WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:05.540 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:06.299 --> 00:00:12.359 it was December 29th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:15.599 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:19.699 University of New Mexico. And this is The Historian's 00:00:19.699 --> 00:00:24.039 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:28.780 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. we're 00:00:28.780 --> 00:00:31.440 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:35.280 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:38.899 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's 00:00:38.899 --> 00:01:08.189 document. Today's document switches things up 00:01:08.189 --> 00:01:11.969 a little bit, because first of all, it's not 00:01:11.969 --> 00:01:15.829 in the registers of letters. It's a treasury 00:01:15.829 --> 00:01:20.769 record. And second of all, the date of the creation 00:01:20.769 --> 00:01:26.769 of this record is actually not December 29th. 00:01:27.189 --> 00:01:31.510 There was a December 29th letter from Joan that 00:01:31.510 --> 00:01:35.459 I could have used, but what's coming up next, 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:39.159 it gets a little bit wild as the succession happens. 00:01:39.560 --> 00:01:42.959 And so I've got a bunch of these letters from 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:48.120 Joann, and kind of a silence in Violant's letters, 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:52.019 and I'm going to get back to that in a little 00:01:52.019 --> 00:01:56.180 while. But first, I just want to look at today's 00:01:56.180 --> 00:01:59.000 document, and then I'm going to talk a little 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.540 bit about the succession. So today's document 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:08.780 is actually dated the 11th of January, but within 00:02:08.780 --> 00:02:13.340 it, it indicates that there's a payment going 00:02:13.340 --> 00:02:19.780 out to a baker named Simon de Fornells, and the 00:02:19.780 --> 00:02:25.360 payment is for the baking that he did from the 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:35.979 1st of October 1386 to the 29th of December 1387. 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:41.180 And remember, in our modern calendar that we 00:02:41.180 --> 00:02:43.819 use today, that sounds like it's over a year, 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:48.560 but the new year is at this time and place on 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:53.680 December 25th, and so this period for which Simon 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:57.340 de Fornells is being paid is actually the three 00:02:57.340 --> 00:03:02.479 -month period from October to the end of December 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:05.419 of what, in our time, in our calendar, we would 00:03:05.419 --> 00:03:13.199 consider the same calendar year. So, as a ground 00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:16.259 rule, I guess, you could say of the podcast, 00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:22.159 I am free to choose records like this that mention 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:27.259 a particular day in the first year of the reign 00:03:27.259 --> 00:03:31.460 of Joan and Violant. It doesn't necessarily 00:03:31.460 --> 00:03:34.280 have to have been composed on that exact day. 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:38.939 for it to appear in the podcast. And I just want 00:03:38.939 --> 00:03:42.580 to have that freedom so that I'm able to switch 00:03:42.580 --> 00:03:46.139 things around if I'm ever in a spot where I'm 00:03:46.139 --> 00:03:48.280 feeling like it's getting a little unbalanced. 00:03:48.860 --> 00:03:51.159 And thus far we've kind of alternated between 00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:54.780 Joan and Violant, but coming up there's just 00:03:54.780 --> 00:03:58.340 going to be a few episodes where it's documents 00:03:58.340 --> 00:04:01.740 from Joan. So I wanted to have another one related 00:04:01.740 --> 00:04:06.710 to Violant. This particular document, there's, 00:04:06.710 --> 00:04:09.250 of course, as with any document, a lot going 00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:13.449 on, even though it seems like a humdrum entry 00:04:13.449 --> 00:04:17.490 in a record book and nothing more. Keep in mind 00:04:17.490 --> 00:04:21.329 that the fact that we've got these detailed and 00:04:21.329 --> 00:04:25.810 itemized records of payments, that is a development. 00:04:26.089 --> 00:04:29.230 You cannot count on seeing that all throughout 00:04:29.230 --> 00:04:33.439 the history of time. This kind of record keeping 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:39.180 ebbs and flows, and this is an example, what 00:04:39.180 --> 00:04:42.379 we're looking at here is an example of the increased 00:04:42.379 --> 00:04:48.300 monetization in the Late Middle Ages, where with 00:04:48.300 --> 00:04:53.899 the increased abundance of paper, and also the 00:04:53.899 --> 00:04:57.379 increased commercialization of the economy, in 00:04:57.379 --> 00:05:00.699 the Late Middle Ages, you start to see more and 00:05:00.699 --> 00:05:05.220 more detail in financial record keeping. That 00:05:05.220 --> 00:05:08.819 just isn't there [earlier]. There were, in the Early Middle 00:05:08.819 --> 00:05:12.579 Ages, there were bakers for royal families in 00:05:12.579 --> 00:05:16.019 the early Middle Ages, but we don't see the record 00:05:16.019 --> 00:05:20.449 keeping at that time. Why? Because there wasn't 00:05:20.449 --> 00:05:25.170 as much material to write on and also because 00:05:25.170 --> 00:05:29.730 there wasn't as much of a culture of record keeping 00:05:29.730 --> 00:05:33.910 for financial matters and so those two factors 00:05:33.910 --> 00:05:37.310 make it so that it's highly unusual to see detailed 00:05:37.310 --> 00:05:42.050 records like this one in the Early or even High 00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:45.910 Middle Ages. So that's something to keep in mind 00:05:45.910 --> 00:05:50.350 and also I just want to note that this is a gigantic 00:05:50.350 --> 00:05:53.670 register, and there are just thousands of records 00:05:53.670 --> 00:05:56.230 of payments that are like this. It's a whole 00:05:56.230 --> 00:06:00.569 paragraph long. This is not double -entry bookkeeping. 00:06:01.370 --> 00:06:03.949 What's happening here is that there's an authorized 00:06:03.949 --> 00:06:07.430 agent that works for the treasury. In this situation, 00:06:07.889 --> 00:06:14.709 it is Johan Callos, and the agent appears at 00:06:14.709 --> 00:06:18.199 the very beginning. right after the phrase, al 00:06:18.199 --> 00:06:22.740 honrat en. And what that means is it's on his 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:25.339 honor. It's not an exact translation there, but 00:06:25.339 --> 00:06:29.120 the sense of it is that this is a record that 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:33.279 is tied to this person's trustworthy reputation 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:38.220 as a treasury agent. And it's setting in motion 00:06:38.220 --> 00:06:43.279 the apparatus of the financial dealings of the 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:47.959 royal family. Okay, I think that's enough about 00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:51.540 this particular document in terms of its summary. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:55.019 Of course, there's questions. There's always 00:06:55.019 --> 00:06:58.220 questions. The top questions in my mind here 00:06:58.220 --> 00:07:03.160 are about Simone de Fornells. Was he a chief 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:05.620 baker or was this just one of several bakers 00:07:05.620 --> 00:07:10.500 on staff? did this person live in Girona and 00:07:10.500 --> 00:07:13.540 that's why the payment is ending on December 00:07:13.540 --> 00:07:17.639 29th because maybe like that's right around when 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:21.120 Violant was leaving Girona. More on that in 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:24.079 a moment. Is this a high payment or is this a 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:28.139 low payment? And then also the time period of 00:07:28.139 --> 00:07:34.319 the payment, it covers a period of time in which 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:39.480 Violant was a duchess. But it's written at the 00:07:39.480 --> 00:07:44.519 time that Violant was queen. And so what in 00:07:44.519 --> 00:07:48.560 this document reflects that change, if anything? 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:52.680 Or does the language of the document actually 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:56.139 completely elide over that change? That's something 00:07:56.139 --> 00:07:58.399 that I would really need to look at a lot more 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:03.519 of these records from, say other queens or later 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:07.279 on in Violant's queenship, in order to know. But 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:09.399 those are the kind of questions that come to 00:08:09.399 --> 00:08:14.959 mind. All right, now I'm going to pull back from 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:18.879 today's document and discuss some of what was 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:25.399 going on. In part because tomorrow's document, 00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:29.939 oh, it's. It's it's quite a thing. I'm not going 00:08:29.939 --> 00:08:34.379 to spoil it, but oh my goodness. Tomorrow's document 00:08:34.379 --> 00:08:38.580 is dramatic. And it's actually not about the 00:08:38.580 --> 00:08:42.740 death of of the king. It's something else. But 00:08:42.740 --> 00:08:46.179 what I will give you is a little bit of background 00:08:46.179 --> 00:08:51.580 information that is some of of my conjecture, 00:08:51.580 --> 00:08:57.460 because what becomes clear as you're looking 00:08:57.460 --> 00:09:02.059 at the registries of letters from Joan and Violant, 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:08.639 as we move from the end of December into the 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:12.700 first days of January, they are no longer in 00:09:12.700 --> 00:09:18.100 the same place. Joan stays a little bit longer 00:09:18.100 --> 00:09:23.799 in Girona and then journeys toward Barcelona. 00:09:24.809 --> 00:09:30.210 It takes him many days to get there. Violante 00:09:30.210 --> 00:09:39.429 is in Barcelona ahead of Joan by many days. So 00:09:39.429 --> 00:09:46.169 she goes ahead of him. That alone raises a flurry 00:09:46.169 --> 00:09:49.809 of questions in my mind. Why are they journeying 00:09:49.809 --> 00:09:53.980 separately? I do not know. I'm going to try to 00:09:53.980 --> 00:09:57.440 figure that out. I'm not sure that it's possible 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:00.379 to find something definitive about that. I've 00:10:00.379 --> 00:10:03.700 got a couple ideas that I'll share over the next 00:10:03.700 --> 00:10:10.860 couple days. I think that as of around December 00:10:10.860 --> 00:10:17.740 28th, Joan and Violant get word that the king 00:10:17.740 --> 00:10:23.179 really is about to die. and they make some decisions. 00:10:24.100 --> 00:10:27.500 And one of the decisions is that Violante is 00:10:27.500 --> 00:10:32.120 gonna go to Barcelona first. So she is packing 00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:37.860 up her stuff, organizing herself for the trip 00:10:37.860 --> 00:10:43.700 to go from Girona to Barcelona. And those are 00:10:43.700 --> 00:10:47.899 very active days that she's doing that. I'm not 00:10:47.899 --> 00:10:55.289 quite sure when she leaves because [in a] moment that 00:10:55.289 --> 00:11:00.710 reflects the patriarchal mindset of those 19th 00:11:00.710 --> 00:11:04.309 century and early 20th century historians, we 00:11:04.309 --> 00:11:09.090 do not have an itinerary for any of the queens. 00:11:09.490 --> 00:11:13.509 They only made daily itineraries for the men. 00:11:14.110 --> 00:11:19.129 So we don't know exactly where Violent was. And 00:11:19.129 --> 00:11:21.830 it's possible that there aren't enough documents 00:11:21.830 --> 00:11:25.330 for us to know for sure. I'm kind of getting 00:11:25.330 --> 00:11:30.570 that impression. There's a silence in Violant's 00:11:30.570 --> 00:11:36.169 Registry of Letters from around December 28th 00:11:36.169 --> 00:11:42.830 until about January 6th. So exactly what was 00:11:42.830 --> 00:11:46.559 going on with Violante? I'm not quite sure. She 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:48.779 was traveling, I think. I think she was just 00:11:48.779 --> 00:11:51.519 busy getting ready to travel and then traveling 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:57.460 to get to Barcelona. The reason that Joan and 00:11:57.460 --> 00:12:01.759 Violant are traveling to Barcelona separately 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:09.620 has a lot to do with the familial dynamics, the 00:12:09.620 --> 00:12:14.340 familial strife that's going on in the royal 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:18.509 family. Because, hey, you might have already 00:12:18.509 --> 00:12:24.190 had this pop into your mind. A lot of sons would 00:12:24.190 --> 00:12:29.629 go to be at the bedside of their father, you 00:12:29.629 --> 00:12:32.950 know, on their father's deathbed. But Joan is 00:12:32.950 --> 00:12:38.809 not doing this. Why? Because Joan and his father, 00:12:38.909 --> 00:12:42.990 the King, they were estranged. They were fighting 00:12:42.990 --> 00:12:47.789 with each other. In fact, about six months earlier, 00:12:48.429 --> 00:12:53.190 Joan attempted to visit his father in order to 00:12:53.190 --> 00:12:56.250 try to resolve some of their differences. And 00:12:56.250 --> 00:13:01.269 his father was so mad at him that he forbid him 00:13:01.269 --> 00:13:05.789 entry into the city of Barcelona. During the 00:13:05.789 --> 00:13:11.690 months of June and July of 1386, Joan was just 00:13:11.690 --> 00:13:16.289 hanging out in Martorell, like a village on the 00:13:16.289 --> 00:13:20.009 outskirts of Barcelona waiting to see if his 00:13:20.009 --> 00:13:24.230 father would let him in. And after like two months 00:13:24.230 --> 00:13:27.970 of doing this, he gave up. He just went back 00:13:27.970 --> 00:13:33.649 to Girona. And his father basically just decided 00:13:33.649 --> 00:13:39.629 to hold that grudge until his dying day. So... 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:44.019 for dealing with a person that was um some scholars 00:13:44.019 --> 00:13:53.519 use the adjective uh um choleric he, Pere, was 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:59.399 quite uh the temperamental person and his anger 00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:02.600 was uh something that shows up in the historical 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:07.120 record quite a lot well what was the cause of 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:12.340 this difficulty between father and son. Turns 00:14:12.340 --> 00:14:20.080 out it was about a step -parent. King Pere had 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:25.120 gotten married to a woman named Sibilla de Fortia, 00:14:26.379 --> 00:14:32.950 and Sibylla's background was one that was very 00:14:32.950 --> 00:14:39.110 irksome to a lot of people because she came from 00:14:39.110 --> 00:14:45.070 a lower rung of nobility. So she was seen as 00:14:45.070 --> 00:14:47.730 lower class, even though she was still a member 00:14:47.730 --> 00:14:53.250 of the nobility. She also had a very rascal type 00:14:53.250 --> 00:14:57.309 of a brother who was causing trouble a lot. So 00:14:57.309 --> 00:15:01.960 basically there's dissension in the royal family 00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:07.379 because of this marriage. A marriage that seems 00:15:07.379 --> 00:15:11.559 very much inspired by love on the part of King 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:18.179 Pere. And so that's the basic behind it, the 00:15:18.179 --> 00:15:22.320 basic information behind it. I highly recommend 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:27.059 a wonderful book chapter by the scholar Nuria 00:15:27.059 --> 00:15:30.990 Silleras Fernandez. I'll put it in the bibliography 00:15:30.990 --> 00:15:36.110 of the webpage for this episode. It's a great 00:15:36.110 --> 00:15:39.690 read because there are so many dramatic twists 00:15:39.690 --> 00:15:43.490 and turns when it comes to Sibilla de Fortia, 00:15:43.490 --> 00:15:47.769 and some of those twists and turns we will look 00:15:47.769 --> 00:15:52.799 at for tomorrow's document. Thanks for listening 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:55.879 to this episode of the Historian's Notebook, 00:15:56.159 --> 00:16:00.279 Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona. If you are leaving 00:16:00.279 --> 00:16:03.440 with more questions than you arrived with, I've 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:07.740 done my job. Remember, the motto of the Historian's 00:16:07.740 --> 00:16:11.360 Notebook is dissatisfaction guaranteed. That 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:17.600 is dissatisfaction. Hopefully there's also some 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:20.519 satisfaction sometimes, but the only thing I'm 00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:24.899 promising is dissatisfaction. Okay, visit the 00:16:24.899 --> 00:16:27.960 website to see an image of today's document and 00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:31.759 additional show notes, and listen again tomorrow 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:37.580 to hear more about the first year of the reign 00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:43.600 of King Joan I of Aragon and Queen Violant 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:46.830 de Bar. In the meantime, take care.