Chapter 76 - Why discord broke out between Queen Leonor and the King of Castile
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 December 2023
Summary
People say that malice drinks most of its own poison, and this can certainly be said about Queen Leonor. That is because, lodging as she was in the same residence as her son-in-law the king, not many days passed before she began to dislike the king's company, and before he began to feel the same about her. They say that the displeasure which in the main the queen felt towards him began in the following way.
In Castile the Jewish chief rabbinate fell vacant at the very time when the queen sent the message to Coimbra about which you have already heard. The post was sought from the king in Santarém, where he was, and, learning of this, Queen Leonor approached him on behalf of Dom Yehuda, King Fernando's former treasurer, and a trusted counsellor of hers. The king avoided granting this to her and acceded to the choice of his wife Queen Beatriz on behalf of Dom David Negro, who had likewise been a counsellor of King Fernando and was a wealthy and very honourable Jew who had begun to serve Queen Beatriz as soon as she had arrived in Santarém. Since Queen Leonor was a stout-hearted woman who was always used to getting her own way and who bore in mind the approach she had adopted in bestowing on the king the governance of the realm, not to mention other matters, and since he had refused to accede to her choice for the rabbinate, which was in itself a trivial matter and the very first thing she had sought from him, she drew the conclusion that from then on she could expect little from him, especially as they were so different from one another both in character and in the way they discussed matters.
It is said that she was so furious with the king that she declared to a number of those who had accompanied her from Lisbon: ‘Just see what sort of great lord this man is! Just what favours can we expect from him when he refuses to grant me such a trivial request? What favour is he ever likely to grant to me or to you? In fact, I swear to you that, if you want to take my advice, you’d all do well to go over to the Master, for he's your fellow-countryman and a great lord who will offer you better things.
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- The Chronicles of Fernão LopesVolume 3. The Chronicle of King João I of Portugal, Part I, pp. 148 - 149Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023