WEBVTT 00:00:00.110 --> 00:00:04.910 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.549 --> 00:00:12.449 it was January 21st, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:12.449 --> 00:00:15.529 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:15.529 --> 00:00:19.070 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:19.070 --> 00:00:22.910 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:23.589 --> 00:00:28.609 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:28.609 --> 00:00:31.769 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:31.769 --> 00:00:35.710 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:35.710 --> 00:00:39.630 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's 00:00:39.630 --> 00:01:07.189 document. If you're looking at the image of today's 00:01:07.189 --> 00:01:11.769 document on the website, then you might notice 00:01:11.769 --> 00:01:16.530 that we have seen this document before. And that's 00:01:16.530 --> 00:01:21.709 because way back in episode five, I went to this 00:01:21.709 --> 00:01:26.349 page in the treasury records and noticed that 00:01:26.349 --> 00:01:31.230 there was a record on the top half for a baker, 00:01:31.650 --> 00:01:36.510 someone who was a baker in the household of Violant 00:01:36.510 --> 00:01:41.629 during her time as the Duchess of Girona in the 00:01:41.629 --> 00:01:48.030 second half of 1386, and the payment though was 00:01:48.030 --> 00:01:55.340 made in 1387, but within the date of the terms 00:01:55.340 --> 00:01:58.439 for which that baker was being paid for, the 00:01:58.439 --> 00:02:03.840 period of time, it had ended on December 31st, 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:07.920 and so I linked it in to the day of December 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:12.680 31st in that episode, and now we've arrived to 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:15.939 the date that the record was actually written 00:02:15.939 --> 00:02:21.419 down on January 21st, and I'll tell you... January 00:02:21.419 --> 00:02:24.560 21st was a big day for treasury records because 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:28.439 if you go to this register on PARES you will 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:33.419 see that there are actually pages and pages of 00:02:33.419 --> 00:02:39.340 records dated on January 21st. I don't know what 00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:43.240 to make of that. Was it that there was a backlog 00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:47.199 and they just kind of got around to entering 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.879 all these things on January 21st? Was January 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:55.639 21st actually a day that was designated for recording 00:02:55.639 --> 00:02:59.840 a bunch of treasury records, payment records, 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:04.520 and will we see this again in a lot of the other 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:07.800 treasury record books that there's a particular 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:11.729 day when it's just I guess maybe that day in 00:03:11.729 --> 00:03:15.689 the cycle when they enter in a lot of records, 00:03:16.330 --> 00:03:20.389 I will be watching to see if I can understand 00:03:20.389 --> 00:03:27.430 why January 21st is over -represented in the 00:03:27.430 --> 00:03:32.219 payment records for this period of time. What 00:03:32.219 --> 00:03:36.620 I can also say is that they had to get up and 00:03:36.620 --> 00:03:41.120 running with the record -keeping services of 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:45.039 a whole new reign. Keep in mind that Pere the 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:49.520 Ceremonious had ruled for over 50 years and all 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:53.020 of the record -keeping and operations and bureaucracy 00:03:53.020 --> 00:03:59.099 had been, you know, done according to traditions 00:03:59.099 --> 00:04:03.979 and plans and Moving from one year to the next, 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:06.520 they knew how to do it and they didn't really 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:10.620 have to do as much starting over from scratch. 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:15.460 And so when Joan begins his reign, they're gonna 00:04:15.460 --> 00:04:18.120 have to figure out, well, how are we going to 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:23.350 handle payment systems when a lot of the people 00:04:23.350 --> 00:04:27.149 who are getting paid would have been paid out 00:04:27.149 --> 00:04:30.769 of a different fund or a different process being 00:04:30.769 --> 00:04:35.069 a member of the staff of the Duke of Girona and 00:04:35.069 --> 00:04:39.810 now that same person is getting paid out of a 00:04:39.810 --> 00:04:43.930 different fund probably now that Joan and Violant 00:04:43.930 --> 00:04:47.269 are king and queen and then how are they going 00:04:47.269 --> 00:04:50.730 to make records for all of that it's quite possible 00:04:50.730 --> 00:04:54.180 that it them a while to figure out, okay, how 00:04:54.180 --> 00:04:58.319 are we going to arrange the records? So today's 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:01.459 document is the one that's on the second half 00:05:01.459 --> 00:05:06.279 of that same page, and this document was listed 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:12.860 in the collection by Trenchs i Odeña and by Jaiges 00:05:12.860 --> 00:05:18.540 i Jardi that I referred to in episode 22 on January 00:05:18.540 --> 00:05:25.189 15th. So it's minstrels and the document collection 00:05:25.189 --> 00:05:28.290 has a full transcription of this payment record. 00:05:29.769 --> 00:05:36.149 Nothing in it is immediately eye -catching with 00:05:36.149 --> 00:05:42.550 one exception. This is a husband and wife team. 00:05:43.750 --> 00:05:51.110 The first line has the name of the treasury official, 00:05:51.509 --> 00:05:55.930 Johan Callos, and then in the second half, it 00:05:55.930 --> 00:05:58.790 lists who's going to be getting the payment. 00:05:59.610 --> 00:06:02.649 So starting from a little bit after the first 00:06:02.649 --> 00:06:09.949 half of the line, En Jacquet de Port Albert e 00:06:12.250 --> 00:06:20.259 Ana Isabel Mullier. Seva. Mullier Seva are the 00:06:20.259 --> 00:06:23.519 first two words on the second line. His wife. 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:30.060 This is a husband and wife troubadour team. It 00:06:30.060 --> 00:06:35.459 is very unusual to come across a woman troubadour 00:06:35.459 --> 00:06:40.399 at this time. So they are naturally really interesting. 00:06:41.379 --> 00:06:46.339 And it turns out that these two are pretty awesome. 00:06:46.509 --> 00:06:50.949 because there's quite a lot of documentation 00:06:50.949 --> 00:06:55.649 of their services to the royal family of the 00:06:55.649 --> 00:07:00.589 Crown of Aragon over the years and also to others 00:07:00.589 --> 00:07:08.069 in the region. So in 1385, Père the ceremonious 00:07:08.069 --> 00:07:12.569 recommended the Portalberts to the King of 00:07:12.569 --> 00:07:20.730 Navarre and then Many years later, in 1388, Violant 00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:24.629 recommended them again, but of course to the 00:07:24.629 --> 00:07:29.790 next king and queen of Navarre. But Violant 00:07:29.790 --> 00:07:32.709 recommended the Portalberts to somebody else 00:07:32.709 --> 00:07:36.199 as well. Someone who hasn't yet come up on the 00:07:36.199 --> 00:07:41.339 podcast, but was hugely influential from a cultural 00:07:41.339 --> 00:07:46.699 standpoint for Joan and Violant. That person 00:07:46.699 --> 00:07:56.639 is Gaston Febus, the Count of Foix-Bearn. Gaston 00:07:56.639 --> 00:08:03.680 Febus has become very well known to scholars of 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:06.779 the Middle Ages who are interested in hunting 00:08:06.779 --> 00:08:12.439 because he wrote, Gaston Febus, wrote one of the 00:08:12.439 --> 00:08:18.459 most copied and most prominent treatises on hunting 00:08:18.459 --> 00:08:24.819 of the Middle Ages. And Gaston Febus was quite 00:08:24.819 --> 00:08:34.190 the guy. He was like the sort of masculine political 00:08:34.190 --> 00:08:39.330 elite that I think Joan aspired to in a lot 00:08:39.330 --> 00:08:44.029 of ways. He was not like Père the Ceremonious 00:08:44.029 --> 00:08:50.370 in that Gaston Feboux didn't have quite the kind 00:08:50.370 --> 00:08:54.990 of cruelty and warmongering level that Père the 00:08:54.990 --> 00:09:00.240 Ceremonious did. but they had something in common, 00:09:00.700 --> 00:09:03.899 Père and Gaston Febus. They were really like 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:09.360 womanizers. So Gaston Febus did not have anything 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:16.379 like a relationship of respect and equity with 00:09:16.379 --> 00:09:20.960 his wives that we see taking place between Joan 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:24.980 and Violant. I think Joan aspired to write 00:09:24.980 --> 00:09:31.450 some kind of manuscript on poetry, music, and 00:09:31.450 --> 00:09:34.389 hunting and just culture in general. And I think 00:09:34.389 --> 00:09:37.070 if he had lived longer, he would have done that. 00:09:37.629 --> 00:09:43.950 Because Gaston Febus's book, which was titled 00:09:43.950 --> 00:09:47.110 Le Livre de la Chasse, The Book of the Hunt, 00:09:47.330 --> 00:09:51.789 The Book of the Chase, it was one that Joan 00:09:51.789 --> 00:09:56.299 read and I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it immensely. 00:09:57.019 --> 00:10:00.860 And it was very much like a kind of self -fashioning 00:10:00.860 --> 00:10:05.139 project from Gaston Febus. Gaston Febus was very 00:10:05.139 --> 00:10:12.240 famous for basically building himself up as a 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:20.519 big man of the elite class. He was very successful 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:25.639 in battle and also got a lot of plunder, and 00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:29.820 so he was very very wealthy. His territory was 00:10:29.820 --> 00:10:33.139 kind of like a mountainous territory in the in 00:10:33.139 --> 00:10:39.059 the region of the Pyrenees, and also he had this 00:10:39.059 --> 00:10:44.120 amazing blonde hair so that when people looked 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:48.639 at him, it was like looking at like this yellow 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:52.879 sun shape because of how golden his hair was. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:55.639 And so that's actually how he got that name, 00:10:55.919 --> 00:11:01.559 Febus, which is from Phoebus. The name for Apollo 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:06.539 in Greek myth, you know, the shining of the sun 00:11:06.539 --> 00:11:10.799 basically is what's attributed to the glow around 00:11:10.799 --> 00:11:15.480 Apollo. Alright, so I got a little sidetracked 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:18.860 talking about Gaston Febus, but all of this is 00:11:18.860 --> 00:11:24.860 to say that when Violant was writing about the 00:11:24.860 --> 00:11:29.899 Portalberts, she recommended them to one of the 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.419 brightest cultural luminaries in the entire region, 00:11:34.899 --> 00:11:39.539 Gaston Febus, as well as to her buddy, the King 00:11:39.539 --> 00:11:43.659 of Navarre. So the Portalberts, they're really 00:11:43.659 --> 00:11:48.059 good. They have a track record performing for 00:11:48.059 --> 00:11:53.000 the royal family of the Crown of Aragon according 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:59.100 to the documentation we have from 1385 until 00:11:59.100 --> 00:12:04.539 1393 and there might be more than that that we 00:12:04.539 --> 00:12:08.960 just haven't found yet in the documents. So they 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:13.860 are one of the favorite troubadour performers 00:12:13.860 --> 00:12:20.299 for Joan and Violant and so here we are looking 00:12:20.299 --> 00:12:26.179 at their payment record which is one that covers 00:12:26.179 --> 00:12:32.940 about a three month period of time and they get 00:12:32.940 --> 00:12:40.179 267 Solidis which is about this it's like comparable 00:12:40.179 --> 00:12:43.460 like well actually it's a hundred Solidis less 00:12:43.460 --> 00:12:47.120 than what the Baker got but the record here is 00:12:47.149 --> 00:12:50.210 interesting because there's this other amount 00:12:50.210 --> 00:12:53.990 that's listed as like the per day so maybe they're 00:12:53.990 --> 00:12:58.389 not actually there every single day during that 00:12:58.389 --> 00:13:01.490 three months and so it actually comes out to 00:13:01.490 --> 00:13:06.490 being a higher rate than the baker on the same 00:13:06.490 --> 00:13:10.049 page but not not quite sure about that what is 00:13:10.049 --> 00:13:13.309 clear in this record though is that they were 00:13:13.690 --> 00:13:18.210 minstrels that performed for Joan and Violant 00:13:18.210 --> 00:13:21.129 when they were living in Girona in the latter 00:13:21.129 --> 00:13:25.929 part of 1386. And then they continued on with 00:13:25.929 --> 00:13:31.029 them and moved to Barcelona. So it's interesting 00:13:31.029 --> 00:13:36.340 to see that the minstrel team, the husband and 00:13:36.340 --> 00:13:41.159 wife minstrel team, were one of the staff members, 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:44.879 the household members that we know accompanied 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:51.360 Joan and Violant from Girona to Barcelona. So 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:55.080 you might be wondering, as I'm wondering, what 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:58.750 were their performances like? Were they doing 00:13:58.750 --> 00:14:04.470 any of the Ars Nova or Ars Subtilior? I don't 00:14:04.470 --> 00:14:06.950 know. And one of the things that I'm hoping to 00:14:06.950 --> 00:14:10.710 find out over the course of this year that I'm 00:14:10.710 --> 00:14:14.110 working with these documents is a little bit 00:14:14.110 --> 00:14:16.889 more about what troubadour performances were 00:14:16.889 --> 00:14:19.590 like. So I'm going to be doing a little bit more 00:14:19.590 --> 00:14:22.269 reading in the secondary literature about that. 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:25.940 And then we'll see if anything comes up as I 00:14:25.940 --> 00:14:29.799 look at other records that are in the collection 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:36.600 from Trenchs i Odena and Baijes i Jardi, and see 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:39.899 if I can get a little bit more information about 00:14:39.899 --> 00:14:45.289 exactly what they did when they performed. Alright, 00:14:45.509 --> 00:14:48.730 thanks for listening to this episode of the Historian's 00:14:48.730 --> 00:14:53.370 Notebook, Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona. If you 00:14:53.370 --> 00:14:55.370 are leaving with more questions than you arrived 00:14:55.370 --> 00:14:59.490 with, I have done my job. Because remember, the 00:14:59.490 --> 00:15:03.250 motto of the Historian's Notebook is, dissatisfaction 00:15:03.250 --> 00:15:07.110 guaranteed. You always want to know more at the 00:15:07.110 --> 00:15:09.590 end than you had thought of at the beginning, 00:15:09.889 --> 00:15:13.659 hopefully. Visit the website to see an image 00:15:13.659 --> 00:15:16.840 of today's document and additional show notes, 00:15:17.460 --> 00:15:20.159 and listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:23.519 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:28.139 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the 00:15:28.139 --> 00:15:29.580 meantime, take care.