Roger de Flor, born in Brindisi in 1280, had gone to sea as a boy and become a Knight Templar.

When Acre in Palestine had fallen to the Saracens in 1291, he had made his fortune by blackmailing refugees.

Denounced by his grand master, he had fled to Genoa and become commander of a force of almogávares (Spanish frontiersmen turned mercenaries) in service to the Aragonese king of Sicily, Frederick III, who was warring with the House of Anjou.

With four thousand almogávares idled by the end of the Sicilian Wars and known as the Grand Catalan Company, he offers the services of his Company to Andronikos II Palaiologos and his son, the Basileus Michael IX Palaeologus, whose empire is under threat by the Turks invading Anatolia.

Both kings of Aragon and Sicily agree with the idea since peace has finally been reached in southern Italy and it is a viable alternative to having the Almogavar standing army unemployed in their realms.

With the help of King Frederick, Flor departs for Constantinople in 1303 with thirty-nine galleys and transports carrying around fifteen hundred knights and four thousand Almogavars.