WEBVTT 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:05.440 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:06.139 --> 00:00:13.419 it was February 19, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:13.419 --> 00:00:17.179 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:17.179 --> 00:00:21.000 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:24.960 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:29.839 Season 1 is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:33.600 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:38.060 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:42.979 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's document. 00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:13.019 Today's document is super fun. It's about A troubadour! 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:17.260 And we get a little window into some of the troubadour 00:01:17.260 --> 00:01:20.939 culture that Joan and Violant were setting 00:01:20.939 --> 00:01:25.920 up at the beginning of their reign. So this is 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:31.319 a document from Joan. It's in a commune register, 00:01:31.819 --> 00:01:34.700 so these are the documents that don't really 00:01:34.700 --> 00:01:39.989 require the secret seal. and it's a letter of 00:01:39.989 --> 00:01:44.170 safe passage for a troubadour. This particular 00:01:44.170 --> 00:01:48.670 document is one that is in Latin, but it's fully, 00:01:48.670 --> 00:01:54.129 beautifully transcribed in the collection of 00:01:54.129 --> 00:01:58.010 music -related documents put together by Trenchs i Odena 00:01:58.010 --> 00:02:02.609 and Baiges i Jardi in their collection that 00:02:02.609 --> 00:02:07.019 I've referred to earlier on the podcast. So they 00:02:07.019 --> 00:02:11.240 have done a beautiful job of transcribing the 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:15.000 Latin, and so I know exactly what this says. 00:02:15.340 --> 00:02:19.159 Not because when the paleography is taken out 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:21.300 of the picture, I can understand Latin perfectly. 00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:27.860 No. But when I have a transcription that I can 00:02:27.860 --> 00:02:33.710 copy paste into Google Translate, then I can 00:02:33.710 --> 00:02:37.090 get a translation that I can then go through 00:02:37.090 --> 00:02:41.770 and proofread. And that is my method for handling 00:02:41.770 --> 00:02:47.389 the lovely situation when I have a document that's 00:02:47.389 --> 00:02:50.770 already transcribed for me. And so in this... 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.699 document, we have a pretty straightforward situation. 00:02:55.500 --> 00:02:59.580 A troubadour is traveling through France and 00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:05.000 Joan has written him a safe conduct letter that 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.199 he can show to the authorities and all of the 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:12.599 territories that he's passing through as he is 00:03:12.599 --> 00:03:16.370 getting to his destination. But there's a lot 00:03:16.370 --> 00:03:19.969 that comes up in this fairly straightforward 00:03:19.969 --> 00:03:23.229 document. Its purpose is pretty straightforward, 00:03:23.229 --> 00:03:26.930 but then we can kind of read against the grain 00:03:26.930 --> 00:03:31.349 of this document in order to make some inferences 00:03:31.349 --> 00:03:37.969 about some aspects of troubadour culture. cultural 00:03:37.969 --> 00:03:42.250 diffusion as well as conditions in the royal 00:03:42.250 --> 00:03:48.050 family and so there's a way to get a lot out 00:03:48.050 --> 00:03:52.110 of this that has really nothing to do with the 00:03:52.110 --> 00:03:56.650 intention of the document itself. And so this 00:03:56.650 --> 00:04:00.009 is something that historians love to do and it's 00:04:00.009 --> 00:04:03.650 a key practice that you don't just kind of say, 00:04:03.689 --> 00:04:06.409 oh, this document is about a land sale, so it's 00:04:06.409 --> 00:04:10.030 only about land sale, or this document, in today's 00:04:10.030 --> 00:04:13.650 case, is about safe conduct, so it's only about 00:04:13.650 --> 00:04:18.670 traveling across territories. No, you want to 00:04:18.670 --> 00:04:22.430 look at the document and what's in it with questions 00:04:22.430 --> 00:04:26.029 in mind that could take you in directions other 00:04:26.029 --> 00:04:30.009 than what the stated purpose or surface level 00:04:30.009 --> 00:04:33.110 meaning of the document might be. This is a really 00:04:33.110 --> 00:04:37.550 great example of that. Let's start out with how 00:04:37.550 --> 00:04:41.949 the subject of this letter, the person who is 00:04:41.949 --> 00:04:44.069 at the center of this letter, is identified. 00:04:44.810 --> 00:04:55.850 In Latin, Jacobinus de Bar. Jacobinus de Bar. 00:04:56.009 --> 00:05:00.189 There we go. And it's the name Jacob. So Jacob 00:05:00.189 --> 00:05:05.540 of Bar. Sound familiar? Yeah, this is someone 00:05:05.540 --> 00:05:08.699 who's named after the same region that Violant 00:05:08.699 --> 00:05:13.980 is named after. So Violant came from Bar. 00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:17.139 She's the daughter of Robert of Bar, Robert 00:05:17.139 --> 00:05:22.720 de Bar. And that region in itself has a really 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:29.540 interesting history. Duchy of Bar was created 00:05:29.540 --> 00:05:34.439 for Violant's father for staying loyal to the 00:05:34.439 --> 00:05:37.420 French king at the time. I think that was Jean 00:05:37.420 --> 00:05:44.740 I. And Robert was given this real kind of patchwork 00:05:44.740 --> 00:05:50.319 of lands that are what is today close to the 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:55.009 German border, the eastern part of France, and 00:05:55.009 --> 00:05:57.750 they're really disconnected. It almost looks, 00:05:57.829 --> 00:06:00.310 if you're looking at it on a map, I'll see if 00:06:00.310 --> 00:06:02.949 I can actually find an image of it. put it on 00:06:02.949 --> 00:06:05.009 the webpage for today's document it looks like 00:06:05.009 --> 00:06:08.350 kind of like a bunch of grapes because there's 00:06:08.350 --> 00:06:10.670 these little units that are kind of connected 00:06:10.670 --> 00:06:14.149 by stems or something so it's an odd little dutchie 00:06:14.149 --> 00:06:17.350 but really the important thing is that not so 00:06:17.350 --> 00:06:21.269 much the the shape of it as just the status of 00:06:21.269 --> 00:06:26.410 it of being a duke is a really big deal and it 00:06:26.410 --> 00:06:30.029 elevates you in your status when you're hanging 00:06:30.029 --> 00:06:35.149 out in Paris And so that's really the reason 00:06:35.149 --> 00:06:40.670 for creating that duchy. And, you know, okay, 00:06:40.769 --> 00:06:42.990 we've got a minstrel who's from there. That's 00:06:42.990 --> 00:06:48.470 great. And maybe, maybe this is how Violant 00:06:48.470 --> 00:06:53.410 found out that the rumors had spread all the 00:06:53.410 --> 00:06:57.139 way back. to the eastern part of France about 00:06:57.139 --> 00:07:01.279 Joan's illness. Maybe she heard it from this 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:03.800 minstrel. I don't know. I'm not quite sure how 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.360 comfortable a minstrel would be saying, hey, 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:09.699 you know, word has spread that the king was, 00:07:09.699 --> 00:07:12.439 you know, deathly ill. But I don't know. It's 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:17.360 just interesting to note that on February 18th, 00:07:17.379 --> 00:07:21.860 we have Violant writing to her father saying, 00:07:22.329 --> 00:07:25.790 don't believe those rumors and then on December 00:07:25.790 --> 00:07:33.569 19th we have this minstrel who's from Bar being 00:07:33.569 --> 00:07:39.870 given this safe conduct letter so not not quite 00:07:39.870 --> 00:07:44.209 sure what to make of that i think it's not likely 00:07:44.209 --> 00:07:47.709 to be a pure coincidence but i'm also pretty 00:07:47.709 --> 00:07:51.250 sure that a minstrel would not be the messenger 00:07:51.250 --> 00:07:53.629 necessarily, but he could be the carrier of the 00:07:53.629 --> 00:07:58.529 letter. So perhaps Violant is sending the letter 00:07:58.529 --> 00:08:02.670 with this minstrel as he goes back to France. 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:08.199 All right, so Jacob de Bar, let's talk about 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:12.660 minstrels and their traveling habits. It's really 00:08:12.660 --> 00:08:18.259 clear from the work of music historians that 00:08:18.259 --> 00:08:22.959 Joan was recruiting minstrels from very far 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:31.360 away, like Flanders and Bavaria. England way 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:36.159 early in in his lifetime so pretty much as soon 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:42.620 as he can he's trying to commission the travel 00:08:42.620 --> 00:08:50.909 of minstrels to perform in his in his ducal court 00:08:50.909 --> 00:08:56.190 as the Duke of Girona, and we see this in the 00:08:56.190 --> 00:09:00.529 time that he was married to his first wife, Mata 00:09:00.529 --> 00:09:05.980 d'Armagnac, in the 1370s. and of course this really 00:09:05.980 --> 00:09:09.480 picks up steam after he's able to plug in to 00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:14.159 the social network of Violant de Bar after their 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:18.039 marriage. So minstrels are coming from all over 00:09:18.039 --> 00:09:22.539 the place, and also musical instruments are coming 00:09:22.539 --> 00:09:25.500 from all over the place. Joan really likes to 00:09:25.500 --> 00:09:28.480 collect musical instruments, and we had a document 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:34.440 earlier in the podcast about that. So This Jacob 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:38.539 de Bar is a minstrel that has traveled quite 00:09:38.539 --> 00:09:44.120 far in order to perform, but to perform for somebody 00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:51.360 quite special, the three -year -old Prince Jaume. 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:58.299 And here... Jaume is referred to as Jacoby. So 00:09:58.299 --> 00:10:02.000 in Latin, the name that we would associate with 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:06.960 Jacob was used for Jaume. It's interesting because 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:14.240 James is like an English form of Jacob. And in 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:16.120 English, though, we think of these very different 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:19.580 names, but in fact, James and Jacob, they're 00:10:19.580 --> 00:10:25.049 in Latin, they're the same. Well, they have the 00:10:25.049 --> 00:10:27.029 same origin point in Latin, I guess is a better 00:10:27.029 --> 00:10:31.730 way to say it. So, Jaume, who's referred to here 00:10:31.730 --> 00:10:37.950 as Primogeniti Nostri Carissimi, our most dear 00:10:37.950 --> 00:10:43.470 firstborn, and then we've got his French title, 00:10:44.289 --> 00:10:50.440 Dauphini Gerunde, the Dauphin of Gerona. And 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:53.620 then he also has another title that's listed 00:10:53.620 --> 00:11:01.840 here, the Count of Cervera, Comites Cervarie. 00:11:02.379 --> 00:11:08.580 So this minstrel is designated as a minstrel 00:11:08.580 --> 00:11:14.279 for the three -year -old prince. What does that 00:11:14.279 --> 00:11:19.340 mean? Does that really mean that he is dedicated 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:24.000 really only to performing for the three -year 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:28.820 -old? I sort of, I mean, obviously it's not going 00:11:28.820 --> 00:11:33.120 to only be the minstrel and the toddler. It's 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:36.240 going to be the other people around at all the 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:41.460 performances. But I just, I get the feeling that 00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:46.379 Jacob de Bar might specialize in, I don't know, 00:11:46.440 --> 00:11:51.419 like the medieval equivalent of baby shark. That 00:11:51.419 --> 00:11:57.980 this is somebody who's capable of doing music 00:11:57.980 --> 00:12:03.379 and entertainment for kids. And this is probably, 00:12:03.379 --> 00:12:07.759 you know, not somebody who is only going to be 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:12.899 performing that crazy cutting edge, ours subtilior 00:12:12.899 --> 00:12:17.000 that you know, is very kind of hard on the ears, 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:21.279 but can be an acquired taste for those sophisticated 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:25.799 enough to enjoy it. So yeah, maybe Jacob de Bar 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:30.940 can also do some ars subtilior for the adults 00:12:30.940 --> 00:12:35.960 after little Jaume's bedtime. But here he is 00:12:35.960 --> 00:12:41.779 identified as the minstrel that is really for 00:12:41.779 --> 00:12:49.039 the Prince Jaume. So that's a really interesting 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:52.460 feature of all of this that we've got minstrels 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:55.720 that are associated with individuals in the royal 00:12:55.720 --> 00:12:58.799 family and that is actually something that's 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:01.539 corroborated by a bunch of other documents where 00:13:01.539 --> 00:13:04.879 there's a particular minstrel who is identified 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:09.720 as belonging to the house of the queen or the 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:14.450 king's royal court royal household. So there's 00:13:14.450 --> 00:13:19.009 certain minstrels that have long term appointments 00:13:19.009 --> 00:13:22.809 in the households of different members of the 00:13:22.809 --> 00:13:25.850 royal family. And then there's other minstrels 00:13:25.850 --> 00:13:29.110 who are just passing through and they're not 00:13:29.110 --> 00:13:32.610 really getting that long term appointment. And 00:13:32.610 --> 00:13:37.220 so That's just another distinction for how this 00:13:37.220 --> 00:13:41.320 musical patronage was organized. And I think 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:45.299 it's super interesting to see all these different 00:13:45.299 --> 00:13:49.539 angles on it and to try to imagine how there 00:13:49.539 --> 00:13:53.440 were. acts that were passing through and would 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:56.220 perform for just one night or two nights maybe, 00:13:56.519 --> 00:14:00.379 and then maybe they could have kind of jam sessions 00:14:00.379 --> 00:14:06.860 with the long -term house troubadours. It'd be 00:14:06.860 --> 00:14:11.860 pretty cool. Anyway, that's just my guessing 00:14:11.860 --> 00:14:15.700 at how all of this might work. One thing that 00:14:15.700 --> 00:14:19.639 I want to mention before I forget, and I actually 00:14:19.639 --> 00:14:22.019 wanted to put it earlier in today's podcast, 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:27.740 is the vocabulary around minstrels. The word 00:14:27.740 --> 00:14:32.879 that's used to describe Jacob de Bar in this document 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:39.850 is ministrerius. And in Catalan, the most direct 00:14:39.850 --> 00:14:43.629 translation of that is ministrer, which sounds 00:14:43.629 --> 00:14:48.029 to us like minister, but that is a false cognate, 00:14:48.230 --> 00:14:52.549 so it's more like minstrel. And so when we're 00:14:52.549 --> 00:14:55.830 talking about the troubadours, they're often 00:14:55.830 --> 00:14:59.429 referred to as minstrels, but you'll also see 00:14:59.429 --> 00:15:05.830 the word joglar or joglars. So that's another 00:15:05.830 --> 00:15:11.860 word to look out for. And I think there is another 00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:15.379 word that begins with the letter T, something 00:15:15.379 --> 00:15:20.039 like that sounds close to troubadour, but I can't 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:22.379 remember at the moment. If I do find that, I'll 00:15:22.379 --> 00:15:28.480 put it in the webpage for today's episode. Something 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:32.600 else to point out as we're reading against the 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:37.769 grain of this letter, which is that there's a 00:15:37.769 --> 00:15:43.789 specification of his belongings, Jacob de Bar, 00:15:43.889 --> 00:15:47.950 the minstrel, that are protected in this letter 00:15:47.950 --> 00:15:52.250 of safe conduct. That's super interesting. It's 00:15:52.250 --> 00:15:56.610 in the line that begins... oh, let's see, where 00:15:56.610 --> 00:16:00.129 does it start? Okay, so it's line one, two, three, 00:16:00.149 --> 00:16:05.629 four, five, six. The end of line six. It starts 00:16:05.789 --> 00:16:13.190 with this phrase, duobus equatoris, his two horses. 00:16:13.809 --> 00:16:19.250 So the list begins his two horses, his servants, 00:16:19.809 --> 00:16:25.889 his gold, his joc. This word is something that 00:16:25.889 --> 00:16:28.429 wasn't easily translated. I think his instruments, 00:16:29.409 --> 00:16:35.740 his jocalibus. And then other goods, aliis bonis. 00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:41.039 So there's this list of his things as he's traveling. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:44.279 What an interesting insight into the material 00:16:44.279 --> 00:16:48.580 culture of travels that the minstrel, first of 00:16:48.580 --> 00:16:53.639 all, has all it has two horses, this specific 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:58.100 number, and then also has servants, and then 00:16:58.100 --> 00:17:01.389 has a bunch of goods and then that he's got these 00:17:01.389 --> 00:17:04.269 instruments that it's like this whole little 00:17:04.269 --> 00:17:07.369 caravan that's going and he's not just traveling 00:17:07.369 --> 00:17:14.519 on his own this is like i guess you're um You're 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:18.799 like coach bus like when bands travel from city 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:22.740 to city in in our culture today Like they have 00:17:22.740 --> 00:17:25.819 the big coach bus This is kind of like the equivalent 00:17:25.819 --> 00:17:29.440 of that like there's a little entourage and so 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.660 they all need to be specified and protected not 00:17:32.660 --> 00:17:38.440 just the body of Jacob de Bar himself and if you 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:41.240 have that specified then he can point to it and 00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:44.109 say you tried to take one of my horses, I'm supposed 00:17:44.109 --> 00:17:48.789 to have two. Interesting question arises if somehow 00:17:48.789 --> 00:17:51.509 they obtain a third horse on the way, but I guess 00:17:51.509 --> 00:17:53.630 that is something you could expect to be consistent, 00:17:53.710 --> 00:17:57.309 that if you set out with two horses, you'd have 00:17:57.309 --> 00:18:00.970 two horses the whole time, unless one of them 00:18:00.970 --> 00:18:03.990 got into some kind of health problems or something. 00:18:05.250 --> 00:18:10.509 All right, so a wonderful use of the ablative 00:18:10.509 --> 00:18:14.750 case. I was talking about Latin case endings 00:18:14.750 --> 00:18:19.849 in an earlier episode, and this one has this 00:18:19.849 --> 00:18:23.970 whole list of belongings that are all with the 00:18:23.970 --> 00:18:28.880 endings that match their particular Declension 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:33.339 is the term in Latin for the group of nouns that 00:18:33.339 --> 00:18:37.440 have the same pattern of ending. And so that's 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:40.500 why we have this whole list of things and they 00:18:40.500 --> 00:18:42.799 don't all have the exact same ending. Some of 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:46.200 them have the ending of BUS and others have the 00:18:46.200 --> 00:18:49.200 ending of IS. It's because they're in different 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:52.019 noun groups and those groups of nouns are called 00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:56.640 declensions. So a little bit of a Latin lesson 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:01.660 there for you. All right, one other thing I wanted 00:19:01.660 --> 00:19:05.480 to mention with this letter, which is that it 00:19:05.480 --> 00:19:09.420 specifies a time period. That's really interesting. 00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:14.019 In the last line of the letter, last two lines 00:19:14.019 --> 00:19:20.319 I should say, Joan specifies that this safe conduct 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:25.960 letter is for the upcoming month of April. That 00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:31.539 makes sense. But then he ends that sentence with 00:19:31.539 --> 00:19:39.180 et non ultra, no other time period. So this safe 00:19:39.180 --> 00:19:43.640 conduct letter is time stamped. And it's a really 00:19:43.640 --> 00:19:47.000 interesting thing to ponder. Why do you need 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:51.279 to time stamp your safe conduct letter? Well, 00:19:51.559 --> 00:19:57.220 There was this incident that I just found out 00:19:57.220 --> 00:20:04.420 about from 1384, in which a minstrel was engaged 00:20:04.420 --> 00:20:09.480 to assassinate the King of France. Yeah, in 1384. 00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:15.750 Who hired him to do that? It was... the father 00:20:15.750 --> 00:20:19.049 of Charles III of Navarre, Violant de Bar's 00:20:19.049 --> 00:20:24.049 buddy, so Charles II, whose cognomen is The Bad. 00:20:24.769 --> 00:20:28.150 So Charles the Bad, I mean, this is one of the 00:20:28.150 --> 00:20:32.970 reasons he got that cognomen, he hired a minstrel 00:20:32.970 --> 00:20:37.819 to go poison the king of france and like everybody 00:20:37.819 --> 00:20:40.740 he was like get the duc de Berry too like anyone 00:20:40.740 --> 00:20:44.440 who's there kill them all and and so he set him 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:48.000 up with a bunch of poison and and then this minstrel 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:52.000 got caught and executed And there's a really 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:55.599 interesting article about that, like an old article 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:59.460 written in 1949. It was an English minstrel, 00:20:59.579 --> 00:21:02.180 actually. So there's a whole, like, 100 years 00:21:02.180 --> 00:21:06.240 war dynamic going on in that to the enmity between 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:08.900 England and France and so on. All right, that 00:21:08.900 --> 00:21:12.400 was a digression. But it's all to point out that 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:16.400 you don't want to have a minstrel or really anybody 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:19.700 having this, like, blanket safe letter conduct 00:21:19.700 --> 00:21:23.269 that they could use at any time because you don't 00:21:23.269 --> 00:21:25.089 know what they're going to be getting up to in 00:21:25.089 --> 00:21:29.769 the future. So you need to time stamp. that you 00:21:29.769 --> 00:21:33.609 need to time limit your safe conduct letter. 00:21:34.109 --> 00:21:37.509 And that's what's happening here. So I really 00:21:37.509 --> 00:21:42.450 hope that Jacob de Bar made it to his next destination 00:21:42.450 --> 00:21:46.470 during the month of April, because if not, he 00:21:46.470 --> 00:21:49.109 would have needed to get another safe conduct 00:21:49.109 --> 00:21:53.960 letter from somebody else. Oh, and then here's 00:21:53.960 --> 00:21:56.279 one last question. Oh my gosh, I'm really going 00:21:56.279 --> 00:21:58.460 long on this, but there's just so many that come 00:21:58.460 --> 00:22:03.819 up. Why do you need a safe conduct letter? What's 00:22:03.819 --> 00:22:07.440 so risky or dangerous about travel at this time? 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:11.220 Okay, certainly there's like the fear of bandits 00:22:11.220 --> 00:22:14.680 on the road, like getting robbed, but like they're 00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:17.460 not gonna care if you have a safe conduct letter, 00:22:17.660 --> 00:22:23.400 probably. So what's the... risk? Like is it really 00:22:23.400 --> 00:22:28.339 so risky to like show up to the next realm in 00:22:28.339 --> 00:22:32.460 the line of realms between, you know, Barcelona 00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:36.779 and wherever you're going in France? Why is this 00:22:36.779 --> 00:22:41.559 so necessary? I have a feeling it's not so much 00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:45.619 about physical danger, although it could be, 00:22:45.619 --> 00:22:49.180 but I think there's certain costs that might 00:22:49.180 --> 00:22:53.819 be incurred, like taxes or tolls. It was really 00:22:53.819 --> 00:22:58.720 common when you got to a new territory that you 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:02.519 were going from one place that was ruled by one. 00:23:03.190 --> 00:23:05.990 monarch into some place that was ruled by another 00:23:05.990 --> 00:23:09.289 monarch or duke that you'd have to pay like a 00:23:09.289 --> 00:23:13.049 gate fee to pass through. And I think maybe, 00:23:13.069 --> 00:23:15.089 I'm not sure about this, I have to research it 00:23:15.089 --> 00:23:19.049 more, but maybe in some cases the safe conduct 00:23:19.049 --> 00:23:22.730 was to get you out of having to pay as much. 00:23:23.349 --> 00:23:26.930 I'm not sure it could like get you like a kind 00:23:26.930 --> 00:23:31.730 of exemption from tolls or taxes, but maybe that's 00:23:31.730 --> 00:23:34.160 part of it? Not sure, and maybe they was just 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:36.700 dangerous. Maybe, you know, the first instinct 00:23:36.700 --> 00:23:40.079 when someone saw Minstrel entering the territory, 00:23:40.500 --> 00:23:42.900 the guardhouse, they were like, oh, this person's 00:23:42.900 --> 00:23:45.779 not vouched for by anybody, so let's take one 00:23:45.779 --> 00:23:49.019 of their two horses. I don't know. I need to 00:23:49.019 --> 00:23:52.880 research a little bit more about travel in the 00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:58.019 Middle Ages, try to figure out why Jacob de Bar 00:23:58.019 --> 00:24:04.190 really needed a safe conduct letter. Alright, 00:24:04.430 --> 00:24:07.210 well, there's other questions and other things 00:24:07.210 --> 00:24:09.769 that we could do reading against the grain with 00:24:09.769 --> 00:24:13.730 this document, but we have reached the end of 00:24:13.730 --> 00:24:18.250 the time. For this episode, at least. Thanks 00:24:18.250 --> 00:24:21.569 for listening to this latest installment of the 00:24:21.569 --> 00:24:25.809 Historian's Notebook, Season 1 Molt Cara Companyona. 00:24:26.150 --> 00:24:29.170 If you are leaving with more questions than you 00:24:29.170 --> 00:24:33.720 arrived with, I've done my job. Remember, the 00:24:33.720 --> 00:24:37.799 motto of the Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction 00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:41.599 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.220 of today's document and additional show notes. 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:48.619 And listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:24:48.619 --> 00:24:52.299 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:24:52.299 --> 00:24:56.799 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the 00:24:56.799 --> 00:24:58.599 meantime, take care.