La Gran Compañía Catalana de Oriente. La creación de un Estado catalán en Grecia

Abstract

The Great Catalan Company of the East became an area of the expansionist power of the Crown of Aragon in the eastern Mediterranean. This army of Catalan and Aragonese mercenaries fought at the service of Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor, and they stopped the Turkish troops who threatened the Empire. However, their warlike efficiency led to the appearance of different plots and mistrusts by the Byzantine court, which finally led to the Byzantine betrayal and a subsequent Catalan revenge. Thus, this dissertation portrays the Almogavar intervention in the Byzantine territory and the subsequent dominance of this territory by the Company of the Duchy of Athens and Duchy of Neopatria. In addition to this, another aim of this dissertation is to show the relationship between Catalan peoples and the locals of those territories, whose relationship was extremely shaped by violence and acts of aggression.