WEBVTT 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:05.299 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.780 --> 00:00:12.320 it was January 6th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:15.720 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:19.399 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:19.399 --> 00:00:23.859 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:28.510 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We are 00:00:28.510 --> 00:00:31.210 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:31.210 --> 00:00:35.509 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:35.509 --> 00:00:39.609 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's 00:00:39.609 --> 00:01:08.700 document. The date of January 6th makes me think 00:01:08.700 --> 00:01:13.819 about transitions of power and how in the midst 00:01:13.819 --> 00:01:20.480 of a transition of power, malefactors and political 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:25.640 opponents can take advantage of this moment of 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:30.980 vulnerability for a political system. The time 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:38.379 of a transition of power is one that is a moment 00:01:38.379 --> 00:01:44.120 of opportunity to challenge the system because 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:50.680 in that transition moment the system is not really 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:54.180 running on its own momentum as much because there's 00:01:54.180 --> 00:01:59.760 a change taking place. In an interesting coincidence, 00:02:01.379 --> 00:02:06.400 the transition of power in 1387 in the crown 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:14.039 of Aragon took place in the span of January 5th 00:02:14.039 --> 00:02:22.419 to January 6th of that year, 639 years ago. January 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:27.419 5th is the day that King Pere the Ceremonious 00:02:29.259 --> 00:02:34.159 I dug into this a bit and tried to find some 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:39.400 kind of actual certification of his death on 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:45.150 January 5th. I could only find a quote from one 00:02:45.150 --> 00:02:47.509 of the registers of the Archive of the Crown 00:02:47.509 --> 00:02:52.430 of Aragon in a secondary source, one that I've 00:02:52.430 --> 00:02:56.229 mentioned on the podcast before. It's written 00:02:56.229 --> 00:03:02.789 by Rafael Tasis i Marca, and he did not cite 00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:05.650 his sources. He has no footnotes in his book. 00:03:06.110 --> 00:03:12.530 This is a work published in 1959. I think maybe 00:03:12.530 --> 00:03:16.650 it was originally printed in 1957, but the edition 00:03:16.650 --> 00:03:21.370 I'm working with is from 1959. Raphael Tasis i 00:03:21.370 --> 00:03:27.870 Marca quotes a Latin sentence, a long Latin sentence, 00:03:28.150 --> 00:03:33.210 from January 5th. Part of the sentence says, 00:03:43.399 --> 00:03:48.020 And that in effect says that his spirit returned 00:03:48.020 --> 00:03:53.379 to the creator and that's confirming that Pere 00:03:53.379 --> 00:03:57.259 died. And this inscription is dated on the 5th 00:03:57.259 --> 00:04:06.280 of January 1387. Violent definitely finds out 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:10.840 about this. by January 6th, because when we look 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:15.919 at Violant's registers of letters in Registro 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:22.079 1819, we see that letters dated January 6th refer 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:27.620 to her as the Queen. The document we're looking 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:31.680 at today is one of those, and it appears on a 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:34.839 page in the register that's a really fun page 00:04:34.839 --> 00:04:40.240 because On the recto side of this folio, the 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:45.540 letters are from December 22nd, December 24th, 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:49.720 and January 3rd, and they all have La Duquessa 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:55.100 as the sender. And then you turn the page and 00:04:55.100 --> 00:05:01.240 you see that the sender is now La Reyna. And 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:07.449 so it's a pretty cool thing to see in the documentation 00:05:07.449 --> 00:05:12.009 this transition that takes place. The document 00:05:12.009 --> 00:05:16.550 that we're looking at today is a letter from 00:05:16.550 --> 00:05:21.350 Violant to Joan, and these are the letters 00:05:21.350 --> 00:05:25.230 that I think are the ones that are going to be 00:05:25.230 --> 00:05:30.689 of the most worthwhile focus for me as I'm trying 00:05:30.689 --> 00:05:33.910 to understand the way that the two of them related 00:05:33.910 --> 00:05:37.290 to each other. Before we get to that one, though, 00:05:37.550 --> 00:05:41.009 I just want to point out that, doing a little 00:05:41.009 --> 00:05:46.250 bit of a sort of two -fer situation here, the 00:05:46.250 --> 00:05:49.670 letter that appears at the top of the page is 00:05:49.670 --> 00:05:55.389 one that Violant is writing to Marti, and she's 00:05:55.389 --> 00:05:58.410 starting it out by saying, hey, you're absent 00:05:58.410 --> 00:06:01.110 you're you're not here right now and so we're 00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:05.269 figuring some stuff out specifically when we're 00:06:05.269 --> 00:06:11.529 going to bury the body of the dead king and Violant 00:06:11.529 --> 00:06:14.670 says it's happening next Tuesday implication 00:06:14.670 --> 00:06:17.829 being you should really make it back to Barcelona 00:06:17.829 --> 00:06:22.689 by then so Violant knows that Pere has died she 00:06:22.689 --> 00:06:25.850 is starting the arrangements for putting him 00:06:25.850 --> 00:06:29.290 in the ground That's the letter that's at the 00:06:29.290 --> 00:06:33.189 top of the page. Now, the letter that we're gonna 00:06:33.189 --> 00:06:36.389 put our focus on to for today's episode is the 00:06:36.389 --> 00:06:39.470 one that's in the middle of the page. And it 00:06:39.470 --> 00:06:53.779 starts out, So this is a whole string of honorifics 00:06:53.779 --> 00:06:59.420 that Violant is providing to Joan, most excellent 00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:08.779 prince and powerful lord husband and lord most 00:07:08.779 --> 00:07:16.040 dear to me. That's how she's starting it out. 00:07:16.509 --> 00:07:20.769 and then she goes on to provide some information 00:07:20.769 --> 00:07:25.089 about it's kind of hard to figure out what's 00:07:25.089 --> 00:07:28.250 going on here because she's saying that she's 00:07:28.250 --> 00:07:34.490 she's got a letter from a Gasto Montcada about 00:07:34.490 --> 00:07:41.800 the Count of Empúries This gets into some background 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:44.660 information about what happened in the year before. 00:07:45.300 --> 00:07:49.980 The Count of Empúries had risen up in rebellion 00:07:49.980 --> 00:07:55.319 against Pere, and Joan had been kind of empathetic, 00:07:55.399 --> 00:07:58.980 like he hadn't like sent forces to help the Count 00:07:58.980 --> 00:08:02.339 of Empúries, but he wasn't really condemning 00:08:02.339 --> 00:08:06.120 it either. And that's another thing that got 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:10.000 Pere very angry at Joann in those last months 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.600 of his life. And in fact, here's a little cool 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:16.800 additional piece of information about the family 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:21.540 estrangement and rancor. Pere had started to 00:08:21.540 --> 00:08:25.459 write some documentation ordering that if Joan 00:08:25.459 --> 00:08:31.879 died that forces would be sent to get Joan and 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:36.240 Violant's son and to kidnap him basically to 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:40.620 take him away so that Violant would not be able 00:08:40.620 --> 00:08:46.110 to basically raise him or or I guess maybe the 00:08:46.110 --> 00:08:49.590 fear would be use Joan's son to make a claim 00:08:49.590 --> 00:08:53.149 for the throne at some future moment. I think 00:08:53.149 --> 00:08:56.110 Pere knows that he's kind of getting to the end 00:08:56.110 --> 00:09:00.909 of his life, but basically this maneuver is one 00:09:00.909 --> 00:09:05.309 that really is an infuriating one to Joan and 00:09:05.309 --> 00:09:09.669 Violant, obviously. So that is just another 00:09:10.120 --> 00:09:14.600 kind of level of family rancor that gets set 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:20.440 off by how Joan is not really coming out against 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:24.139 the Count of Empúries in this moment of a rebellion. 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:26.899 And it's not like the Count of Empúries has raised 00:09:26.899 --> 00:09:29.240 a big army and is going to go capture Barcelona. 00:09:29.659 --> 00:09:33.679 It's just that the Count of Empúries, after Some 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:37.419 kind of dispute with Pere is just saying, I'm 00:09:37.419 --> 00:09:40.179 done. I'm just not going to be a part of the 00:09:40.179 --> 00:09:44.019 Crown of Aragon anymore. And then things sort 00:09:44.019 --> 00:09:48.059 of settle down, and I think the concern at this 00:09:48.059 --> 00:09:51.159 moment during the transition of power is that 00:09:51.159 --> 00:09:54.740 the Count of Empúries might take advantage of 00:09:54.740 --> 00:09:58.360 this moment and do some kind of more aggressive 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:04.600 official splitting off or defiance against the 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:09.720 crown because he sees an opportunity, a vulnerability 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:13.139 in this moment of transition of power. So I think 00:10:13.139 --> 00:10:19.120 that Violant is on this and she's had an emissary 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:23.220 reach out to the Count of Empúries about just 00:10:23.220 --> 00:10:27.759 sticking with Joan and just there's a way to 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:30.620 work out our differences here. Don't split away. 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:35.779 Wait to see what Joan as king is going to do 00:10:35.779 --> 00:10:41.019 and you might be happy to stay and we can settle 00:10:41.019 --> 00:10:44.179 our differences. That's my guess about what's 00:10:44.179 --> 00:10:46.919 going on, but I have to admit that... there's 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:49.399 certainly writing about this in the secondary 00:10:49.399 --> 00:10:53.259 literature that I have not really dug into. And 00:10:53.259 --> 00:10:55.279 so I could be wrong about this, but I think the 00:10:55.279 --> 00:10:59.419 general idea is that Violant is taking action 00:10:59.419 --> 00:11:04.179 to look at the places where the new regime might 00:11:04.179 --> 00:11:09.419 be vulnerable and looking to take action to increase 00:11:09.419 --> 00:11:15.659 and bolster the authority of this new monarchy, 00:11:15.659 --> 00:11:21.940 and she's informing Joan about this. But let's 00:11:21.940 --> 00:11:26.720 talk about how Violant is saying that she's 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:31.360 taking care of business here. The scholar Claire 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:37.100 Ponsich, who's writing now about Joan and Violant, 00:11:37.179 --> 00:11:40.720 and Violant in particular, she has looked at 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:46.590 these letters. And Claire Ponsich is really like 00:11:46.590 --> 00:11:51.649 the number one authority on Violant de Bar 00:11:51.649 --> 00:11:56.970 today. Claire Ponsich did a close reading of this 00:11:56.970 --> 00:12:00.190 very letter, and that's why I decided to choose 00:12:00.190 --> 00:12:05.629 it because it appears in a 2008 journal article. 00:12:05.960 --> 00:12:09.960 And on page 97 of that article, Claire Ponsich 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:13.620 does a close reading of this letter and pulls 00:12:13.620 --> 00:12:18.279 out a sentence in particular. Here it is translated 00:12:18.279 --> 00:12:23.600 into English. And this is Violent, okay? To Joan, 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:30.460 quote, do not finalize anything until we, you, 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:37.090 and your brother are together, unquote. So Claire 00:12:37.090 --> 00:12:40.769 Ponsich has spent a ton of time reading Violant's 00:12:40.769 --> 00:12:44.029 letters from the time she was a duchess and then 00:12:44.029 --> 00:12:47.549 also during the time of her queenship and 00:12:47.549 --> 00:12:52.909 after during widowhood and Claire Ponsich is saying 00:12:52.909 --> 00:12:59.350 Violant's assumption of queenly authority is 00:12:59.350 --> 00:13:04.110 noticeable in this sentence and especially the 00:13:04.110 --> 00:13:09.320 kind of queenly authority that she is going to 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:15.259 be engaging in here. That is to say, she's not 00:13:15.259 --> 00:13:20.480 shy about issuing directives to her husband, 00:13:21.379 --> 00:13:27.659 the king. And this is a really interesting argument 00:13:27.659 --> 00:13:32.080 that Claire Ponsich makes. I am inclined to follow 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:35.000 right along with it because she has spent so 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:36.840 much time looking at these letters and she would 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:39.720 definitely be the one to be able to conduct a 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:44.419 very informed close reading. So here we are really 00:13:44.419 --> 00:13:48.720 getting at the focus of what I'm trying to understand 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:52.139 more about in the way that Joan and Violant 00:13:52.139 --> 00:13:56.740 related to each other and the kind of project 00:13:56.740 --> 00:14:02.179 that they set out to create as they envisioned 00:14:02.179 --> 00:14:05.259 the way that they were going to be king and queen. 00:14:06.059 --> 00:14:11.870 Violant is clearly comfortable. with taking charge 00:14:11.870 --> 00:14:17.629 and directing action, and she needs to in this 00:14:17.629 --> 00:14:21.710 moment, apparently, because Joan is not in Barcelona, 00:14:22.230 --> 00:14:27.269 because Joan is possibly sick and possibly deathly 00:14:27.269 --> 00:14:31.169 ill, as a matter of fact. We don't have good 00:14:31.169 --> 00:14:35.830 information about what condition Joan was in 00:14:35.830 --> 00:14:39.970 day -to -day. I spent some time trying to track 00:14:39.970 --> 00:14:43.529 down details about the illness that he's suffering 00:14:43.529 --> 00:14:51.049 in this period of time in January of 1387. The 00:14:51.049 --> 00:14:56.970 scholar Josep Roca is the one who finds a letter 00:14:56.970 --> 00:15:02.529 from April 30th and Roca reads this letter. It's 00:15:02.529 --> 00:15:06.710 one that Violant is writing. that describes 00:15:06.710 --> 00:15:10.570 Joan's illness and he looks at that letter from 00:15:10.570 --> 00:15:15.409 April 30th and he says that it is about what 00:15:15.409 --> 00:15:22.540 took place in January. I have looked at the register 00:15:22.540 --> 00:15:25.220 and I've looked at that page and to be honest 00:15:25.220 --> 00:15:28.340 I'm having a little bit of a problem understanding 00:15:28.340 --> 00:15:31.779 how Roca came to that conclusion but Roca spent 00:15:31.779 --> 00:15:34.159 a lot of time reading these documents and so 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:38.080 I'm inclined to trust him but I really want to 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:42.200 know how he figured out that what she was writing 00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:46.919 about on April 30th had to do with Joann's condition 00:15:46.919 --> 00:15:52.000 in January and wasn't like a later illness that 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:55.940 took place in April right around the time she's 00:15:55.940 --> 00:15:58.679 writing because it's not it's not clear to me 00:15:58.679 --> 00:16:00.679 but I'll figure it out I'll puzzle that out I've 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:03.840 got until April 30th to figure that one out but 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:08.009 according to Roca this letter from April 30th 00:16:08.009 --> 00:16:10.529 describes what was taking place in January and 00:16:10.529 --> 00:16:14.870 at some point in January Joan became so ill 00:16:14.870 --> 00:16:19.169 that he was given last rites that he couldn't 00:16:19.169 --> 00:16:25.470 speak that he was seemingly unconscious and It 00:16:25.470 --> 00:16:28.009 looked like he was gonna die even before he could 00:16:28.009 --> 00:16:32.129 make it to Barcelona to start his reign as king 00:16:32.129 --> 00:16:39.889 so that's What is likely happening in these moments? 00:16:40.590 --> 00:16:43.409 We just don't know like day to day what Violant 00:16:43.409 --> 00:16:46.850 is aware of. I mean she's writing to Joan so 00:16:46.850 --> 00:16:49.809 presumably she thinks that Joan can read her 00:16:49.809 --> 00:16:53.649 letter. But who is informing her about Joan's 00:16:53.649 --> 00:16:57.710 condition at this time? How is she finding out 00:16:57.710 --> 00:17:00.350 information about that? It's one of the major 00:17:00.350 --> 00:17:03.409 questions that I have as I'm looking at these 00:17:03.409 --> 00:17:07.269 letters. And of course, there's all the questions 00:17:07.269 --> 00:17:11.609 about the content of the letter itself and how 00:17:11.609 --> 00:17:16.670 vulnerable is this new regime right as it's beginning 00:17:16.670 --> 00:17:20.690 on the first day of their reign, which is January 00:17:20.690 --> 00:17:25.519 6th, 1387. I'm also kind of curious about some 00:17:25.519 --> 00:17:28.299 of the details like where is Violant living 00:17:28.299 --> 00:17:31.859 at this time? Like how has her household started 00:17:31.859 --> 00:17:36.200 to merge or replace like the staff of the royal 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:39.359 palace? Or is Violant actually living in some 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:43.700 other kind of residence? And I'm also just really 00:17:43.700 --> 00:17:47.380 wanting to know how did Violant feel about the 00:17:47.380 --> 00:17:51.339 start of her reign at this point? Is she... feeling 00:17:51.339 --> 00:17:54.220 vulnerable, or is she feeling really confident? 00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:58.900 I mean, my guess is that there's kind of a mixture 00:17:58.900 --> 00:18:01.119 of both, because there's no immediate threat. 00:18:01.140 --> 00:18:04.920 It seems like everyone agrees it makes sense 00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:08.400 for Joan to be inheriting the throne. No one 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:12.559 knows how sick he is, so it seems like there's 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:19.559 no contender to threaten the succession here. 00:18:20.029 --> 00:18:25.569 but I think Violant is also very aware that 00:18:25.569 --> 00:18:30.410 it's not going according to plan because she's 00:18:30.410 --> 00:18:34.250 the one that's there in Barcelona and Joan is 00:18:34.250 --> 00:18:40.589 not. All right, that does it for today's episode. 00:18:42.230 --> 00:18:45.450 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Historian's 00:18:45.450 --> 00:18:49.430 Notebook, season one, Multi Cara Companyona. If 00:18:49.430 --> 00:18:51.470 you are leaving with more questions than you 00:18:51.470 --> 00:18:55.309 arrived with, I have done my job. Remember the 00:18:55.309 --> 00:18:59.609 historians, notebook has a motto, and that motto 00:18:59.609 --> 00:19:04.809 is dissatisfaction guaranteed. Visit the website, 00:19:04.950 --> 00:19:08.549 jonathanseyfried.net, to see an image of today's 00:19:08.549 --> 00:19:12.150 document and additional show notes, including 00:19:12.150 --> 00:19:15.450 a bibliographic reference to that article by 00:19:15.450 --> 00:19:18.960 Claire Ponsich. It is in French, by the way, so 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:20.680 you'll have to if you want to read that one you 00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:24.119 got to brush up on your French. And listen again 00:19:24.119 --> 00:19:27.660 tomorrow to hear about the next day in the first 00:19:27.660 --> 00:19:31.099 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:19:31.099 --> 00:19:34.460 Queen Violant de Bar. In the meantime, take 00:19:34.460 --> 00:19:34.859 care.