Bernat de Rocafort

Bernat de Rocafort (died July 1308) was the third leader of the Catalan Company. He was the rival of Berenguer d'Entença, elected to replace Roger de Flor in 1305. In 1307 he murdered Berenguer and seized the leadership, but he was regarded by the soldiers as a tyrant and was assassinated in 1308. After him the Company did not elect a new leader, but was governed by a less formal oligarchy.[1]

Bernat was probably a Valencian. Prior to 1303, he had been in command of a band of mercenaries garrisoning two castles in Calabria on behalf of King Robert of Naples. In 1303, after Robert had failed to pay him and his men, he led 200 cavalry and 1000 almogàvers to join the Catalan Company. He was soon made its seneschal (manescal de la host), replacing the late Corberán de Alet of Navarre.[2][3]

In August 1303, Bernat commanded the almogàvers at the Battle of Ania, while Roger de Flor commanded the cavalry.[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ Donald J. Kagay (2010), "Catalan Company", in Clifford J. Rogers, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology 3, Oxford University Press, pp. 349–50.
  2. ↑ Ángel Boya Balet (2014), La compañía de almogávares en Grecia, Liber Factory, p. 328.
  3. 1 2 R. G. Keightley (1979), "Muntaner and the Catalan Grand Company", Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 4 (1): 37–58.
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