Bernat de Rocafort

[3] Following the murder of Roger de Flor at the order of the Byzantine emperor Michael IX Palaiologos, the Catalans elected Berenguer d'Entença as their leader, and took over the fortress of Gallipoli as their own.

[5][6] Having effectively burned his bridges with the Crown of Aragon, and in order to strengthen his authority, Rocafort took an oath of fealty to Thibaut de Cepoy, a representative of Charles of Valois.

Effective power however remained in his hands, and he soon began to envisage himself as an independent monarch, aiming at capturing Thessalonica and restoring the defunct Crusader kingdom there.

Guy II sent envoys to Kassandreia, and toyed with the idea of using the Catalans to pursue his wife's claims on the neighbouring Principality of Achaea.

These plans were opposed by Venice, however, who saw the Catalans as a threat to her own colonies in Greece; and the negotiations had not borne fruit when Rocafort himself was deposed by the Company, who had tired of his increasingly despotic rule.