Battle of Les Formigues 1285
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1285 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Medieval (500–1499) | derived from year |
| Location | Spain | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Aragonese Crusade | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Crown of Aragon, Kingdom of France, Navy of the Crown of Aragon, Republic of Genoa | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 41.8500, 3.1833 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The naval battle of Les Formigues took place probably in the early morning of 4 September 1285 near Les Formigues Islands, Catalonia, about 85 km northeast of Barcelona, when a Catalan-Sicilian galley fleet commanded by Roger of Lauria defeated a French and Genoese galley fleet commanded by Guilhem de Lodeva, Henry di Mari, and John de Orrea.
There are three almost completely different accounts of this battle: from Ramon Muntaner, Bernard Desclot, and the Gesta comitum Barchinonensium. The Gesta places the battle at Les Formigues (or Fomigas), while Muntaner favoured a location off Roses to the north. Either Lauria or the French were ashore for the night and encountered by the other, or they were both at sea when the encounter took place.
The accounts agree that it happened at night, which was unusual for medieval naval battles, but suited Lauria who was skilled at night-fighting. He used two lanterns on each galley to increase his apparent numbers. Ten to sixteen Genoese galleys under John de Orreo fled, leaving about fifteen to twenty French galleys to be captured, and some others sunk or burnt.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Les Formigues (revision 1370447499), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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