AN ACCOUNT OF THE NAVAL COMMANDER ROGER OF LAURIA AND HIS COMMAND OF
WARFARE AT SEA.
Just before Vespers on 30 March 1282 at the Church of the Holy Spirit
on the outskirts of Palermo, a drunken soldier of the occupying French
forces of Charles of Anjou accosted a young Sicilian noblewoman. It
sparked a bloody conflagration, the so-called War of the Sicilian
Vespers, that would ultimately involve every part of the
Mediterranean. The struggle for the coveted throne of Sicily
eventually enmeshed all the great powers of medieval Europe - thepope,
the Byzantine Emperor and the kings of France, England and Aragon.
Because the core of the Kingdom of Sicily was a wealthy, strategic
island dominating the centre of the Mediterranean, the battles were
fought mostly at sea.And in war at sea, a single figure proved
pre-eminent: Roger of Lauria - Aragon's "Admiral of Admirals". In the
course of some twenty years of naval combat, he orchestrated decisive
victories in six pitched battles and numerous limited actions, never
once suffering a defeat: a feat never equalled - not even by the
legendary Lord Horatio Nelson.
Drawing from multiple Sicilian and Catalan sources as well as Angevin
and Aragonese registers, this chronological narrative details the
tactics and strategy Lauria employed to become the most successful
galley fleet commander of the Middle Ages, while highlighting a
crucial conflict at a pivotal point in European history, long
overshadowed by the Hundred Years War.
CHARLES D. STANTON is a retired US naval officer and airline pilot; he
gained his PhD at the University of Cambridge.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781787446380
Publisert
2020
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Boydell Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter