King Alfons’ next move, amazingly, was deeper into Milan, rather than toward his besieged capital. It did not take much to brush aside the defenders at Languedoc. Then he began his siege.
Finally, the battles around the Balearic Islands are done. The enemy has been annihilated, though they were able to also sink a Milanese carrack and barque. Stiff losses against such a small force, no matter the result.
After months of mere skirmishing with the Aragonese forces on the island of Sicily, King Filippo finally arrived on scene and was able to trick them into a decisive battle, from which the Milanese emerged the victor.
Milan’s primary interest in this war with Aragon is to capture some of her island possessions. The Balearic Islands would give Milan a blocking position in the Mediterranean, where she could watch for enemy ships, and station a naval force which would have the benefit of nearby bases from which to operate.
This siege, among others, is near success. The walls have been breached. It’s time to go in.
Unfortunately, the assault was not successful. However, it did kill many of the defenders, and make their position all that much worse. Many of these besieged provinces would fall soon.
As they attempted to load soldiers for transport to aid the siege at Barcelona, Adm. Bargnani’s fleet encountered some scouting Aragonese galleys. In a largely inconsequential fight, they were at least able to capture one of them.
Having loaded the troops, Bargnani spent late September rushing toward Spain. He intercepted 3 Aragonese cogs off the coast of the Balearic Islands, who might have been carrying soldiers to attack Milan, or raise one of the many sieges. Indeed, a squadron of warships had arrived off the Milanese coast, blockading her harbors, and this may have been intended as a screen for an invasion. Aragon was not yet toothless!
Even as the battle rages off the shores, the fortress at Mallorca (in the Balearic Islands) falls.
On 4 October, 4 galleys arrive to protect the enemy cogs. The battle, now directed by Aragon’s premier admiral, got more challenging. The Milanese barque was lost, as was one of her galleys.
As the combat continued, Bargnani realized he was outclassed by Admiral de Ripperdi. He lost both galleys, and had one of his precious carracks captured, for no loss to the Aragonese. Not an auspicious day.
Then he was caught while trying to discharge his troops on the beach. One of the troop-carrying cogs was sunk! Bargnani fled south, with little hope of not finding more hostile ships.
But, as you can see, at least there’s some good news on the trading front to create a paltry counterbalance – I’m attempting to spread into more lucrative CoTs again, having succeeded in maintaining a small presence in my own CoT. At 400, Andalucia is the only realistic trading target – quite a bit more volume than Liguria, but the intervening CoTs (those with values between Liguria’s 150 and Andalucia) are all controlled by the French, Ottomans, or for whatever other reason aren’t likely to be friendly to our merchants.
