The mother, with her beautiful daughter, came to Messina, where they were hospitably received by the King of Sicily. Muntaner says that Isabel was the fairest, the rosiest, the most discreet maiden he had ever seen. The marriage of En Fernando with the fair Isabel of Andria took place at Messina, and, after several days of festivity, the Prince took his bride to Catania. Muntaner was then in command of the island of Gerbes, on the African coast, but he at once complied with a request that he should join En Fernando. He arrived at Catania a few days before the Princess gave birth to a fine boy. He brought with him great store of wedding presents, consisting of richly embroidered dresses, slippers of finely dressed leather, cloth of various colours, and jewels. He spread them all out before the Prince and Princess, to their great delight. The birthday was on the first Saturday in April 1315. The child received the name of Jayme in the cathedral of St. Agatha at Catania.
There was a melancholy termination to the bright prospect which seemed to open before the young married pair. En Fernando had no sooner completed his preparations to sail for the Morea with a well-equipped force and recover his wife’s dominions, than Isabel was seized with a fever and died a month after the birth of her child. She died in her husband’s arms, who was thus plunged in grief and was long inconsolable. He buried his bride under a monument near the tomb of St. Agatha.
In sorrow the bereaved Prince commenced his campaign. He was joined at Messina by the faithful Ramon Muntaner, whose guidance as a chronicler we are soon to lose. He had been governor of the Isle of Gerbes for seven years, but resigned that important appointment to share the fortunes of his beloved Prince. En Fernando told Muntaner that he owed more to him than to any other man on earth; but that he was now going to ask him the greatest favour of all. The little child at Catania was most in need of a valiant defender. The Prince entreated Muntaner to give up the campaign in the Morea and to convey his motherless boy safely to its grandmother at Perpignan. He would have letters to her, to the King of Majorca, and to the Prince’s procurator, En Berenguer Despuig, and he would be supplied with well-fitted galleys for the voyage. With a heavy heart Muntaner undertook the charge, and took leave of the Prince who had won his devoted affection.