Season 1, Episode 123

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Joan informs the prohomens of Athens that the Viscount of Rocabertí should be taken seriously as a political leader and that he, Joan, plans to personally visit Athens.

Today’s Document

• Subject: introducing Athens to their new leader, Felip Dalmau, the Viscount of Rocabertí
• Date: April 26, 1387
• Day of the Week: Friday
• Language: Catalan
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1751 f51v-52r
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Joan
• Recipients: the city leaders of Athens

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: Joan’s decision to send Felip Delmau, the Viscount of Rocabertí to Athens indicates a level of seriousness in his desire to keep the city under the rule of the Crown of Aragon; the Viscount of Rocabertí was a trusted ally and possibly a close friend (see Additional Notes below); the trouble in Athens might be another instance in a pattern of various rabble rousers across the realm taking advantage of the succession transition to gain concessions or break away from royal authority

• Contextualization: the expansion of the Crown of Aragon to its height as a Mediterranean power started in the late thirteenth century and continued until the end of the fourteenth century; Catalan merchants led the way in establishing trade outposts in various parts of the Mediterranean which would then morph into territories under the sovereignty of the state; that pattern of development applied, at various times, to places such as Sardinia, Naples, Djerba (an island off the coast of Tunisia), several Greek islands, and Athens; in the event, Athens was conquered by the Florentine Nerio Acciaiuoli in 1388¹; the county of Rocabertí had been around for a few centuries but now its castle is rubble

• Corroboration: this document complicates the conceptions of Joan’s health problems, in that Joan considers himself capable of a long journey; it also paints a rosy picture of the future of his reign, one in which he would be able to leave for a long journey without having to worry about a slew of problems brewing at home; this letter certainly corroborates Violant’s positive depiction of Joan’s health in yesterday’s document, in Episode 122, but are these upbeat portrayals illusions?

• Close-Reading: Joan does not use the word ‘rebellion’ but instead phrases the problem in less severe terms by saying that certain localities that ‘have been transported away from our obedience’; Joan communicates the importance of the Viscount of Rocabertí by saying that he is not the kind of person that he would ‘send into forgetfulness’

What is this document doing?

• This document seeks to minimize the severity of the resistance to the authority of the Crown of Aragon.
• The document demonstrates optimistic self-perceptions from Joan about his own physical capabilites.

Questions

• Did the classical heritage of Athens play a large role in Joan’s desire to personally visit?
• How integral to the Crown of Aragon was Athens in Joan’s perceptions of his own realm?
• Was it an easy decision for Joan to send the Viscount of Rocabertí to this distant location?
• Who were the leaders of the resistance against the Crown of Aragon in Athens and what were their primary motivations?

Additional Notes

A great example of the closeness between Violant and the viscount and viscountess of Rocabertí is a 1388 letter examined by Dawn Bratsch-Prince, in which Violant describes profuse vomiting as a result of morning sickness.²

AI Usage

The transcription and translation of this document was carried out by my OpenClaw pipeline.

Bibliography

• Bisson, Thomas N. Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History. Clarendon Press, 1986.
• Bratsch-Prince, Dawn. “The Politics of Self-Representation in the Letters of Violant de Bar (1365–1431).” Medieval Encounters 12, no. 1 (2006): 2–25.
• Sabaté, Flocel. The Crown of Aragon: A Singular Mediterranean Empire. Brill, 2017.

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