Andronicus, as condottieri to fight against the Turks. Their campaign in

Asia

ASIA

Minor

, 1303 and 1304, was a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of romantic victories, but their greed and violence made them intolerable to the Christian population. When Roger di Flor was assassinated by his Greek employer in 1305, they turned on the emperor, held Gallipoli and ravaged the neighbourhood of

Constantinople

CONSTANTINOPLE
CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF

. In 1310 they marched against the duke of Athens, of the French

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

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

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Aragon to

rule

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.

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