Roger de Lauria , or of Loria , known as the “Large Captain” (1245 - 1305), is famous a admiral which lived with horse over the 13th century and the 14th century. Born with Lauria in the area from Potenza (Basilicate), he is the son of Richard de Lauria.

He is high at the Catalan court , where it arrives following the queen Constance of Sicily, when she marries Pierre II Aragon, in 1262.

After the fall of the Hohenstaufen in 1268 (death of the king Conradin), it takes refuge in Spain, with Barcelona.

In 1282, it is named admiral of the Catalan fleet, which it orders brilliantly, becoming the true craftsman of the maritime supremacy of the Couronne of Aragon-Catalonia in the Mediterranean. But its fame is quickly eclipsed by that of Roger de Flor with which one confuses it sometimes. Pierre II the Large one grants the county to him Cocentaina, in the kingdom of Valence, of which he is the first holder, for eminent services rendered to the Crown.

It defends Sicily and the rights of the Aragonese kings against the Angevins, after the sicilian Vêpres, putting in rout a French fleet ordered by Charles of Anjou not far from Malta.

In 1284 it beats the prince de Salerne, Charles the Lame, heir to the Neapolitan throne in bay of Naples, and it conducts a spectacular campaign in Calabria.

Later, it returns to Catalonia, called by Pierre II the Large one, to be opposed in advance of the French, launched in the Croisade of Aragon. Its most remarkable victory, it gains it against the French fleet of Philippe III Bold the, with the naval Bataille of Formigues, the 3 and September 4th 1285. By doing this, it breaks the lines of communication of the invaders in Catalonia and ruin completely the French naval power of the time. It also takes part in the Bataille of the collar of Panissars (1285), during which the Almogavres beat with punt seams the French troops which, completely diverted, ebb of Catalonia.

Sure of its power, there pronounces this sentence remained famous: “No fish will dare from now on to leave the tail water if it did not attach there the banner decorated with the four bars of our lord, king d' Aragon! ”.

The victories of the admiral de Lauria are especially due to technical innovations. Attacks not being based only on the boarding and the use of the sword, but in the use of éperonnement and the crossbows, either with hand, or, for largest, fixed on the boats.

When the king Jacques II of Aragon goes up on the throne, it must yield the sicilian throne to Angevins, with which it had signed peace. But his/her brother puîné Frederic accepts the crown that the Sicilians offer to him and fights against Angevins and his brother. Roger de Lauria supports initially Frederic II of Sicily, but it ends up returning to the service of Jacques the Juste. Its sicilian grounds are confiscated to him because he is regarded by the new king as a traitor, but he overcomes infant it with the Capo d' Orlando. When the peace of Caltabellotta is signed between the two brothers, in 1302, Roger withdraws himself in his county of Cocentaina.

He is used also the king Edouard I {{er}} as England, in fight against the king of France, whereas one of the secret clauses of the Traité of Anagni (1295) stipulated that the crown of Aragon-Catalonia was to help the French against the king of England.

He is the brother-in-law of Berenguer d' Entença, one of the chiefs of Almogavres in Orient who help the Byzantine emperor Andronic II Paléologue to fight the Turks, and which end up being turned over against him.

He dies in Spain, with Valence, the January 17th 1305, and is buried with Santes Creus, with the foot of the tomb of Pierre the Large one. One set up a monument at the end of the to him Rambla Nova of Tarragone.

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