WEBVTT 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:05.849 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago, 00:00:06.330 --> 00:00:13.490 it was January 22nd, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:13.490 --> 00:00:16.870 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:16.870 --> 00:00:20.809 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:20.809 --> 00:00:24.690 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:25.429 --> 00:00:29.449 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:29.449 --> 00:00:32.950 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:32.950 --> 00:00:37.969 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:37.969 --> 00:00:43.429 Queen Violant de Bar. Join me on this journey 00:00:43.429 --> 00:00:48.869 through the thousands of digitized pages available 00:00:48.869 --> 00:00:53.729 on Pares, a website produced by Spain's Ministry 00:00:53.729 --> 00:00:58.450 of Culture and Sport. Let's begin today's document. 00:01:22.250 --> 00:01:31.390 On register 1819 folio 75 V for Verso, I had 00:01:31.390 --> 00:01:38.129 two documents from January 22nd and I decided 00:01:38.129 --> 00:01:42.829 to go with the longer one and also because it 00:01:42.829 --> 00:01:47.109 had some interesting stuff. It had some crossouts 00:01:47.109 --> 00:01:52.930 and some inter -linear additions, and then at 00:01:52.930 --> 00:01:58.390 the end it had a bunch of addressees basically 00:01:58.390 --> 00:02:02.390 saying that this one letter was copied a bunch 00:02:02.390 --> 00:02:07.409 of times and sent out to many destinations. So 00:02:07.409 --> 00:02:09.969 there was a lot of interesting stuff going on 00:02:09.969 --> 00:02:14.150 with this longer letter at the It's the second 00:02:14.150 --> 00:02:19.750 one on this on this folio. This is from Violant's 00:02:19.750 --> 00:02:26.930 register. It's from her secret seal, which again 00:02:26.930 --> 00:02:31.550 is not necessarily like the same as a top secret 00:02:31.550 --> 00:02:34.909 designation we might think of today, but still 00:02:34.909 --> 00:02:41.960 an elevated level of security. And Violant is 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:46.180 sending out the same message to a great many 00:02:46.180 --> 00:02:52.020 communities that are now in her portfolio. I'm 00:02:52.020 --> 00:02:56.360 pretty sure that most of the communities listed 00:02:56.360 --> 00:03:01.620 are not ones that Violant had in her portfolio 00:03:01.620 --> 00:03:05.319 as the Duchess of Girona, the title that she 00:03:05.319 --> 00:03:11.969 had before the ascension to the throne on January 00:03:11.969 --> 00:03:16.330 5th or 6th, depending on how exactly you want 00:03:16.330 --> 00:03:21.729 to slice that. And so here we've got a message 00:03:21.729 --> 00:03:26.909 that is being transmitted to all of these communities. 00:03:28.330 --> 00:03:31.830 I would guess that in many cases this is the 00:03:31.830 --> 00:03:37.110 first they're hearing from the new member of 00:03:37.110 --> 00:03:40.870 the royal family that is in charge of their affairs. 00:03:42.490 --> 00:03:46.689 The monarchy in the Crown of Aragon in the 14th 00:03:46.689 --> 00:03:52.810 century was very much a corporate monarchy, meaning 00:03:52.810 --> 00:03:57.310 that the division of labor for running the government 00:03:57.310 --> 00:04:02.509 was very much a group project. It was a division 00:04:02.509 --> 00:04:09.139 of labor in which entire regions and also little 00:04:09.139 --> 00:04:13.479 sections within regions were parceled out to 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:17.620 different members of the royal family. The assignments 00:04:17.620 --> 00:04:24.199 could correspond to levels of prestige, but you 00:04:24.199 --> 00:04:28.050 can't really depend on that. Sometimes the Queen 00:04:28.050 --> 00:04:33.269 would have jurisdiction over a particular community 00:04:33.269 --> 00:04:37.879 that... you would expect the king to have had 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:40.980 jurisdiction over because of its importance or 00:04:40.980 --> 00:04:45.740 the amount of money flowing into the coffers. 00:04:46.180 --> 00:04:50.259 So there's some variation here. I think that 00:04:50.259 --> 00:04:56.399 the king probably did have the lion's share of 00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:01.459 the jurisdictions, but it wasn't exactly playing 00:05:01.459 --> 00:05:08.329 out in terms of a ranking matched to this particular 00:05:08.329 --> 00:05:11.269 member of the royal family or that. A really 00:05:11.269 --> 00:05:16.709 good example is in this letter here where there's 00:05:16.709 --> 00:05:21.709 one destination that really stuck out as I was 00:05:21.709 --> 00:05:25.310 looking at the list of recipients that begins 00:05:25.310 --> 00:05:30.670 on folio 75 v and then continues on to folio 00:05:30.670 --> 00:05:37.050 76 r in fact the last destination the last recipient 00:05:37.050 --> 00:05:46.649 listed which is in line six of folio 76 r reads 00:05:46.910 --> 00:05:54.910 alia similis iudeis valenciam so the jews of 00:05:54.910 --> 00:06:03.089 valencia this brings up a structure in the governance 00:06:03.089 --> 00:06:05.750 of the crown of aragon that i have mentioned 00:06:05.750 --> 00:06:09.509 before but i really want to explain it fully 00:06:09.509 --> 00:06:18.959 right now so the aljama or the Aliama, is the 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:23.300 name of a neighborhood for a religious minority 00:06:23.300 --> 00:06:32.060 within a city and that particular sub -municipality 00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:38.620 would report directly to the monarchy and its 00:06:38.620 --> 00:06:43.120 tax revenues would go directly to the monarchy. 00:06:44.300 --> 00:06:50.079 The way that this came about is that there was 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:55.339 such an insistence on the separation of neighborhoods 00:06:55.339 --> 00:07:00.920 according to the borderlines of faith membership 00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:07.040 that the Muslim and Jewish neighborhoods within 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:12.060 cities all across the Crown of Aragon, they were 00:07:12.060 --> 00:07:18.069 seen as separate entities, and those who were 00:07:18.069 --> 00:07:23.550 in charge of the city were so intent on keeping 00:07:23.550 --> 00:07:30.389 the borderlines very solid, essentially building 00:07:30.389 --> 00:07:35.529 walls. between these neighborhoods and then where 00:07:35.529 --> 00:07:38.230 the Christian population lived and did business. 00:07:38.509 --> 00:07:42.389 They were so intent on this separation that even 00:07:42.389 --> 00:07:46.470 their governance was structured differently. 00:07:47.910 --> 00:07:52.389 Another piece of this is that the tradition arose 00:07:52.389 --> 00:07:59.370 as the centuries went on of religious minorities 00:07:59.370 --> 00:08:04.800 having all kinds of different rules for how to 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:08.480 conduct their affairs, whether it's the clothes 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:12.100 that they wore, or the hours that they could 00:08:12.100 --> 00:08:15.660 be certain places, or the amount of noise that 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:19.480 they could make in their religious commemorations, 00:08:19.579 --> 00:08:24.259 and also the way that they paid their taxes. 00:08:25.060 --> 00:08:33.990 And the royal authorities the officials who were 00:08:33.990 --> 00:08:39.529 employed by the monarchy, they became the ones 00:08:39.529 --> 00:08:44.070 that would enforce this throughout the realm 00:08:44.070 --> 00:08:49.230 and certainly the municipal authorities would 00:08:49.230 --> 00:08:52.610 participate in that enforcement, but in terms 00:08:52.610 --> 00:08:58.480 of managing the conflicts that could arise, whether 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:04.620 just lawsuits or actual violence, whatever kinds 00:09:04.620 --> 00:09:07.860 of conflicts that might arise would be handled 00:09:07.860 --> 00:09:18.240 in the courts and judgment structures of the 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:25.460 monarchy. What we're seeing in this letter is 00:09:25.460 --> 00:09:30.100 a little microcosm of that, because in addition 00:09:30.100 --> 00:09:36.480 to all these other villages that are listed here 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:43.700 as recipients of this letter, we also see that 00:09:43.700 --> 00:09:48.220 the Jews of Valencia are recipients of this letter, 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:55.019 not the entire city of Valencia itself. So all 00:09:55.019 --> 00:10:02.720 of these cities listed here and the Jewish neighborhood 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:06.399 in Valencia, they're all in the portfolio of 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:12.139 Violant. It's a very strange thing to try to 00:10:12.139 --> 00:10:15.580 get your head around in terms of the way that 00:10:15.580 --> 00:10:19.669 governance occurred, but it's really the result 00:10:19.669 --> 00:10:25.289 of just traditions growing upon themselves over 00:10:25.289 --> 00:10:30.769 time. Now, what is this letter communicating 00:10:30.769 --> 00:10:38.009 to all of these municipalities? This letter is 00:10:38.009 --> 00:10:40.509 telling them that they're going to have to pay 00:10:40.509 --> 00:10:46.759 some money. And The letter is a little bit amusing 00:10:46.759 --> 00:10:52.679 to me because it starts out the first line referencing 00:10:52.679 --> 00:11:00.179 all of the necessary expenses and then also takes 00:11:00.179 --> 00:11:07.100 very, very much care to say that in times past. 00:11:08.019 --> 00:11:17.049 So , the word is en aquest temps passat. 00:11:17.629 --> 00:11:22.129 In the times past, there were additional financial 00:11:22.129 --> 00:11:27.029 obligations and burdens and deeds that had been 00:11:27.029 --> 00:11:29.610 accrued. And so what Violant is saying here 00:11:29.610 --> 00:11:34.730 is it was Sibilla. It was the previous queen. 00:11:35.490 --> 00:11:39.389 I have inherited her portfolio. She did all this 00:11:39.389 --> 00:11:44.809 spending. And now all of the costs that have 00:11:44.809 --> 00:11:50.350 arisen as we're establishing our reign have required 00:11:50.350 --> 00:11:57.789 you to contribute some additional funds. And 00:11:57.789 --> 00:12:00.250 she also couched this in terms of, you're very 00:12:00.250 --> 00:12:03.049 loyal and we love you, and now you're going to 00:12:03.049 --> 00:12:08.009 pay. And she names a couple people in this letter, 00:12:09.049 --> 00:12:14.889 one of whom is a certain Mr. Jacme. And 00:12:14.889 --> 00:12:22.950 then another person is Antonio Rosar. And in 00:12:22.950 --> 00:12:29.509 the, let's see. sixth line you can see that the 00:12:29.509 --> 00:12:36.990 word dispenser was crossed out and now tresoreria 00:12:36.990 --> 00:12:43.090 is written in the interline and so this person 00:12:43.090 --> 00:12:48.389 I think was promoted to be the treasurer and 00:12:48.389 --> 00:12:52.509 the name of the person is really hard to read 00:12:52.509 --> 00:12:56.299 it's repeated further down in the letter and 00:12:56.299 --> 00:13:00.200 I couldn't quite figure out that the first name 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:04.340 was Antonio the last name it's pretty clear that 00:13:04.340 --> 00:13:09.500 that's Rosar and when I got to the very end of 00:13:09.500 --> 00:13:15.559 the document on the next page Antonio is spelled 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:23.919 out very nicely and also he's labeled as of the 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:30.460 treasury. So this Mossen Jacme, this Mr. Jacme 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:34.639 and Antonio Rosar, they're going to be collecting 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:43.940 money from everybody and this is something that, 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:49.860 you know, I'm gonna see a lot of. The revenues 00:13:49.860 --> 00:13:54.990 from the Jewish and Muslim neighborhoods were 00:13:54.990 --> 00:13:59.970 a very significant source of income for the monarchy 00:13:59.970 --> 00:14:09.309 and the different kings and queens of the crown 00:14:09.309 --> 00:14:13.690 of Aragon they are very protective of those neighborhoods 00:14:13.690 --> 00:14:21.110 as a result and we see this in a lot of moments 00:14:21.110 --> 00:14:26.509 when there is violence between the different 00:14:26.509 --> 00:14:29.470 faith groups. And in fact, in tomorrow's document, 00:14:29.490 --> 00:14:32.269 we're going to see an example of that. But it 00:14:32.269 --> 00:14:39.289 really blows up in 1391 when there's just a conflagration 00:14:39.289 --> 00:14:44.799 of Christian violence against the Jewish neighborhoods, 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:49.179 and it's the members of the royal family that 00:14:49.179 --> 00:14:55.399 are really trying to put a stop to it, although 00:14:55.399 --> 00:15:00.559 their efforts are not as forceful as they could 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:03.860 be, but they're the ones that are going to be 00:15:03.860 --> 00:15:09.889 most impacted in terms of their revenues and 00:15:09.889 --> 00:15:14.210 so they're incentivized to help out and then 00:15:14.210 --> 00:15:18.629 also I think we do see that there are moments 00:15:18.629 --> 00:15:23.110 when members of the royal family are coming to 00:15:23.110 --> 00:15:29.490 the defense of Jews on principle and also Muslims 00:15:29.490 --> 00:15:37.750 on principle that they are very critical of fellow 00:15:37.750 --> 00:15:41.730 Christians who take advantage of circumstances 00:15:41.730 --> 00:15:45.509 in order to pillage the neighborhoods of the 00:15:45.509 --> 00:15:49.730 Muslims and the Jews. And, you know, I did mention 00:15:49.730 --> 00:15:55.210 that Joann's personal history with Jews is highly 00:15:55.210 --> 00:15:59.129 problematic. By the time he ascends to the throne, 00:15:59.370 --> 00:16:02.360 however, we start to see that there's been a 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:07.080 major shift. And he is pretty consistently coming 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:12.860 to the defense of Jewish communities. Benjamin 00:16:12.860 --> 00:16:16.799 Gampel does an amazing job analyzing this in 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:22.559 his book on the anti -Jewish riots of 1391 and 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:26.000 the ambivalence and the lack of commitment that 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:29.340 sometimes comes through. on the part of members 00:16:29.340 --> 00:16:34.000 of the royal family and their protection of Jewish 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:40.039 communities in 1391. It's in that book analyzed 00:16:40.039 --> 00:16:45.200 very very adroitly so I highly recommend that 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:51.039 book if you're interested in this topic. Okay 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:53.840 one last thing I wanted to point out about this 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:59.539 letter is at the very bottom there's a statement 00:16:59.539 --> 00:17:05.160 that indicates that this letter has been expedited 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:12.980 so the I guess you could say line 7 on folio 00:17:12.980 --> 00:17:18.319 76r has this line that I'm not quite sure if 00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:21.660 I'm transcribing all the abbreviations correctly 00:17:21.660 --> 00:17:33.880 but I read it as And the meaning of this, as 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:37.839 far as I've been able to figure out, is basically 00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:44.079 saying that these were all expedited without 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:52.470 any superfluous or additional things. supra scriptis. 00:17:52.769 --> 00:17:54.950 Not quite sure what's being referred to there. 00:17:55.029 --> 00:17:58.789 Like, what would usually delay? What is it that 00:17:58.789 --> 00:18:02.829 would be added on that could delay these letters 00:18:02.829 --> 00:18:06.049 that in this case was skipped in order to expedite 00:18:06.049 --> 00:18:09.509 them? I would really like to know that. And so 00:18:09.509 --> 00:18:12.329 maybe after I've looked at a bunch more of these, 00:18:12.650 --> 00:18:17.299 I'll have a better idea of what that means. Thanks 00:18:17.299 --> 00:18:20.460 for listening to this episode of the Historian's 00:18:20.460 --> 00:18:24.799 Notebook, Season 1, Mol Cara Companyona. If you 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:26.680 are leaving with more questions than you arrived 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:30.519 with, I have done my job. Remember, the motto 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:33.920 of the Historian's Notebook is, dissatisfaction 00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:38.119 guaranteed. If you ever read anything that purports 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:40.480 to be history and you come away feeling like 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:43.539 you now know everything that happened, you've 00:18:43.539 --> 00:18:47.809 read some bad history. Good history will always 00:18:47.809 --> 00:18:50.269 leave you with more questions, will always leave 00:18:50.269 --> 00:18:54.089 you dissatisfied. And that's why I like to guarantee 00:18:54.089 --> 00:18:59.349 that. Visit the website, jonathanseyfried.net, 00:18:59.690 --> 00:19:02.849 to see an image of today's document and some 00:19:02.849 --> 00:19:05.990 additional show notes. And listen again tomorrow 00:19:05.990 --> 00:19:09.430 to hear about the next day in the first year 00:19:09.430 --> 00:19:13.529 of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and Queen 00:19:13.529 --> 00:19:17.079 Violant de Bar. In the meantime, take care.