I posted recently about the Battle of Crecy and noted that as well as the flower of French nobility that John, the blind king, of Bohemia and Jaime the King of Majorca met their maker that day.
It turns out, as explained to me by my friend John, that reports of the death of the King of Majorca at the Battle of Crecy were somewhat exaggerated in that he was alive and kicking for the next three years. Froissart got it wrong – which just goes to prove that you should check your facts extra especially carefully when relying upon a medieval chronicle. I have given myself a stern talking to and will be checking very carefully before killing anyone else off on the word of anyone even remotely medieval.
As John explained to me, King Jaime III (Jaume if you like to vary your spelling and James for all those folk who like solid English sounding names) probably fought at Crecy, he might even have been wounded, but was killed in 1349 at the Battle of Llucmajor in Majorca. The rest of this post courtesy of John Hearnshaw with grateful thanks- I throughly enjoyed learning about Jaime even though he’s a bit off my usual geographical radar.
Jaime III had had a fairly chequered career. He is sometimes called Jaime the Unfortunate but he is also known as Jaime the Rash. He was the last independent king of Majorca. He was unusual for that era in that he believed that no king could have lordship over any other king. Consequently he refused to swear fealty to his cousin Pero IV of Aragon (Peter). Pero took his time but in 1344 he kicked Jaime out of Majorca and annexed the Balearic Islands to the Crown of Aragon where they stayed until the crown of Catalonia-Aragon and that of Castille were united by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.
Consequently, by the time of Crecy in 1346, Jaime was king of nowhere-in-particular (which would account for why he was gallivanting around France). He may well have been wounded at Crecy but by 1349 he was well enough to lead a mercenary army back to Majorca in an attempt to retake the island from its governor, who had been appointed by his cousin. Jaime put up a decent fight but he was ultimately defeated.
If you ever go to Llucmajor there is little to show of the battle itself apart from a small memorial but there is a nice tomb in Llucmajor church and a statue on the outskirts of the town of Jaime and his standard bearer (who may or may not have been his brother) dying together.
Double click on the image of the statue to open a new page about the kings of Majorca and a link to the Battle of Llucmajor.
Do not beat yourself up dear Julia for many great historians copy from others work and once done all believe the mistake. Research is the only way to see the way to the time and story.John de Groat was a humble vicar near Orton Cumbria but he had served as friend and priest at Crecy to the Black Prince. In my search I discovered for BBC Radio Cumbria that in fact the Black Prince had made his will before the fight had commenced and De Groat had penned it all for him.In the way of things it came to be in Orton with John the vicar. I was so delighted to find it that now a copy hangs in the church of the mound for all to read. According to historians no such will existed.Unless we can go back to the main source we can never hope to find the whole truth. A good historian must be a murder detective in all ways we travel the past. I love your blog and so never fail to love history telling as it keeps mind and focus on it telling others like me little juicy bits of real hard fact.I will not always agree but that is the start of learning for all of us.