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94 - How the king left for the banks of the Guadiana, and how the princess was brought to Oporto
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
Summary
After these talks and agreements had been carried out in the way we have described, letters suddenly arrived from the envoys who had left for the [Papal] Curia more than a year earlier, explaining how they had found the Holy Father in Genoa. They had presented to him the petition they had brought and expressed to him its content, and to all of what they sought from him he had given his gracious assent; moreover, that document had already been duly signed, and they would be taking steps to obtain letters of confirmation. The king was highly pleased at this, as, indeed, was the duke, who immediately agreed to send his daughter to Oporto, so that the king could welcome and marry her, once he was ready and disposed to do so.
One day, amid these events, the king issued an invitation to the duke and all the English knights who were there, along with the Galicians and Castilians who accompanied him. He made for them a truly magnificent hall by joining the tent where the negotiations had been held to other tents which they pitched, in sequence, next to them. In the hall Nuno Álvares Pereira, the Constable of Portugal, acted as master of ceremonies, seating every man according to his rank at the tables where they were to eat, and where great nobles served them with napkins, cups and other items in keeping with such an invitation. After the meal was over, discussions continued for a long time, and then gifts were exchanged. Afterwards the duke took his leave and headed for Celanova, 4 leagues away.
Next day, as had been agreed between them, the king sent his proctors to the monastery where the duke was lodging. These were Dom Lourenço [Vicente], Archbishop of Braga, Vasco Martins de Melo the Elder and João Rodrigues de Sá. Three days after their arrival, on 11 November, as we have said, Queen Constanza, along with her husband the king and Princess Philippa his daughter and many noblemen of his household, praised and approved the agreements (which we have described) on behalf of themselves and their successors, in so far as it applied to each of them, and they swore to keep them and to uphold what was written in the treaties.
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- The Chronicles of Fernão LopesVolume 4. The Chronicle of King João i of Portugal, Part II, pp. 224 - 226Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023