12 - Concerning the agreements made between the prince and King Pedro about the matters which the king had promised the prince to attend to
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
Summary
After this, the prince had some of his men go to King Pedro with the request that he honour the agreement between them, of which he was well aware, namely that both he and all the other lords and men-at-arms who were there should be paid their wages and expenses according to their status and without fail. Though in Bayonne the king had paid him and the others a part of what they were due to receive, he, the prince, nevertheless still owed considerable amounts to all of them, according to the solemn oaths that he had sworn to his men, having the king's agreement to this, as the latter was also well aware. He therefore beseeched the king, now that he was in possession of his kingdom, to arrange for them all to be paid, thus releasing the prince from the obligations he had incurred with them. Furthermore, as the king, without his asking him, had freely undertaken to present to him land and income in the kingdom of Castile, as well as the lordship of Vizcaya and the town of Castro Urdiales, in accordance with the grants he had made in his charters, he now begged the king to fulfil his promise, so that he, the prince, might soon return home, since a long stay in his kingdoms with so many men was unprofitable, a great loss to him and very expensive.
The king listened to what the prince's men said to him and sent others with the answer that what they had said was true and that he was happy to fulfil everything he had promised. However, the king wished to change his view about the payment of what he owed, claiming that he had already made great payments of wages and expenses in the form of jewels and precious stones for which he had been paid at a rate well below their true value. The prince answered that his men had been offended by such payment and that they had been given precious stones and jewels which were of no use to them, instead of the money they needed to buy horses and arms with which to serve him, so that the king ought not to utter any words on that subject.
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- The Chronicles of Fernão LopesVolume 2. The Chronicle of King Fernando of Portugal, pp. 30 - 33Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023