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171 - Concerning the decision that was taken to help the town of Tuy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
Summary
While these and other arguments voiced in the [Castilian] royal council were shaped by the great hatred they had for the Portuguese because of things that had happened in the past, two well-considered proposals emerged, which everyone praised as being well put and wisely thought out. They were the following:
First, concerning Prince Dinis, the brother of Prince João (who had died while in Castile, as you have already heard): that the king should allow him to take the title of king, and call himself Dinis, King of Portugal and of the Algarve, and that all the Portuguese who had gone over to Castile, plus those who were already there beforehand, should join him and receive him as their liege lord. In this way, on his entering the kingdom and making protracted promises to many, they would all come to him in order to be raised to a greater estate, declaring for him, and would give him the towns and castles as to their natural lord; in this way they would recover Portugal, since up till then they had not been able to do so, whether by trickery or through great expenditure of effort. This could be done well, and better than previously; for with the men that the king would give him and with those that the Portuguese had there, he could certainly raise 2,000 lances, apart from other people who might join him. Entering in this way through Beira, Martim Vasques da Cunha, João Fernandes Pacheco, João Afonso Pimentel and the others would be a great help and the means whereby the common folk could adopt him as their king and liege lord.
People say that this accord was on the advice of Martim Vasques and the other Portuguese who had gone there. They said that in that district there was no officer of the marches, nor anyone else who could defend it.
The second agreement was that the king should assemble from elsewhere as many men as possible, and send them under a good captain to the town of Tuy to assist in its siege. The rumour should be spread that the king was going there in person to do battle with his adversary.
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- Information
- The Chronicles of Fernão LopesVolume 4. The Chronicle of King João i of Portugal, Part II, pp. 365 - 367Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023