68 - How King Enrique sent a message to King Fernando to propose peace to him, and concerning the arguments used by his envoy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
Summary
Despite what Diogo Lopes had told him and the other news which he had received from Portugal, as we have said, King Enrique was, however, disinclined to wage war on King Fernando. Rather, he was greatly troubled that King Fernando was breaking the treaties and good relations which he had established with him. In addition, before making any move to invade Portugal, he dispatched as an envoy to King Fernando a bishop, who some say was Don Juan Manrique, the Bishop of Sigüenza. He travelled to Portugal and met the king in a township 4 leagues away from Santarém, named Salvaterra de Magos. The bishop was an experienced and eloquent man, and, after presenting his credentials to the king, in the presence of Count João Afonso Telo and others who were with him, he addressed him as follows:
Sire, King Enrique, my liege lord, recognizing the strong relationship which exists between you and him and desiring to have peace and friendship with you, both for the good of the peoples that you and he have to govern and for the especial love and goodwill which he feels towards you, has expressed the wish that there should exist such an accord between you and him that no contention could ever arise afterwards. It was this that moved him to make a peace treaty with you, which was signed subject to certain conditions and the swearing of oaths, as is well known to all here present. In order to strengthen those conditions and oaths and to bolster even more your good relationship, it was laid down that his daughter would be given to you in marriage, along with a number of towns and villages in his kingdom.
Yet within just a few days, for what reason I know not, you broke the one clause which you ought most to have kept, which was to marry his legitimate daughter, since it was a marriage which would have brought to you much honour and would have added unto your kingdom the places which, along with her, he was giving to you. But you failed to marry her and married another, sending your excuses to my liege lord the king, just as you saw fit.
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- Information
- The Chronicles of Fernão LopesVolume 2. The Chronicle of King Fernando of Portugal, pp. 121 - 123Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023