Duke John of Lorraine died at Barcelona on 16 December 1470, before an attack on the mountainous redoubt of Francesc de Verntallat could be carried out. With John of Lorraine dead, the Catalans lost their most important ally — King René lived until 1480, but was not personally present in Catalonia; he appointed John's eldest bastard son, John of Calabria, Count of Briey, his new lieutenant.The Catalans, temporarily leaderless, were torn by defections: Juan and Bertran d'Armendaris, Pere Joan Ferrer i Destorrent, and Joan de Sarriera. They were also racked by internal dissension: the Church, the Generalitat, and the Consell were unable to reconcile their differences. In 1471 the French troops fighting with the Catalans retired to France and the advantage shifted decidedly to John II.John, who had had his sight recently restored by a Jewish physician, Crexcas Abiatir, was the prime beneficiary of his own wise French diplomacy .
