10 Awesome True Stories That Still Need The Hollywood Treatment
10. The Rise and Fall of the Catalan Company
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We all love mercenaries. So the story of a company of fighters-for-hire who ended up creating their own state should have more than a little appeal, I think. The Catalan Company was a force of Iberian fighters organized in the 1300's by Roger de Flor, who seems like an almost archetypical scoundrel. The Company went to work for the Byzantine Empire, and then proceeded to pillage Byzantine villages while going about their work. De Flor was assassinated in 1305, but the Company persisted, and later carved out their own country, the Duchy of Neopatria, in Greece. The Duchy lasted for over seventy years before succumbing to forces both internal and external. There's potential for an epic tale of a company of men coming together, planting down a legacy, and then later that legacy all falling apart. Plus, mercenaries.Source and source.