Hello. In the Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago,
it was March 10, 1387. My name is Jonathan Seyfried.
I'm a PhD candidate in history at the University
of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's Notebook,
a podcast about how history gets made. Season
one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're looking
at a document from each day of the first year
of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and Queen
Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's document.
Wowsers, folks, this document today is juicy.
If you would like to know what it sounds like
when Joan is super angry and lets it rip in
a document, I think you could do no better than
to look at this letter from March 10th. So he
is chewing out a subordinate. There's this governor
of Aragon, like the, you know, main region of
the Crown of Aragon, and this person is named
Sanxo Martinez. And Joan starts out this letter
in this, like, really, like... you know, brace
yourself kind of way, because it starts out with
governador. It's in Catalan. Governador, muy
to somos maravillados, ende estamos. And then
I think com indignación contra vos. So that means
governor. We are astonished, like you know, it's
like we marvel in how we are so indignant against
you. Why? Because you have not followed our instructions
and our orders to confiscate some estates of
guess who? I'm going to give you just a few seconds
here, delaying it just a bit so you can guess
if you are mad at a governor for not confiscating
somebody's property, who is it? Well, if you
guessed one of the de Fortias, whether it's Sibilla
or Bernat, bravo to you. You have been a loyal
listener to this podcast because nothing. gets
Joan more angry, and tomorrow Violant writes
about it too. Nothing gets them more angry than
when the de Fortias seem to be getting away. And
so here there's these two residences or properties
in Borja and Magallón. and Joan has found out
that the governor has ignored orders and has
delayed in confiscating these properties. Like
I guess Bernat de Fortia just still has them
and is still like getting money off of them or
maybe is like playing in them. I don't know.
He's supposed to be under house arrest still.
I don't quite understand, like, how after, you
know, only a couple months, this is causing such
a big thorn in the side of Joan. And we'll
see tomorrow, Violant is also going to write
to the same governor, laying into him. But this
letter just goes on and on, saying, you'd better
do this. and there and you've been in obedient
like there's on the third to last line of this
of folio 23 v in obedience yeah and then the
letter ends right before the dating clause with
this phrase terror a ejemplo terror and example,
and what's being expressed there is that if this
governor does not immediately carry out the confiscation
of these properties of Bernat de Fortia, then
he will be fired immediately. He will be removed
from his office and they are going to punish
him in a way that causes terror, and, and it
sets an example for anybody else that would drag
their feet on orders like this. Whoa, my goodness,
this is an amazing just like letting loose of
emotion in the letter itself. Oh my gosh. You
know what, I think I'm just gonna read out the
translation. because it's just like so dramatic.
Here we go. Governor, we are so astonished and
we are filled with an indignation against you
because you did not carry out what we sent to
command you regarding the seizure of the places
of Borja and Magallón and other properties. of
Mossen Bernat da Fortia and his sister. So that
would be Sibilla. So he's not even like referring
to Sibilla by name. So unless there's like another,
but that's crazy. I just noticed that. Oh my
gosh. He's not even dignifying Sibilla with like
saying her name in the letter. Oh my gosh. All
right. So regarding the seizure of places of
Borja and Magallón and other properties of Mossen
Bernat de Fortia and of his sister, which
seizure or of which seizure we ordered to be
done reasonably and legally and of which we entrusted
to you neither the judgment nor the determination
but only the execution because considering that
you would be guilty of the disobedience and contempt
that in this you committed we tell you and command
you expressly and with certain knowledge that
immediately upon sight of the present letter
our said command be fulfilled and that you restore
to our hand the said places and properties. And
I think it's like, and it says realment, like,
like, in reality, like, it's a little hard to
translate. In fact, in executing these orders,
and, and that you do this right away. Otherwise,
we will immediately suspend you from the office
of the governor. and we will strip from you entirely
all authority and exercise of that office and
no less be certain that we shall make of you
such an example that to those present and to
all others it shall be a terror and a warning
given in Barcelona under the secret seal on the
tenth day of March in the year of our lord 1387.
and you can see actually like a little bit of
the I think I'm trying to figure out if it's
actually Joann who signs these things in in the
actual outgoing letter and that's why we get
the Rex Iohannes at the end here and I think
that the Rex is, like, especially, like, dramatic
because the scribe had to have had feelings as
he was copying this into the register. I mean,
as you are just going about, like, all of your,
like, random letters as a scribe. And then, like,
you come across this one. Oh, he must have showed
it to somebody. He must have been, like... come
over like to some of the fellow scribes and like
look at how this governor is in major trouble
with the king oh gosh this is an excellent example
of the kind of tone that just is so full of emotion
and i'm so happy i've come across it because
now i can compare it to the others and i also
know that sometimes joan does let loose Alright,
I have not yet read Violant's letter, but as
I was going through hers in some of her registers,
I found that she also decides to write a letter
to this governor. And so we're going to see tomorrow
whether Violant is in the mood to like let loose
and make threats in the way that Joan did.
My goodness It really raises some questions here
like Why why would the governor drag his feet?
If you are assigned the task of confiscating
a property and you've received that assignment
from the king Why would you ignore it if you're
a governor? Let's just ponder that for a second.
It seems a little bit hard to figure out why.
I think it might have something to do with how
maybe the governor had for a long time been benefiting
from associations with Bernat de Fortia. Maybe
he had some loyalty to Bernat de Fortia. Maybe
he had a lot of loyalty to Joan's father. and
is not really in the mood to listen to this new
upstart king. So just the fact that there's a
governor out there dragging his feet, or maybe
even this is an kind of open defiance, just ignoring
a command from the king, that says a lot. And
I wouldn't go so far as to say that this is some
kind of signal that Joan's authority is weak,
but I don't know. I mean, you know, it's a little
disturbing when you have to go to these lengths
to like threaten with this level of anger in
a letter in order to have someone confiscate
a property, because it's like when you confiscate
a property, like you can probably like steal
some things while you're doing it. Like if it's
some nice castle and there's like cool stuff
in there as you're confiscating it, why don't
you just, well, like, take some? I don't know.
Maybe, I don't know, maybe Governor Sancho Martinez
is very upstanding and would never even think
of how he could take advantage of the situation
as he's confiscating Bernat de Fortia's properties,
or maybe he has some, like, long history with
the de Fortias. I don't know, but I would love
to know. If I could just find out what was behind
this reluctance on the part of the governor of
Aragon to carry out this confiscation, I feel
like it would be a great story. But alas, I think,
I don't know, it might be that we don't have
any records except this one of this moment of
defiance. Well... I'm going to see if I can find
out a little bit more information about Sancho
Martinez and connections to the de Fortias, but
nothing has come up in the research I've done
already on the story of Sibilla de Fortia and
her rapscallion brother Bernat. Alright, thanks
for listening to this episode of the Historian's
Notebook, Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona. If you
are leaving with more questions than you arrived
with, then I've really done my job, because my
whole job today was to really just celebrate
the sheer emotionality of this letter, and then
to leave you with all these questions. Because
the motto of the Historian's Notebook is... dissatisfaction
guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image
of today's document and additional show notes.
I'll try to dig up some other stuff about Governor
Sancho Martinez, see what I can find, and listen
again tomorrow to hear about Violant's letter
to Sancho Martinez that she wrote on the next
day in the first year of the reign of King Joan
I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the
meantime, take care.