Season 1, Episode 118

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In a customary letter of greetings and well-wishes, Violant tells the Count of Armagnac that Joan is convalescing from an illness and will soon be perfect.

Today’s Document

• Subject: customary greetings to a French noble
• Date: April 21, 1387
• Day of the Week: Sunday
• Language: Catalan
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R2053 f4v
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Violant
• Recipient: Jean III, Count of Armagnac

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: the sourcing information for this document is crucial to understanding its meaning because the Count of Armagnac was a threat to the security of the Crown of Aragon; Violant would have been highly motivated to convince the Count of Armagnac of Joan’s strength; at this moment, the Count of Armagnac faces problems with managing mercenary companies in his territory during a cold phase of the Hundred Years War

• Contextualization: the Count of Armagnac’s father came under suspicion of helping the English during the most recent hot phase of the Hundred Years War; in 1388, the Count of Armagnac did invade the Crown of Aragon, but was defeated; somehow Luchino Scarampi is getting away with funding both the Crown of Aragon and the Count of Aramagnac in the late 1380s, but this information is from the Wikipedia page just linked and I have not been able to find a scholarly source to confirm that part of the proceedings of the Cortes of Monzon

• Corroboration: the documents examined in Episode 61 and Episode 83, regarding the movements of Isabella de Majorca, help to corroborate the timeline of the Count of Armagnac’s political maneuvers against the Crown of Aragon at this time

• Close-Reading: Violant uses the phrase ‘tal convalescencia’ to emphasize how it’s not just a usual convalescence but instead Joan’s got such a convalescence going that it must be considered pretty great

What is this document doing?

• This document establishes contact in an apparently routine way between two elites.
• The document attempts to portray the health of the king as secure.

Questions

• Did Violant fear that the Count of Armagnac had heard rumors of Joan’s illness and, if so, did that affect her word choice in this letter?
• When did Joan and Violant find out that Isabella de Majorca had sold her throne rights to the Count of Armagnac?
• Was Luchino Scarampi actually funding the Count of Armagnac in the late 1380s?

AI Usage

The transcription and translation of this document was carried out by my OpenClaw pipeline. I used Perplexity to research the Count of Armagnac, Jean III.

I really wanted the claim about Scarampi funding the Count of Armagnac in 1388-1390 to be true, but it appears that this is just not substantiated in scholarly sources. I would even settle for finding the accusation from the Corts of Monzon, but that too is not currently available in searchable full-text. I used ChatGPT and Claude in my attempt to track down the claim in Wikipeida, to no avail.

Bibliography

• Ferrer Mallol, Maria Teresa, and Carles Vela Aulesa. “Un mercader italià a la cort catalanoaragonesa: Luchino Scarampi.” Acta historica et archaeologica mediaevalia 32 (2015): 301–478.
• Mitjà, Marina. ‘Procés contra els consellers domèstics i curials de Joan I, entre ells Bernat Metge.’ Butlletí de la Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona, 1958, 375–417.
• Sesma Muñoz, José Ángel (ed.), Acta Curiarum Regni Aragonum. Tomo V. Cortes de los reinados de Pedro IV/4 y Juan I: Cortes de Zaragoza 1381. Cortes Generales de Monzón, Tamarite de Litera y Fraga 1383-1384. Cortes Generales de Monzón 1388-1389. Zaragoza: Ibercaja / Cortes de Aragón / Gobierno de Aragón / Grupo CEMA, 2009.

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