Book contents
159 - How the king sent a message to Castile about the taking of Badajoz and of what was said about the matter
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
Summary
With Badajoz gained in this manner, the king immediately sent Afonso Vasques, the Commander of Ortalagoa, to Córdoba, where his adversary was, to inform him how he had taken that town, not with the intention of breaking the truce, but as a forfeit for the things we have spoken of, and not for anything else. In these circumstances, although Alfonso Sánchez and other great and rich people had been imprisoned, all of whom he could well continue to detain should he so wish, his only objective had been that his fellow countrymen should receive satisfaction for the damage they had suffered, and that the [Portuguese] prisoners be released. This the King of Castile had not done, yet should he order their immediate release, he would have his town back right away, and thus he would have satisfied what he was bound and obliged to do.
The King of Castile replied, without bringing any more of his arguments to the fore, that his town had been taken from him as it ought not to have been, and Alburquerque scaled, while it believed itself safe and secure, on account of the articles and oaths sworn in this regard; and he requested him to hand it back to him. To this end, he sent as messengers to the King of Portugal the aforementioned García González and the Doctors Pero Sánchez and Antón Sánchez, who completed their embassy in exactly those terms.
The king replied to them that he had rightly taken the said town as security for the said debts, and that once he had satisfaction for what he was owed, he was ready to hand it over to him. If his adversary kept saying that he had taken the town from him unlawfully, he wished in this matter to submit to the judgement of those who, as laid down in the articles, should be nominated by both sides in such a case. They should meet in the border area between Elvas and Badajoz, and he would fulfil whatever verdict they might reach on this matter. With this reply, the envoys left.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Chronicles of Fernão LopesVolume 4. The Chronicle of King João i of Portugal, Part II, pp. 341 - 342Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023