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The Almogavars (Aragonese: Almogabars, Catalan: Almogàvers, Spanish: Almogávares, from Arabic: Al-Mugavari) were a class of soldiers from the Crown of Aragon well-known during the Christian reconquista (reconquest) of the Iberian peninsula. They were much employed as mercenaries in Italy, Latin Greece and the Levant during the 13th and 14th centuries. Though the origin of the word Almogavar is not clear, it may come from the Arabic "Al-Mugavari," a "raider, devastator."

The Almogavars came originally from the Pyrenees, and were in later times recruited mainly in Navarre, Aragon, and Catalonia. They were frontiersmen and foot-soldiers who wore no armour, dressed in skins, were shod with brogues (abarcas), and carried the arms similar to those of Roman legionaries: two heavy javelins, or "assegai" (atzagaia in Catalan);and a short stabbing sword.

They were professional soldiers, and served kings, the Roman Catholic Church, nobles, or towns for pay; eventually they also hired themselves out to the Byzantine Empire. 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 formed the most effective element of his army. Their discipline and ferocity, the force with which they hurled their javelins, and their activity, made them very formidable to the heavy cavalry of the Angevin armies. They fought the cavalry attacking firstly horses instead of knights. Once the knight was on the ground he was an easy victim for the almogavar.

When the peace of Caltabellotta in 1302 ended the war in southern Italy, the Almogavars, under the leadership of Roger de Flor ("Roger Blum", a defrocked Knight Templar), formed the Catalan Company in the service of the emperor of the East, Andronicus II Palaeologus, as condottieri to fight against the Turks. Both kings of Aragon and Sicily agreed with the idea, because they did not want the almogavars staying unemployed.

Their campaign in Asia Minor during 1303 and 1304 was a series of romantic victories, but their greed and violence made them intolerable to the Byzantine population. When Roger de Flor was assassinated by his Greek employer in 1305, they turned on the emperor, held Gallipoli, and ravaged the neighbourhood of Constantinople. The almogavars were very angry with their employer (before the assassination of Roger de Flor) because he refused to pay the promised salary to the almogavars. After the treason that ended with the death of Roger de Flor, the Almogavars raised in arms against the Byzantine Empire.

In 1310 they marched against the duke of Athens, of the French House of Brienne. Walter V of Brienne was defeated and slain by the Almogavars with all his knights at the Battle of the Cephissus, or Orchomenus, in Boeotia in March. They then divided the wives and possessions of the Frenchmen by lot, and summoned a prince of the house of Aragon to rule over them.

The foundation of the Aragonese duchy of Athens was to be the culminating achievement of the Almogavars. By the 16th century the name had died out. Today, the King of Spain still helds the title of 'Duke of Athens and Neopatria'.

The name "Almogavars" was revived for a short time as a party nickname in the civil wars during the reign of Ferdinand VII of Spain. The parachute brigade of the modern-day Spanish army is also named Brigada de Infantería Ligera Paracaidista Almogávares VI (Parachute Light Infantry Brigade "Almogavars" VI).

This article is mainly based on an entry in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

• Morris, Paul N., ' "We Have Met Devils!" The Almogavars of James I and Peter III of Catalonia-Aragon', Anistoriton v. 4 (2000) [1]

• http://www.almogavares.net

• Moreno Echavarría, José María, '"Los almogávares"', 'Círculo de Lectores'

• Catalan Company
• Byzantine Empire
• Kingdom of Aragon