WEBVTT 00:00:00.590 --> 00:00:09.529 Happy New Year It's December 25th 2025 but in 00:00:09.529 --> 00:00:15.050 the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago Well, it was 00:00:15.050 --> 00:00:20.809 also December 25th, but it was 1387 the first 00:00:20.809 --> 00:00:26.949 day of 1387 in the Crown of Aragon in that time 00:00:26.949 --> 00:00:32.850 period people celebrated New Year's Day on Christmas. 00:00:33.310 --> 00:00:40.070 The year changed on December 25th. Welcome to 00:00:40.070 --> 00:01:08.290 season one of the Historian's Notebook. Jonathan 00:01:08.290 --> 00:01:12.430 Seyfried and I am a PhD candidate in history 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:16.189 at the University of New Mexico. The Historian's 00:01:16.189 --> 00:01:19.430 Notebook takes you on a journey through the research 00:01:19.430 --> 00:01:22.510 process that historians go through when they 00:01:22.510 --> 00:01:25.689 create historical narratives from what they read 00:01:25.689 --> 00:01:29.730 in the archives. It's part of being a historian 00:01:29.730 --> 00:01:33.349 that often becomes invisible by the time the 00:01:33.349 --> 00:01:36.870 research gets published in an article or book. 00:01:37.230 --> 00:01:39.989 This first season of the Historian's Notebook 00:01:39.989 --> 00:01:44.489 is titled Molt Cara Companyona, a phrase that 00:01:44.489 --> 00:01:50.230 translates to My Dearest Companion or Most Dear 00:01:50.230 --> 00:01:55.129 Companion. King Joan I of the Crown of Aragon 00:01:55.129 --> 00:01:58.310 frequently used this phrase in letters to his 00:01:58.310 --> 00:02:02.489 wife, Queen Violant de Bar. In this season 00:02:02.489 --> 00:02:04.989 of the Historian's Notebook, I'll tell you a 00:02:04.989 --> 00:02:07.709 little bit about a document closely connected 00:02:07.709 --> 00:02:11.509 to Joan and Violante, who lived in the late 14th 00:02:11.509 --> 00:02:14.990 century. The Archive of the Crown of Aragon holds 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:18.389 so many documents that we can look at one for 00:02:18.389 --> 00:02:43.409 every day of their reign. Now, let's begin. The 00:02:43.409 --> 00:02:46.770 document that I'm talking about today is dated 00:02:46.770 --> 00:02:52.169 December 25th, 1387, and as the very beginning 00:02:52.169 --> 00:02:55.990 of today's podcast explained, well, this was 00:02:55.990 --> 00:02:59.289 New Year's Day. Letters or documents written 00:02:59.289 --> 00:03:03.389 on December 24th, they would have had the year 00:03:03.389 --> 00:03:10.569 listed as 1386. So, Violante on New Year's Day 00:03:10.569 --> 00:03:15.449 wrote a letter to the officials, the most politically 00:03:15.449 --> 00:03:20.150 powerful officials in the city of Montpellier. 00:03:21.009 --> 00:03:25.530 And this is kind of on the outer edge of the 00:03:25.530 --> 00:03:29.460 territory of the Crown of Aragon. Montpellier 00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:35.000 was known for having a university that was at 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:38.580 really the top of its class for medical knowledge. 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:41.919 So there are a few cities in the late Middle 00:03:41.919 --> 00:03:45.020 Ages that were at the top of the list. Montpellier 00:03:45.020 --> 00:03:50.060 was one, Salerno was another. So Violent is writing 00:03:50.060 --> 00:03:54.539 this letter to the officials who are in charge 00:03:54.539 --> 00:03:59.949 of running Montpellier and and I guess maybe 00:03:59.949 --> 00:04:04.210 like have some sway when it comes to criminal 00:04:04.210 --> 00:04:07.870 matters because the content of the letter is 00:04:07.870 --> 00:04:11.889 about some students that got into trouble some 00:04:11.889 --> 00:04:17.589 students that are subjects of the crown of Aragon 00:04:17.589 --> 00:04:23.550 probably Aragonese and This information alone 00:04:23.550 --> 00:04:28.250 brings up so, so much that needs to be explained 00:04:28.250 --> 00:04:32.389 in the background, but I'm gonna pause on talking 00:04:32.389 --> 00:04:34.790 about this particular letter for just a moment 00:04:34.790 --> 00:04:38.990 in order to give you a little bit of a groundwork 00:04:38.990 --> 00:04:43.029 on what the podcast is going to be like. So... 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:46.079 What's going to happen in this podcast is that 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:49.779 some days I will go deep into the document and 00:04:49.779 --> 00:04:53.000 spend a whole lot of time with it. I mean, relatively 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:55.620 speaking, these are going to be short, bite sized 00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:59.180 episodes. Other times, I'm just going to talk 00:04:59.180 --> 00:05:02.060 about the document a little bit, maybe for about 00:05:02.060 --> 00:05:05.259 a minute, and then use it as sort of the tip 00:05:05.259 --> 00:05:07.980 of an iceberg for a lot of background knowledge 00:05:07.980 --> 00:05:11.519 that listeners will find helpful when trying 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:14.899 to understand just you know, what is going on 00:05:14.899 --> 00:05:17.980 with the individual document, as well as the 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:22.939 larger story of Joanne and Violant, who began 00:05:22.939 --> 00:05:26.180 their reign as King and Queen of the Crown of 00:05:26.180 --> 00:05:31.180 Aragon in 1387. So one thing about this document 00:05:31.180 --> 00:05:37.579 is that it is signed from the Duchess because 00:05:37.579 --> 00:05:41.100 they didn't start their reign Violant didn't 00:05:41.100 --> 00:05:46.779 become queen until something like January 6th 00:05:46.779 --> 00:05:50.879 or 7th. And there's some question marks about 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:54.879 how the transition of power took place. But in 00:05:54.879 --> 00:06:00.079 the very first days of 1387, Violante was the 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:05.459 Duchess of Girona. Joan was the Duke of Girona. 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:13.050 And Joan's father, Père, he dies on, it seems, 00:06:13.550 --> 00:06:18.569 January 5th. And so basically what we've got 00:06:18.569 --> 00:06:25.009 here in this moment, in these final days of Pair's 00:06:25.009 --> 00:06:27.350 reign, is a lot of anticipation because he didn't 00:06:27.350 --> 00:06:30.610 die suddenly. The guy had been on the throne 00:06:30.610 --> 00:06:35.290 for 50 years. He's old and he had been declining. 00:06:35.569 --> 00:06:38.750 He was pretty much on his deathbed for many weeks. 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:44.420 And is Joan there with his father as his father 00:06:44.420 --> 00:06:49.240 is on his deathbed? No. Joan and Violant are 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:52.759 in Girona, quite a distance away from Barcelona, 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:57.399 where Pére was laying, dying. So this raises 00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:00.379 some questions, and there's some answers to those 00:07:00.379 --> 00:07:03.680 questions, which I will get to in due course. 00:07:06.509 --> 00:07:11.889 So I want to take a step back and just on day 00:07:11.889 --> 00:07:16.230 one of the podcast, explain a little bit about 00:07:16.230 --> 00:07:21.110 what is happening here. What's happening here 00:07:21.110 --> 00:07:26.709 is that I am taking the listeners through you, 00:07:26.930 --> 00:07:31.449 my friend, through something like an initial 00:07:31.449 --> 00:07:36.759 sweep through the archive. When historians are 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:41.220 taking on a new project, they'll go to an archive 00:07:41.220 --> 00:07:45.540 or, you know, maybe the archive they're not physically 00:07:45.540 --> 00:07:48.259 going to, but they're accessing it online, which 00:07:48.259 --> 00:07:52.519 is what's happening for me with this season. 00:07:54.139 --> 00:07:58.040 And they have some theories about what they might 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:02.480 find. sometimes just very general questions of 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:05.319 curiosity, other times very specific, like I 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:08.819 think that there was an assassination. They're 00:08:08.819 --> 00:08:11.519 going in and they're reading through a bunch 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:15.040 of documents in order to try to find the material 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:19.600 that will help them to support an interpretation 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:24.220 or an argument about what happened in the past. 00:08:25.459 --> 00:08:30.110 So at this point, in the process of constructing 00:08:30.110 --> 00:08:33.309 a historical narrative. The historian is going 00:08:33.309 --> 00:08:37.269 through and just kind of identifying what the 00:08:37.269 --> 00:08:41.450 documents are and generally what they say. They 00:08:41.450 --> 00:08:45.409 can't really take a ton of time to thoroughly 00:08:45.409 --> 00:08:50.210 analyze each and every document because there's 00:08:50.379 --> 00:08:53.200 only so much time you have at this stage and 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:56.659 you might miss a really important one down the 00:08:56.659 --> 00:09:02.159 road if you use up all your time going deep into 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:04.820 every single document you find at the beginning. 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:06.799 But of course there's a balance because maybe 00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:09.220 at the beginning you find something incredibly 00:09:09.220 --> 00:09:12.940 amazing. So it's that tension that you'll kind 00:09:12.940 --> 00:09:15.879 of see me working with as we go through the course 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:20.990 of the year. So what's happening at this moment 00:09:20.990 --> 00:09:25.669 is going through and just taking some notes on 00:09:25.669 --> 00:09:30.970 each document every single day of that first 00:09:30.970 --> 00:09:36.090 year of Joan and Violant's reign. And as we 00:09:36.090 --> 00:09:39.990 know, starting technically before they became 00:09:39.990 --> 00:09:43.690 king and queen. So really going from December 00:09:43.690 --> 00:09:52.970 25th 1387 to December 24th, 1387. That sounds 00:09:52.970 --> 00:10:00.169 weird, but that is a total of 365 days. So what's 00:10:00.169 --> 00:10:03.570 going to happen in the podcast is a variation. 00:10:03.970 --> 00:10:07.870 Sometimes the whole 15 minute episode will be 00:10:07.870 --> 00:10:10.769 about that one document really going into a close 00:10:10.769 --> 00:10:16.039 reading. Other times it'll be all context. But 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:20.080 something that is going to happen probably every 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:23.779 single episode is that there's just gonna be 00:10:23.779 --> 00:10:28.500 a ton of questions. There's no way when you're 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:30.960 looking at a document for the first time that 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:35.440 you can definitively reach conclusions about 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:39.059 all the things you're wondering. At this stage, 00:10:39.299 --> 00:10:44.450 historians are gathering their engaging their 00:10:44.450 --> 00:10:49.470 curiosity, and they're keeping in mind a concept 00:10:49.470 --> 00:10:54.070 that Sam Wineburg calls the specification of 00:10:54.070 --> 00:10:56.809 ignorance. They're keeping in mind all the things 00:10:56.809 --> 00:11:00.850 that they do not know, both about the content 00:11:00.850 --> 00:11:05.009 of the letter and also about the larger context. 00:11:06.070 --> 00:11:11.870 So for this letter by Violant on December 25th, 00:11:12.169 --> 00:11:15.250 Let me just list to you some questions that I 00:11:15.250 --> 00:11:21.110 came up with after reading it. What did the students 00:11:21.110 --> 00:11:26.230 do? Was it criminal? It seems so, but she doesn't 00:11:26.230 --> 00:11:30.850 say it. She refers to the situation as the case 00:11:30.850 --> 00:11:36.870 or a case. Does Violant have Montpellier in 00:11:36.870 --> 00:11:40.389 her portfolio or have particular jurisdiction 00:11:40.389 --> 00:11:45.230 over it? Or is this a region that Joan would 00:11:45.230 --> 00:11:51.309 also have equal authority over? How unusual was 00:11:51.309 --> 00:11:54.809 it for the Duke and Duchess of Girona to intercede 00:11:54.809 --> 00:11:58.830 on behalf of students who got into trouble in 00:11:58.830 --> 00:12:02.409 Montpellier and other places? Were the students 00:12:02.409 --> 00:12:06.730 connected to elite figures or friends of Joan 00:12:06.730 --> 00:12:11.039 and Violant? This is actually previewing something 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:14.639 that is going to come up on January 2nd. Joan 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:18.519 wrote a letter about these students, too. What 00:12:18.519 --> 00:12:22.000 does the precipitating incident say about student 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.399 identity or the student lifestyle in university 00:12:25.399 --> 00:12:29.399 towns in the late 14th century? How many Crown 00:12:29.399 --> 00:12:32.000 of Aragon subjects went to distant lands for 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.549 university training? Were there physician training 00:12:35.549 --> 00:12:38.289 universities in Iberia at this time? It's something 00:12:38.289 --> 00:12:41.809 I don't know. Montpellier might be the closest 00:12:41.809 --> 00:12:46.470 one to the Crown of Aragon. How does Violant's 00:12:46.470 --> 00:12:50.590 imminent ascension to the throne shape the way 00:12:50.590 --> 00:12:54.210 that she writes this letter, the content or the 00:12:54.210 --> 00:13:01.090 tone of it? And did Joan intercede before Violant 00:13:01.090 --> 00:13:08.330 did? Did he intercede after? I don't know. It's 00:13:08.330 --> 00:13:11.289 part of the challenge of the way that the documents 00:13:11.289 --> 00:13:15.190 in the Archive of the Crown of Aragon are organized 00:13:15.190 --> 00:13:18.190 and make things a little bit difficult to find. 00:13:18.789 --> 00:13:22.870 More on that in the coming episodes. So that's 00:13:22.870 --> 00:13:25.629 a set of questions and it's by no means the end 00:13:25.629 --> 00:13:28.950 of my list of questions when it comes to just 00:13:28.950 --> 00:13:32.570 working with this one document. but it models 00:13:32.570 --> 00:13:37.129 for you what's going on as a historian encounters 00:13:37.129 --> 00:13:41.490 a document even at this stage of the initial 00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:46.970 sweep. At this point, you might be curious to 00:13:46.970 --> 00:13:49.750 take a look at the document that I'm talking 00:13:49.750 --> 00:13:54.690 about. Well, on my website, jonathanseyfried.net, 00:13:55.269 --> 00:13:58.450 I am going to post every single document that 00:13:58.450 --> 00:14:01.740 I discuss. in this season of the Historian's 00:14:01.740 --> 00:14:06.159 Notebook. So head on over there and click on 00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:09.179 the Historian's Notebook link and you'll be able 00:14:09.179 --> 00:14:13.779 to find not only an image of this letter but 00:14:13.779 --> 00:14:18.159 also some notes on it and a few links especially 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:22.159 if I cite a source I'll put in a bibliography 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:26.340 for that day's episode. So there's a lot to look 00:14:26.340 --> 00:14:31.460 at and a lot to think about as we dive into this 00:14:31.460 --> 00:14:34.639 sort of right in the middle. There's so many 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:38.779 questions that I want to answer for you, and 00:14:38.779 --> 00:14:42.840 I could do like a four -hour lecture about everything 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:46.159 I know about Joan and Violant, but I don't 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:48.360 know. I think it's going to be a little bit more 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:52.580 fun to just dive right in into the middle of 00:14:52.580 --> 00:14:57.919 things and sort of... as you go on, get more 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:02.179 comfortable with this time and place and the 00:15:02.179 --> 00:15:05.759 people and their personalities. One last thing 00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:09.299 before I conclude today's episode. I wanted to 00:15:09.299 --> 00:15:12.940 address something that we started out with. New 00:15:12.940 --> 00:15:16.960 Year's Day! Because you might have thought, oh, 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:19.899 well, that's kind of weird that... New Year's 00:15:19.899 --> 00:15:22.139 Day was also Christmas, but you know, Christianity 00:15:22.139 --> 00:15:25.100 was really big deal in that society at that time. 00:15:25.460 --> 00:15:29.019 That kind of makes sense. But I want to share 00:15:29.019 --> 00:15:34.139 with you that in different places at this time 00:15:34.139 --> 00:15:37.179 in these centuries, the late Middle Ages, kind 00:15:37.179 --> 00:15:42.019 of talking about maybe generally 1200 to 1500s, 00:15:43.019 --> 00:15:47.019 the convention for the New Year was so weird 00:15:47.019 --> 00:15:51.009 because it varied. There were a lot of places 00:15:51.009 --> 00:15:56.750 in Western Europe that started the new year in 00:15:56.750 --> 00:16:02.289 March, specifically on Annunciation Day, March 00:16:02.289 --> 00:16:06.129 25th. Annunciation Day was the day that the angel 00:16:06.129 --> 00:16:09.250 Gabriel came down to Mary and said, you're going 00:16:09.250 --> 00:16:14.110 to have a baby. So March 25th was New Year's 00:16:14.110 --> 00:16:19.200 Day in a lot of places and I'm just really happy 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:23.019 that at least in The Crown of Aragon, at this 00:16:23.019 --> 00:16:26.639 time in 1387, New Year's Day was at least like 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:30.860 somewhat close to New Year's that we have today, 00:16:31.220 --> 00:16:34.600 on January 1st, because otherwise it gets really 00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:36.850 confusing about like... when you're trying to 00:16:36.850 --> 00:16:40.769 read a document knowing sort of which year it 00:16:40.769 --> 00:16:43.230 was and what came before and what came after. 00:16:44.370 --> 00:16:47.009 So chronology is tough when you start when you're 00:16:47.009 --> 00:16:49.429 reading something and the new year starts on 00:16:49.429 --> 00:16:52.210 March 25th as is the case in a lot of places. 00:16:53.230 --> 00:16:57.309 All right, well that was a little funky fun fact 00:16:57.309 --> 00:17:00.830 for you about the Middle Ages. So many more of 00:17:00.830 --> 00:17:05.920 those on the way. Thanks for listening to this 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:09.460 episode of The Historian's Notebook, the inaugural 00:17:09.460 --> 00:17:15.079 episode. This season, season one, Molt Cara Companyona. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:18.839 If you are leaving with more questions than you 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:23.119 arrived with, I have done my job. Remember, the 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:29.160 motto of The Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction 00:17:29.160 --> 00:17:33.059 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:17:33.059 --> 00:17:35.559 of today's document and additional show notes, 00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:39.920 and listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:44.039 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:49.720 I of Aragon and Queen Violante de Bar. In the 00:17:49.720 --> 00:17:51.660 meantime, take care.