WEBVTT 00:00:00.170 --> 00:00:05.490 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago, 00:00:05.950 --> 00:00:11.990 it was January 4th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:11.990 --> 00:00:15.490 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:15.490 --> 00:00:19.250 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:19.250 --> 00:00:23.530 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:24.309 --> 00:00:28.839 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. and 00:00:28.839 --> 00:00:30.839 we're looking at a document from each day of 00:00:30.839 --> 00:00:35.100 the first year of the reign of King Joan I of 00:00:35.100 --> 00:00:39.939 Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin 00:00:39.939 --> 00:01:08.329 today's document. There's a lot going on in today's 00:01:08.329 --> 00:01:12.769 document, both in the content of it, but also 00:01:12.769 --> 00:01:17.730 just in how it is appearing on the page and the 00:01:17.730 --> 00:01:22.269 things that we can infer about how the chancery 00:01:22.269 --> 00:01:25.950 staff is operating and also how letters are going 00:01:25.950 --> 00:01:29.010 back and forth between various correspondents 00:01:29.010 --> 00:01:33.599 at this time. There's just a lot. So starting 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:36.579 with just the paper itself, if you're able to 00:01:36.579 --> 00:01:40.200 take a look at this, and there's a web page for 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:44.459 every document on my website, jonathanseyfried.net, 00:01:44.459 --> 00:01:48.260 in the section for the podcast, The Historian's 00:01:48.260 --> 00:01:51.340 Notebook. So see if you can get over there to 00:01:51.340 --> 00:01:55.780 take a look at this page, because what we see 00:01:55.780 --> 00:02:04.620 on folio 8R of this register 1952, is that at 00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:08.919 the very top of the page it says, lo primogenit. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.159 And then we have the letter that's our letter 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:20.520 of focus today from Joan to Marti. And then 00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:23.560 below that letter on the right hand side, we've 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:29.719 got the usual kind of probata in a way. We do 00:02:29.719 --> 00:02:33.439 have a scribe signing off on it, and it's Bernardo 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:38.080 de Jonquero, one that is in this register a lot. 00:02:38.919 --> 00:02:41.840 But then to the left of that, in the center of 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:46.199 the page, we've got a couple lines in Latin, 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:51.659 and those lines amount to a message saying that 00:02:51.659 --> 00:03:00.099 Pere has died and Joan has become king, and the 00:03:00.099 --> 00:03:03.000 register is going to reflect that from now on. 00:03:03.340 --> 00:03:06.599 And indeed, in the letter at the bottom of the 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:14.240 page, it starts out with Rex. r -e -x at the 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:18.840 upper left corner above the text block of that 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:24.979 letter. So on a single page we go from primogenit, 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:32.099 firstborn heir, to king. Also I want to go back 00:03:32.099 --> 00:03:37.599 into the probata message at the bottom of the 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:43.099 letter that takes up most of this page. And you 00:03:43.099 --> 00:03:50.300 can see that the word REX is on the first line 00:03:50.300 --> 00:03:54.020 of that probata statement. So the second line 00:03:54.020 --> 00:03:57.219 is just Bernardo de Jonquero and Bernardo is 00:03:57.219 --> 00:03:59.659 abbreviated. So what you can see there is a B 00:03:59.659 --> 00:04:05.240 and an N and then D and then the straight line 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:09.560 down is a J, which actually can also be an I. 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:13.080 And so that's the name of the scribe, Bernardo 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:19.800 de Jonquero. And what we have above that is an 00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:26.959 interesting statement. And I think that the first 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:35.100 word is something like a D -O. It's an abbreviation 00:04:35.100 --> 00:04:41.160 for Dominus or Dominum, and that would be Lord. 00:04:41.540 --> 00:04:46.720 So you would see something in the earlier letters 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:51.660 like Lord, Duke. Here we've got both. It's kind 00:04:51.660 --> 00:04:57.959 of weird. Domino, Rex, Dux. So we have Lord, 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:04.290 King, Duke, and then MA. and then m but above 00:05:04.290 --> 00:05:09.029 the ma is a macron and so what that is abbreviating 00:05:09.029 --> 00:05:15.769 is mandauit and then the m with a kind of a well 00:05:15.769 --> 00:05:18.170 it's not really a straight up and down mark it's 00:05:18.170 --> 00:05:22.529 kind of looking like an accent grav there that's 00:05:22.529 --> 00:05:27.870 for an i and that stands for mihi mandauit mihi 00:05:27.870 --> 00:05:33.939 okay commanded to me, or dictated to me, or gave 00:05:33.939 --> 00:05:39.100 to me. So the whole probata here in its meaning 00:05:39.100 --> 00:05:46.100 is saying that the Lord, King, and Duke has given 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:51.839 this, has mandated this of me, and I'm saying 00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:55.459 as Bernard de Jonquero that I attest that this 00:05:55.459 --> 00:05:59.800 is exactly what has been sent out in the outgoing 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:05.660 letter form. All right. In an earlier episode, 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:11.339 we talked about how Joan had received a letter 00:06:11.339 --> 00:06:16.379 that had been time stamped for the third hour 00:06:16.379 --> 00:06:20.459 of the day. In this letter, at the beginning, 00:06:21.339 --> 00:06:27.040 the first couple lines refer to other correspondence 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:30.319 that Joan has been getting information from. 00:06:30.939 --> 00:06:37.079 The letter begins Molt Car Frere. Vostra letra 00:06:37.079 --> 00:06:45.180 havem rebuda, meaning my dearest brother, I have 00:06:45.180 --> 00:06:53.000 received your letter. You might notice that the 00:06:54.279 --> 00:07:00.639 The pronoun and verb here is in plural, so Joan 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:05.519 refers to himself in first person plural, Havem, 00:07:05.540 --> 00:07:10.759 and he's referring to his brother in second person 00:07:10.759 --> 00:07:16.199 plural, Vostra. And so that's, of course, the 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:21.949 honorific version of the plural form there, which 00:07:21.949 --> 00:07:25.889 a lot of royalty and elites adopt for themselves. 00:07:27.790 --> 00:07:35.170 Next, we see that he has received also letters 00:07:35.170 --> 00:07:40.370 from two people. One is Vicente Ferrer and the 00:07:40.370 --> 00:07:47.250 other is Gerau de Cerveo. So what we can tell 00:07:47.250 --> 00:07:51.540 already is that there's a flurry of letters going 00:07:51.540 --> 00:07:54.839 back and forth, right? And it's it's very difficult 00:07:54.839 --> 00:07:59.339 to take account of all that is coming in and 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:04.360 going out, even though we we have a lot in these 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:08.040 registers. I don't think we have any outgoing 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:12.360 letters in reply to Vincent Ferrer or in reply 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:15.540 to Gerau de Cerveo, but maybe they're just in 00:08:15.540 --> 00:08:20.180 other registers. that would be a different kind 00:08:20.180 --> 00:08:23.040 of project than the one that I'm undertaking 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:29.360 in this podcast to try to track those down. So 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:32.580 it's hard to tell where Joan is getting all 00:08:32.580 --> 00:08:35.720 the different information from, and it's also 00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:39.679 hard to tell where he is at which time, because 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:42.000 if you flip through the pages of this register, 00:08:42.519 --> 00:08:45.620 The documents are not in chronological order. 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:50.259 It's really common to have a primogenit letter 00:08:50.259 --> 00:08:53.659 in the middle of Rex letters in the upcoming 00:08:53.659 --> 00:08:58.039 pages. And then also tomorrow we're going to 00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:02.399 take a look at a document that claims that Joan 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:05.399 was in Girona when it's very clear that he was 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:08.840 not in Girona. Why is it so clear that he was 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:14.830 not in Girona? after a certain date, after the 00:09:14.830 --> 00:09:18.509 third of January? Well, it's because right here 00:09:18.509 --> 00:09:22.110 we have in this letter, at the bottom, the second 00:09:22.110 --> 00:09:27.950 to the last line begins, dada en los tal de la 00:09:27.950 --> 00:09:31.830 bella dona. That is a place. it is a little bit 00:09:31.830 --> 00:09:34.409 on the outskirts of Girona. He didn't get too 00:09:34.409 --> 00:09:39.990 far, and actually today there's a luxury resort 00:09:39.990 --> 00:09:44.710 there that you can rent out, and the claim on 00:09:44.710 --> 00:09:49.950 the website of the Belladonna Lodge is that it's 00:09:49.950 --> 00:09:55.070 a building from the 15th century. So what I'm 00:09:55.070 --> 00:10:00.440 guessing is that there is a centuries -long building 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:05.340 there that is sort of, it's known as a resting 00:10:05.340 --> 00:10:10.299 spot and had been already by the 15th century 00:10:10.299 --> 00:10:12.740 at the time that the current structure was built 00:10:12.740 --> 00:10:15.860 and that there was another structure there at 00:10:15.860 --> 00:10:18.740 the time that Joann was there. It's also possible 00:10:18.740 --> 00:10:22.360 that the website is wrong and that actually the 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:24.899 structure that currently exists, the building 00:10:24.899 --> 00:10:27.980 that you can stay in today, if you're willing 00:10:27.980 --> 00:10:30.980 to shell out quite a lot of money, is the same 00:10:30.980 --> 00:10:36.519 structure that Joan was in when he composed this 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:41.860 letter. So he's outside of his usual residence 00:10:41.860 --> 00:10:45.980 in Girona. He's on his way to Barcelona. The 00:10:45.980 --> 00:10:49.919 question at this point is, is he starting to 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:53.440 feel the symptoms of the illness that we know 00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:57.679 is on its way? And we know it's on its way because 00:10:57.679 --> 00:11:00.600 Violant leaves him and goes into Barcelona. 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:05.279 There'd be no reason for her to do that. And 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:08.639 also no reason for him to not go, to slow it down. 00:11:08.679 --> 00:11:10.899 There's no reason for him to slow down his journey. 00:11:11.580 --> 00:11:14.379 All of his motivation is to get to Barcelona 00:11:14.379 --> 00:11:18.659 as fast as possible to claim the throne at the 00:11:18.659 --> 00:11:23.139 moment of his father's death. And he doesn't. 00:11:23.419 --> 00:11:26.860 Violant goes ahead and he stays behind, and 00:11:26.860 --> 00:11:31.080 historians have found that there's mention of 00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:35.820 him getting very seriously ill in these days. 00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:39.360 And so we're trying to track that and find mention 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:43.100 of it. But I haven't seen any mention of it yet, 00:11:43.399 --> 00:11:45.980 and I've done a little looking ahead at the documents 00:11:45.980 --> 00:11:48.720 coming up, and there's no mention of it. It's 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:54.710 all just silenced. Why? Well... you don't want 00:11:54.710 --> 00:11:57.769 to put the word out there that you're in a weakened 00:11:57.769 --> 00:12:00.549 state right in the moment that you're trying 00:12:00.549 --> 00:12:04.529 to assert your authority as the new king. So 00:12:04.529 --> 00:12:07.710 this is a very kind of hush -hush sort of situation. 00:12:08.429 --> 00:12:14.610 So we'll see in the coming days how Joan is phrasing 00:12:14.610 --> 00:12:20.470 his progress on the way to Barcelona. But the 00:12:20.470 --> 00:12:22.769 content of this letter, we haven't even gotten 00:12:22.769 --> 00:12:26.110 to like the main point of this letter. The main 00:12:26.110 --> 00:12:30.570 point of this letter to Marti, his brother, is 00:12:30.570 --> 00:12:35.309 that Joan has become aware that Marti is pursuing 00:12:35.309 --> 00:12:40.570 Sibilla, the queen who has fled, and the main 00:12:40.570 --> 00:12:44.529 line of this letter, the instruction that Joan 00:12:44.529 --> 00:12:49.240 is communicating out to his brother, I think 00:12:49.240 --> 00:12:52.980 is in, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, 00:12:53.019 --> 00:12:55.700 six, seven, eight, like the seventh line down 00:12:55.700 --> 00:13:04.700 in which he tells his brother that Sibylla should 00:13:04.700 --> 00:13:12.559 not be allowed to enter Barcelona without my 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:17.740 Joan's permission. Don't let her get back 00:13:17.740 --> 00:13:23.679 into the city and I think the implication here 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:28.360 is you need to take her prisoner. You need to 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:30.759 be in charge of her movement so that she does 00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:34.480 not try to come back into Barcelona. Now something 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:39.360 that you've got to keep in mind is that people 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:44.940 can be close to death and then bounce back and 00:13:45.100 --> 00:13:49.259 we know, and on this very page it is recorded, 00:13:49.879 --> 00:13:55.320 that Pere died. But Joan hasn't seen Pere, 00:13:56.080 --> 00:14:02.460 and he's certainly had his own rounds of illness 00:14:02.460 --> 00:14:05.799 that bring him in a very dire state, and then 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:09.539 he's bounced back. So it is within the realm 00:14:09.539 --> 00:14:14.929 of possibility that Pere could survive this bout, 00:14:16.090 --> 00:14:20.870 that he could regain consciousness. And then, 00:14:21.169 --> 00:14:25.789 well, then Joan and Marti will have to answer 00:14:25.789 --> 00:14:29.169 for their actions. So Joan wants to make sure 00:14:29.169 --> 00:14:34.110 that he is in control of what happens to the 00:14:34.110 --> 00:14:37.409 Queen, Sibilla, the current Queen, and also that 00:14:37.409 --> 00:14:41.490 she doesn't try to make some kind of outlandish 00:14:41.549 --> 00:14:45.230 claim that Pere has returned to consciousness 00:14:45.230 --> 00:14:52.470 and is still in a state of ruling the kingdom. 00:14:53.490 --> 00:15:00.289 So Joan is moving to try to have as much control 00:15:00.289 --> 00:15:04.490 over a wild card as he possibly can. And of course 00:15:04.490 --> 00:15:08.789 that wild card is Sibilla de Fortia. And he also 00:15:08.789 --> 00:15:12.190 wants to get her brother's falcons. as we talked 00:15:12.190 --> 00:15:16.789 about in that other letter. Oh, something I forgot 00:15:16.789 --> 00:15:20.049 to mention when I was talking about the importance 00:15:20.049 --> 00:15:23.929 of Joan projecting that he is strong and that 00:15:23.929 --> 00:15:29.309 he is not weakened by illness. There's a very, 00:15:29.330 --> 00:15:35.129 very foundational work of scholarship about political 00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:39.940 kingship in the Middle Ages, and that book is 00:15:39.940 --> 00:15:44.980 titled The King's Two Bodies, and it's by Ernst 00:15:44.980 --> 00:15:47.759 Kantorowitz. And it's still very foundational 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:51.899 to a lot of the ways that scholars, historians 00:15:51.899 --> 00:15:57.840 think about representations of kingship in the 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:01.620 Middle Ages and what was on the minds of those 00:16:01.620 --> 00:16:07.259 who were trying to create the perception of being 00:16:07.259 --> 00:16:11.460 an effective king, trying to shore up their own 00:16:11.460 --> 00:16:17.159 authority. And the idea in a nutshell is that 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:21.179 the king has two bodies, the physical human body 00:16:21.179 --> 00:16:26.759 of the king, but also the body of the government, 00:16:27.139 --> 00:16:31.379 the body politic, and that these are very symbolically 00:16:31.379 --> 00:16:36.070 connected. And so if the king's physical human 00:16:36.070 --> 00:16:39.669 body is in bad shape, then it's symbolically 00:16:39.669 --> 00:16:44.230 connected to the state and strength of the kingdom 00:16:44.230 --> 00:16:50.570 and vice versa. So that is a really interesting 00:16:50.570 --> 00:16:54.570 symbolic connection that Kantorowitz argues was 00:16:54.570 --> 00:16:59.649 very strong in the communication and political 00:16:59.649 --> 00:17:04.269 theory of the time and could argue that it's 00:17:04.269 --> 00:17:07.049 actually still quite prominent in the way that 00:17:07.049 --> 00:17:11.529 we think about our political leaders and how 00:17:11.529 --> 00:17:17.769 they reflect the status of the state and the 00:17:17.769 --> 00:17:22.430 larger body politic, even in our times. Alright, 00:17:22.589 --> 00:17:26.170 well, that does it for this episode. Thanks for 00:17:26.170 --> 00:17:33.680 listening to this latest Episode of the Historian's 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:38.720 Notebook, Season 1 Molt Cara Companyona. If you 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:41.240 are leaving with more questions than you arrived 00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:45.160 with, then I have done my job. Remember, the 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:49.400 motto of the Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction 00:17:49.400 --> 00:17:52.910 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:17:52.910 --> 00:17:55.630 of today's document and additional show notes, 00:17:56.430 --> 00:17:59.849 and listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:17:59.849 --> 00:18:03.630 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:18:03.630 --> 00:18:08.650 of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the meantime, 00:18:09.430 --> 00:18:09.910 take care.