WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.240 Hello. In The Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago, 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:13.320 it was February 25th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:16.679 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:16.679 --> 00:00:20.519 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:20.519 --> 00:00:25.120 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:25.780 --> 00:00:30.000 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:33.020 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:33.020 --> 00:00:37.840 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:42.200 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's 00:00:42.200 --> 00:01:09.920 document. Today's document is from the secret 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:15.739 seal register of Joan, and it is addressed to 00:01:15.739 --> 00:01:19.939 someone very clearly spelled out in an addressee 00:01:19.939 --> 00:01:23.980 line at the end of the letter. So the person's 00:01:23.980 --> 00:01:28.700 name is Pedro Tolza, and then following that 00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:35.700 name is his title, Advocato Fiscale Regni Valencia. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:43.120 And also, I think it's the continuation of his 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:54.769 title here after the word at. procurator, the 00:01:54.769 --> 00:01:58.950 financial procurator of the same kingdom. Now 00:01:58.950 --> 00:02:01.930 that part's in Latin, but the letter itself is 00:02:01.930 --> 00:02:08.569 in Catalan. And so I can say that I... can understand 00:02:08.569 --> 00:02:12.069 pretty much every word of this letter. I got 00:02:12.069 --> 00:02:16.569 a quick transcription from Gemini and then transferred 00:02:16.569 --> 00:02:20.069 that over, copy pasted it into ChatGPT for the 00:02:20.069 --> 00:02:24.610 translation, and that sped things up and I Really, 00:02:24.889 --> 00:02:27.229 I do think I could have done it myself. It just 00:02:27.229 --> 00:02:30.530 would have taken a whole lot longer. And in this 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:33.270 initial run through, I think it's a valid use 00:02:33.270 --> 00:02:37.389 of the AI chatbots to get a general sense of 00:02:37.389 --> 00:02:40.250 what is going on. And then I zoom in on particular 00:02:40.250 --> 00:02:44.409 phrases after doing a bit of a proofread. So 00:02:44.409 --> 00:02:49.810 I think that process is a good way to handle 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:54.419 the time constraints that are associated with 00:02:54.419 --> 00:03:00.300 looking at this many documents. So, Joan is writing 00:03:00.300 --> 00:03:07.719 to his financial head person in Valencia and 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:14.259 starts out by saying that he has been sent information 00:03:14.259 --> 00:03:22.319 by the governor. of Valencia. The governor of 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:26.219 Valencia, I'm not quite sure who that is at this 00:03:26.219 --> 00:03:31.120 time, and earlier this month we had a bunch of 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:36.360 letters that were connected to James, the bishop 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:42.520 of Valencia, and the whole effort to get James 00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:48.139 to become a cardinal. So here we've got another 00:03:48.139 --> 00:03:51.840 position of authority. It's not easy for me to 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:57.360 understand how the governor and the royal family 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:02.020 member James the bishop would power -share exactly. 00:04:02.500 --> 00:04:06.439 I mean on paper it's clear that James would be 00:04:06.439 --> 00:04:10.219 in charge of ecclesiastical authorities and the 00:04:10.219 --> 00:04:13.360 governor would be in charge of secular authorities, 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:16.980 but you know with The person who's in charge 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:19.779 of the ecclesiastical authority, also a member 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:24.379 of the royal family, right? It's Joan's cousin. 00:04:24.860 --> 00:04:28.000 Well, first cousin once removed. But still, like 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:30.759 that's, you know, that's recognizably, it's not, 00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:34.420 it's not distant. It's a royal family member. 00:04:34.730 --> 00:04:38.569 who's in charge of the church apparatus there 00:04:38.569 --> 00:04:42.870 in Valencia. And so we have to really think about 00:04:42.870 --> 00:04:46.069 how there's this blending of authority and in 00:04:46.069 --> 00:04:50.170 the situation in Valencia. It really might be 00:04:50.170 --> 00:04:57.350 that the ecclesiastical leader, James, has got 00:04:57.350 --> 00:05:01.649 more of a leadership role than the governor. 00:05:02.279 --> 00:05:05.959 but I'm not sure because I don't know who the 00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:09.639 governor of Valencia is at this time. Alright, 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:14.100 so Joan has gotten some information from the 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:18.439 governor of Valencia and the information has 00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:23.579 to do with certain malfeasance so there's some 00:05:23.579 --> 00:05:27.259 kind of judicial process being referred to here 00:05:27.259 --> 00:05:31.899 and it's all vague and and really it's quite 00:05:31.899 --> 00:05:35.459 frustrating because there there's usually at 00:05:35.459 --> 00:05:40.040 least some person's name or some something to 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:43.680 kind of like give me a clue and i can maybe do 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:47.339 some more research but in this particular letter 00:05:47.339 --> 00:05:50.920 it's all just referred to as things like the 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:57.279 case or the the uh process or the information 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:01.639 and we don't have any kind of hint about the 00:06:01.639 --> 00:06:07.240 specifics for what it is that Pere Tolza is trying 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:15.560 to remedy but in the second to last line on folio 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:22.860 14 V, we do have an interesting phrase. And it 00:06:22.860 --> 00:06:26.579 starts with the second to the last word, segons 00:06:26.579 --> 00:06:35.100 fur e bona raho, in tal manera. So segons according 00:06:35.100 --> 00:06:41.680 to fur. So fur is an interesting word in this 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:47.259 time and place. It basically is the law, but 00:06:47.259 --> 00:06:52.019 instead of seeing the word leis, we see this 00:06:52.019 --> 00:06:58.779 word fur. The word fur is used usually in the 00:06:58.779 --> 00:07:04.379 context of the local statutes, almost like you 00:07:04.379 --> 00:07:08.720 could say the state law versus the federal law 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:12.399 if we're making an analogy to kind of the modern 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:18.220 American system. The furs are often the laws 00:07:18.220 --> 00:07:22.100 that go way back and have emerged out of long 00:07:22.100 --> 00:07:27.939 traditions, and the furs in a particular city 00:07:27.939 --> 00:07:33.180 or province will be sort of accepted as that 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:37.759 province joins in the larger state of the Crown 00:07:37.759 --> 00:07:43.279 of Aragon. So what Joan is referring to here 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:50.699 is the local law that has sort of a much more 00:07:50.699 --> 00:07:56.079 long -standing status, kind of a tradition associated 00:07:56.079 --> 00:08:01.399 with it, and then he adds the phrase a bona raho 00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:06.180 and good reason or good justification. So what 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:11.740 he's saying here is that Pedro Tolza, the procurator, 00:08:11.939 --> 00:08:15.699 the person in charge of the money in, or the 00:08:15.699 --> 00:08:19.980 royal money in Valencia, is going to find a way 00:08:19.980 --> 00:08:24.120 to solve these problems that the governor informed 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:28.079 me about. And, well, and he's telling Pedro. 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:31.420 Tolza to do it, and you Pedro Tolza, you should 00:08:31.420 --> 00:08:36.220 do this according to the local Valencia law, 00:08:36.379 --> 00:08:41.480 the fur, and then also according to good reason. 00:08:42.179 --> 00:08:48.159 So it seems to me that we've got a moment of 00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:52.340 governance of the kind of faraway territories 00:08:52.340 --> 00:08:56.639 that at first it seems pretty humdrum. It seems 00:08:56.639 --> 00:09:00.220 like there's nothing very radical going on. We 00:09:00.220 --> 00:09:03.299 just get a little snapshot of what it's like 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:07.440 to have to direct people to solve problems in 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:12.899 a way that just makes sense in a place that Joan 00:09:12.899 --> 00:09:18.220 probably never set foot in and never will. That's 00:09:18.220 --> 00:09:20.919 an interesting question. Did Joan ever visit 00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:24.559 Valencia? I'm not sure that he ever did. And 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:29.279 so the running of the kingdom is sometimes just 00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:32.059 rubber stamping things, I guess, or just telling 00:09:32.059 --> 00:09:34.700 the person who's in charge to do the thing that 00:09:34.700 --> 00:09:38.700 they're in charge of anyway. It's really hard 00:09:38.700 --> 00:09:43.259 for me to see why this particular document is 00:09:43.259 --> 00:09:49.129 even necessary. Maybe it's something like just 00:09:49.129 --> 00:09:55.830 a way of saying to Pedro Tolza that he knows 00:09:55.830 --> 00:09:59.830 about the situation, that this is something that 00:09:59.830 --> 00:10:04.090 he's monitoring, so you'd better do a good job 00:10:04.090 --> 00:10:08.149 of solving the problem. And indeed, the last 00:10:08.149 --> 00:10:19.259 line before the dating clause is So, you know, 00:10:19.820 --> 00:10:25.720 certify, you know, confirm that these deeds have 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:31.220 been done. So, Joan wants to be informed about 00:10:31.220 --> 00:10:34.960 the outcome here of whatever the heck is going 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:38.450 on. I did a little bit of research trying to 00:10:38.450 --> 00:10:42.149 figure out, well, what is going on? It's not 00:10:42.149 --> 00:10:46.830 easy to find information about Pere or Pedro Tolza. 00:10:47.590 --> 00:10:50.169 There's not a lot in the secondary literature 00:10:50.169 --> 00:10:52.950 on him after just a little preliminary searching. 00:10:53.490 --> 00:10:59.090 And then I just did a quick browse through Thomas 00:10:59.090 --> 00:11:01.789 Bisson's book, A Short History of the Crown of 00:11:01.789 --> 00:11:04.149 Aragon, just to see if there was just anything 00:11:04.149 --> 00:11:09.850 that was happening in Valencia around 1387, the 00:11:09.850 --> 00:11:13.529 beginning of 1387, that might provide a clue 00:11:13.529 --> 00:11:18.370 into this. Nothing all that substantial happened 00:11:18.370 --> 00:11:23.230 that would kind of merit mention in The Short 00:11:23.230 --> 00:11:26.570 History of the Crown of Aragon. So this is a 00:11:26.570 --> 00:11:31.240 case where really, there's just not a lot of 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:37.039 info about what's happening. And maybe we're 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:41.580 gonna get a clarifying letter somewhere else 00:11:41.580 --> 00:11:49.320 down the road, and this particular vague directive 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:54.320 to Pedro Tolza will make sense. And once again, 00:11:54.740 --> 00:11:56.840 I said this yesterday, I'll say it again today. 00:11:57.529 --> 00:12:01.789 I am really hoping that these registers at one 00:12:01.789 --> 00:12:05.330 point become full text searchable because then 00:12:05.330 --> 00:12:10.870 we can do a search for other letters that involve 00:12:10.870 --> 00:12:15.769 Pedro Tolza and maybe figure out just what is 00:12:15.769 --> 00:12:19.909 going on. I also looked around the the other 00:12:19.909 --> 00:12:24.230 letters and it seems like the other letters in 00:12:24.230 --> 00:12:27.990 this in the folios around this one in the register 00:12:27.990 --> 00:12:30.690 are not really about the same thing they're about 00:12:30.690 --> 00:12:34.629 different places so yeah i'm kind of really coming 00:12:34.629 --> 00:12:39.009 up short with this particular one and so maybe 00:12:39.009 --> 00:12:42.289 there's gonna be another letter down the road 00:12:42.289 --> 00:12:47.500 that helps to figure it out and so Ah, gosh, 00:12:47.539 --> 00:12:50.279 what can I say? This is going to be a pretty 00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:54.200 brief episode here on the Historian's Notebook, 00:12:54.200 --> 00:13:01.320 because this is pretty much as much of a blind 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:05.179 alleyway, as they say, as you can get into when 00:13:05.179 --> 00:13:07.879 you're working with these documents, where you 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:11.440 get something that's super vague. The other secondary 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:13.879 literature doesn't really turn up anything about 00:13:13.879 --> 00:13:21.720 it. So... Yeah, pretty dissatisfying, but hey, 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:25.960 that's our motto, right? Yeah, thanks for listening 00:13:25.960 --> 00:13:28.700 to this episode of the Historian's Notebook, 00:13:28.940 --> 00:13:33.759 Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona. If you are leaving 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:37.980 with more questions than you arrived with, like 00:13:37.980 --> 00:13:41.299 what the heck is going on in Valencia with money 00:13:41.299 --> 00:13:45.570 troubles or, you know, like embezzlement? Do 00:13:45.570 --> 00:13:49.570 you even know? Well, if you've got questions 00:13:49.570 --> 00:13:54.950 like that, then I've done my job, because there's 00:13:54.950 --> 00:13:58.149 that motto of the Historian's Notebook, dissatisfaction 00:13:58.149 --> 00:14:01.470 guaranteed. Yeah, really feeling it this time, 00:14:01.629 --> 00:14:04.450 goodness. Visit the website to see an image of 00:14:04.450 --> 00:14:08.750 today's document and additional show notes, and 00:14:08.750 --> 00:14:12.409 listen again tomorrow to hear... about the next 00:14:12.409 --> 00:14:16.110 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:14:16.110 --> 00:14:21.289 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the 00:14:21.289 --> 00:14:22.889 meantime, take care.