The transformation of an itinerant army: from the Catalan Company to the Catalan Duchy of Athens and Neopatras (1303-1388)

Abstract

This thesis examines the transformation of the Catalan Company into a political, social and cultural institution from the arrival of the Company at Constantinople in September 1303 until the fall of Catalan Athens to the Navarrese Company in 1388 by mainly using written sources (chronicles, archival documents, notary documents, tariffs and secondary sources) and the archaeological and architectural remains (seals, castles, church inscriptions and coins). Except a few scholars like Antonio Rubio y Lluch and Kenneth Setton who studied on the socio-political and cultural aspects of the Catalan Company and that of the Catalan Duchies of Athens and Neopatras, most of the scholars concentrated mainly military aspects of the Catalan Company. On the contrary of the historiography, this study tries to bridge the gap between the history of the Catalan Company and that of the Catalan Duchies. Bearing in mind the limits and problems of the sources, this thesis attempts to scrutinize the relationship between the Catalans, their neighbours (Venetians, the Turkish Beyliks and the Byzantines) and the Greeks as well as to understand the place of the Catalan Company in the socio-political and cultural history of Asia Minor, Greece and also of the Mediterranean during the 14th century.