Season 1, Episode 80

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Violant regrets that she and Joan could not grant Juan I of Castile’s request for military action against England.

Today’s Document

• Subject: regret for declining Juan I’s request for aid against England
• Date: March 14, 1387
• Day of the Week: Thursday
• Language: Castilian-Catalan-Aragonese
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R2056 f95v-96r
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Violant
• Recipient: Juan I King of Castile

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: Violant portrays herself as sharing responsibility for the decision of her husband to reject the request that came from the king of Castile

• Contextualization: relations between the Crown of Aragon and Castile had dramatically improved since the settlement of a recent contestation for the Castilian throne, with those most hostile to the Crown of Aragon losing in that struggle; during the One Hundred Years War, Castile came into direct conflict against England; at one one point England, through some adventures of John of Gaunt, had event attempted to take over Castile;

• Corroboration: a useful corroboration emerges when comparing the letter to this fellow monarch to those sent to other monarchs and political elites, such as in Episode 27, Episode 36, and Episode 71; the length of this letter, as a compensation for its rejection, reveals much about the perhaps less secure relationship between these monarchs

• Close-Reading: the letter contains a great many expressions of regret and promises of a better decision on other matters, but it is not clera if there is anything that would stick out to Juan I of Castile as particularly sincere or noteworthy for other reasons

What is this document doing?

• This document deploys the language of regret to preserve a relationship in the face of a rejection.
• The document establishes the queen as a soother of any tension in the relationship between the monarchy of Castile and the monarchy of the Crown of Aragon.

Questions

• Had Juan I of Castile thought the entrance of the Crown of Aragon into the conflict against England a realistic possibility?
• Were Joan and Violant worried about rejecting the King of Castile’s request?
• What were relations like between England and the Crown of Aragon at this time?
• Was Violant worried about the tone of this letter or confident in her ability to smooth out the tension?

AI Usage

I used Gemini for an initial transcription, which I then had Claude reconcile with its own initial transcription. Claude then produced a translation into English with footnotes.

Bibliography

• Allmand, C. T. The Hundred Years War: England and France at War, c. 1300-c. 1450. Cambridge University Press, 1988.

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