In 1360—seventeen years before Queen Maria's ascension—Alagona had burnt and razed to the ground Augusta, an important fortified city, using forces from Syracuse and Catania.

[1] However, Alagona's regency failed because of conflicts between the "Sicilian" and "Aragonese" parties, and he was forced to form a government with three other Vicars instead.

In 1379, Queen Maria was kidnapped by Guglielmo Raimondo III of Moncada, Marquis of Malta and Gozzo, a Sicilian nobleman and member of the Aragonese House of Montcada, who had been specifically excluded from the government by Alagona.

Moncada intended to prevent Maria's planned marriage to Giangaleazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, and held her for two years first at Augusta, then at Licata.

Frederick the Simple had named his illegitimate son, Guglielmo, Count of Malta, as heir presumptive in the case of the extinction of his daughter's line.