After taking the throne, Philip III felt obliged to continue his father's apparently solid diplomacy despite circumstances having changed. In 1282, the misrule of Charles of Anjou in Sicily compelled the island's populace to rebel in favor of King Peter III of Aragon. As Pope Martin IV was a close ally of Philip, he immediately excommunicated Peter and offered his throne to one of the French king's sons. Since Philip the Fair was already slated to inherit Navarre, the entire Spanish March seemed ripe for reconquest by France. However, Philip III's attempted crusade against Aragon, a blatantly political affair, ended in disaster as an epidemic struck his army, which then was soundly defeated by Aragonese forces at Col de Panissars. The humiliated king died shortly afterwards in Perpignan, followed by Charles of Anjou and Martin IV.