bject of a crusade directed against it by Pope Paschal II., in
which the Catalans took the lead. This expedition was frustrated at the
time, but was resumed by James I. of Aragon, and the Moors were expelled in
1232. During their occupation the island was populous and productive, and
an active commerce was carried on with Spain and Africa. King James
conferred the sovereignty of the isles on his third son, under whom and his
successor they formed an independent kingdom up to 1349, from which time
their history merges in that of Spain. In 1521 an insurrection of the
peasantry against the nobility, whom they massacred, took place in Majorca,
and was not suppressed without much bloodshed. In the War of the Spanish
Succession all the islands declared for Charles; the duke of Anjou had no
footing anywhere save in the citadel of Mahon. Minorca was reduced by Count
Villars in 1707; but it was not till June 1715 that Majorca was subjugated,
and meanwhile Port Mahon was captured by the English under General Stanhope
in 1708. In 1713 the island was secured to them by the peace of Utrecht;
but in 1756 it was invaded by a force of 12,000 French, who, after
defeating the British under Admiral Byng, captured Port Mahon. Restored to
England in [v.03 p.0250] 1763, the island remained in possession of the
British till 1782, when it was retaken by the Spaniards. Again seized by
the British in 1798, it was finally ceded to Spain by the peace of Amiens
in 1803. When the French invaded Spain in 1808, the Mallorquins did not
remain indifferent; the governor, D. Juan Miguel de Vives, announced, amid
universal acclamation, his resolution to support Ferdinand VII. At first
the Junta would take no active part in the war, retaining the corps of
volunteers that was formed for the defence of the island; but finding it
quite secure, they transferred a succession of them to the Peninsula to
reinforce the allies. Such was the animosity excited against the French
when their excesses were known to the Mallorquins, that some of the French
prisoners, conducted thither in 1810, had to be transferred with all speed
to the island of Cabrera, a transference which was not effected before some
of them had been killed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For a general account of the islands, the most valuable
books are _Die Balearen geschildert in Wort und Bild_, by the archduke
Ludwig Salvator of Austria (Leipzig, 1896); _Les Iles oubliees_, by G.
Vuillier (Paris, 1904), the first e