Season 1, Episode 105

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Joan orders several Valencian lawyers to get serious about prosecuting Berenguer de Vilaragut.

Today’s Document

• Subject: criminal pursuit of a renegade nobleman in Valencia
• Date: April 8, 1387
• Day of the Week: Monday
• Language: Catalan
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1751 f40r
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Joan
• Recipients: Janerio Rabaca and fellow lawyers in Valencia

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: Janerio Rabaca’s title is micer, not mossen, and so in this document we see a large difference in status between the sender, the king, and the recipients; it appears that Berenguer de Vilaragut has been apprehended but the lawyers are dragging their feet on the prosecution; Joan, as king, uses the threat of his displeasure in an attempt to get the lawyers to stop delaying

• Contextualization: the modern scholar Paz Lloret researched the factional feuding in Valencia during this time period and it appears to have been going on long before the start of Joan’s reign; in the Middle Ages, the ability of monarchs often struggled to put a stop to vendettas and clan violence, so the reluctance of the officials in Valencia might not be an expression of outright defiance against the new monarchs

• Corroboration: in the document examined for Episode 51 Violant wrote to the Governor of Valencia, demanding results in the apprehension of Berenguer de Vilaragut and his supporters; Joan mentions other documents that have been sent to the lawyers and those records would go a long way corroborating Joan’s claim of the severity of Berenguer de Vilaragut’s crimes

• Close-Reading: in lines 9-10, Joan tells the recipients that, after this letter, they can no longer claim ignorance; from that, we can pretty much infer that these lawyers have been delaying or dragging their feet when it comes to the prosecution of Berenguer Vilaragut; Joan also threatens ‘gran peril’ and uses additional phrases to indicate his great displeasure with the recipients of this letter and this makes me think that we can really see Joan’s personality in this document

What is this document doing?

• This document attempts to wipe away the veneer of ignorance claimed by the recipients.
• The document invokes royal authority in an effort to spur local authorities to act.

Questions

• Why had the prosecution of Berenguer de Vilaragut been in Violant’s portfolio in February and now in Joan’s?
• What had made it so difficult for the authorities in Valencia to successfully prosecute Berenguer de Vilaragut?
• Would the recipients have been alarmed at such a scolding letter from the king or did they feel insulated from the royal authorities?
• Was the fine 2,000 florins, and if so, did that amount frighten the recipients of this letter?
• What injury to the ‘fisc’ had Berenguer de Vilaragut perpetrated?

AI Usage

Register 1751 was one of the six I put through the OpenClaw agentic AI pipeline. Here is the OpenClaw AI Pipeline transcript for this episode.

Bibliography

• Lloret, Paz. “El linaje de los Vilaragut y la violencia nobiliaria.” Saitabi: Revista de la facultat de geografia i història 51–52 (2001): 269–84.

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