Hello, in The Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago,
it was January 16th, 1387. My name is Jonathan
Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the
University of New Mexico. And this is The Historian's
Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made.
Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're
looking at a document from each day of the first
year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and
Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's document.
So today is the big day. January 16th, I've mentioned
it a bunch of times in the last few episodes,
where all of the big officials converge on this
relatively little town, Granollers, where Joan
has been recuperating from his illness. And they
make a plan for who's going to be in charge of
what in the upcoming administration. And to say
upcoming is a little weird because as soon as
Per died on January 5th, Joan became king. So
it's not really upcoming. It's sort of this situation
where they're building the plane as they're flying
it because they're supposed to be governing.
The new king is king. It really is, you know.
The king is dead. Long live the king. but Joan
has been out of commission and so we've seen
Violant stepping up and now today there's going
to be a bit more of an organization happening
and people will be given responsibilities and
in fact something that takes place on this day
is that Joan makes his son the dauphin of Girona.
That is a new term for the Crown of Aragon. It
used to be the Duke of Girona, but now it's the
Dauphin. And that is the French word for the
primogenit, the firstborn inheritor in line
for the throne. So Jaume, their son, who at
this time is three years old, he is made into
the Dauphin. And that is something that immediately
sets off alarm bells for a lot of people in the
Crown of Aragon who are really suspicious of
Violant and her influence as what they perceive
an outsider from France. And so this is really
making a bad impression, but Joan doesn't care
because he wants to bring more French culture
and customs into the Crown of Aragon. Why? Because
that's what's hot. So really, like, France is
the place where a lot of the most innovative
culture is happening at this time. It's almost
like France is uh the Hollywood and so like in
today's culture in our world in the 21st century
Hollywood movies are very popular and they're
consumed around the world there's other really
important sources of filmmaking such as Bollywood
in India but you kind of get the sense that what
comes out of Hollywood sort of sets the cultural
agenda in terms of representation and artistic
innovation for movies and TV series. And so the
same kind of thing is happening with France and
its neighbors. And Joan is like, let's get
more of that produced and supported in The Crown
of Aragon. There are really interesting artistic
innovations that happen in Iberia at this time
So it's not as if Iberia is not coming up with
anything on its own It's just that the stuff
that's the most popular and the stuff that is
really getting a lot of you know, traction in
terms of what people want to listen to from the
troubadours and what kinds of literature gets
copied again and again and again multiple times
in new manuscripts. It's coming from France.
So, Joan is really interested in that culture
starting from his very early years. And one thing
positive to say about Père is that he really
liked big spending on cultural objects, and so
Joan had a lot of access to works from all over
the place, including France. And so Joan, from
a very young age, is looking toward France and
French culture. Also keep in mind that to talk
about France as like one unified place is very
misleading at this time because the France of
Paris is very different culturally from the France
of Provence and the French culture that comes
out of Toulouse is a very particular kind of
troubadour culture that Joan is really into
and might not be quite as popular in Paris. So
that's something to focus on as we're thinking
about French culture as a category. So I digressed
a bit and talked about all this French stuff,
but it's all to underscore the point that when
Joan starts officially calling his son the Dauphin,
he is doing that very consciously as a move to
bring some of the cultural cache of France into
the political conversation in the Crown of Aragon,
and there's a lot of people that don't like that.
So he names his son the Dauphin. You would expect
that today's document would be the document that
proclaims this. That document is not found yet.
Where is it? We don't know where it is. There's
an article all about the Dauphin Jaume that was
written by a Catalan historian Jaume Riera i Sans
and in that article Riera i Sans says yeah we
don't know where this document is yet and in
fact the first recorded attestation of the use
of the term Dauphin for Jaume is actually in
one of Violant's letters a couple days later,
and we're going to look at that letter on that
day. So we don't have that. And then the other
thing that Joan does right away is he creates
a new dukedom, a new duchy for his brother. So
for Marti, he creates the Duchy of Montblanc.
And now Marti gets to be a Duke, whereas normally
the title of Duke and all of its powers and prestige
would have only been for the firstborn son of
the king. And so Joan applies that to his brother,
which is a nice nice thing to do. That document
is also not dated the 16th of January, which
is when most historians are converging on saying,
well, this is when Joan did these things right
away. So the kind of thing that I would like
in my fantasy world, my historian fantasy world,
is for there to be some kind of like meeting
minutes from this big day on January 16th. And
we do not have that at all. They met, they made
decisions about which official would be in which
position and what the division of labor was going
to be like for the new government. Joan ran
the meeting, I'm assuming, but I'm sure that
Violant was really pulling a lot of the strings
here. and we don't have meeting minutes. So when
I'm looking around at the registers from this
time period, and I'm flipping through them and
looking, okay, let's look at the documents from
January 16th, I'm really dissatisfied. Like,
really, I'm living out the motto of the podcast,
dissatisfaction guaranteed, because I can't find
any, like, really revealing documents from what
went down on this day. And we know it was this
day because Violant was there in Granollers
on that day and not there afterward. So she shows
up for this meeting. All of these officials have
shown up for this meeting. We know that it happened,
but the documentation of it is lacking and maybe
I just haven't found the right secondary source
yet but the secondary source literature I've
really gotten into a lot and and I think that
there's maybe it got written down somewhere besides
a register maybe they're just verbalizing it
in there then gonna there's like a you know chancery
backlog or something and so all the things that
they decided they get sent out and documented
with later dates because there is There's a lot
of things that are dated, for example, like the
18th. So it's really difficult to figure out
exactly what took place at this big meeting.
And I feel like it's just like true to form that
on this very dramatic day, the document that
I have from Violant seemingly has nothing to
do with the major topic of the day, which is
forming a government. This document from January
16th, it's I think the only January 16th document
in Violant's registers, and what it is about
is seemingly some friar going on pilgrimage.
So the addressee is the bishop of Granollares.
That makes sense. Violant is writing to the
bishop that the journey of a certain Petrus,
a friar Petrus. is something that is going to
be supported in whatever manner is necessary.
The word huismodi is in there. I really like
that word in Latin. It's just, of this kind.
It's the general, like, anything you need of
this kind, huismodi, is going to be supported
for the journey that this certain Petrus is going
to make. Where is this Petrus journeying to?
Well, you know, I have my ChatGPT crutch for
the Latin documents, and ChatGPT seems pretty
convinced that this Petrus is going to be going
to Jerusalem. ChatGPT is getting that from the
phrase in the second line, Patrimonium crucifixi.
the land of the crucifixion. That would make
sense. There's also, before that, a phrase, sanctorum
limina, the threshold of holiness. So I can see
where ChatGPT is getting that and why ChatGPT
would infer that this is a journey to the Holy
Land all the way to Jerusalem. I am not sure
that that's exactly what's being supported here.
I am honestly not sure about the meaning of this
letter overall, and what Petrus is doing, and
the idea that it has nothing seemingly to do.
with the major task at hand, which is forming
the government. So all of this just generates
a ton of questions in my mind about this. I have
one theory. If this really is a letter that is
providing resources and support for this Friar
Petrus to go to Jerusalem, Maybe it is Violant's
way of thanking the Bishop of Granollers for providing
the venue and maybe some food and other kinds
of hospitality to the group of people that have
unexpectedly descended on this little town for
this very big meeting. So that's my working theory
that this is Violant's way of thanking, compensating
the Bishop of Granollers for that. But I don't
know. I don't know where the meeting took place.
I don't know if it was in any way connected to
the property of the church. It is full of questions.
But that's our game. And maybe later on in the
year, when my Latin is better, or when I come
upon some other document that somehow connects
back to this, I'll be able to get some better
analysis. But that's it for this episode. Thanks
for listening to the Historian's Notebook, Season
1, Molt Cara Campanyona. If you were leaving with
more questions than you arrived with, I mean,
how could you not? Why not? My Latin is, like,
so bad I can't even say what is even happening
in this letter generally. Well, I have fulfilled
expectations. I have done my job. Remember, the
motto of the Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction
guaranteed. visit the website to see an image
of today's document and additional show notes.
I promise I am just going to return to my Latin
notes and try to get better at this. Or maybe
I'll just luck out and there will just be so
few Latin documents that are not transcribed
in the upcoming year and it's just a weird thing
about right now in January that I don't even
have to worry about it. That's what I thought
when I started this podcast. Alright, okay. Thank
you again for listening. Visit the website for
an image of today's document and show notes.
That is jonathanseyfried.net. And listen again
tomorrow to hear about the next day in the first
year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and
Queen Violant de Bar. In the meantime, take
care.