WEBVTT 00:00:00.490 --> 00:00:05.009 Hello. In The Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.509 --> 00:00:11.410 it was January 3rd, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:11.410 --> 00:00:14.730 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:14.730 --> 00:00:18.210 University of New Mexico. And this is The Historian's 00:00:18.210 --> 00:00:22.170 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:22.850 --> 00:00:26.899 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. we're 00:00:26.899 --> 00:00:29.260 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:29.260 --> 00:00:34.420 year of the reign of Joan I of Aragon and Violant 00:00:34.420 --> 00:01:02.880 de Bar. Let's begin today's document. Alright, 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:08.079 today's document is a letter from Joan to the 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:12.640 officials that are in charge of the city of Barcelona. 00:01:14.260 --> 00:01:17.319 Something to keep in mind about the organization 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:21.840 of the Crown of Aragon is that there's very, 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:25.900 very powerful city councils, especially in the 00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:31.019 big cities like Barcelona and Valencia. And you 00:01:31.019 --> 00:01:34.060 have to really think about Barcelona like it's 00:01:34.060 --> 00:01:38.719 the New York City of the country. It's a financial 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:43.739 center. It's wealthy. There's a lot of people 00:01:43.739 --> 00:01:50.060 who have a lot of power. The population is relatively 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:53.959 speaking, very large. And if you're going to 00:01:53.959 --> 00:01:58.140 go up against the people who control power in 00:01:58.140 --> 00:02:00.730 the city of Barcelona, you could get yourself 00:02:00.730 --> 00:02:05.189 into some trouble. And that is actually what 00:02:05.189 --> 00:02:09.909 happens later on in Joan's reign. But right now, 00:02:10.189 --> 00:02:15.550 I think at this point, Joan and the leaders of 00:02:15.550 --> 00:02:21.460 Barcelona are just mutually apprehensive. Joan 00:02:21.460 --> 00:02:24.340 does not have a good history with these town 00:02:24.340 --> 00:02:26.860 councils. He's never really gotten along with 00:02:26.860 --> 00:02:29.960 them. He just doesn't like politics. He likes 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:33.620 the arts, and he likes being outside with the 00:02:33.620 --> 00:02:37.900 hunting dogs. He does not like all of the political 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:42.120 machinations and power plays. He just wants to 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:45.840 listen to troubadours all day. So, dealing with 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:48.520 the town councils is something that... pretty 00:02:48.520 --> 00:02:51.139 much is at the top of his list of things that 00:02:51.139 --> 00:02:56.020 he does not want to do. And Violant will actually 00:02:56.020 --> 00:02:59.259 step in. Like in later years, Violante really 00:02:59.259 --> 00:03:05.580 is the one who's the political entity. And so 00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:08.919 in between the two of them, she's, and I think 00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:11.159 it happens pretty quickly, which is one of the 00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:14.909 big questions I have. For this this year's project 00:03:14.909 --> 00:03:17.050 is to figure out well, when does that start? 00:03:17.229 --> 00:03:20.050 I think it starts pretty soon I think that 00:03:20.050 --> 00:03:23.030 Joan's illness has a lot to do with it his sickliness 00:03:23.030 --> 00:03:28.469 so this particular letter I'm trying to figure 00:03:28.469 --> 00:03:32.610 out if we can see anything about his sickliness 00:03:32.610 --> 00:03:37.569 or his illness in it. He's letting the leaders 00:03:37.569 --> 00:03:41.960 of Barcelona know that he's on his way that he 00:03:41.960 --> 00:03:44.919 has received their information because they are 00:03:44.919 --> 00:03:49.319 keeping him informed, just like his brother Martí 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:53.580 is keeping him informed. So Joan has received 00:03:53.580 --> 00:03:59.580 the letter from the leaders of Barcelona about 00:03:59.580 --> 00:04:04.659 the grave condition of the king, which in this 00:04:04.659 --> 00:04:09.479 document the king is referred to as El Senyor 00:04:09.479 --> 00:04:15.439 Rey. the Lord King. So, Joan is saying to them, 00:04:15.620 --> 00:04:19.500 I've heard the news, I've heard it's bad, I am 00:04:19.500 --> 00:04:23.980 coming to Barcelona. That's the simple message 00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:28.959 of the letter, but there's a lot operating here 00:04:28.959 --> 00:04:34.480 that goes beyond just what's being stated. So, 00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:42.300 first of all, This letter appears on the middle 00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:44.959 of a page and there's two other letters on that 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:49.699 page. The letter to the Barcelona city leaders 00:04:49.699 --> 00:04:55.459 is dated the 3rd of January. The one above it 00:04:55.459 --> 00:04:58.980 that precedes it as entered in this register 00:04:58.980 --> 00:05:05.079 is dated January 15th. And then the one below 00:05:05.079 --> 00:05:12.160 it is dated January fourth. So something has 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:15.019 happened in terms of the organization of the 00:05:15.019 --> 00:05:19.379 letters. Is it a usual typical backlog of the 00:05:19.379 --> 00:05:23.519 chancery staff, or is it indicating that there's 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:28.339 some other kind of chaos happening? Keep in mind 00:05:28.339 --> 00:05:33.579 that Joan and Violant, they're both making 00:05:33.579 --> 00:05:37.379 arrangements to leave their home in Girona and 00:05:37.399 --> 00:05:41.519 move permanently to Barcelona. So that's got 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:45.399 to be a massive undertaking that just everybody's 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:47.779 figuring out what to take and how to pack and 00:05:47.779 --> 00:05:52.120 how to move. And the staff, the scribes of the 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:55.480 chancery, they're also in the middle of that 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:59.759 process and they have to go with them. Earlier 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:02.800 in the podcast, I speculated that Violant had 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:07.449 left Girona before Joan did? I don't think so. 00:06:07.449 --> 00:06:09.290 I'm changing my mind about that. I think they're 00:06:09.290 --> 00:06:13.310 still together at this moment on January 3rd. 00:06:13.310 --> 00:06:16.829 That will change for sure in the coming days. 00:06:17.589 --> 00:06:23.569 But what is known at this point about how these 00:06:23.569 --> 00:06:26.069 conditions are shifting? And I'm talking really, 00:06:26.189 --> 00:06:27.569 when I'm talking about conditions, I'm talking 00:06:27.569 --> 00:06:31.810 about Joan's health conditions. Because in this 00:06:31.810 --> 00:06:36.399 letter, he's saying I'm gonna be in Barcelona. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:39.759 I'm just gonna be on a little rest in this place 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:46.220 called Bella Donna. Bella Donna is just on the outskirts 00:06:46.220 --> 00:06:50.160 of Girona, and it is true that Joann makes it 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:54.889 further. gosh, I have to kind of figure out when, 00:06:55.050 --> 00:06:57.689 but I have to go back and look at the itinerary 00:06:57.689 --> 00:07:00.829 from Daniel Girona y Llagostera to figure out 00:07:00.829 --> 00:07:04.509 when he leaves Belladonna and goes to Hostalric. 00:07:05.790 --> 00:07:10.069 Hostalric is not all that much further away from 00:07:10.069 --> 00:07:14.709 Girona, so he's not really making it to the halfway 00:07:14.709 --> 00:07:17.990 point between Girona and Barcelona. And then 00:07:17.990 --> 00:07:23.329 he moves on to another place called Granollers, 00:07:24.009 --> 00:07:29.569 and he's there for a while, and he's definitely 00:07:29.569 --> 00:07:36.649 in a state of illness in the middle of January. 00:07:37.550 --> 00:07:40.290 Violant and Joan, they finally enter Barcelona 00:07:40.290 --> 00:07:46.269 on January 19th. I should have said that Joan 00:07:46.269 --> 00:07:49.930 enters Barcelona on January 19th. The secondary 00:07:49.930 --> 00:07:53.699 literature is incredibly conflicting on what 00:07:53.699 --> 00:07:58.060 is going on in these days. Who is in which place 00:07:58.060 --> 00:08:05.040 when, and what is Joan's health condition on 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:08.220 the different days. It is not very well laid 00:08:08.220 --> 00:08:11.720 out. There's a couple different historians that 00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:15.060 have gotten into this. They're pretty much basing 00:08:15.060 --> 00:08:19.180 their accounts on the book by Tasis i Marca. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.000 and that book doesn't have footnotes so it's 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:28.139 really hard to try to figure out when Joan's 00:08:28.139 --> 00:08:32.019 illness gets to its most severe point and then 00:08:32.019 --> 00:08:35.860 when he starts to recover and then when it gets 00:08:35.860 --> 00:08:38.120 worse again. So this is one of the things I'm 00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:41.360 going to be tracking as I'm going forward in 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:46.240 the documents day by day. So What's happening 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:49.200 in this particular document here is that Joan 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:51.299 is saying all the nice things about, oh, it's 00:08:51.299 --> 00:08:55.139 so sad that my father has very bad illness, and 00:08:55.139 --> 00:08:58.299 it's all very unfortunate. And then he says, 00:08:58.539 --> 00:09:02.200 keep me notified, keep the letters coming, and 00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:06.139 I am going to be there in Barcelona before you 00:09:06.139 --> 00:09:10.259 know it. I'm on my way. And that, of course, 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:14.220 is a promise that he does not keep. Theoretically, 00:09:14.340 --> 00:09:19.360 he could have been in Barcelona by January 5th, 00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:22.120 because that's when Violant gets to Barcelona. 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:28.139 So, Joan gets pretty delayed. Something else 00:09:28.139 --> 00:09:30.559 that gets revealed in this letter that I think 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:33.259 is super interesting from a logistical standpoint 00:09:33.259 --> 00:09:40.200 is that Joan says he has received a letter from 00:09:40.600 --> 00:09:46.600 the leadership of Barcelona that is dated January 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:54.440 2nd at the third hour. So it's super specific. 00:09:55.700 --> 00:09:58.120 And it leads me to wonder a lot of things about 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:02.039 the mail delivery. It was done by courier and 00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:05.220 it seems clear to me that you can get a letter 00:10:05.220 --> 00:10:10.799 from Barcelona to Girona perhaps overnight. under 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:15.480 24 hours, but can it go faster? Kind of wondering 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:18.480 about that. And then also it's interesting that 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:24.000 in these moments of intensity, the like intense 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:28.740 frequency and communication, there's hours listed. 00:10:28.820 --> 00:10:31.539 There's like a timestamp hourly on the letter. 00:10:31.940 --> 00:10:34.919 So that to me is super interesting. I have not 00:10:34.919 --> 00:10:38.789 actually seen evidence of that before in my work 00:10:38.789 --> 00:10:42.129 in the archive, but I'm sure that it's been done 00:10:42.129 --> 00:10:44.570 and other people have seen plenty of it, but 00:10:44.570 --> 00:10:46.950 I think that's just super interesting to see 00:10:46.950 --> 00:10:51.649 for the first time in this document. So this 00:10:51.649 --> 00:10:56.029 document is attempting to maintain the appearance 00:10:56.029 --> 00:11:01.990 of stability for the upcoming succession. And 00:11:01.990 --> 00:11:06.649 it's doing this work to confirm that Joan is 00:11:06.649 --> 00:11:11.090 engaged, that there's not going to be any room 00:11:11.090 --> 00:11:14.789 for any shenanigans. And I think that's pretty 00:11:14.789 --> 00:11:17.470 important because we've already had something 00:11:17.470 --> 00:11:21.350 very weird happen, which is the current queen 00:11:21.350 --> 00:11:25.049 fleeing the capital and like fleeing the bedside 00:11:25.049 --> 00:11:31.539 of the king. And Marti, who's been there, Martí 00:11:31.539 --> 00:11:35.100 is also about to leave Barcelona in order to 00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:40.720 pursue the current queen, Sibilla. So there's 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:44.840 a moment approaching when no one in the immediate 00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:49.220 royal family is going to be in Barcelona if Martí 00:11:49.220 --> 00:11:53.840 has followed Sabila to where she's fled to. And 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:57.940 so that I think is probably motivating the decision 00:11:57.940 --> 00:12:01.799 for Violant to head to Barcelona and to not 00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:06.200 be at Joan's bedside as he comes down with an 00:12:06.200 --> 00:12:10.139 illness. So that's how I'm currently thinking 00:12:10.139 --> 00:12:12.639 about the situation here and we'll see if that 00:12:12.639 --> 00:12:17.620 develops as I get further into the documents. 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:24.129 One close reading moment is something I'd like 00:12:24.129 --> 00:12:29.549 to flag at this point. In the second line, Joan 00:12:29.549 --> 00:12:37.629 uses the phrase los accidents de la malaltia del 00:12:37.629 --> 00:12:44.629 senyor. So basically talking about the accidents 00:12:44.629 --> 00:12:48.929 of the illness of the senyor. So I was kind 00:12:48.929 --> 00:12:51.450 of curious about that and the use of the word 00:12:51.450 --> 00:12:55.970 accident. And so I used an online resource that 00:12:55.970 --> 00:13:00.690 is available from the Institut d 'Estudis Catalans 00:13:00.690 --> 00:13:04.549 and I was able to find it's well it's kind of 00:13:04.549 --> 00:13:07.710 like the Oxford English Dictionary but for Catalan 00:13:07.710 --> 00:13:10.629 and I was able to find a really great entry that 00:13:10.629 --> 00:13:13.909 I've linked to on the web page for this document 00:13:13.909 --> 00:13:17.409 and it makes it really clear that the word accidents 00:13:17.409 --> 00:13:21.289 can refer to miss can basically be used like 00:13:21.289 --> 00:13:25.769 misfortune and so here Joan is talking about 00:13:25.769 --> 00:13:29.889 the misfortune or the worsening misfortune of 00:13:29.889 --> 00:13:34.389 the illness of the Lord King. So I thought that 00:13:34.389 --> 00:13:37.990 was an interesting word choice. He uses it again 00:13:37.990 --> 00:13:42.750 a couple lines further down in the letter. Los 00:13:42.750 --> 00:13:47.110 dits accidents, the said accidents, the said 00:13:47.110 --> 00:13:52.370 misfortunes. He wants to be further notified 00:13:52.370 --> 00:13:55.909 about any other misfortunes that occur. I mean, 00:13:56.610 --> 00:13:59.409 we know what that means. That's when the King 00:13:59.409 --> 00:14:08.379 dies. So alright. That's the material for today's 00:14:08.379 --> 00:14:10.720 letter that I was kind of most excited to talk 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:16.059 about, and we will now bring this episode to 00:14:16.059 --> 00:14:21.639 a close. Thanks for listening to this episode 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:25.500 of the Historian's Notebook, Season 1, Molt Cara 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:29.960 Companyona. If you still have questions about... 00:14:30.029 --> 00:14:34.850 the way that the succession operates in this 00:14:34.850 --> 00:14:39.549 moment of one king's death and the new king on 00:14:39.549 --> 00:14:44.009 his way if you have questions about mail delivery 00:14:44.009 --> 00:14:49.690 in the middle ages if you have questions about 00:14:49.690 --> 00:14:52.850 the town council of Barcelona and who is on that 00:14:52.850 --> 00:14:57.700 well Yes, you are leaving with more questions 00:14:57.700 --> 00:15:00.779 than you arrived with, and I have done my job. 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:04.000 The motto of the Historian's Notebook is, as 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:08.200 we know, dissatisfaction guaranteed. But visit 00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:12.159 the website jonathanseyfried.net to see an image 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:15.789 of today's document. and additional show notes. 00:15:16.389 --> 00:15:19.190 And listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:15:19.190 --> 00:15:23.070 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:15:23.070 --> 00:15:28.190 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the 00:15:28.190 --> 00:15:29.990 meantime, take care.