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107 - How Valderas was sacked

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2024

Amélia P. Hutchinson
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Juliet Perkins
Affiliation:
King's College London
Philip Krummrich
Affiliation:
Morehead State University, Kentucky
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Summary

The duke's men, although they were few, as we have said, because they were men outside their own land, in disarray and ill-supplied in terms of provisions, were very wretched and in great want. Deeming all the land their own, when they captured some town, they sometimes said to the Portuguese that, by God, they did wrong by sacking their fortresses and towns, and other such statements which the Portuguese mocked. This went on to such an extent that the king was very worried regarding their protection and discipline. After the count returned from taking the men from Valderas to safety, the king took counsel regarding the way in which the town should be looted, inasmuch as the duke said that his men were not getting along well with the Portuguese. He ordered that the English should loot the town until noon, and the Portuguese from then until dark. So it was that the duke and his men went in during the morning and began to plunder. The Portuguese, seeing them carry away the provisions, considered it a great wrong, and commented at length among themselves about this. As a result, they went to the town well before noon and began to plunder alongside the English. The latter complained forcefully about this, and both sides quarrelled with each another. Then the duke went to the tent where the king was, expressing his serious grievance regarding the Portuguese, who not only had gone in to loot before noon, against his orders, but were even taking from the English what they had plundered.

When he heard this, the king quickly took to horse, greatly annoyed that his command had been disobeyed, for it is very strange in war to loot in such a way before the allotted time. Burning with great anger, sword in hand, he drove them out, striking at those he found in the streets. Several were wounded and two actually killed: one whose throat the king slashed with his own hand, and another whom he forced to jump down from the wall, from which fall he immediately died. After a guard was set on the streets by those to whom the king entrusted the control of the town, as if they were defending it from enemies, he returned to the camp.

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The Chronicles of Fernão Lopes
Volume 4. The Chronicle of King João i of Portugal, Part II
, pp. 242 - 243
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2023

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