The Almogavars, a class of soldiers from the Crown of Aragon, well-known during the Christian reconquista (reconquest) of the Iberian peninsula, had been much employed as mercenaries in Italy during the thirteenth century.

Coming originally from the Pyrenees, the Almogavars were in later times recruited mainly in Navarre, Aragon, and Catalonia.

Frontiersmen and foot-soldiers who wear no armor, they dress in skins, are shod with brogues (abarcas), and carry the arms similar to those of Roman legionaries: two heavy javelins, or "assegai" (atzagaia in Catalan); and a short stabbing sword.

As professional soldiers, they serve kings, the Roman Catholic Church, nobles, or towns for pay.

When Peter III of Aragon made war on Charles of Anjou after the Sicilian Vespers of March 30, 1282 for the possession of Naples and Sicily, the Almogavars had formed the most effective element of his army.

Their discipline and ferocity, the force with which they hurl their javelins, and their activity, make them very formidable to the heavy cavalry of the Angevin armies.

They fight against cavalry by attacking firstly horses instead of knights.

Once the knight is on the ground he is an easy victim for the Almogavar.

Under the Treaty of Caltabellotta, concluded on August 19, 1302, Charles II of Naples, called Charles the Lame, makes peace with Frederick III of Sicily, thus officially ending the War of Sicilian Vespers.

This is the last of a series of treaties, including those of Tarascon and Anagni, designed to end the conflict between the Houses of Anjou and Barcelona for ascendancy in the Mediterranean and especially Sicily and the Mezzogiorno.

The peace divides the old Kingdom of Sicily into an island portion and a peninsular portion.

The island, called the Kingdom of Trinacria, goes to Frederick III, who had been ruling it; the Mezzogiorno, called the Kingdom of Sicily contemporaneously, but called the Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, goes to Charles II, who had been ruling it.

Thus, the peace is formal recognition of an uneasy status quo.

The peace also establishes that Trinacria is to pass to the Angevins on Frederick's death, but until then, Charles is to pay a tribute of one hundred thousand ounces of gold in exchange to Frederick, unless Pope Boniface VIII agrees to allow Frederick to conquer either Sardinia or Cyprus.

Immediately, in exchange, Frederick hands over all his possessions in Calabria and elsewhere on the mainland and releases Charles' son Philip, Prince of Taranto, from his prison in Cefalù.

As well, the marriage of Charles' daughter Eleanor to Frederick is arranged.

The consequences of this treaty mean that Roger de Flor ("Roger Blum", a former Knight Templar), and his Almogavares must seek pay elsewhere.