WEBVTT 00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:05.280 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:13.839 it was December 31, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:18.019 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:18.019 --> 00:00:21.760 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:26.019 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:26.510 --> 00:00:30.910 Season 1 is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:30.910 --> 00:00:33.549 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:33.549 --> 00:00:37.289 year of the reign of King Joan of Aragon and 00:00:37.289 --> 00:00:41.329 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's document. 00:01:06.799 --> 00:01:10.280 I had a little bit of trouble finding a large 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:15.340 number of documents for December 31st. Not quite 00:01:15.340 --> 00:01:18.920 sure why. I've already talked about how I think 00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:21.840 Violant is getting ready to travel. It's too 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:24.319 busy. But I'm not quite sure why there aren't 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:27.719 that many for Joan. So I went with the one that 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:33.060 is listed in his itinerary created by Daniel 00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:36.500 Girona y Llagostera. For a little bit of background 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:40.140 about that document, that long itinerary, go 00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:43.680 look at the webpage for episode 4, or go ahead 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:47.920 and listen to episode 4. This particular document, 00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:53.400 at the top of it, it has a header. And this is 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:56.400 another Latin document, so again, it's a bit 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:58.719 of a struggle. Actually, that's an understatement. 00:01:58.780 --> 00:02:01.340 This was a lot of a struggle. I'll tell you why. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:06.730 Look at the header. it says pro manumissoria, 00:02:07.209 --> 00:02:17.389 something like vicomptem de insula, and then 00:02:17.389 --> 00:02:22.629 it might be a probata symbol after that, or it 00:02:22.629 --> 00:02:27.370 could also be an abbreviation for quibis. It 00:02:27.370 --> 00:02:30.560 kind of looks like both of those. So I think 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:32.979 it's the probata symbol, but then there's that 00:02:32.979 --> 00:02:36.060 accent mark on the top that kind of throws me 00:02:36.060 --> 00:02:39.919 off. So I'm not quite sure what that symbol is. 00:02:40.259 --> 00:02:43.759 I went down a completely wrong path with this 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:47.819 document because I thought that it was about 00:02:47.819 --> 00:02:52.419 some kind of manumission, like there was a freeing 00:02:52.419 --> 00:02:56.280 of. either a captive, like someone had been taken 00:02:56.280 --> 00:03:02.300 captive and was then freed, or it was a slave 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:05.199 who was freed because there was slavery at this 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:13.759 time. These weren't a very slavery -focused societies, 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:18.189 though. There were slaves, but they weren't slave 00:03:18.189 --> 00:03:20.909 societies, which is an important distinction. 00:03:21.389 --> 00:03:25.050 A slave society is when everything about the 00:03:25.050 --> 00:03:27.449 society is arranged around the maintenance of 00:03:27.449 --> 00:03:31.810 a slave population. And that's not a good way 00:03:31.810 --> 00:03:35.150 to characterize, not an accurate way to characterize 00:03:35.150 --> 00:03:39.349 the societies in the Crown of Aragon at this 00:03:39.349 --> 00:03:44.689 time. So there was slavery, there were slaves, 00:03:44.689 --> 00:03:49.009 so I thought, you know, possibly, but it's a 00:03:49.009 --> 00:03:52.810 little bit unlikely that Joan would get involved 00:03:52.810 --> 00:03:55.789 in the freeing of a particular slave unless there 00:03:55.789 --> 00:03:59.349 was something very dramatic. And when I started 00:03:59.349 --> 00:04:01.909 looking at this document, trying to figure out 00:04:01.909 --> 00:04:04.229 the place names and the people's names in it, 00:04:04.590 --> 00:04:07.710 it didn't look to me like there was anything 00:04:07.710 --> 00:04:11.300 that dramatic going on. and I gotta tell you, 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:13.560 I had a lot of trouble figuring out the place 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:19.120 names too. So we have in the first line, Infans 00:04:19.180 --> 00:04:25.100 Johannes, et cetera, and then we have the addressee, 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:28.639 the recipient, and it's a three lines, actually. 00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:32.600 Actually, it goes to the fourth line, and it's 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:35.180 all of these different officials and leaders 00:04:35.180 --> 00:04:39.740 within these... regions of Roussillon and Cerdanya, 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:43.459 but I didn't even get that. So Roussillon and 00:04:43.459 --> 00:04:46.980 Cerdanya are at the beginning of the second line, 00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:50.860 but I didn't quite identify them correctly in 00:04:50.860 --> 00:04:56.579 the beginning. I got to it eventually. So I was 00:04:56.579 --> 00:05:00.600 really trying to figure out also what was Caneto. 00:05:00.740 --> 00:05:03.180 I wasn't even sure if I was spelling that right. 00:05:04.259 --> 00:05:11.319 It could have been or even with a C at the end, 00:05:11.819 --> 00:05:14.699 because the T's and the C's and the E's can all 00:05:14.699 --> 00:05:18.279 look really similar in this handwriting. So I 00:05:18.279 --> 00:05:23.819 really did struggle, and so I went to ChatGPT, 00:05:24.139 --> 00:05:28.899 and I will tell you that without the AI Chatbot 00:05:28.899 --> 00:05:32.360 in this instance, I think I just would have had 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:35.699 the wrong idea about this document and it would 00:05:35.699 --> 00:05:40.660 have persisted as the wrong idea, because I found 00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:45.019 out a couple things that I had not even thought 00:05:45.019 --> 00:05:48.620 to ask about. For example, in the header, the 00:05:48.620 --> 00:05:51.639 word insula, that's the Latin word for island, 00:05:52.019 --> 00:05:54.639 so I really thought there was some island involved. 00:05:55.220 --> 00:05:58.740 I mean, you would think. but actually there's 00:05:58.740 --> 00:06:01.560 a region, an inland region, it's kind of near 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:04.399 the coast, but it's on the other side of the 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:08.120 coast from Perpignan, the city of Perpignan, 00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:10.959 in what is today southern France, and it's 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:16.019 called Illa, and then there's a town that's on 00:06:16.019 --> 00:06:23.100 the coast, and that one's called Canet, and 00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:28.649 so there's a viscount who had the title, The 00:06:28.649 --> 00:06:35.810 Count of Illa and Canet. And that's who is being 00:06:35.810 --> 00:06:40.509 discussed in this letter. I would not have put 00:06:40.509 --> 00:06:45.529 that all together. And in addition, it was ChatGPT 00:06:45.529 --> 00:06:49.230 that came to the conclusion that this was a different 00:06:49.230 --> 00:06:53.050 use of the word that is related to the English 00:06:53.050 --> 00:06:57.310 word manumission. In this sense, what we're looking 00:06:57.310 --> 00:07:00.790 at in this document, the word manumissoria has 00:07:00.790 --> 00:07:04.069 to do with the execution of a last will and testament. 00:07:04.850 --> 00:07:07.870 So what this document is actually about is that 00:07:07.870 --> 00:07:13.790 somebody had died. The person was Andrew de Fenollet. 00:07:14.670 --> 00:07:18.189 Andrew de Fenollet. Sorry, I actually had to 00:07:18.189 --> 00:07:21.670 cut out a little bit of the podcast there, because 00:07:21.670 --> 00:07:24.829 I had never said that name aloud before, and 00:07:24.829 --> 00:07:28.470 I wanted to maybe do the double L as a Y sound, 00:07:28.769 --> 00:07:31.509 so fenoyay or something like that, but I think 00:07:31.509 --> 00:07:36.980 it's fenolette. I think it's an English L. double 00:07:36.980 --> 00:07:40.779 L there, but I'm actually not sure. There's a 00:07:40.779 --> 00:07:43.680 lot that I'm not sure about, and hey, this document 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:48.139 was a great way for me to learn some geography 00:07:48.139 --> 00:07:54.620 about the area of what is today southwestern 00:07:54.620 --> 00:08:01.439 France, and also the area around there was part 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:05.540 of France. It was within a region of France that 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:09.899 was, I think, not exactly under the jurisdiction 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:13.360 of the French king in Paris at this time, but 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:18.339 I'm really hazy on it. It used to be a part of 00:08:18.339 --> 00:08:23.939 the Crown of Aragon, for sure, until in the middle 00:08:23.939 --> 00:08:27.699 of the 14th century when there's some conflict 00:08:27.699 --> 00:08:31.680 that's going on and there's the king of Majorca 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:36.840 fighting against the Crown of Aragon, the the 00:08:36.840 --> 00:08:40.480 region of Roussillon gets kind of caught up in 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:45.340 that. So basically, it seems like at this moment, 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:52.279 Joan at least has jurisdiction over the place 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:59.019 that is ruled over by the Viscount of Illa and 00:08:59.019 --> 00:09:04.649 Canet, or maybe that's pronounced Can-ay. Goodness, 00:09:05.289 --> 00:09:07.590 there's just a lot, a lot in here that I'm learning 00:09:07.590 --> 00:09:11.590 for the first time. I don't think that this document 00:09:11.590 --> 00:09:15.990 is going to really be a lot of use for me in 00:09:15.990 --> 00:09:21.929 a direct sense. So I kind of looked at this because 00:09:21.929 --> 00:09:25.860 it was on this day. But I don't know. The major 00:09:25.860 --> 00:09:28.919 questions that I have about it have to do with 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:33.440 what is it doing here in the middle of a massive 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:39.679 moment for Joan? Maybe there was an urgent need 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:42.379 in some ways. Maybe someone was like bothering 00:09:42.379 --> 00:09:44.820 Joan. Like you just got to get this done. You 00:09:44.820 --> 00:09:47.440 got to put your seal of approval on the Last 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:51.669 Will and Testament. of this person in this region 00:09:51.669 --> 00:09:54.409 that you're in charge of that's in your portfolio 00:09:54.409 --> 00:09:56.149 and you just got to get it done it's like okay 00:09:56.149 --> 00:09:57.610 fine i'll get it done but i'm really worried 00:09:57.610 --> 00:10:01.899 about what's going on with the succession that 00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:05.000 I'm involved in, not this like lower level succession 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:07.220 that's happening in this other region, but it's 00:10:07.220 --> 00:10:10.460 an interesting kind of parallel that maybe Joan 00:10:10.460 --> 00:10:14.580 is thinking about, that here he is signing off 00:10:14.580 --> 00:10:18.100 on what looks to be like an orderly transition 00:10:18.100 --> 00:10:24.559 of power in this little region, and he's about 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:30.649 to engage in a transition of power and he's not 00:10:30.649 --> 00:10:36.610 sure how orderly it's going to be. So that's 00:10:36.610 --> 00:10:40.990 today's document, and I wanted to take a moment 00:10:40.990 --> 00:10:45.730 to step back from the document and to just explain 00:10:45.730 --> 00:10:49.970 a little bit more about the backstory of what's 00:10:49.970 --> 00:10:54.610 going on with Joan and Violant and the Crown 00:10:54.610 --> 00:11:00.000 of Aragon in the bigger picture. The Crown of 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.620 Aragon at this time was a very powerful polity. 00:11:05.740 --> 00:11:11.500 It had territorial possessions all over the Mediterranean, 00:11:12.179 --> 00:11:17.480 as far away as Greece, and it was extremely wealthy. 00:11:18.340 --> 00:11:23.039 There were Catalan merchants doing business all 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:26.620 over the Mediterranean, and they really were 00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:31.309 at a level in terms of their presence and force 00:11:31.309 --> 00:11:35.409 that could compete with places that you've definitely 00:11:35.409 --> 00:11:43.070 heard of, like Genoa and Pisa. And so, at this, 00:11:43.309 --> 00:11:49.570 and Venice, Venice too, at this time, the Crown 00:11:49.570 --> 00:11:52.289 of Aragon is, I think you could kind of say like 00:11:52.289 --> 00:11:56.169 at its height of its power, as a Mediterranean 00:11:56.169 --> 00:12:03.909 force. It's kind of downhill from here and a 00:12:03.909 --> 00:12:09.370 lot of the secondary literature pretty much puts 00:12:09.370 --> 00:12:14.190 Joan as like the beginning of the decline and 00:12:14.190 --> 00:12:17.529 We'll talk about reasons for that as we move 00:12:17.529 --> 00:12:24.009 forward but The Crown of Aragon is a big deal 00:12:24.009 --> 00:12:29.879 It's a power player And that is why Violant 00:12:29.879 --> 00:12:34.220 is there, married to Joan. A little bit of 00:12:34.220 --> 00:12:39.460 background about Violant. She was the niece 00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:50.080 of the King of France. So her grandparents were 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:54.779 the King and Queen of France. So keep that in 00:12:54.779 --> 00:12:57.500 mind, she is a solid member of the royal family. 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:01.320 She spent a lot of her time in her childhood 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:07.299 in Paris at the palace. If you know anything 00:13:07.299 --> 00:13:11.539 about late 14th century Paris, you might be thinking 00:13:11.539 --> 00:13:14.580 to yourself, wait a second, there was someone 00:13:14.580 --> 00:13:18.490 else who was there at that time who got... to 00:13:18.490 --> 00:13:21.149 be very, very prominent and went down in history 00:13:21.149 --> 00:13:25.309 in a big way. That was Christine de Pizan. I 00:13:25.309 --> 00:13:29.070 haven't found any information about whether Violant 00:13:29.070 --> 00:13:32.409 and Christine de Pizan knew each other, but their 00:13:32.409 --> 00:13:35.590 childhoods overlapped and they were both there 00:13:35.590 --> 00:13:38.710 at the court of the King of France around the 00:13:38.710 --> 00:13:43.590 same time. So it's really interesting. Violant 00:13:43.590 --> 00:13:51.870 was a choice that Joan made, and he sought 00:13:51.870 --> 00:13:57.549 a French, a prominent French woman to be his 00:13:57.549 --> 00:14:02.669 wife. This was actually his third go of marriage, 00:14:03.389 --> 00:14:07.330 and I'll explain more about that in a future 00:14:07.330 --> 00:14:10.610 episode, but for now, it's important to understand 00:14:10.610 --> 00:14:14.649 that in the moment that Joan married Violant, 00:14:15.179 --> 00:14:23.039 Joan overrode his father's objections. Pere had 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:28.220 wanted him to marry somebody from Sicily so that 00:14:28.220 --> 00:14:32.960 the Crown of Aragon could solidify its rule over 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:36.159 Sicily, which was a little bit shaky at the time. 00:14:36.980 --> 00:14:41.320 Just so happens though that the person that Pere 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:46.159 wanted his son to marry was his granddaughter, 00:14:46.740 --> 00:14:51.419 which is like really creepy and weird, but Joan, 00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:57.299 I think, was like, no way, I'm not doing that. 00:14:58.299 --> 00:15:01.340 And furthermore, I love French culture. Joan 00:15:01.340 --> 00:15:05.200 was a huge fan of the music and literature coming 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:07.799 out of France. And so he wanted a French wife 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:14.970 and... This is one of the major feuds that erupt 00:15:14.970 --> 00:15:20.169 between Joan and Père in the decade and a half 00:15:20.169 --> 00:15:22.529 leading up to the moment that we're examining 00:15:22.529 --> 00:15:28.389 now. Père was so against Violante that he wrote 00:15:28.389 --> 00:15:33.850 Joan a weird little poem about how bad of 00:15:33.850 --> 00:15:38.629 a person Violant was. And in the poem, he writes 00:15:38.629 --> 00:15:42.169 about how Joan was being tempted by the devil, 00:15:43.090 --> 00:15:47.409 like alluding to Violante being a creature of 00:15:47.409 --> 00:15:53.649 Satan. And so it gets really melodramatic and 00:15:53.649 --> 00:16:00.620 also very heated between Joan and Pere. So you 00:16:00.620 --> 00:16:02.820 can get a little bit more of a sense from that 00:16:02.820 --> 00:16:06.320 little bit of background about the family dynamics 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:11.100 that are happening as this moment of transition 00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:16.779 takes place. Thanks for listening to this episode 00:16:16.779 --> 00:16:20.720 of the Historian's Notebook, Season 1, Molt Cara 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:24.620 Companyona. If you are leaving with more questions 00:16:24.620 --> 00:16:29.230 than you arrived with, I've done my job. Remember, 00:16:29.669 --> 00:16:33.429 the motto of the Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction 00:16:33.429 --> 00:16:37.850 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:16:37.850 --> 00:16:42.250 of today's document, as well as the transcript 00:16:42.250 --> 00:16:46.389 from ChatGPT that helped me to figure out a lot 00:16:46.389 --> 00:16:50.190 of the stuff that was really I had no idea about 00:16:50.190 --> 00:16:54.730 with this document, as well as that little poem 00:16:54.730 --> 00:17:00.259 by Pere about Violant. And listen again tomorrow 00:17:00.259 --> 00:17:03.700 to hear about the next day in the first year 00:17:03.700 --> 00:17:08.740 of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and Queen 00:17:08.740 --> 00:17:12.420 Violant de Bar. In the meantime, take care.