Season 1, Episode 100

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Joan intervenes in a custody case for an orphan in Valencia.

Today’s Document

• Subject: Joan commands that the heiress Bernardona Vines be brought to the Governor of Valencia
• Date: April 3, 1387
• Day of the Week: Wednesday
• Language: Catalan
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1825 f97v
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Joan
• Recipients: Francesc Vines and Garcia de Loris

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: as king, Joan had the final say in any civil disputes as well as matters of state and criminal cases; the two men in this letter perhaps had a desire to appropriate some of Bernardona’s inheritance

• Contextualization: the monarchs of the Middle Ages would sometimes rule on cases that in modern political systems would never rise to the level of the head of state; there were levels of jurisdictions for courts and local magistrates, but the monarch still held the position of final arbiter for difficult cases and hear appeals

• Corroboration: this is the first custody case that has come up in the podcast, but document examined in Episode 95 also relates to a family dispute

• Close-Reading: the word ‘pubilla’ signals that Bernardona is quite young, probably younger than ten years old;

What is this document doing?

• This document involves the monarch in a family custody case.
• The document presumes the power of the state to alter the custody arrangements of a young orphan.

Questions

• What circumstances would lead a family dispute or civil case to rise to the attention of the monarch?
• How did Joan find out about Bernardona’s plight?
• Was Francesc Vines the uncle of Bernardona? If not, what was their familial relationship? How did Garcia de Loris fit in to this picture?
• Did Francesc Vines and Garcia de Loris promptly comply with Joan’s order?
• Why was the Governor of Valencia involved instead of a lower level bailiff or veguer?

Additional Notes

As the 100th episode of the podcast, this episode includes a review of the main goals of the project. This episode also takes stock of how AI tools have developed since December 2025, explaining the current capabilities of Transkribus and agentic AI, specifically OpenClaw.

AI Usage

I used Gemini for an initial transcription, which I then had Claude reconcile with its own initial transcription. Claude then produced a translation into English with footnotes.

Gemini and Claude both identified Bernardona as an heiress and I had not understood that aspect of the document until after I reviewed the LLM transcription and analysis.

I had ChatGPT du a cursory search in the secondary literature accessible to it for information about this case but it didn’t find any results.

Bibliography

• Girona y Llagostera, Daniel. “Itinerari de l’Infant En Joan, Fill Del Rei En Pere III. 1350-1387.” III Congreso de Historia de La Corona de Aragón (Valencia), Hijo de F. Vives Mora, 1923, 169–592. Available on Google Books, accessed December 26, 2025.
• Udina i Martorell, Frederic. Guía histórica y descriptiva del Archivo de la Corona de Aragón. Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Archivos, Dirección de los Archivos Estatales, 1986.

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