CNG 90, Lot: 2300. Estimate $7500. Sold for $7500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Sicilia (Regno). Pietro I il grande (the Great). 1282-1285. AV Pierreale (25mm, 4.38 g, 2h). Messina mint. Eagle standing left, head right, with wings spread / Coat-of-arms. Spahr 1; MEC 14, 756 var. (pellet above coat-of-arms). Choice EF. Rare.

The eldest son of Jaime I of Aragon and his second wife Violante de Hungría, Pietro spent much of his youth and early adulthood fighting his father's wars of the Reconquista against the Moors, where he gain a great deal of military experience for his future enterprises. His marriage on 13 June 1262 to Constanza II de Sicilia, daughter of Manfredo, King of Sicily, provided him with the legitimate excuse to remove the “usurper” Carlo I d'Angiò, who had seized control of the region following Manfredo’s death in 1266. In early 1282, a popular rebellion, known as the War of the Sicilian Vespers, broke out in reaction to the rule of Carlo I. Taking advantage of this situation, Pietro launched his invasion to claim the throne for himself. Although he installed himself successfully on the throne and Carlo I was driven into exile in Naples, the remainder of Pietro’s short reign in Sicily was beset by warfare. The first involved his conflict with Carlo and was halted short of a trial by duel arranged in France to be judged by Edward I of England. While Pietro was ultimately successful against Carlo, the second conflict, the Aragonese Crusade, beginning in 1284 and continuing until Pietro’s death the following year, embroiled France in the region and helped to undermine Aragonese power.