WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.519 Hello. In The Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.980 --> 00:00:12.000 it was March 30th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.779 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:15.779 --> 00:00:19.699 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:19.699 --> 00:00:23.940 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:24.519 --> 00:00:28.510 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:28.510 --> 00:00:31.589 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:31.589 --> 00:00:36.649 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:36.649 --> 00:00:40.649 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's 00:00:40.649 --> 00:01:07.890 document. Today's document is another one about 00:01:07.890 --> 00:01:13.549 the interfaith context of the late 14th century 00:01:13.549 --> 00:01:18.409 Crown of Aragon. And it's again from Violant's 00:01:18.409 --> 00:01:24.269 register, the Commune et Curie register number 00:01:24.269 --> 00:01:31.769 1822. Yesterday's document was Violant's adjudicating 00:01:31.769 --> 00:01:35.590 or getting involved in the adjudication of some 00:01:35.590 --> 00:01:38.969 kind of dispute between a husband and a wife 00:01:38.969 --> 00:01:43.090 who are both Jewish in the town of Figueres. 00:01:43.709 --> 00:01:48.129 This is different. Today's document is all about 00:01:48.129 --> 00:01:51.590 a response to something that was going on in 00:01:51.590 --> 00:01:55.629 Girona. Actually, we kind of have a two -for 00:01:55.629 --> 00:02:03.159 -one deal with today because folio 144r is about 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:08.379 the same topic as the document on the verso of 00:02:08.379 --> 00:02:13.689 that folio and the recto side is a letter to 00:02:13.689 --> 00:02:18.949 the bishop of girona and the verso side of that 00:02:18.949 --> 00:02:23.449 same folio is a letter to the pro homens the 00:02:23.449 --> 00:02:29.289 jurats the council the leaders of the city of 00:02:29.289 --> 00:02:34.770 girona The issue at hand is once again discussed 00:02:34.770 --> 00:02:39.789 in vague terms, but even though we don't have 00:02:39.789 --> 00:02:44.229 any specifics about who was harmed or exactly 00:02:44.229 --> 00:02:47.250 where in Girona the violence was taking place, 00:02:47.710 --> 00:02:52.469 we do have phrases in the document to the bishop 00:02:52.469 --> 00:02:57.919 and in the document to the jurats. the councillors 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:03.159 of Gerona that indicate that this was some bad 00:03:03.159 --> 00:03:07.099 violence that had been perpetrated against the 00:03:07.099 --> 00:03:13.939 Jewish neighborhood in Gerona. Here it is interesting 00:03:13.939 --> 00:03:17.740 because the geographical terms are a bit different. 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:23.560 In the fourth line of the letter to the bishop 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:32.550 on Folio 144R, we have this phrase, lo call dels 00:03:32.550 --> 00:03:38.889 juheus a la nostra aliama de aquexa ciutat, 00:03:39.550 --> 00:03:44.669 the call, the neighborhood of the Jews of our 00:03:44.669 --> 00:03:51.090 aliama in that city or in this city. So the 00:03:51.090 --> 00:03:56.949 way that the word call is used, is maybe something 00:03:56.949 --> 00:04:00.750 like a neighborhood within the community, like 00:04:00.750 --> 00:04:05.330 maybe the aliama is being referred to here as 00:04:05.330 --> 00:04:09.310 like the larger population, and the call is more 00:04:09.310 --> 00:04:12.789 of a geographic term. Not quite sure about the 00:04:12.789 --> 00:04:16.290 usage of those words, actually, and a scholar 00:04:16.290 --> 00:04:21.350 who really focuses on the interfaith context 00:04:21.350 --> 00:04:24.269 of Crown of Aragon in this time would know that 00:04:24.269 --> 00:04:30.750 a lot better than me. But here we have a location 00:04:30.750 --> 00:04:35.610 for where there are problems occurring, and it's 00:04:35.610 --> 00:04:39.829 in the Jewish neighborhood. And there's phrases 00:04:39.829 --> 00:04:44.350 in this letter to the bishop, such as dampnatges 00:04:44.350 --> 00:04:51.720 mortalment, so mortal damages. There's injurias, 00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:56.660 injuries. There's all kinds of different uses 00:04:56.660 --> 00:05:02.060 of the word mal. So there's mal feytos, bad deeds. 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:08.120 And the letter is really chocked full of that. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:15.500 And Violant also says that she herself is astonished 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:19.529 to hear all of this. and that it is happening 00:05:19.529 --> 00:05:25.389 on the watch of the bishop, and then in the letter 00:05:25.389 --> 00:05:29.730 to the jurats on the other side of this folio, 00:05:29.930 --> 00:05:34.509 same kind of sentiment is being expressed. So 00:05:34.509 --> 00:05:39.670 Violante is criticizing the leadership, the ecclesiastical 00:05:39.670 --> 00:05:44.529 leadership. and the secular leadership in Girona 00:05:44.529 --> 00:05:49.110 for allowing these attacks on the Jewish community 00:05:49.110 --> 00:05:53.550 to take place. There's a couple interesting things 00:05:53.550 --> 00:05:56.629 about this when we pull back and look at the 00:05:56.629 --> 00:06:01.230 historical context. So there's been a lot of 00:06:01.230 --> 00:06:06.149 scholarship about the history of Jews in the 00:06:06.149 --> 00:06:12.240 Crown of Aragon, and one of the most prominent 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:17.439 scholars in the 20th century about medieval Spain 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:21.579 and Jewish history is Yitzak Baer and he has 00:06:21.579 --> 00:06:26.220 a few pages in his monumental work about this. 00:06:26.339 --> 00:06:29.180 It's an English translation of his work and so 00:06:29.180 --> 00:06:36.209 I'll put that in the in the citations, the bibliographic 00:06:36.209 --> 00:06:39.329 citations for this episode. But basically the 00:06:39.329 --> 00:06:43.870 long story here in terms of the decades is that 00:06:43.870 --> 00:06:48.769 the plague, the bubonic plague, which hit in 00:06:48.769 --> 00:06:53.889 1348 really wiped out a lot of the prominent 00:06:53.889 --> 00:06:58.490 leaders of the Jewish community. as well as leaders 00:06:58.490 --> 00:07:01.970 in the Christian community in the town of Girona. 00:07:02.290 --> 00:07:05.490 Girona was hit hard by the plague and all the 00:07:05.490 --> 00:07:11.329 way 30 years later we see that there's still 00:07:11.329 --> 00:07:15.310 effects of this because there's not really a 00:07:15.310 --> 00:07:19.670 consistent leadership of the community as a result 00:07:19.670 --> 00:07:22.790 and there's some infighting as well as conflict 00:07:22.790 --> 00:07:27.610 between the leaders in the Jewish community and 00:07:27.610 --> 00:07:31.329 the leaders of the Christians of the town who 00:07:31.329 --> 00:07:37.889 are the majority. So Baer is observing how the 00:07:37.889 --> 00:07:42.790 long multi -decade context of this made it especially 00:07:42.790 --> 00:07:48.310 problematic for the rule of law and for property 00:07:48.310 --> 00:07:53.290 to be respected. There's another dynamic though 00:07:53.290 --> 00:07:57.579 which comes up not only in the work of Baer, 00:07:57.899 --> 00:08:01.259 but also in one of the best books about this 00:08:01.259 --> 00:08:04.259 particular time and place, Crown of Aragon, late 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:06.699 14th century, which I've talked about many times 00:08:06.699 --> 00:08:10.980 on the podcast before. It's Benjamin Gampel's 00:08:10.980 --> 00:08:16.100 monograph on the royal response to the anti -Jewish 00:08:16.100 --> 00:08:22.480 riots of 1391. So in 1391, Violant and Joan, 00:08:22.779 --> 00:08:27.350 they're still Queen and King. They are responding 00:08:27.350 --> 00:08:35.009 to this conflagration of rioting and basically, 00:08:35.129 --> 00:08:38.470 I think you gotta call it a pogrom. I don't know. 00:08:38.549 --> 00:08:40.649 I think there's a lot of debate about using that 00:08:40.649 --> 00:08:46.269 term outside of the, I guess what you would say, 00:08:46.470 --> 00:08:50.769 like Eastern European context. or the you know 00:08:50.769 --> 00:08:54.289 19th century or modern context or early modern 00:08:54.289 --> 00:08:57.669 but it seems to me like the word really applies 00:08:57.669 --> 00:09:03.289 and it's my personal interpretation after reading 00:09:03.289 --> 00:09:06.370 Gampel's book and other books about violence 00:09:06.370 --> 00:09:09.549 against Jews that basically in the Crown of Aragon 00:09:09.549 --> 00:09:13.129 and in other times and places but in the 14th 00:09:13.129 --> 00:09:17.470 century Crown of Aragon there's always this sense 00:09:17.470 --> 00:09:23.779 that when the opportunity presents itself to 00:09:23.779 --> 00:09:29.580 lash out, there's always going to be a significant 00:09:29.580 --> 00:09:33.799 number of people in the Christian community who 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:37.259 are ready. They're ready to go with violence. 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:41.100 And so it's not so much that some kind of fervor 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:45.419 sweeps the land and inspires the violence that 00:09:45.419 --> 00:09:48.100 would not have been there otherwise. I really 00:09:48.299 --> 00:09:50.659 think and this is my interpretation based on 00:09:50.659 --> 00:09:53.879 the reading I've done that there's always this 00:09:53.879 --> 00:09:57.980 kind of population that's looking for an excuse 00:09:57.980 --> 00:10:04.799 and it is really that population is given a real 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:08.799 free rein in 1391 and it's kind of contagious 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:11.820 and the more you let that population get away 00:10:11.820 --> 00:10:15.879 with it and the more momentum they have, then 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:19.279 people who might not have been inclined to take 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:22.769 part in that cruelty and that violence, they'll 00:10:22.769 --> 00:10:25.850 join in. And so it's really got a sense of momentum. 00:10:25.850 --> 00:10:28.289 But I think there's always going to be this in 00:10:28.289 --> 00:10:31.970 the 14th century, in particular, which I've read 00:10:31.970 --> 00:10:34.509 about the most in the Crown of Aragon, there's 00:10:34.509 --> 00:10:37.809 going to be this group of people in a lot of 00:10:37.809 --> 00:10:42.169 localities, including Girona, Barcelona, and 00:10:42.169 --> 00:10:46.330 others that are ready to go as soon as the opportunity 00:10:46.330 --> 00:10:49.539 presents itself. And so they're always being 00:10:49.539 --> 00:10:55.019 tamped down. And I think that the will to tamp 00:10:55.019 --> 00:10:59.460 that down is not too great on the part of the 00:10:59.460 --> 00:11:04.980 local authorities. So the desire to tamp that 00:11:04.980 --> 00:11:09.379 down is very great on the part of Violante, as 00:11:09.379 --> 00:11:12.620 you can see in this letter here. She's really 00:11:12.620 --> 00:11:16.960 displeased that the Bishop of Girona has let 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:21.120 this happen. She's really displeased that the 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:24.659 town leaders of Girona have let this happen, 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:28.460 and Joan is also quick to write about how he's 00:11:28.460 --> 00:11:32.899 displeased. Here's the thing, though, is that 00:11:32.899 --> 00:11:37.080 what we see is that there's these these episodes 00:11:37.080 --> 00:11:41.220 like what we're looking at here in late March 00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:46.779 of 1387 that just keep coming up again and again 00:11:46.779 --> 00:11:55.559 and then in 1391 it explodes and in 1391 Joan 00:11:55.559 --> 00:12:01.659 and Violant and Marti they're all trying to 00:12:01.659 --> 00:12:07.549 contain that kind of snowballing effect that 00:12:07.549 --> 00:12:11.889 takes place in 1391 But they're not really able 00:12:11.889 --> 00:12:14.370 to do a good job of it And it's not quite clear 00:12:14.370 --> 00:12:17.149 that they're willing to sacrifice all that much 00:12:17.149 --> 00:12:21.370 in terms of really like sending in people to 00:12:21.370 --> 00:12:25.889 do serious violence against the perpetrators 00:12:25.889 --> 00:12:33.139 of those riots All right, so all of this is to 00:12:33.139 --> 00:12:37.200 try to contextualize and basically if you want 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:40.600 to read about that, go to Gampel's book. It just 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:45.720 explains it so well. Now, there's others too. 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:48.240 Brian Catlos's books do an amazing job on this 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.879 too. David Nirenberg's books do an amazing job 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:57.100 on this too. So let's talk about Girona in particular. 00:12:57.899 --> 00:13:03.580 Let's keep in mind that another trend is that 00:13:03.580 --> 00:13:07.399 around the Christian holidays these things tend 00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:10.419 to bubble up more. There's more of, I guess, 00:13:10.779 --> 00:13:13.220 like religious fervor that's happening and so 00:13:13.220 --> 00:13:18.460 it provides those those malfeasants in the population 00:13:18.460 --> 00:13:22.840 the opportunity to do some violence and take 00:13:22.840 --> 00:13:27.389 some property. of the Jews, and so we're heading 00:13:27.389 --> 00:13:32.789 toward Easter. So Easter in 1387 was April 7th, 00:13:32.789 --> 00:13:38.169 so we're approaching that date. Now, when we 00:13:38.169 --> 00:13:41.350 look at what was going on in Gerona at this time, 00:13:41.950 --> 00:13:46.070 Gampel observes that, and he draws on a lot of 00:13:46.070 --> 00:13:48.409 other secondary sources. There's a lot of literature 00:13:48.409 --> 00:13:53.330 that he draws on, and he observes that April 00:13:53.330 --> 00:13:58.950 2nd, there was violence in Girona. But here, 00:13:59.090 --> 00:14:01.330 what we can see is that the violence had started 00:14:01.330 --> 00:14:07.230 before April 2nd. So I'm not sure if there's 00:14:07.230 --> 00:14:12.190 been discussion of this before. Gampel is referring 00:14:12.190 --> 00:14:16.509 to, during his discussion of Girona, a piece 00:14:16.509 --> 00:14:20.429 by Jaume Riera i Sans, who we've read about 00:14:20.429 --> 00:14:24.470 in other in other topics in the podcast before. 00:14:25.009 --> 00:14:29.429 Anyway, Jaume Riera i Sans has written about 00:14:29.429 --> 00:14:34.549 some of the Jewish history in Girona and has 00:14:34.549 --> 00:14:37.350 established that there was violence in Girona 00:14:37.350 --> 00:14:43.200 on April 2nd. So is this information that is 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:46.399 in any way new. I'm not sure I'd have to go back 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:49.740 and dig around deeper into some of that secondary 00:14:49.740 --> 00:14:54.460 literature, but suffice it to say that from the 00:14:54.460 --> 00:14:58.779 very start of their reign, I mean we're about, 00:14:58.779 --> 00:15:04.019 you know, 90 days or so in to their reign, they're 00:15:04.019 --> 00:15:09.679 already encountering local leadership that is 00:15:09.710 --> 00:15:14.230 allowing the violence against Jews to take place. 00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:22.710 So when 1391 arrives, you know, four years after 00:15:22.710 --> 00:15:27.570 this letter, then there's been this track record 00:15:27.570 --> 00:15:32.330 of all these local leaders hearing from the king 00:15:32.330 --> 00:15:36.029 and the queen about their displeasure regarding 00:15:36.029 --> 00:15:41.009 the treatment of the Jewish communities, and 00:15:41.009 --> 00:15:45.990 they're basically just not really doing anything 00:15:45.990 --> 00:15:51.110 to prevent more violence in the future. And that's 00:15:51.110 --> 00:15:54.909 a whole different way of looking at it versus 00:15:54.909 --> 00:15:59.470 saying things like, everything was hunky -dory 00:15:59.470 --> 00:16:02.889 and then just there was this, you know, special 00:16:02.889 --> 00:16:07.480 conflagration that came up in 1391. No. What 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:13.399 we can see is that there is a steady drumbeat 00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:18.220 of animosity, conflict, violence, deadly violence, 00:16:18.679 --> 00:16:25.539 and property theft going on, perpetrated against 00:16:25.539 --> 00:16:32.639 Jews by Christians, and it is a consistent thing. 00:16:33.659 --> 00:16:37.799 Now is that to say that all relations between 00:16:37.799 --> 00:16:41.940 Jews and Christians were characterized by that? 00:16:42.500 --> 00:16:46.720 No, because you can also find a lot of examples 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:50.860 where Christians and Jews are doing business 00:16:50.860 --> 00:16:54.980 together, where they are creating artistic works 00:16:54.980 --> 00:17:01.059 together, so it is a mixture, okay? just as how 00:17:01.059 --> 00:17:05.240 in our society you see that there are groups 00:17:05.240 --> 00:17:09.839 of people who have heightened hostility towards 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:14.099 other groups, and then others who get along, 00:17:14.579 --> 00:17:19.279 right? It's a mixture. So that is the way to 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:24.359 approach learning about this society in a very 00:17:24.359 --> 00:17:28.799 far away time. And if you're listening to this 00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:31.480 in, you know, the United States, it's a faraway 00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:36.759 place. So keep that in mind that what we're looking 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:43.079 at today is an excellent example of the conflict 00:17:43.079 --> 00:17:48.180 that was taking place between Christians and 00:17:48.180 --> 00:17:52.579 Jews. And in, I think, Girona, it's pretty clear. 00:17:52.579 --> 00:17:58.109 And we'll look at this again in a couple weeks 00:17:58.109 --> 00:18:03.289 on April 20th that we really had the Christians 00:18:03.289 --> 00:18:07.829 who were in the majority taking out a lot of 00:18:07.829 --> 00:18:13.400 their frustrations on the Jewish community. and 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:17.240 in some cases doing forcible conversions. So 00:18:17.240 --> 00:18:20.400 there's a forced conversion case that comes to 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:23.779 Joan's attention on April 20th and we'll look 00:18:23.779 --> 00:18:27.640 at that document and Joan says no, that's not 00:18:27.640 --> 00:18:31.000 gonna work. You can't force somebody to convert 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:34.559 and say you've got a new Christian. So anyway, 00:18:34.900 --> 00:18:41.170 there's that. So, okay. That's today's document. 00:18:41.369 --> 00:18:43.849 I feel like I ended up digressing a little bit 00:18:43.849 --> 00:18:47.630 right there, but basically keep in mind that 00:18:47.630 --> 00:18:51.410 we're gonna hear about these conflicts, but we're 00:18:51.410 --> 00:18:56.470 also routinely going to see evidence of Jews 00:18:56.470 --> 00:19:00.359 and Christians getting along and productively 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:04.680 interacting. And it's not to say that we have 00:19:04.680 --> 00:19:08.279 a lot of examples of entire communities where 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.400 everybody got along, like multiculturalism style. 00:19:12.039 --> 00:19:16.319 But we can see that the term that Brian Catlos 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:20.960 came up with, conveniencia, like what's convenient, 00:19:21.599 --> 00:19:26.140 is really at play, where a lot of interfaith 00:19:26.509 --> 00:19:29.950 work is happening, people crossing those faith 00:19:29.950 --> 00:19:35.029 boundaries when it is a matter of benefit or 00:19:35.029 --> 00:19:39.410 convenience. One quick note about AI usage. So 00:19:39.410 --> 00:19:44.369 I'm still working on doing things with my new 00:19:44.369 --> 00:19:49.009 AI agent through OpenClaw. And because of that, 00:19:49.230 --> 00:19:55.970 I am backing off of the chatbots while OpenClaw 00:19:55.970 --> 00:19:59.710 does its work and so today it's just me so no 00:19:59.710 --> 00:20:05.549 AI usage for today's episode and I'll keep you 00:20:05.549 --> 00:20:10.829 updated on what I get from OpenClaw and what 00:20:10.829 --> 00:20:17.059 happens as I keep working on adjusting the instructions 00:20:17.059 --> 00:20:20.920 that I'm giving to the agent, and so stay tuned 00:20:20.920 --> 00:20:26.380 for more info about that in later episodes. Thanks 00:20:26.380 --> 00:20:29.700 for listening to this episode of the Historian's 00:20:29.700 --> 00:20:34.259 Notebook, Season 1, Mult Cara Companyona. If you 00:20:34.259 --> 00:20:36.420 are leaving with more questions than you arrived 00:20:36.420 --> 00:20:40.759 with, I've done my job. Because remember, the 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:45.119 motto of the Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction. 00:20:45.390 --> 00:20:49.410 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:20:49.410 --> 00:20:52.269 of today's document and additional show notes, 00:20:52.910 --> 00:20:55.829 and listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:20:55.829 --> 00:20:59.589 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:20:59.589 --> 00:21:04.470 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the 00:21:04.470 --> 00:21:06.250 meantime, take care.