Perverse Identities

← 118 | 119 → The Battle of Sanluri in the process of recreating Sardinian identity

Esther MARTÍ

CNR, Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea

Introduction

The Battle of Sanluri of 1409 represents one of the most critical moments of conflict that the Crown of Aragon maintained in Sardinia for the royal occupation and control of the island. For the Sardinian people, the battle represents, without a doubt, the hardest and most sorrowful expression of open conflict with the Crown of Aragon, which lasted almost from the Iberian troops arriving in Sardinia. First through clashes linked especially to the interests of Genoa and the Malaspina and Doria families, thereafter, from 1353 by means of an open war with the house of Arborea, from which the Sanluri chapter represents a definitive turning point in favour of the Catalan-Aragonese¹. The harsh defeat of the Arborean troops – Catalan documentation speaks of five to seven thousand killed in battle, in addition to another thousand people who died in the defence of the town of ← 119 | 120 → Sanluri2 – and the almost immediate death of Martin the Younger, have made this macabre scenario a place of remembrance for the Sardinian people and an event which, remembered throughout the ages, has been transformed into a container of various elements that are essential for the formation of the Sardinian identity. In this spirit, much of contemporary historiography has described the consequences of this battle as crucial to the fate of Giudicato of Arborea and its ideale nazionalistico di una Sardegna tutta sarda³ (“nationalist ideal of a fully Sardinian Sardinia”).

To this end, this study will analyse how this conflict has been viewed from medieval sources to the present, illustrating the use that this battle has made. The virtual absence of Sardinian sources during the Middle Ages is well known, a fact that contrasts with the large amount of documentation generated by the Crown of Aragon, the result of an articulated bureaucracy, which has enabled it being consulted over the centuries⁴. This undoubtedly influences the perception of the conflict and how it has been viewed and treated by the chroniclers and historians throughout the centuries, which of course influences the perception and in the use that has been made of the battle – and is being made – in recent times.

The classic Catalan sources dealing with aspects related to the Battle of Sanluri are well known and at first revolve mainly around the letters sent or received by King Martin the Elder, before moving on to a series of texts, largely based on the documents from the Archive of the Crown of Aragon⁵.

Moreover, the battle of Sanluri occupies a special place – that we explain later – in the formation of a national Sardinian consciousness, which began in the late 18^th century, with a feudal revolt led by Giovanni Maria Angioy⁶, which also presents a remarkable ideological burden. Thus, it would be with Ottocento, a compact group of Sardinian intellectuals that started concerning themselves with the preparation of a history for ← 120 | 121 → Sardinia, a phenomenon, which by means of the works of Manno, Martini, Tola, among others, encouraged a growing audience to read books on Sardinian arguments.

It would be during the mid 19^th century, when after the disappointment of the Falsi d’Arborea7, the Sardinian intellectual class begins to transform this cultural nationalism into vindication with political touches, trying to give its people the prestige and standing which, from its point of view, history had taken away. The first voices that together with the construction of a unitary state were born, pointing to the specificity of Sardinia. A specificity felt like a identifying act, that collects national consciousness, following a process of global influence, drawing largely on a discourse of purity of traditions and race, while looking past those elements that might appear in the eyes of the men of cultures less polluted, less touched by the “invader” historical constant. During the time of the birth of Partito Sardo d’Azione (1921), the agricultural cooperatives, which would lead to greater demand for federalism on the one hand and autonomy on the other ⁸, until reaching an independence discourse, linked at certain points to Lilliu intellectual thinking, and the idea of constant Sardinian resistance that it derived ⁹.

For this reason, we must talk about the recreation the Sardinian identity, given that in the vague and lengthy process of creating an identity¹⁰ for the Sardinian case, we must take into account how this process affected such factors as a change of dynasty from the Spanish Crown to the House of Savoy under the Treaty of London in 1718, which involved changes in the management of the kingdom, the institutions, and the way of relating ← 121 | 122 → to the power11. Nevertheless, more than this, we must surely take into account the importance the Sardinian people exercised, especially in the 19^th century, with the birth of nationalist hopes. The creation of an intellectual class would begin to develop a discourse that linked the Sardinian “purity” factor, whether cultural, material, spiritual, and physical, factors opposed to invaders. Hence, a remarkable change arose in the perception of identity, denying and almost demonizing any element linked to the different cultures that had occupied the island for centuries, inevitably taking much of the “blame” to atone the Catalan-Aragonese period and the subsequent Spanish period. Therefore, in this process of the recreation of the Sardinian identity – which would not always be accompanied by a conscious dissertation of the elements spread in Sardinia by Iberian culture that later became part of Sardinian culture, which they felt were their own¹²– the role played by the Battle of Sanluri and above all of the facts derived from it, has been and remains one of the central pillars.

1. The Battle of Sanluri and the visions given by historiography

There are different elements in the descriptions that we have received throughout history, treated skilfully by the island’s intellectual class, which united with the discursive strength of the non-commutable historical facts, which have contributed to the Battle of Sanluri being one of the essential elements in the puzzle of Sardinian identity and a symbol of independence for the Sardinian nation.

← 122 | 123 → Thus, among the documents of the Royal Chancery concerning this battle and its consequences, the ones studied by Rafael Conde are truly interesting, the majority of letters being from Martin the Humane regarding these facts. Among these, some concepts associated with the Sardinians stand out, such as nuestros rebelles (“our rebels”), or a nación sardesca traydora e rebelle (“treacherous and rebellious Sardinian nation”), or the Sardinians movidos por folla audacia e presumpción temeraria (“driven by wild audacity and reckless presumption”), or the need de domar la superbia de los ditos sardos (“to subdue the arrogance of such Sardinian”), thus justifying the attack and the subsequent looting of Sanluri as divine will13. This documentation undoubtedly contributed to the viewpoint of historians and Sardinian historiography to create a somewhat anti-Catalan sentiment, reinforcing the idea of a free Sardinian kingdom, completely opposed to the idea of the Catalan sovereignty reflected in these letters sent communicating the victory in this battle, which enabled the total aquisició e recuperació del dit regne de Serdenya (“complete acquisition and recovery of this kingdom of Sardinia”)¹⁴.

On the other hand, Zurita pointed out in his Annals how important this victory was for the Crown of Aragon; Fue esta victoria de las muy señaladas y famosas que hubo en aquellos tiempos por parecer que se restituía con ella al rey la posesión de aquel reino que tanto tiempo había sido rebelde (“So celebrated and famed was this victory that it seemed then to bring back under the king’s control that kingdom which had long been rebellious”)¹⁵. Zurita also quoted Pedro Tomich, added that the participation of the Catalan nobility in this company was great, rousing patriotic interest in this argument – no quedó casa en Cataluña de la cual no interviniese algún caballero (“there was no home in Catalonia which some knight did not wade in”) – thus with este socorro los que estaban en los castillos de Cáller y del Alguer y Longosardo se ripararono de los trabajos y fatigas que habían pasado defendiéndose siempre de los enemigos con gran esfuerzo y constancia como muy fieles (“with such support those who were in the castles of Cagliari, Alghero and Longosardo recovered from the troubles and hardship they had gone through, always defending ← 123 | 124 → themselves against the enemies with great effort and perseverance as well as with great loyalty”)16.

The bloody battle was, in the eyes of the Spanish historiography of the 16^th century, more than justified, because: entendiendo el rey de Sicilia que los sardos estaban muy obstinados en su rebelión y que el vizconde de Narbona y Branca de Oria tenían gran multitud de gente y esperaban cada día nuevo socorro de genoveses, determinó de salir a darles la batalla […]¹⁷ (“King of Sicily, seeing that the Sardinians were very determined in their rebellion and that the viscount of Narbonne and Branca de Oria had great crowd of people and was waiting any day new rescues from the Genoeses, he resolved to give battle out”).

On the other hand, it was one of the cruellest battles that occurred on the island, due to both the number of deaths¹⁸, as well as the ruthless repression the Catalan-Aragonese troops exercised on the population of Sanluri, judging by the documentation. Fara pointed this out in the late 16^th century: […] gli Aragonesi respinsero il visconte di Narbona, lo sconfissero e devastaraono l’isola mettendola a soqquadro […], conquistato il vilaggio di Sanluri e pressa la rocca, senza far distinzione di sesso e di età ne truccidarono tutti gli abitanti¹⁹ (“[…] The Aragonese fought the viscount of Narbonne off, they defeated him and devastated the island by creating havoc […], they captured the village of Sanluri and, once the castle was taken, they slaughtered all the residents with no distinction of sex or age”).

← 124 | 125 → Thus, with regard to the repression suffered by this Arborense population after the defeat, the harshness of the army’s burden on Sanluri must be pointed out, where they killed all the inhabitants who could not be useful for work, while others were enslaved20. Sardinian historiography has treated this favourably for the most part since the beginning of the 18^th century, using it as one of the main aspects, as of the next century, which is based on the ideological discourse of the loss the kingdom from Sardinian hands, passing it to the hands of a invader branded ruthless and merciless. Thus, Giuseppe Manno in his Storia di Sardegna of principles from the 19^th century proves that la terra di Sanluri andava a sacco con novella strage di mille di quei popolani, ed occupavasi dai vincitori la possessione di quel castello²¹ (“the land of Sanluri was looted with new massacre of a thousand of its inhabitants, and the winners took control of the castle”). Tola, for whom this battle was infamous for the many wounds and blood it cost to Sardinia²², noted, Nel 30 giugno del 1409 s’ingaggiò la battaglia, e fu combattuta con tanto ardore, che per quei tempi e pel numero dei combatenti e dei morti, fu una delle più micidiali e più sanguinose (“In June 30, 1409, the battle began and it was fought with such ardor that, by the number of fighters and deaths, it was one of the most fatal and bloodiest at that times”). He added, referring to the harsh repression: la barbara insolenza dei vincitori passò poi a fil di spada, senza distinzione di sesso o di età, gl’innocui abitanti di Sanluri²³ (“the barbarous insolence of the victors then put to the sword the harmless inhabitants of Sanluri with no distinction of sex or age”).

We must highlight the fact that this matter was explained in the letters sent by King Martin the Elder to various members of the monarchy reporting on the success of the battle. For the monarch, the harsh repression is a true execution and extermination against the nación sardesca, with la ayuda de nuestro senyor Dios²⁴. The elder sovereign tells us that ← 125 | 126 → the Aragonese troops entered Sanluri by force of arms and were morts e tallats tots los hòmens que dins la dita vila en deffensió de aquella foren atrobats, e menades les dones en perpètua servituts catius en la dita ciutat de Càller25 (“killed and cut all the men who were found defending the town, and reduced women to perpetual servitude, captives in the mentioned city of Cagliari”). In a response letter to his son, King Martin of Sicily, where the father was pleased with him for the success of his company and for being terrible lamp als rebelles, dels quals fort gran part han portat la pena que mereixeien (“dreadful lightning to the rebels, those who have already received much deserved punishment”) however, he reminds him that he must be a just judge, harshly punishing the guilty and not being excessive with those who were not directly at fault, but without being too magnanimous to prevent future riots²⁶.

The battle meant, then, a humiliating defeat (judging by the Catalan documentation), and the beginning of the end of Giudicato di Arborea²⁷. This fact was experienced by the Sardinian village as a humiliation for the loss of the “state”, especially at the hands of the heir of the House of Arborea, the Viscount of Narbonne, who sells Sassari and Logudoro, together with his dynastic rights to Alfonso the Magnanimous in 1420, after years of negotiations²⁸.

Therefore, we must take into consideration another feeling that lasted in the memory of most of the Sardinian people after this defeat and its inevitable consequences, a sense of discouragement due to years of war and internal factional divisions obviously playing in favour of the Iberian monarchy. Boscolo pointed out how Martin the Younger’s troops were well informed in the days preceding the Battle of Sanluri with regard to the strong internal Arborean divisions, through Sardinian prisoner statements made in an initial skirmish near the Castle of Omonimo. According to them, they stated that their people, divided and tired of the disaster of continued ← 126 | 127 → war, were not always willing to obey their leaders. These factions among the Sardinian supporters of peace and those who wished to continue the war, Boscolo further explains, would well continue being present for years to come, thus obligating the Marquis of Oristano to perform a complicated policy balance between the parties 29.

Thus, all these factors have also entailed interest in this battle and its consequences by different Sardinians authors, from those considered classics to what we have today. Thus, one of the first works to consider is the Memoria de las cosas que han acontecido en algunas partes del reino de Cerdeña, by an anonymous author. It is a chronicle of facts and legends that occurred on the island between 1005 and 1479. We have not received the original, which scholars date around the late 15^th century, and was written using Sardinian, Italian and Catalan sources. The current copy is from the late 16^th century in Spanish, and is an accumulation of facts, with no apparent previous design. It is curious that it does not compile the facts of the Battle of Sanluri. In fact, there is a notation next to the copy, made by another hand, which reads: Falta aquí una hoja que debía reseñar la campaña del rey Martín de Sicilia ¡Es lástima! (“What lacks here is a page that should review the campaign of King Martin of Sicily. What a shame!”). Maninchedda, who has studied and published the report, hypothesizes that this knowledgeable about the history of Sardinia could be a scholar from Cagliari during the late 19^th century³⁰.

Moreover, Vico, in his General History of the Island and Kingdom of Sardinia, of 1639, offers a rather favourable vision of Aragon, where ← 127 | 128 → he makes many praises to King Martin of Sicily, fue tan valeroso por si mismo, y peleò tan valientemente (“was so brave for himself, and fought so valiantly”). However, he speaks of five thousand dead, and the rigour of the repression in the village:

[…] fuese siguiendo el alcance por la cavalleria hasta encerrar los que huian en Monreal; y en este interin los infantes combatieron el lugar de San Luri, y le entraron, exercitando en los vencidos todo rigor, quitandoles las vidas, sin perdonar estado, sexo, ni edad, y despues se les assolò el castillo y el pueblo: el mismo rigor se usò con algunos de los presos, que conocidos por parciales en la rebelion de Branca Oria, todos fueron passados a cuchillo Genoveses, y Sardos31.

he was following the enemy with cavalry to sizing up those who were fleeing towards Monreal, and at the same time infants were fighting in the place of Sanluri, where they burst into exercising rigorously over the vanquished, taking away the lives, sparing no status, sex, or age, and then they attacked the castle and the village. The same rigor was used with some of the prisoners, who were accused of bias in the rebellion of Branca Oria, all Sardinians and Genoeses were then put to the sword.

He continues with the statement that:

Fue esta victoria la más señalada en el mundo, y sus efectos fueron no solo la recuperacion de Sardeña, y Corcega, pero la restauracion de toda Italia, que quedó asombrada de tener cabe si Rey tan poderoso, tan guerrero, tan valeroso por su persona, tan prudente, y tan mancebo³².

This victory was the most marked in the world and its effects were not only the regaining of Sardinia and Corsica, but the restoration of all Italy, who was amazed to have a king so powerful, such a warrior, so courageous, so wise and so young.

With these ostentatious words, Manno describes Leonardo Cubello’s submission to the Crown of Aragon after his sedition in the area of Oristano, thus continuing the war after the death of the young king:

Leonardo Cubello calava finalmente a sottomettersi ad emichevole concordia. Con quesa abolivasi perpetuamente il nome infausto per gli Aragonesi di giudice di Arborea. […] in tal maniera il giudicato di Arborea, che solo soprastava alla ruina ← 128 | 129 → degli altri stati dell’isola, cadeva per sempre; abbenchè non mai tanto potente e tanto illustre, quanto nell’ultimo periodo della sua esistenza33.

Leonardo Cubello at last gave in to submit himself to a friendly agreement. With this, it disappeared perpetually for the Aragoneses the ominous name of judge of Arborea […] in this way, the Giudicato of Arborea, which only led to the destruction of the other states of the island, fell apart forever, even though they had never been so powerful and so illustrious as in the last period of its life.

The cultural renaissance of Sardinia in Ottocento, following the global lines of independence of peoples and the discovery of nations as well as the appreciation of what is popular and indigenous as something of value, which entailed the creation of a Sardinian historiography that moved in this direction. The measured words of Baron Manno, as a man of the court and mediator that he was, became much more forceful opinions in the mouth of Tola, undoubtedly one of the other great historians who would create school in Sardinian Ottocento. In his Codice Diplomatico words such as independence, freedom and causa nazionale dei sardi (“national cause of Sardinians”) when referring to Arboreans and the Sardinians, are opposed to expressions like stranieri conquistatori (“foreign conquerors”), ambitious, violators of pacts, prepotente cupidigia degl’invasori e spogliatori aragonesi (“arrogant greed of Aragonese invaders and thieves”), referring to the latter³⁴.

Moreover, contemporary historiography commonly uses the term independence, and the loss of it, linked to the Battle of Sanluri. Thus, Boscolo wrote in relation to the situation of no return that would lead to the inevitable armed conflict of 1409:

La guerra fra i Sardi dell’Arborea e gli Aragonesi, da tempo in lotta, gli uni per l’independenza, gli altri per il possesso dell’isola, riprese […] più accanita di prima ed è noto altresì che, morto Giovanni I nel 1396, Martino il Vecchio, suo successore, si trovò in Sardegna di fronte a una situazione molto difficile³⁵.

The war between Araborea’s Sardinians and Aragon, long engaged in fighting, the ones for independence, the others for possession of the island, resumed more unrelenting than before, and it is also known that, following the death of John I in 1396, Martin the Elder, his successor, found in Sardinia a very difficult situation.

← 129 | 130 → Always in the same publication, the historian, reproducing the text of Scano, presents the arrival of the Viscount of Narbonne to the government of the House of Arborea after the death of the successors of the giudichessa Eleonor in this way:

Brancaleone Doria, come è noto, tentò di assumere il governo del giudicato di Arborea, ma non vi riuscì. Venne preferito dai Sardi del giudicato un parente di Eleonora, il visconte di Narbona Guglielmo III, che continuò la guerra contro l’Aragona e tenne vivi gli ideali di indipendenza36.

Brancaleone Doria, as is well known, tried to take over the government of the Giudicato of Arborea, but did not succeed. Sardinians of the Giudicato preferred a relative of Eleanor, the Viscount of Narbonne William III, who continued the war against Aragon and kept alive the ideals of independence.

2. “Sa batalla” among legends and places of remembrances

The Battle of Sanluri has been lived throughout the centuries as a traumatic event for the Sardinian people, and as an element of remembrance, linked to the death of young King Martin the Younger and the disappearance of the House of Aragon, for the Catalan-Aragonese. It seems inevitable, then, that this battle is related to a whole series of legends, with a veil of mystery accompanying this historic moment that sealed the fate of two peoples, allocating them to be one for a long time.

← 130 | 131 → Thus, Zurita, concerning the death of Martin the Younger, noted the imprudence of allowing the heir to direct the battle, risking his life, whether in the field, or by the risky Sardinian climate:

Aunque importaba mucho a la autoridad y reputación del rey que la isla de Cerdeña se redujese a su obediencia y saliese de la sujección de los que la tenían tiranizada, todavía le pareció que se aventuraba mucho en poner el rey su hijo su persona a tanto peligro así de los enemigos como de la región y aire de la isla siendo tan pestilente; y envióle a decir que consideresase que aunque Cerdeña importaba tanto a la Corona de Aragón no se debía por ella poner todo el resto en tanta aventura, y que era pescar con anzuelo de oro37.

Although it was very important for the authority and reputation of the king that the island of Sardinia subjected itself to his obedience and release itself from the rule of those who had tyrannized it, the king thought it was risky to expose his heir to such danger as the one of the enemy and of the region and the air of the island, being so pestilent, and he sent him away to show that he considered that although Sardinia mattered so much to the Crown of Aragon, it was not due for her to put all the rest in such an adventure, as it was like fishing with gold hooks.

Zurita, always in his Annals, explains by reviewing the causes according to different authors that could cause the death of the young king:

Estando en la mayor fiesta y regocijo de la victoria que aquel príncipe hubo de sus enemigos, adoleció de calenturas; y aunque a 21 de julio pareció que estaba mejor del accidente, se agravó de suerte que murió dentro de cuatro días en la fiesta de Santiago: y según Tomich y otros escriben fue su mal de una fiebre pestilencial, aunque Lorenzo Valla afirma que no se pudo atribuir a la contagión del aire, pues ninguno de los suyos adoleció de aquella dolencia. Martín de Alpartil añade otra causa por donde le sobrevino la muerte: que creyendo que había convalecido, le llevaron por complacerle una doncella sarda de Sant Luri, que era hermosísima, y siendo muy rendido a aquel vicio, le acabó la vida³⁸.

While celebrating and rejoicing the victory that the prince won over his enemies, he felt ill with fever and, although on July 21 he seemed to be better, he got worse and died within four days, the day of Saint James. According to Tomich, and others writing, his illness was a pestilential fever, although Lorenzo Valla argues that it could not be attributed to the air infection as none of his suffered from the same. Martin de Alpartil added another cause for his death: that, believing he was recovered, to please ← 131 | 132 → him they brought in a Sardinian maiden from Sanluri, who was very beautiful and, being much exhausted by that vice, it took his life.

Turning to the Sardinian authors, Fara in the late 16^th century, using the same sources as Zurita, Lucio Marineo and Tarafa, wrote that the heir of Martin the Humane died: […] spossato dalle fatiche della guerra o, forse, dai troppo frequenti rapporti con una bellissima donna sarda, colto da febbri […], fu sepolto con solenni onoranze nella cattedrale di Cagliari ove anco oggi riposa39 (“tired by the fatigues of war or, perhaps, because of too frequent dealings with a very beautiful Sardinian woman, seized with fever […], he was buried with solemn honors in the cathedral of Cagliari, where he still rests today”).

Vico, in his General History of the Island and Kingdom of Sardinia, of 1639, describes the king’s death as follows:

[…] le falteó un achaque de calenturas que a los 21 de luglio parece que le dexaró, y por festejarle la salud escogieron los suyos de entre los despojos de S. Luri una donzella hermosissima, que con el imperio de su singular belleza, se eximio del cuchillo, que a todos degolló, y fuera mejor que no le eximiera, porque aunque sin culpa suya lo fue de su Rey: claro está, que sus privados no le llevaron la donzella para el mal efecto que sucedio: pero medios ilicitos nunca prometen mejores fines, y mas quando la incontinencia del Principe estava no poco conocida. En fin creyéndole sus privados convalecido, y el animoso contra su salud se entregó tan rendido a la donzella, que le acabó la vida ⁴⁰.

had an ailment of fever and it seemed to have improved on 21 July, and for celebrating his health, his own selected a beautiful maiden among the spoils of Sanluri who, thanks to her unique beauty, escaped the knife that killed all the others; and, it would have been better not to spare her as, even though it was not his fault, it was of her king. It is clear that the king’s closest men did not bring him the maiden to cause what happened, but illicit means never promise better purposes, and especially when the Prince’s lack of control was well known. Finally, although the king’s men thought he had recovered, the king acting against his health was so intimately taken by the maiden that this led him to death.

Vico continues with: otros dan otras causas, y algún mal afecto a Sardeña lo atribuye a su aire no sano, a quien satisfaze Laurencio Vala diziendo: que no se pudo atribuir a la contagion del aire, porque solo él fue ← 132 | 133 → el enfermo entre todo un exercito41 (“others provide different causes, and some malicious not keen on Sardinia blames the unhealthy air of the island, to whom contradict Lorenzo Valla saying that it could not be attributed to an air infection, because only the king fell ill amongst an army”).

An interesting view, with an inevitable romantic touch, which Manno provided us with, who knew the work of Fara and Zurita on this matter. From their point of view the young Martin is presented as a virtuous hero, courageous, but unable to forgo inappropriate vices and passions, as he had done abundantly in precedence in his Sicilian territories, passions that, not knowing how to contain them and consequently not having fully recovered from an illness, would lead inevitably to his death. It is here that the figure of the bella di Sanluri (“the beauty of Sanluri”) appears, defined by Manno as a beautiful maiden, for which the young king loses his head, and life, abusing the pleasure⁴².

Manno continues his reflection with an affirmation that seems valuable to our discourse: Morì pertanto D. Martino lagrimato dai suoi Siciliani non meno che dai Catalani e dai Sardi; i quali nella di lui gioventù e prodezza riconoscevano gli auspizi di grande incremento per i reali d’Aragona⁴³ (“Thus he died, Martin wept by his Sicilians no less than by the Catalans and the Sardinians, who in his youth and prowess recognized the beginnings of a large increase for ← 133 | 134 → the crown of Aragon”). See how the author indistinctly refers to the Sardinians a few lines below in the same way, without differentiating between Sardinians that are loyal subjects of the Crown of Aragon and those belonging to the territories of Arborea, often called nazionali or provinciali44.

Boscolo, in his work on the legends that circulated around the king, pointed out how soon after the death of Martin the Younger, a legend was born out of his disappearance and the causes that had produced it, which lasted over the centuries as the Legenda della Bella di Sanluri. Thus, from Alpartil, Valla and Zurita, and Fara and Manno subsequently, the tradition was formed of the death of the young king, by the abuse of love⁴⁵. Regarding the Sanluri beauty, Tola says the king’s unbridled passions and illicit abuse of love caused his immature death⁴⁶. The same vision of his death is offered by Della Marmora, of a king who morì pochi giorni dopo in conseguenza dei suoi eccessi amorosi (“he died a few days later as a result of the excesses of love”), retaking the figure of Bella di Sanluri, a hero unjustly forgotten by history, in his words, because other weapons managed to avenge their compatriots⁴⁷. More cautious, Spano wrote: Spirò in Cagliari giorni appresso del suo trionfo, chi dice di malattia d’intemperie, chi d’abuso di piaceri⁴⁸ (“He died in Cagliari days after his triumph, who says beacause of mal air, who because of pleasure abuse”).

It is interesting that some of the foreign travellers who visited the island in the 19^th century have also left their impression on the Battle of Sanluri and especially about the death of the young Sicilian monarch, where the figure of the beauty of Sanluri occupies a central role, as a heroine. Among them, Vuiller in 1843, wrote:

Gli annali del patriottismo sardo celebrano una singolare Giuditta: la bella di Sanluri, che giurò la morte del re don Martino. Siccome questa strana eroina aveva orrore del sangue, è con le frecce di Cupido ch’ella provò a liberare il paese e vi riuscì. Don Martino morì fra le sue braccia, d’amore e di sfinimento⁴⁹.

← 134 | 135 → The annals of Sardinian patriotism celebrate a singular Judith: the beauty of Sanluri, who swore the death of King Don Martin. Given that this weird heroine detested blood, it was with Cupid’s arrows that she tried to free the country and succeeded. King Martin died in her arms, because of love and exhaustion.

Tyandale, who left his feelings about the island in writing in 1849, following the opinions of known Sardinian authors, said that Martin of Sicily ammaliato dal fascino di una bella donna di Sanluri, si rovinò la salute con ogni sorta di dissolutezza e morì vittima della propria intemperanza50 (“bewitched by the charm of a beautiful woman from Sanluri, he ruined his health with all sorts of debauchery, and died victim of his own intemperance”).

Edwards, in his particular vision of the island of Sardinia in 1889, seen as an exotic and primitive place, regards the beauty of Sanluri as:

[…]-una donna che riuscì a conquistare il conquistatore. Questa damigella lo stregò (al rey) talmente con la sua bellezza che egli non volle dividersi da lei. Morì qui, a Sanluri, fra le sue braccia, vittima degli eccessi amorosi e della malaria. Così, secondo le parole del canonico Spano, « ella vendicò i torti subiti dalla sua terra »⁵¹.

a woman who succeded in conquering the conqueror. This maid bewitched the king with her beauty that he would not part from her. He died here, in Sanluri, in her arms, a victim of the excesses of love and malaria. Thus, in the words of Canon Spano, she revenged the wrongdoings her land had suffered from.

Thus, for much of the Sardinian intellectual class of the late 19^th century, the image of this beautiful heroine was born, who as a Judith avenged the people of ignominy and repression⁵². We have to wait for the studies of Caldarella and Boscolo, who in the middle of the 20^th century studied the reasons for the death of the young king and the possible role of the beauty of Sanluri in this, by means of the new documents found in the archives. Caldarella speaks of a possible incident that those faithful to the king attempted to hide, in which the monarch would suffer fatal injuries. The author assumes that the girl later known as the beauty of Sanluri had had ← 135 | 136 → an important role in a trap that would have stopped Martin, acting as bait53. Boscolo, thanks to new documents from the Archives of the Crown of Aragon, is able to report news that is more accurate about the mysterious female figure that the Sardinian intellectual class wrote about with many rivers of ink for centuries. Through the correspondence between Martin the Humane and the merchant Gerardo De Doni, a confidant of the royal House, who was always besides Martin the Younger, we know the existence of a woman who lived in L’Alghero with her mother, and appeared to be pregnant. The sovereign asked De Doni that once the creature was born it should be separated from the mother and brought up by the Crown. If the young woman had not given birth, the merchant should find her a husband and offer a substantial dowry. The documentation provides us with no further information about this woman, but the above is sufficient to recognize a potential Bella di Sanluri in this young woman⁵⁴.

Although we have left the main focus of our study, we should briefly consider the consequences of the battle in subsequent events. Thus, after the death of Martin of Sicily, the Viscount of Narbonne continued his fight on the island, trying to take L’Alghero in May of 1412, with the help of the city of Sassari, being defeated. The identity discourse that is derived from this fact is quite interesting, either in the popular memory of the people of L’Alghero, who for centuries annually represented the burning of a French-dressed doll while singing verses against the French and the people of Sassari, whom they accused of betrayal to the Catalan-Aragonese king, an episode that is recently being re-taught in the schools of L’Alghero. Above all, discourses of identity have been made by some Sardinian intellectuals, including Tola, who stands out. This author, who reproduces the text of the popular verses sung by the people of L’Alghero called Cobles de la conquista dels francesos⁵⁵, affirms:

Narrano largamente gli storici nazionali come questa vittoria fosse poi macchiata dalla barbara ebbrezza dei vincitori coll’uccisione dei prigionieri francesi e del Bastardo di Savoia figlio di Amadeo VII […] ma ciò che tace la storia […] sono le ← 136 | 137 → Strofe che per voto popolare, e per più di due secoli colà si cantarono con solennità […], l’ebbra moltitudine alternava coi cori musicali l’aspro, disarmonico e catalano ritornello barbaro concetto, che con strania lingua, e sotto cielo italiano, acuì per sì gran tempo56.

National historians widely narrate how this victory was then stained by the barbaric thrill of the winners with the killing of the French prisoners and the Bastard of Savoy, son of Amadeo VII […] but what history does not tell […] are the verses that, by popular vote and for more than two centuries, were there solemnly chanted […], the inebriated crowd alternated with musical choirs the harsh, discordant and Catalan chorus, barbarous notion, with a foreign language and under the Italian sky, was heard for such a long time.

In this same episode, Vuiller during his journey on the island, documenting various historical facts about this occurrence, wrote in this regard: