Violence was frequent in Catalonia at that time: many private disputes were resolved by the use of weapons. Two phenomena gained importance at this time, banditry and privateering. The groups of bandits were a consequence of the social and political crisis in Catalonia. Revenge, crimes, kidnappings, blackmail, assaults and even small private wars proliferated in a society in which factions were rife.
Privateering grew alongside the mounting struggle between the various Mediterranean states and particularly between the Ottoman Empire and the Hispanic kingdoms. Groups from the northern coasts of Africa or from the Empire itself ravaged the Catalan coastal regions.
