On 4 September 1285, during the Aragonese Crusade, he defeated the French near Barcelona at the Battle of Les Formigues, which destroyed for a long time the French naval power in the Mediterranean. Within days, he had landed and taken part in the Battle of the Col de Panissars. On 23 June 1287, he again defeated the Angevins near Naples at the Battle of the Counts, despite being outnumbered forty ships to eighty. After this victory, without any authorisation from King James, he made a truce with the Neapolitans. Observers noted that this truce probably deprived the Aragonese-Sicilians of the victory also on the mainland.