WEBVTT 00:00:00.170 --> 00:00:05.349 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.830 --> 00:00:12.890 it was January 28th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:12.890 --> 00:00:16.510 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:16.510 --> 00:00:20.170 University of New Mexico, and this is the Historian's 00:00:20.170 --> 00:00:24.289 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:25.010 --> 00:00:28.809 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:28.809 --> 00:00:31.829 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:31.829 --> 00:00:36.250 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:36.250 --> 00:00:40.009 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's 00:00:40.009 --> 00:01:07.099 document. Woo, there is so much to talk about 00:01:07.099 --> 00:01:10.680 in today's document. It's one that I think is 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:15.780 really exciting for a lot of reasons. Okay, first 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:21.819 of all, let's source it. The sender is Violant, 00:01:22.099 --> 00:01:25.579 the Queen. At the top of the letter, it says 00:01:25.579 --> 00:01:33.000 La Reyna. The recipient is someone whose title 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:41.239 is Vescomte de Roda, the Viscount of Roda. Joan 00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:47.480 has been in Barcelona for nine days now, and 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:54.500 the two of them are really into their rule. So 00:01:54.500 --> 00:01:58.920 we had this period of a couple weeks in early 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:03.439 January where things were looking dicey. Violant 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:07.819 was in Barcelona, Joan was in Granollers, but 00:02:07.819 --> 00:02:12.240 now we're starting to see things really going 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:18.780 on a roll. And by the way, you might hear a certain 00:02:18.780 --> 00:02:23.219 cat noise appearing in today's podcast, because 00:02:23.219 --> 00:02:27.620 I've got one of my kittens, Shadow, here at the 00:02:27.620 --> 00:02:31.020 desk. she tends to pipe in. And if I'm saying 00:02:31.020 --> 00:02:34.860 something really great, and she happens to make 00:02:34.860 --> 00:02:38.860 a cat noise, I'm not going to re -record it, 00:02:38.860 --> 00:02:42.300 because there's just a kind of, you know, joy 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:46.699 to the spontaneity, and also you sometimes can't 00:02:46.699 --> 00:02:49.699 replicate the way that you talk about something 00:02:49.699 --> 00:02:53.139 in the tone that you did. It'll sound false. 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:57.479 So... All right, might have some cat audience 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:01.740 participation here, but there she is. Hopefully 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:07.620 you got to hear that. Okay, so they are into 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:12.900 their period of governance. They're off to the 00:03:12.900 --> 00:03:16.740 races. We've seen in the last two days that they're 00:03:16.740 --> 00:03:21.990 starting to reposition a lot of the portfolio 00:03:21.990 --> 00:03:28.229 holdings of Sibilla de Fortia, and now we've 00:03:28.229 --> 00:03:32.270 got a document that, in my mind, just opens up 00:03:32.270 --> 00:03:36.430 a lot of really fun questions. First of all, 00:03:36.770 --> 00:03:40.150 the recipient is not just some random Viscount. 00:03:41.069 --> 00:03:46.430 The Viscount of Roda is one of Violant's most 00:03:46.430 --> 00:03:53.069 trusted correspondents. The Viscountess, the 00:03:53.069 --> 00:03:57.509 Viscount of Rhoda's wife, is someone who Violant 00:03:57.509 --> 00:04:01.569 sometimes shares really personal details, like 00:04:01.569 --> 00:04:06.009 at a different year a little bit later on, Violant 00:04:06.009 --> 00:04:10.689 writes to the Viscountess of Rhoda about what's 00:04:10.689 --> 00:04:15.550 going on as she's pregnant, and she tells her 00:04:15.550 --> 00:04:18.550 in a letter that's copied into the chancery, 00:04:19.310 --> 00:04:26.230 I've been barfing a lot. She uses the term gran 00:04:26.230 --> 00:04:32.709 vomit, and so she includes these really interesting 00:04:32.709 --> 00:04:38.430 personal tidbits that I think is one of the things 00:04:38.430 --> 00:04:42.889 that makes Violant such a fascinating person 00:04:42.889 --> 00:04:46.959 to study. And I really have to thank Dawn Bratsch- 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:51.259 Prince, who in the early 2000s into the 2010s 00:04:51.259 --> 00:04:55.639 wrote some wonderful articles and one monograph 00:04:55.639 --> 00:04:58.720 about Violant de Bar and highlighted some 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:02.540 of these letters that I talk about when I refer 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:04.420 to things other than what we're looking at in 00:05:04.420 --> 00:05:07.149 the document of the day. So I'll put a link to 00:05:07.149 --> 00:05:11.689 the article that Dawn Bratsch Prince wrote and 00:05:11.689 --> 00:05:14.430 that really just stuck with me, that one letter 00:05:14.430 --> 00:05:17.589 where she's, where Violant is writing to the 00:05:17.589 --> 00:05:23.170 Viscountess of Roda with that musing. So here 00:05:23.170 --> 00:05:26.089 we've got a letter to the Viscount of Roda, 00:05:26.370 --> 00:05:28.389 but part of the sourcing is just, well, who are 00:05:28.389 --> 00:05:32.629 these people? And the Viscount of Roda is really 00:05:32.629 --> 00:05:38.220 easy to research. That is Ramón de Pérellos. Ramón 00:05:38.220 --> 00:05:43.639 de Pérellos is one of the major actors in the 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:48.839 late 14th century story of the diplomacy conducted 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:53.660 by the Crown of Aragon. You see Ramon de Perellos 00:05:53.660 --> 00:05:58.000 representing the monarch of the Crown of Aragon 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:00.959 in a variety of settings, and I say the monarch 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:06.139 because he did this for Père, Joan, and Marti. 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:12.040 And Ramon de Perellos has been described as, quote, 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:18.060 an essential statesman. unquote, by one of another 00:06:18.060 --> 00:06:22.819 one of the foremost historians of Violant and 00:06:22.819 --> 00:06:26.639 Joan right now, Lledo Ruiz Dominguez. So I'll 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:31.360 put a link to her article in the web page for 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:37.519 this episode too. Ramon de Perellos, a very capable 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:43.290 diplomat and official, and Père had sent him 00:06:43.290 --> 00:06:47.709 to do negotiations of different kinds in France. 00:06:48.769 --> 00:06:53.990 At one point later on, Ramon de Perellos is in 00:06:53.990 --> 00:06:59.029 charge, it seems, of a small fleet of ships for 00:06:59.029 --> 00:07:05.589 Pope Clement VII, the Avignon Pope, and so he's 00:07:05.589 --> 00:07:10.519 really good. It's also possible, I'm still researching 00:07:10.519 --> 00:07:13.600 this, it's also possible that Ramon de Perellos 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:21.360 was the person who Violant met in France ahead 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:27.220 of the marriage to Joan. It could be that Ramon 00:07:27.220 --> 00:07:32.240 de Perellos was one of the people that negotiated 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:38.660 the marriage. between Joan and Violant. So it's 00:07:38.660 --> 00:07:42.600 possible that when we see Violant writing to 00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:47.980 Ramon de Perellos here in 1387, she's writing 00:07:47.980 --> 00:07:50.860 to somebody who she's had a chance to develop 00:07:50.860 --> 00:07:56.860 a lot of trust with and a friendship. Also, there 00:07:56.860 --> 00:08:04.259 was this moment in 1381 when Sibilla de Fortia 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:13.040 got really antagonistic toward Violant and basically 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:18.300 the short story is Ramon de Perellos wound up 00:08:18.300 --> 00:08:21.920 kind of in the middle due to some family ties 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:24.339 he had with someone who was close to Violant, 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:28.439 his sister -in -law actually, and Ramon de Perellos 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:33.919 at that point took the side of Joan and Violant. 00:08:34.509 --> 00:08:41.809 and in a way turned his back on King Pere because 00:08:41.809 --> 00:08:46.210 of this issue that was instigated by Sibilla 00:08:46.210 --> 00:08:52.429 de Fortia. Essentially an accusation about Ramon's 00:08:52.429 --> 00:08:57.389 sister -in -law being an improper person and 00:08:57.389 --> 00:09:03.529 basically demanding that Violant dismiss her 00:09:03.529 --> 00:09:09.190 from her role as a lady in Violant's, as Duchess 00:09:09.190 --> 00:09:13.250 of Girona in Violant's household. So Lledo Ruiz 00:09:13.250 --> 00:09:15.549 Domingo does a great job explaining all this. 00:09:15.809 --> 00:09:19.409 I have to give you a super short version. All 00:09:19.409 --> 00:09:23.179 of this is just to say that in this letter What 00:09:23.179 --> 00:09:25.320 we have before we even get to the content of 00:09:25.320 --> 00:09:29.179 the letter is this high level of trust, a history 00:09:29.179 --> 00:09:33.220 between these people, and now, when we get into 00:09:33.220 --> 00:09:36.659 the content of the letter, we see, oh my goodness, 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:43.120 this is Violant informing Ramon de Perellos, Viscount 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:47.519 of Rhoda, that the King of Navarre has died. 00:09:48.580 --> 00:09:52.570 Which is something that is super revealing about 00:09:52.570 --> 00:09:58.389 the way news travels, because it's weird to me 00:09:58.389 --> 00:10:02.289 that when a king dies in the neighboring kingdom, 00:10:03.269 --> 00:10:08.289 someone of the stature in diplomatic circles 00:10:08.289 --> 00:10:14.169 of the Viscount of Rhoda, Ramón de Perellos, wouldn't 00:10:14.169 --> 00:10:18.190 have already known. But maybe this is more of 00:10:18.190 --> 00:10:25.190 a rhetorical thing and Violant is simply setting 00:10:25.190 --> 00:10:27.750 this groundwork saying you know this already 00:10:27.750 --> 00:10:30.870 but you know because of this is the reason why 00:10:30.870 --> 00:10:33.950 this other stuff is in the letter. And what's 00:10:33.950 --> 00:10:36.169 the other stuff? Well, it's also general and 00:10:36.169 --> 00:10:38.649 vague. So Violant is talking about there's 00:10:38.649 --> 00:10:42.330 these affairs and things that are happening and 00:10:42.330 --> 00:10:46.690 messages and I want the information and I'm delivering 00:10:46.690 --> 00:10:49.250 you information and there's new things happening 00:10:49.250 --> 00:10:52.529 and there's just there's hardly anything at all 00:10:52.529 --> 00:10:56.399 specific in this letter. The only thing that 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:59.120 is specific in this letter, it's not a long letter, 00:10:59.580 --> 00:11:02.700 but still there's enough lines, like eight lines 00:11:02.700 --> 00:11:05.440 or something, to have something specific. And, 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:07.919 well, what's that? It's the name of someone. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:13.519 Guillaume des Copons. I want to say that in French, 00:11:13.620 --> 00:11:17.740 but it's probably copons in the Catalan pronunciation. 00:11:20.509 --> 00:11:27.370 is someone who appears again and again as a trusted 00:11:27.370 --> 00:11:32.669 go -between for both Joan and Violant. Sometimes 00:11:32.669 --> 00:11:36.549 I've seen Guillaume de Copons appear as someone 00:11:36.549 --> 00:11:40.149 who's trying to get a highly valued manuscript 00:11:40.149 --> 00:11:45.669 from the Duc de Berry in France, and it's Guillaume 00:11:45.669 --> 00:11:50.509 de Copons who's in the letter that is saying, 00:11:50.830 --> 00:11:54.649 hey, we'd like this manuscript. Guillaume de 00:11:54.649 --> 00:11:58.549 Copons is coming to get it or is there with this 00:11:58.549 --> 00:12:06.009 letter. So he is the person that shows up to 00:12:06.009 --> 00:12:12.740 get the thing or to get the information. And 00:12:12.740 --> 00:12:17.580 I think what's going on in this letter is a wonderful 00:12:17.580 --> 00:12:21.799 window into the way that they operated. They're 00:12:21.799 --> 00:12:25.860 not going to necessarily write down all of the 00:12:25.860 --> 00:12:29.460 juicy details in a letter for a couple reasons. 00:12:29.879 --> 00:12:33.399 The letter could be intercepted, could maybe 00:12:33.399 --> 00:12:37.559 be taken the wrong way. I mean, now in our time, 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:39.600 how many of us have gotten into trouble when 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:43.259 you send an email and the the person receiving 00:12:43.259 --> 00:12:46.200 it is reading it in a different way than you 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:48.960 intended it just showed my age there maybe a 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:53.559 text message you've had that experience so when 00:12:53.559 --> 00:13:00.200 you send a person to deliver more detailed information 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:05.419 that person can be equipped to answer for you 00:13:05.419 --> 00:13:10.899 and clarify the tone, the situation, reveal secrets 00:13:10.899 --> 00:13:14.279 that maybe are just even too dangerous, even 00:13:14.279 --> 00:13:20.419 under the secret seal to send in a letter. And 00:13:20.419 --> 00:13:23.639 by the way, today we're looking at a register 00:13:23.639 --> 00:13:28.259 that is the secret seal level of correspondence. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:33.500 So even with the secret seal, This letter is 00:13:33.500 --> 00:13:39.259 showing us that there needed to be a person who 00:13:39.259 --> 00:13:43.019 would be the actual bearer of the information, 00:13:43.379 --> 00:13:46.919 and that this letter is sort of like a letter 00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:51.679 of introduction or just setting the groundwork. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:55.340 It's highly possible that Guillaume de Copon 00:13:55.340 --> 00:14:00.120 had visited the Viscount of Roda on behalf of 00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:04.850 Joan and Violant prior to this. So it doesn't 00:14:04.850 --> 00:14:08.809 sound to me like he's being introduced for the 00:14:08.809 --> 00:14:12.230 first time here, but maybe he is. I'm not sure. 00:14:13.309 --> 00:14:20.090 So this document is just one that I think is 00:14:20.090 --> 00:14:25.490 revealing about how the exchange of information 00:14:25.490 --> 00:14:31.860 happened between elites at this time. One last 00:14:31.860 --> 00:14:35.059 thing I want to mention about Ramon de Perellos, 00:14:35.720 --> 00:14:39.019 and we'll probably see at least a few letters 00:14:39.019 --> 00:14:44.379 involving him, the Viscount de Roda in the year 00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:47.820 ahead here, but I just want to mention there's 00:14:47.820 --> 00:14:54.279 something that is very touching about him and 00:14:54.279 --> 00:15:00.110 his connection to Joan and Violant. When Joann 00:15:00.110 --> 00:15:05.590 died it was a sudden death and it happened during 00:15:05.590 --> 00:15:11.409 a hunting trip and when somebody dies suddenly 00:15:11.409 --> 00:15:16.610 at this time and in this culture, their soul 00:15:16.610 --> 00:15:22.889 cannot go directly to heaven because they didn't 00:15:22.889 --> 00:15:27.600 get last rites before they died. So a sudden 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:32.080 death will automatically send you to purgatory. 00:15:33.139 --> 00:15:36.899 I mean, unless you're going to hell. But if you're 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:40.360 not going to hell, you have to, because you didn't 00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:43.659 get last rites, spend at least some time in purgatory. 00:15:45.879 --> 00:15:53.399 There was a legend at this time that the entrance 00:15:53.399 --> 00:16:01.220 to purgatory could be found in the physical world 00:16:01.220 --> 00:16:09.860 at a particular site in Ireland. And even though 00:16:09.860 --> 00:16:14.840 Dante puts Purgatory at the southern hemisphere 00:16:14.840 --> 00:16:18.940 of the earth, by the time we get to the late 00:16:18.940 --> 00:16:22.379 14th century, it's very common to see people 00:16:22.379 --> 00:16:25.279 referring to the entrance of Purgatory, at least. 00:16:25.690 --> 00:16:33.110 as in Ireland. When Joann dies, Ramon de Perellos 00:16:33.110 --> 00:16:38.970 decides he's going to go to Ireland in order 00:16:38.970 --> 00:16:45.330 to encounter Joan's soul and to bring back the 00:16:45.330 --> 00:16:52.570 message that Joan is going to be moving beyond 00:16:52.570 --> 00:16:57.029 purgatory and into heaven. And he writes this 00:16:57.029 --> 00:17:02.190 as a literary piece. So he goes, yeah, he goes 00:17:02.190 --> 00:17:04.950 to Ireland, like he really takes the journey. 00:17:04.990 --> 00:17:07.970 So he really physically goes there. And then 00:17:07.970 --> 00:17:10.809 he writes about it. And we even, we have this 00:17:10.809 --> 00:17:14.869 text, it's survived. And so you can read about 00:17:14.869 --> 00:17:18.970 this guy, this person receiving this letter, 00:17:19.509 --> 00:17:25.890 going to Ireland, encountering Joan's soul, 00:17:26.549 --> 00:17:30.490 in purgatory, and then coming back to tell the 00:17:30.490 --> 00:17:35.609 tale. So it's an interesting text. Thanks for 00:17:35.609 --> 00:17:38.410 listening to this episode of the Historian's 00:17:38.410 --> 00:17:42.430 Notebook, season one, Molt Cara Companyona. If 00:17:42.430 --> 00:17:44.309 you are leaving with more questions than you 00:17:44.309 --> 00:17:47.910 arrived with, I've done my job. Because remember, 00:17:48.109 --> 00:17:52.170 the motto of the Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction 00:17:52.170 --> 00:17:56.440 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:17:56.440 --> 00:17:59.400 of today's document and additional show notes. 00:18:00.220 --> 00:18:02.980 And listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:18:02.980 --> 00:18:07.599 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:12.660 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. Shadow 00:18:12.660 --> 00:18:17.069 also wishes you a wonderful time. for the rest 00:18:17.069 --> 00:18:21.009 of your day, looking at the materials on the 00:18:21.009 --> 00:18:24.750 webpage at jonathanseyfried.net. Right, Shadow? 00:18:27.670 --> 00:18:30.650 All right. In the meantime, take care.