WEBVTT 00:00:00.170 --> 00:00:06.129 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:06.610 --> 00:00:13.130 it was February 18th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:13.130 --> 00:00:16.609 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:16.609 --> 00:00:20.489 University of New Mexico. And this is The Historian's 00:00:20.489 --> 00:00:24.890 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:25.449 --> 00:00:29.719 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:33.100 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:37.420 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:37.420 --> 00:00:42.280 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's document. 00:01:07.180 --> 00:01:12.340 Today's document is one that will knock your 00:01:12.340 --> 00:01:17.939 socks off. I just couldn't believe what I was 00:01:17.939 --> 00:01:23.760 reading when I came upon this letter in one of 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:28.400 Violon's registers, the Varia. And believe me, 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:33.480 this Varia, I think what happened is that they 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:38.870 just were getting organized. with a lot of the 00:01:38.870 --> 00:01:42.430 setup for the registers for the new reign. And 00:01:42.430 --> 00:01:46.209 so Varia is actually all this stuff put together 00:01:46.209 --> 00:01:49.469 that would have normally been in the secret seal 00:01:49.469 --> 00:01:51.909 or other things. There's just a lot of secret 00:01:51.909 --> 00:01:55.310 seal documents in the Varia. And so I think that 00:01:55.310 --> 00:01:59.810 the reason we have a Varia register here is because 00:01:59.810 --> 00:02:07.579 of the big transition period as the close out 00:02:07.579 --> 00:02:11.939 of Pere's archives takes place and then the setup 00:02:11.939 --> 00:02:15.360 of the archives for the new king and queen are 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:19.719 getting going. So these letters they're in the 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:22.819 middle of others that are not secret seal but 00:02:22.819 --> 00:02:26.419 these are definitely whoo -hoo these are secret 00:02:26.419 --> 00:02:30.199 seal. All right. I don't even know where to begin. 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:35.080 Should I just tell you the big headline here? 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:40.199 All right, Violant is admitting that Joan 00:02:40.199 --> 00:02:44.319 was very sick. It's the first time that I've 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:50.460 seen her do this. It's February 18th and no one 00:02:50.460 --> 00:02:55.500 has included these particular letters in the 00:02:55.500 --> 00:03:01.419 histories of Joan's illness. So Josep Roca, who 00:03:01.419 --> 00:03:05.159 really did the foundational archival work about 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:10.879 Joan's illness in this year, has identified documents 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:17.300 from April that he says are retrospective that 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:21.590 talk about this time in the early months. of 00:03:21.590 --> 00:03:27.710 the year. And then we also have Jaume Rira i Sans, 00:03:28.030 --> 00:03:32.990 who has done work and has found documents from 00:03:32.990 --> 00:03:37.430 January itself. And I'm trying to think of who 00:03:37.430 --> 00:03:40.009 else. I'll put more citations in the bibliography. 00:03:40.129 --> 00:03:44.729 But basically, oh, I think Rafael Tasis i Marca 00:03:44.729 --> 00:03:49.949 has identified that there's documentation for 00:03:50.270 --> 00:03:57.069 Joan's illness in January, and we can infer from 00:03:57.069 --> 00:04:01.110 his lack of movement to Barcelona in those first 00:04:01.110 --> 00:04:06.009 weeks of January, based on the letters that we've 00:04:06.009 --> 00:04:09.789 seen in the itinerary put together by Daniel 00:04:09.789 --> 00:04:12.710 Girona y Llagostera, and then just looking at 00:04:12.710 --> 00:04:15.729 the registers themselves. He's just not in Barcelona 00:04:15.729 --> 00:04:20.259 when By all accounts and reasons he should have 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:23.879 been taking the throne there in Barcelona So 00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:27.639 we know that he has gone through this illness 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:32.339 in January And the question is how long has it 00:04:32.339 --> 00:04:36.540 lasted? How much has it been? lingering and here 00:04:36.540 --> 00:04:41.680 we have a document in February middle of February 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:47.879 Well, actually yeah and and Here we've got this 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:52.319 admission from Violante that there has been big 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:57.579 trouble. I'm going to read out this letter in 00:04:57.579 --> 00:05:03.899 full. It is about 12 lines long. All right, so 00:05:03.899 --> 00:05:09.720 we have Violante not at the beginning with La 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:12.639 Reyna, but at the end she signs it off as La 00:05:12.639 --> 00:07:30.620 Reyna. So it starts. [see episode webpage for transcription] 00:07:30.620 --> 00:07:34.959 ... the 18th of February of 1387, La Reyna. I did that the dates in English 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:37.639 because I always get tripped up and they're in 00:07:37.639 --> 00:07:41.980 Roman numerals anyway. All right, so she's writing 00:07:41.980 --> 00:07:46.319 to her father and I will also say that I'm going 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:49.360 to include on the webpage for this document a 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:51.500 letter that appears in an earlier folio that 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:55.379 she writes to her brother and it's a little bit 00:07:55.639 --> 00:07:58.660 more circumspect than this one to her father, 00:07:58.660 --> 00:08:02.500 but it's the same sense. This one to her father 00:08:02.500 --> 00:08:07.699 is saying that, and it's in the second line of 00:08:07.699 --> 00:08:11.139 the letter, which is at the very bottom of folio 00:08:11.139 --> 00:08:18.519 86 V, that my husband was, and then this verb 00:08:18.519 --> 00:08:23.199 is a tough one because it doesn't seem to have 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:26.420 really gone through. I think there's some spelling 00:08:26.420 --> 00:08:28.920 difference, because the best definition I could 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:32.019 find was distracted, but I think something like 00:08:32.019 --> 00:08:36.539 thrown off course or disturbed, so distrasiat, 00:08:36.759 --> 00:08:43.500 distrasiat de malaltia, de febre. So thrown off 00:08:43.500 --> 00:08:49.320 by or disturbed by malaltia, illness, there's 00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:55.710 the word. illness. That word has been glossed 00:08:55.710 --> 00:09:00.529 over and referred to by euphemism in a lot of 00:09:00.529 --> 00:09:05.289 the earlier documents by saying, you know, arduis 00:09:05.289 --> 00:09:09.809 negocis, difficult business, or accidents. And 00:09:09.809 --> 00:09:12.350 then we've got accidents in this line too, but 00:09:12.350 --> 00:09:16.370 malaltia is actually said. And not only that, 00:09:16.730 --> 00:09:20.049 but Violante specifies it further with the word 00:09:20.049 --> 00:09:25.750 for fever, febre, which interestingly enough 00:09:25.750 --> 00:09:30.549 is very close to the word for February. So I 00:09:30.549 --> 00:09:33.529 don't know the etymological relationship there, 00:09:33.549 --> 00:09:38.350 but there's great similarity but anyway malaltia 00:09:38.350 --> 00:09:45.070 de febre illness of fever and then she adds to 00:09:45.070 --> 00:09:51.509 all trace accidents and other misfortunes i mean 00:09:51.509 --> 00:09:56.470 she just has admitted it why well we get the 00:09:56.470 --> 00:10:00.509 answer a little bit later but first she adds 00:10:00.509 --> 00:10:04.570 two lines of reassurance that he's today okay 00:10:04.570 --> 00:10:10.470 and at on the next page on folio 87r line two 00:10:10.470 --> 00:10:15.570 at the end todos los metges dihen all the doctors 00:10:15.570 --> 00:10:22.450 say he is out of danger as fora de perill so he's 00:10:22.450 --> 00:10:27.009 okay now is the main point that she's trying 00:10:27.009 --> 00:10:30.169 to get across. Why does she need to say this? 00:10:30.549 --> 00:10:36.750 It's because she is aware that there have been 00:10:36.750 --> 00:10:45.210 rumors. I mean, reports. I mean, a rumor that 00:10:45.210 --> 00:10:50.149 is true would be a report. There's been a leak 00:10:50.149 --> 00:10:54.389 of the information. out and about, and so she's 00:10:54.389 --> 00:10:58.970 become aware that others found out, and she refers 00:10:58.970 --> 00:11:08.509 to this as alcunes noves contrarias, some contrary 00:11:08.509 --> 00:11:13.950 news, and that's in line three of folio 87r. 00:11:14.409 --> 00:11:19.789 So Violant is definitely reassuring her father 00:11:19.789 --> 00:11:23.399 and you know, he can spread the word, I guess, 00:11:23.899 --> 00:11:28.539 that Joan is okay. And she also in later in 00:11:28.539 --> 00:11:30.620 the letter talks about her own children are all 00:11:30.620 --> 00:11:38.220 okay. Everybody is okay. And so this letter is 00:11:38.220 --> 00:11:43.779 one that, well, confirms a bunch of things. First, 00:11:44.460 --> 00:11:49.059 that they were not successful in keeping Joan's 00:11:49.059 --> 00:11:53.879 illness secret. I guess that's not really a shocker. 00:11:55.139 --> 00:11:59.100 Everybody had to have noticed that Joan was not 00:11:59.100 --> 00:12:04.039 in Barcelona and Violant was in those early weeks 00:12:04.039 --> 00:12:10.340 in January. So word leaked out and now they're 00:12:10.340 --> 00:12:16.159 doing damage control. It also confirms something 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:21.320 about the speed of the correspondence. So here 00:12:21.320 --> 00:12:26.360 we are in February 18th, and it seems to me that 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:33.840 Joan was okay by the end of January. So are 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:37.659 we seeing here a delay in the transmission of 00:12:37.659 --> 00:12:42.080 information? I'm not quite sure where in France 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:46.860 Violant's father is located at this time. Is he 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:50.950 all the way in the county of Bar, which is actually 00:12:50.950 --> 00:12:54.929 close to today's border between France and Germany? 00:12:55.509 --> 00:13:00.330 Or is he in Paris? I'm not sure. By the way, 00:13:00.610 --> 00:13:04.129 Violant's father's name is Robert de Bar. So 00:13:04.129 --> 00:13:08.269 where is Robert de Bar right now, and has he 00:13:08.269 --> 00:13:13.830 written to Violant telling her that he's heard 00:13:13.830 --> 00:13:20.460 that Joan has been deathly ill? and that there 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:23.480 could be a serious problem with the succession? 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:28.120 I don't know, but it definitely confirms that 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:34.779 there is this communication lag of at least a 00:13:34.779 --> 00:13:39.480 couple weeks, and the fact that she's sending 00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:44.950 this letter out on February 18th and not January 00:13:44.950 --> 00:13:51.110 29th says something possibly about communication 00:13:51.110 --> 00:14:01.669 timeframes? Or maybe, maybe not. There's another 00:14:01.669 --> 00:14:06.549 possibility that Joan's illness has lingered. 00:14:06.649 --> 00:14:10.509 and that even though he's physically able to 00:14:10.509 --> 00:14:15.370 get to Barcelona by January 19th, that's the 00:14:15.370 --> 00:14:20.509 day when he starts signing his letters from Barcelona. 00:14:21.610 --> 00:14:28.509 Even though he's been there for weeks, like since 00:14:28.509 --> 00:14:37.110 January 19th, he emerged out of peril in... only 00:14:37.110 --> 00:14:45.870 the last week or so. So Violant maybe is writing 00:14:45.870 --> 00:14:51.230 with more fresh news than we might otherwise 00:14:51.230 --> 00:14:59.090 think if we are inferring that Joan was all better 00:14:59.090 --> 00:15:03.309 by the time he got to Barcelona on January 19th. 00:15:03.309 --> 00:15:08.730 So... Is it a lingering illness or is it a communication 00:15:08.730 --> 00:15:14.289 time lapse issue? Those are the questions that 00:15:14.289 --> 00:15:18.669 I'm trying to sort out and I hope that in some 00:15:18.669 --> 00:15:22.649 documents that I encounter between now and that 00:15:22.649 --> 00:15:26.889 big one in April that I'll find a clue about 00:15:26.889 --> 00:15:32.990 that. But to see the phrase malaltia de febre 00:15:34.219 --> 00:15:41.419 sickness of fever in a letter from Violant about 00:15:41.419 --> 00:15:46.039 Joan that was a shocker I did not expect her 00:15:46.039 --> 00:15:50.659 to say that and maybe the fact that she is feeling 00:15:50.659 --> 00:15:55.259 comfortable using that phrase is an indication 00:15:55.259 --> 00:16:00.379 that Joan has been well for at least a couple 00:16:00.379 --> 00:16:05.419 weeks So many questions about this one, goodness. 00:16:06.779 --> 00:16:11.419 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Historian's 00:16:11.419 --> 00:16:16.620 Notebook, Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona. If you 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:18.740 are leaving with more questions than you arrived 00:16:18.740 --> 00:16:23.720 with, well, I hope so, because I mean, goodness, 00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:26.779 there's some nice juicy questions from this one. 00:16:27.460 --> 00:16:30.899 If you've got one of those in your mind now, 00:16:30.980 --> 00:16:35.419 I've done my job. Remember, the motto of the 00:16:35.419 --> 00:16:39.399 historian's notebook is dissatisfaction guaranteed. 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:43.080 Visit the website to see an image of today's 00:16:43.080 --> 00:16:46.419 document and additional show notes, including 00:16:46.419 --> 00:16:50.080 a reprise of all of the sources that I found 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:55.539 about Joan's illness. And listen again tomorrow. 00:16:55.919 --> 00:16:58.580 to hear about the next day in the first year 00:16:58.580 --> 00:17:02.940 of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and Queen 00:17:02.940 --> 00:17:07.500 Violant de Bar. In the meantime, take care.