WEBVTT 00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:05.200 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:12.759 it was March 2, 1387. My name is Jonathan Seyfried. 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:16.879 I'm a PhD candidate in history at the University 00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:20.719 of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's Notebook, 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:25.199 a podcast about how history gets made. Season 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:29.250 one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're looking 00:00:29.250 --> 00:00:32.070 at a document from each day of the first year 00:00:32.070 --> 00:00:36.689 of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and Queen 00:00:36.689 --> 00:00:40.770 Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's document. 00:01:04.489 --> 00:01:10.950 Today's document is a short letter from Joan 00:01:10.950 --> 00:01:19.409 to somebody he addresses as Marquis Car Cosi. 00:01:19.950 --> 00:01:25.609 This is in the... Secret seal register and remember 00:01:25.609 --> 00:01:29.209 secret is a little bit of a false cognate here 00:01:29.209 --> 00:01:32.250 Because it's more of just like it's the private. 00:01:32.250 --> 00:01:34.650 I mean, it's it's secret in the sense that it's 00:01:34.650 --> 00:01:38.069 got a different level of protection Like it's 00:01:38.069 --> 00:01:40.829 not a document that just anybody can access You'll 00:01:40.829 --> 00:01:43.390 have to have special permission to look at these 00:01:43.390 --> 00:01:46.049 later if you're wanting to consult them in the 00:01:46.049 --> 00:01:53.719 archive but in this particular case, we have 00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:57.159 family correspondence and that's usually where 00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:02.959 the the secret seal comes in where when it's 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:05.540 kind of family correspondence. That's what I'm 00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:09.080 noticing. It's not like the only things in the 00:02:09.080 --> 00:02:12.180 secret seal registers are family correspondence, 00:02:12.180 --> 00:02:16.240 but but that's typically it's here's what I'll 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:20.909 say. It's rare to see a family letter. someone 00:02:20.909 --> 00:02:24.469 who's Joan or Violant are writing to, or it's 00:02:24.469 --> 00:02:29.370 a family relative, in something that's not the 00:02:29.370 --> 00:02:32.969 secret seal. And in the case of Violant, we've 00:02:32.969 --> 00:02:36.129 got that register called Varia, which I believe 00:02:36.129 --> 00:02:39.009 is actually composed of a bunch of different 00:02:39.009 --> 00:02:42.430 types of seals, but they were just getting organized 00:02:42.430 --> 00:02:47.879 with her chancery. processes in the beginning 00:02:47.879 --> 00:02:50.719 of the reign, and so they hadn't yet set up the 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:53.860 separate secret seal register, and so they dumped 00:02:53.860 --> 00:02:57.180 a lot of the early stuff of all kinds of different 00:02:57.180 --> 00:03:01.340 levels of seal into the register called Varia. 00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:07.300 Okay, so today's document is in the secret seal 00:03:07.300 --> 00:03:14.479 register for Joann. The addressee is Marquis 00:03:14.729 --> 00:03:19.229 car cosi that's in the first line but then at 00:03:19.229 --> 00:03:23.870 the bottom of the document we have an expanded 00:03:23.870 --> 00:03:30.310 version of the addressee and that reads marquis 00:03:30.310 --> 00:03:40.810 de villena consanguinis domini regis i think is 00:03:40.810 --> 00:03:45.419 how we expand the end of that so What it means, 00:03:45.780 --> 00:03:49.340 regardless of the exact Latin ending there, is 00:03:49.340 --> 00:03:53.740 that the person who is addressed by this letter 00:03:53.740 --> 00:04:01.159 is the Marquis of Vienna. Consanguinis means 00:04:01.159 --> 00:04:07.360 relative. So you can see the word for blood in 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:13.180 this sanguine. So of a blood connection, consanguin, 00:04:13.849 --> 00:04:20.670 a relative of the Lord King. So this is a relative 00:04:20.670 --> 00:04:25.970 of the King who has the noble title of Marquis, 00:04:26.069 --> 00:04:31.829 which is below the level of a Duke in the hierarchy 00:04:31.829 --> 00:04:40.449 of nobility titles in this realm. Somehow, Joan 00:04:40.449 --> 00:04:45.149 considers him at the level of cousin. Alright, 00:04:45.389 --> 00:04:50.389 did a little bit of research here on the Marquis 00:04:50.389 --> 00:04:55.490 de Villena, and what's also really helpful is that 00:04:55.490 --> 00:04:59.089 in the last sentence of the letter before the 00:04:59.089 --> 00:05:02.189 dating clause, and it's the second to the last 00:05:02.189 --> 00:05:07.629 line of the letter, there's a name. Don Alfonso 00:05:07.629 --> 00:05:16.129 vostra fi. So Alfonso, your son. Now, this gets 00:05:16.129 --> 00:05:20.970 really tricky because there was in the lineage 00:05:20.970 --> 00:05:28.449 of the Marquis of Villena, there were two Alfonso's. 00:05:28.449 --> 00:05:31.410 There was an Alfonso the older and an Alfonso 00:05:31.410 --> 00:05:36.689 the younger. So is this person that's being addressed 00:05:36.689 --> 00:05:41.550 in this letter, the father of Alfonso the Elder, 00:05:42.069 --> 00:05:46.829 or is it is the addressee Alfonso the Elder himself 00:05:46.829 --> 00:05:53.170 and and he has a son named Alfonso. So we have 00:05:53.170 --> 00:05:56.750 to kind of work out according to lifespans and 00:05:56.750 --> 00:06:00.490 dates in order to figure that out. And it's very 00:06:00.490 --> 00:06:07.990 clear that in 1387, This would be Alfonso the 00:06:07.990 --> 00:06:13.029 Elder as the recipient of this letter, as the 00:06:13.029 --> 00:06:19.990 addressee. And Alfonso Vostra Fill is Alfonso the 00:06:19.990 --> 00:06:27.329 Younger. Okay. The Marquis de Villena, in this 00:06:27.329 --> 00:06:33.100 letter, he has been very active in a lot of battle 00:06:33.100 --> 00:06:36.420 campaigns and such that I am just not going to 00:06:36.420 --> 00:06:42.139 get into the weeds about. But the part of this 00:06:42.139 --> 00:06:45.180 that really caught my attention and got me excited 00:06:45.180 --> 00:06:50.980 when I saw it was that he, the addressee of this 00:06:50.980 --> 00:06:56.930 letter, is the grandfather of somebody who is 00:06:56.930 --> 00:07:03.569 very important in understanding the cultural 00:07:03.569 --> 00:07:09.209 efflorescence of the reign of Joan and Violant. 00:07:09.910 --> 00:07:16.509 The grandson, so the son of Alfonso the Younger, 00:07:17.009 --> 00:07:20.920 right? The grandson of Alfonso the Elder. His 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:27.660 name is Enrique. Enrique de Villena was a writer 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:33.220 of several different treatises. One of them, 00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:37.019 weirdly, was called The Art of the Scissors, 00:07:37.399 --> 00:07:40.759 in which he wrote this whole book about the correct 00:07:40.759 --> 00:07:47.920 way to cut meat. It's like really... I could 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:52.199 write a whole book about that? Yes. And to say 00:07:52.199 --> 00:07:54.139 the art of the scissors is a little bit of a 00:07:54.139 --> 00:07:56.680 mistranslation, but it's sort of like that. I 00:07:56.680 --> 00:07:59.600 mean, it's the art of the cutting. All right. 00:08:00.139 --> 00:08:03.519 So anyway, that is a little interesting sort 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:07.879 of factoid about Enrique de Villena, but way more 00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:13.879 important is that, alas, these Alfonso's die 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:18.920 and Enrique is left as an Orphan? Okay, wait 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:21.139 a second, hold on, I got that wrong. Wait a second. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:30.019 Alfonso the Younger dies, and that was Enrique's 00:08:30.019 --> 00:08:35.059 father. And Enrique is raised by his grandfather 00:08:35.059 --> 00:08:37.139 for a little while, but then his grandfather 00:08:37.139 --> 00:08:43.720 does die. And at that moment around then is when 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:51.590 he gets shipped off to live in Barcelona. And 00:08:51.590 --> 00:08:55.929 Violant is actually involved in getting Enrique 00:08:55.929 --> 00:09:02.210 de Villena to have a lot of time in Barcelona during 00:09:02.210 --> 00:09:07.669 his childhood. He grows up witnessing the big 00:09:07.669 --> 00:09:14.970 troubadour competition that takes place in 1391. 00:09:15.629 --> 00:09:18.669 Oh gosh, and then I think it happens a second 00:09:18.669 --> 00:09:24.549 time in 1393. The initial Jocs Florals. 00:09:25.070 --> 00:09:31.629 The Game of Flowers. And that is a troubadour 00:09:31.629 --> 00:09:33.929 competition based on something that had been 00:09:33.929 --> 00:09:38.009 happening in Toulouse that Joan decided to 00:09:38.009 --> 00:09:42.490 import into the Crown of Aragon. and it's Enrique 00:09:42.490 --> 00:09:47.529 de Villena who writes down some of what the procedures 00:09:47.529 --> 00:09:50.230 were and so it's actually the earliest record 00:09:50.230 --> 00:09:53.429 that we have of what the troubadour competition 00:09:53.429 --> 00:09:55.750 was like and what some of the rules were like. 00:09:56.570 --> 00:10:01.870 So I got really excited when I saw Marquise de 00:10:01.870 --> 00:10:07.580 Villena because of that larger connection. So What 00:10:07.580 --> 00:10:12.019 is this letter about? Really focused on the identity 00:10:12.019 --> 00:10:15.379 of the recipient and the place of this letter 00:10:15.379 --> 00:10:21.320 in the longer story of Joan's cultural efflorescence, 00:10:22.220 --> 00:10:26.740 along of course with Violant, who was like the 00:10:26.740 --> 00:10:30.980 key to having that cultural efflorescence. Because 00:10:30.980 --> 00:10:34.059 remember, he's importing this stuff from France, 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:38.090 so anyway. Joan gets credit for the Jocs 00:10:38.090 --> 00:10:41.330 Florals, but it's got it. It must have been 00:10:41.330 --> 00:10:44.549 both Joan and Violant together. And now we 00:10:44.549 --> 00:10:47.509 have Shadow back to put her contribution into 00:10:47.509 --> 00:10:53.210 this. Okay, what's going on in this letter? What's 00:10:53.210 --> 00:10:58.610 going on in this letter is that Joan is demanding 00:10:58.610 --> 00:11:04.009 that the Marquis de Villena comes to Barcelona 00:11:05.210 --> 00:11:14.149 It seemed that there had been some kind of injury 00:11:14.149 --> 00:11:18.070 or condition that had prevented the Marquis de 00:11:18.070 --> 00:11:20.669 Villena from coming to Barcelona and Joan saying, 00:11:20.710 --> 00:11:24.870 okay, you're well enough now, so you need to 00:11:24.870 --> 00:11:28.799 come show up, right? I'm summoning you. Sorry 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:31.259 that you went through that difficult thing, but 00:11:31.259 --> 00:11:35.980 now you gotta come. And then he also says something 00:11:35.980 --> 00:11:41.100 interesting at the very end that he has sent 00:11:41.100 --> 00:11:45.879 this messenger, Pere March, to deliver that summons, 00:11:45.980 --> 00:11:54.000 but also to bring the to Alfonso the Younger 00:11:54.000 --> 00:12:02.350 a designation. to a chivalric order. So the last 00:12:02.350 --> 00:12:05.970 sentence of this letter before the dating clause 00:12:05.970 --> 00:12:22.509 reads That was kind of like a rhyme. It seemed 00:12:22.509 --> 00:12:26.779 like a little rhymy. What that means is that 00:12:26.779 --> 00:12:33.940 we have sent to you through our messenger, Sir 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:40.960 Pere March, we have sent to you the cross of our 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:46.879 order of Saint George. San Jordi is Saint George. 00:12:48.139 --> 00:12:53.559 So Alfonso the Younger has been awarded admittance 00:12:53.559 --> 00:13:00.360 into this Cross of Saint George society or designation. 00:13:00.700 --> 00:13:05.240 It's just like an honor that the king bestows. 00:13:05.580 --> 00:13:08.799 And Joan got really into this and later on 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:13.519 the order of the Cross of Saint George dwindles. 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:18.659 But at this time, Joan is trying to really 00:13:18.659 --> 00:13:22.779 build it up and have a bunch of really elite 00:13:22.779 --> 00:13:27.100 people. in it, and I don't really have a ton 00:13:27.100 --> 00:13:29.919 of information about it. There is an article 00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:34.799 that Claude found that explains more about how 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:38.820 Joan instituted these different chivalric orders. 00:13:39.659 --> 00:13:42.700 I think it's a little bit too in the weeds for 00:13:42.700 --> 00:13:46.580 my particular interest, but maybe not. I mean, 00:13:46.580 --> 00:13:49.460 I don't know, could be something gendery in there. 00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:53.529 But in any event, The content of this letter 00:13:53.529 --> 00:13:57.190 is basically saying, hey, we know you couldn't 00:13:57.190 --> 00:14:00.909 come to Barcelona before, but now you need to. 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:05.029 And by the way, I'm giving your son a pretty 00:14:05.029 --> 00:14:10.610 cool prize. All right. Couple things I want to 00:14:10.610 --> 00:14:15.299 point out about this letter in its. more material 00:14:15.299 --> 00:14:18.159 aspects. First of all, if you're looking at the 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:21.620 image, you can notice that the digitizers struggled 00:14:21.620 --> 00:14:26.580 with keeping the page open to the point where 00:14:26.580 --> 00:14:29.860 the margin could be captured by the photograph. 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:34.919 So a lot of the words at the very right hand 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:39.399 side of the page are kind of squished and I think 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:42.740 the binding was just too tight to be able to 00:14:42.740 --> 00:14:46.960 get a good photo of this, so I just want to once 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:51.200 again give a shout out to all of the people who 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:54.240 worked to take photographs of these documents 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:58.379 in this massive project that the Spanish government 00:14:58.379 --> 00:15:01.860 arranged in order to make these records from 00:15:01.860 --> 00:15:06.299 over 600 years ago available for anybody to see 00:15:06.299 --> 00:15:09.220 at any time. It's pretty amazing. and took a 00:15:09.220 --> 00:15:13.100 lot of work on the part of the staff of the digitizers. 00:15:14.360 --> 00:15:18.200 Okay, something else about this letter. Notice 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:23.259 the handwriting. It's a little bit more, what 00:15:23.259 --> 00:15:27.440 do you want to say here, flowy than we're used 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:32.539 to. And there's certain scribes that just have 00:15:32.539 --> 00:15:36.250 a different kind of handwriting than what I would 00:15:36.250 --> 00:15:39.049 consider something more of the standard. It looks 00:15:39.049 --> 00:15:42.610 a little bit more rushed, and this scribe actually 00:15:42.610 --> 00:15:47.389 had two crossouts. So the first one is at the 00:15:47.389 --> 00:15:50.889 beginning of the second line. It looks like Creenca 00:15:50.889 --> 00:15:56.350 is crossed out, but I'm not even sure about that. 00:15:57.429 --> 00:16:02.769 The more clear strikethrough is in the fifth 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:06.360 word of the third line when the scribe was going 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:11.860 to write venguda and accidentally wrote vengad 00:16:11.860 --> 00:16:16.080 and saw oh no i put an a instead of a u and so 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:21.259 the scribe crossed that out and did venguda as 00:16:21.259 --> 00:16:26.100 a correction so a couple interesting moments 00:16:26.100 --> 00:16:31.120 in this letter to bring out some of the materiality 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:34.820 of these documents as we're looking at them. 00:16:35.940 --> 00:16:39.259 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Historian's 00:16:39.259 --> 00:16:43.799 Notebook, Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona. If you 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:46.299 are leaving with more questions than you arrived 00:16:46.299 --> 00:16:50.940 with, I have done my job. Remember, the motto 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:54.799 of the Historian's Notebook is, dissatisfaction 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:58.679 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:01.659 of today's document and additional show notes. 00:17:02.379 --> 00:17:05.480 And listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:09.420 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:17:09.420 --> 00:17:14.319 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:16.039 meantime, take care.