You should know that, once the Master had assumed the role of ruler and defender of the realm and learned that the King of Castile was approaching with his forces and intending to invade, he dispatched letters at once to a number of towns, both large and small, as well as to certain individuals, notifying them that they well knew that these realms were on the point of being lost. He also told them that the King of Castile was on his way to seize them and subjugate the people, contrary to what had been laid down in the treaties which he had promised to uphold. This they should regard as a really grave and extraordinary fact, to the extent that it was preferable they should all venture forth and die confronting it than that they should fall into such hateful servitude. As for him, for the sake of the honour and defence of the realm and of all those whose native country it was, he had set his hand to the task of ruling and defending them, which was a cause that, with the grace of God and their noble assistance, he intended to pursue to the end. He therefore requested all men with a noble heart, as true Portuguese, to declare their allegiance to Portugal and to pay no heed to any letters to the contrary which the queen or the King of Castile might send them.

Among the places reached by his message was the city of Oporto, where his letters were not listened to in vain. Indeed, when the letters had been examined, the people all gathered together at once, with great determination and at the ready, especially the humbler folk, for a number of others among the common people hesitated and were afraid to set about such a task.

Then those who were called ‘the common folk’ told a certain man, one Álvaro da Veiga, to carry the flag through the city in the name of the Master of Avis, but he refused to take it, arguing that he ought not to do so. They immediately called him a traitor, saying that he was on the queen's side, readily stabbing him so many times that it was an extraordinary sight to behold.