Season 1, Episode 7

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Joan fulfills administrative responsibilities in a region within his portfolio as Duke of Girona.

Today’s Document

• Subject: The execution of the last will of Andreu de Fenollet
• Date: December 31, 1387
• Day of the Week: Monday
• Language: Latin
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1752 f23r 2a
• Link to PARES
• Place: Girona
• Sender: Joan
• Recipients: All of the leading officials in Roussillon and Cerdagne

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: Joan gives his administrative blessing to the normal process of execution for the last will of Andreu de Fennollet, the Viscount of Illa and Canet; my guess is that at the moment of the creation of this document, Joan must be thinking about transitions of power and how to navigate them

• Contextualization: these regions had been under the control of the Crown of Aragon for decades and from what I have read thus far in the secondary literature leads me to think that nothing controversial or dangerous is happening in Roussillon or Cerdagne

• Corroboration: I will need to look for other documents from the Roussillon and Cerdagne regions, specifically around Perpignan to see what else might shed light on the significance of this document

• Close-Reading: again, my limited Latin ability hinders the close-reading, but nothing right now jumps out at me as anything other than a routine administrative document that says everyone should just follow what Andreu de Fenollet had in his will

What is this document doing?

• This document supplies administrative support for an orderly transition of power in the Vescomtat d’Illa i Canet.
• The document reinforces Joan’s ducal powers over the region near Perpignan.

Questions

• Was this routine administrativa or were there higher stakes involved?
• How did the creation of this document fit in to the conversations that must have been swirling regarding the imminent death of Joan’s father?

Pere’s Poem to Joan

Lledó Ruiz Domingo reproduced Pere’s poem (the original is ACA CR R1265 f65r), noting that it has been previously published in few different secondary sources. In Ruiz Domingo’s article, the start of the poem appears in English translation as follows:

Dear son, on saint Anthony’s name; I swear that you are being illadvised/ you are abandoning a great marriage prospect/for a good reign/however, you have been tricked and agreed to another marriage, signed with the Devil.¹

Despite his father’s artistic efforts, the poem did not convince Joan to abandon his plans to marry Violant de Bar.

AI Usage

This document proved extremely challenging for me, as I thought that ‘manumissoria’ meant the freeing of someone, possibly a captive of war. Nope! Instead, variations of the term manumission here relate to the execution of a last will. I also had a difficult time understanding the place names, in this document written in Latin versions. I went through a long process with ChatGPT in order to figure this out, and to be honest I would have been completely stumped by this document without the help of the AI chatbot. You can see my process in the transcript of my chat.

Map of the Crown of Aragon Territories with Dates

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.
• Roca, Josep M. Johan I d’Aragó. Barcelona: Institució Patxot, 1929.
• Ruiz Domingo, Lledó. “Surrounding the Future Queen of the Crown of Aragon: Violant of Bar’s Household as Duchess of Girona (1384–1386).” Royal Studies Journal 10, no. 1 (2023): 96-135.
• Tasis i Marca, Rafael. Joan I: el rei caçador i músic. Editorial Aedos, 1959.

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