Before there were travel guides to the Balearics, there was this book. Sir Clements R. Markham undertook to write the first condensed English-language history of Majorca and Minorca, islands whose story had long been buried in Catalan and Spanish chronicles inaccessible to most Anglophone readers. The narrative begins with the Islamic conquest of Iberia and traces the rise of Aragon as a crusading power determined to reclaim the Mediterranean. At its heart is the dramatic conquest of Majorca by King Jayme I, a figure part Crusader king, part Mediterranean conqueror, whose ambitions reshaped the region. Markham draws on primary sources the autobiography of Jayme I himself, the Chronicle of Muntaner, Zurita and others to construct a narrative that treats Aragonese and Sicilian events from a distinctly Majorcan point of view. Minorca receives its due as well, particularly the surprising chapters on British occupations and the island's use as a naval base. For the traveler walking the streets of Palma or the shores of Minorca, this book provides what few modern guides can: the weight of centuries, the names of battles fought on that very ground, and the forgotten figures who shaped these islands before tourism.
