In 1459–60 the Sicilian parliament, citing precedent, asked for Charles as their viceroy, but John refused them permission Bisson 1986, p. 148.
John, who had previously been lieutenant from 1436 to 1438, replaced the unpopular Galceran de Requesens in 1454 and was thus ruling Catalonia at the time of his succession to it, c.f. Bisson 1986, p. 147.
This "council representing the principality of Barcelona" was in existence by 8 December Bisson 1986, p. [1] 148.
In contemporary eyes, the remences were chiefly to blame for the entire decade of war. Modern scholarship tended to stress economic factors, but the chronology of the Catalan economy does not easily line up with events in the civil war. The failure of the Busca and the remences, who shared opponents, to unite against them, and the arrogance of the Biga and pactists (the leaders of 1461 and demagogues of 1462 in the words of Jaume Vicens Vives) following Vilafranca have more to do with it. The war was essentially political, c.f. Bisson 1986, pp. 149–50.
A French army had presciently been established at Narbonne in 1461 Bisson 1986, pp. 150.
James had been a candidate for the throne before the Compromise of Caspe in 1410. Probably the pactists thought they could control Peter, but he proved to be more independent-minded then they expected and he was unable to generate a strong following Bisson 1986, pp. 151. Partisans of James still existed in Catalonia during the war: one of them wrote the anti-royalist tract La fi del comte d'Urgell.
It was, on the face of it, bizarre. René was the old enemy of Alfonso V and a Frenchman with a claim to Naples. His election smacked of desperation, but his military funding capabilities were an important asset in continuing the war Bisson 1986, pp. 152).
John, who had had his sight recently restored by a Jewish physician, Crexcas Abiatir, was the prime beneficiary of his own wise French diplomacy Bisson 1986, pp. 152.
The royalists blamed the one-side Capitulation for the war Bisson 1986, pp. 153).
