Season 1, Episode 178
Violant sends a letter of general good tidings to the King of Castile, in which she writes yet again that Joan is convalescing well.
Episode 178
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ACA CR R2053 f13r Source: PARES
Today’s Document
- Subject: general good tidings from one monarch to another
- Date: June 20, 1387
- Day of the Week: Thursday
- Language: Castilian
- Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R2053 f13r
- Link to PARES
- Place: Barcelona
- Sender: Violant
- Recipient: Juan I, King of Castile
Historical Thinking Notes
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Sourcing: this letter celebrates the defeat of the effort by John of Gaunt, with Portuguese allies, to invade Castile between April and June; Violant, at this time, had nothing to gain by providing the King of Castile with details regarding Joan’s actual health condition and was highly motivated to return to her usual statement of Joan ‘convalescing’ well; it is likely that this letter functioned as a kind of ‘ping’ that provided proof not of Joan’s physical strength but of his status as not dead
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Contextualization: John of Gaunt’s invasion of Castile constituted a proxy war between England and France during a lull in the direct fighting of the One Hundred Years War, and the regents ruling France, the Duc de Berry and the Duke of Burgundy, apparently authorized French mercenaries to travel to Castile to help Juan I to fight off the invasion
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Corroboration: the documents examined in Episode 80, Episode 108, Episode 109 and Episode 140 capture the viewpoint of the monarchs of the Crown of Aragon on John of Gaunt’s invasion of Castile from its beginning in March
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Close-Reading: the addressee of this letter is the ‘Rey de Castiella de Leon y de Portugal hermano nostro muyt caro’ and the decision to include Portugal in that title reflects the exhubrance over the defeat of John of Gaunt’s invasion; no one seriously believed that at this time Juan I of Castile actually held any political control in Portugal, but this provides a window into how the titles of medieval elites included place names with a large amount of flexibility
What is this document doing?
- This document deploys highly formulaic language in order to promote an image of stability and normalcy in the status of the sender.
- The document, by referring to the recipient as ‘most dear brother,’ seeks to maintain an understanding of close connection within a social network of elites.
Questions
- How did Juan I of Castile react to seeing himself addressed as the king of Portugal?
- Did Violant consider revealing more about Joan’s current health status?
- How was the chamberlain, Jacme Castellane, involved in the composition of this document?
AI Usage
The transcription and translation of this document was carried out by my OpenClaw pipeline. One word in the document, the fourth word on line 7, proved extremely difficult paleographically, so I asked Claude for help and it indeed gave me the breakthrough I needed for that word.
Bibliography
- Allmand, C. T. The Hundred Years War: England and France at War, c. 1300-c. 1450. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
- Goodman, Anthony. John of Gaunt: the exercise of princely power in fourteenth-century Europe. Routledge, 2014.