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76 - How Vasco Martins de Melo and his son Gonçalo Vasques were taken captive in a skirmish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2024

Amélia 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 men of the King of Castile were lodging in the monasteries and throughout the city as they pleased, having found all the houses unprotected, with many goods and tools in them, because their owners had not had time, when they took refuge behind the old city wall, to keep everything and take it all along, but rather only those things that they could most easily gather up, as we have said. Many Christians and Jews hid those of their belongings that they could not take with them in wells; when the Castilians found out about this, they fished for the goods with grappling hooks, and collected all they could, along with many other things that they later took with them when they departed.

Since all the men were lodging very close to the city wall, there were frequent skirmishes, and men were wounded and taken prisoner on both sides. Thus was made captive Vasco Martins de Melo, whose responsibility was to guard the Sea Gate. He went forth one day to skirmish with Juan Duque, who was guarding the slaughterhouses nearby. Vasco Martins believed that all the men he had with him were going out with him, but some failed him at that moment. Juan Duque went forth against him with a strong company, and Vasco Martins was wounded and knocked to the ground while defending himself. At this point, his son Gonçalo Vasques came up to prevent them from killing him, and they went on defending themselves until both were wounded and taken captive, and Juan Duque took them both away as prisoners to his lodging.

The next day, Diogo Lopes Pacheco came to see Vasco Martins, and they exchanged very harsh words. Vasco Martins told him that it was because of his plotting and manoeuvring that King Enrique had started this war and come to attack Lisbon. Moreover, other unpleasant words were exchanged between them at that time. King Fernando, learning of the way in which Vasco Martins and his son were taken prisoner, sent to Sines for Pedro Fernández Cabeza de Vaca, who had been captured in that town in one of the Castilian galleys that had run ashore on the coast there in a storm when they were passing that way. They exchanged him for Vasco Martins and his son, and thus they were released and were at liberty.

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The Chronicles of Fernão Lopes
Volume 2. The Chronicle of King Fernando of Portugal
, pp. 135 - 136
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2023

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