‘We want to know and be clearly informed’: official records, unofficial correspondence and oral communication in the fourteenth-century Crown of Aragon (Majorca, Sardinia, Sicily)

ABSTRACT

Starting in the 1340s, the Crown of Aragon strengthened its position in the Western Mediterranean by absorbing the Kingdom of Majorca (1343), reincorporating the realm of Sicily (1392) and securing its control over constantly rebellious Sardinia (1420). To govern those territories, which were distant from the royal court and separated by sea, the kings of Aragon developed a pervasive information strategy that facilitated the retrieval of data from their archives and the transformation of that data into useful knowledge that kept them informed about the three islands’ administration. The monarchs developed regional series of registers specifically dedicated to Majorca, Sardinia and Sicily in which orders and ordinances pertaining to the islands were recorded and they created or strengthened territorial archives for preserving records and accounts produced in the localities. They also relied on a network of accountable officers and informants who updated them via official and unofficial letters and, finally, they gathered intelligence using envoys who travelled continuously across the Mediterranean to inform the Crown on a vast range of affairs pertaining to the islands. This essay explores these topics during the long fourteenth century, using the records and correspondence preserved in various archives of the Catalan-Aragonese world and emphasizing the role of both the written word and oral communication for ruling a late-medieval composite polity like the Crown of Aragon.

KEYWORDS:

• Archives
• communication
• Crown of Aragon
• government
• information
• later Middle Ages
• Mediterranean
• Majorca
• Sardinia
• Sicily

Acknowledgements

I thank Fabrizio Alias and Victòria Burguera i Puigserver for their feedback on this essay; Andrea Pergola, for his invaluable help for exploring Sardinian sources at the Archivio di Stato di Cagliari; and Valerio Luca Floris for sharing with me his unpublished PhD dissertation on the Sardinian procurator regius. Least but not last, I am grateful to Maria Barceló Crespí and Paul Dryburgh for hosting me respectively at the Departament de Ciències Històriques i Teoria de les Arts of the Universitat de les Illes Balears and at the Collections Expertise and Engagement department of The National Archives, Kew (UK), where I conceived and wrote this essay.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Resources

The following abbreviations have been used for archival references: Archivo de la Corona de Aragón = ACA, and the series Colleciones = Coll., and Real Cancillería = RC, with its subseries Registros = R, and Cartas Reales = C; Arxiu del Regne de Mallorca = ARM, and its sections Arxiu Històric = AH, and Gobernació = G; Archivio di Stato di Cagliari = ASCa, and the series Antico Archivio Regio = AAR; Archivio di Stato di Palermo = ASPa, and the series Real Cancelleria = RC, Protonotaro del Regno = PR, and Tribunale del Real Patrimonio = TRP.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2023.2201291

Notes

1. For an overview of the Crown of Aragon’s history, see Bisson, Medieval Crown of Aragon. With a focus on the Mediterranean expansion, see Abulafia, The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms.

2. On the concept of thalassocracy in the Mediterranean, see the illuminating analysis by Abulafia, “Thalassocracies.” As discussed by Hillgarth, “The Problem of a Catalan Mediterranean Empire,” 52–4, the thirteenth-century Crown of Aragon was militarily and economically too fragile to control a large trans-Mediterranean dominion, with Majorca and Sicily – acquired in 1229–31 and 1282 – becoming independent kingdoms under cadet branches of the Barcelona’s royal dynasty in 1276 and 1296. On Majorca as an autonomous realm, see Abulafia, A Mediterranean Emporium and bibliography therein mentioned; on Sicily, see D’Alessandro, Politica e società, and Backman, The Decline. On late-medieval Sardinia: Anatra, La Sardegna, as well as Schena, “The Kingdom.”

3. Lalinde Abadía, La gobernación, and “Virreyes”; as well as Ryder, “The Evolution.”

4. For a recent overview on the Crown of Aragon, see Sabaté, “The Crown of Aragon.”

5. Lalinde Abadía, La Corona de Aragón.

6. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Records.

7. For instance, see in this special issue the essay by Isabella Lazzarini, “Ruling by Information,” and the bibliography mentioned therein.

8. Brendecke, The Empirical Empire. But see also the contribution by Guillaime Gaudin and Thomas Calvo in this special issue.

9. Elliott, Imperial Spain, 44.

10. Castillo Gómez, “The New Culture of Archives.”

11. Sevillano Colom, “De la cancillería”; Trenchs Odena and Aragó Cabañas, Las cancillerias; and Casula, La cancelleria.

12. See respectively Burns, Introduction, and “The Paper Revolution”; and López Rodríguez, “El Archivo Real,” and “La serie de registros.” For studying these questions, the source collection on the Crown of Aragon’s archival history compiled by Conde y Delgado de Molina, Reyes y archivos, is extremely useful.

13. Péquignot, Au nom du roi, in particular chs I–III.

14. López Rodríguez, “Orígenes del archivo,” 446–51, as well as Conde y Delgado de Molina, Reyes y archivos, doc. 35.

15. Silvestri, “Archives,” 438–40.

16. On the previous Catalan tradition of archiving and record-keeping, in addition to López Rodríguez, “Orígenes del archivo,” see Kosto, “The Liber Feudorum Maior.”

17. Conde y Delgado de Molina, Reyes y archivos, docs. 12, 13, 14.

18. Ibid., doc. 47. On these ordinances, see also the useful essay by Conde y Delgado de Molina, Les primeres ordinacions. On the fourteenth-century archivist, see also Aragó Cabañas, “Funciones.”

19. Trenchs Odena and Aragó Cabanas, Las cancillerias, 14.

20. Conde y Delgado de Molina, Reyes y archivos, 42–8.

21. ACA, Coll., Memoriales, 51, fols. 1 r-37 v.

22. De Vivo, “Archival Intelligence,” 54–5.

23. ACA, RC, R, 53 and 54.

24. Crooks, “Before Humpty Dumpty,” 266–8.

25. Although the series Sardinie infantis Alfonsi is composed of six registers, some of them include two volumes: ACA, RC, R, 394–403. The reference is ibid., 398, fol. 1 r.

26. ACA, RC, R, 508–518.

27. Casula, Il documento regio, 59. Peter IV of Aragon’s Sardinian registers are the following: ACA, RC, R, 1006–1048.

28. ACA, RC, R, nos. 1406–1449.

29. ARM, AH, Lletres comuns, fol. 73 v (March 18, 1396).

30. ACA, RC, R, 2263, fol. 79 r, (January 9, 1398).

31. ACA, Coll., Memoriales, 51, fols. 57 v-66 r.

32. Like Majorca and Sardinia, many of those documents can be found in the series Commune sigilli secreti and Curie sigilli secreti, as well as in the volumes of the infante Martin, before he became king of Aragon (Corrao, Governare un regno, 67–8, note 1).

33. In this respect, see the hundreds of letters transcribed in ACA, RC, R, 2298, 2299 and 2299 bis.

34. Corrao, Governare un regno, 107. De facto King Martin of Aragon ordered his son to give the leading position of the Sicilian royal council to Bernat Cabrera (Starrabba, “Documenti,” doc. III).

35. For instance, see the various instructions King Martin of Aragon sent to his son in Sicily through embassies in Starrabba, “Documenti,” docs I, VI, VIII, IX, XII and XIII. On the management of tratte, see ACA, RC, R, 2324 (1402–1407).

36. ACA, RC, R, 2298, fol. 14 r (November 22, 1397).

37. In ibid., fol. 13 v (November 23, 1397), for instance, Martin of Aragon wrote Francisco Casasaia that he had already dismissed the Sicilian envoy Francesco Granalosa ‘because before his arrival we had received the letters brought by the courier you had sent to us.’

38. ACA, RC, R, 2298, fols. 11 v-14 r. On this mission, see also Starrabba, “Documenti,” doc. IV.

39. Thanks to his informers, King Martin of Aragon was even aware of the ‘poor government’ (mal regiment) of the Kingdom of Sicily, as he explicitly complained in a letter addressed to the Sicilian royal council (Starrabba, “Documenti,” doc. V).

40. ACA, RC, R, 2298, fols. 127 v-128 v, undated.

41. Canellas and Torra, Los registros, 102–8. Note that for a long time some of those ‘registres de Sicilia’ were preserved in Sicily at the private house of the royal secretary Francesc Martorell’s wife, as attested by an order of John II of Aragon (1458–79) that ‘they had to be transferred to the Barcelona archive, in which the other registers of King Alfonso are already stored’ (ACA, RC, R, 3393, fol. 14 v, June 2, 1474). On the chancery registers produced in Sicily, see instead Silvestri, “That Register.”

42. Silvestri, “Archives,” 441–5.

43. The Crown of Aragon’s inbound letters are today preserved in the royal chancery’s subseries known as cartas reales, about 50,000 items. On this archival source, but with a focus on Sicily, see Corrao, “Cartas reales”; on Sardinia: Pergola, “Scrivere al re.”

44. Conde y Delgado de Molina, Reyes y archivos, doc. 260 (December 21, 1332). On Descoll, see Boscolo, “Bernardo Dez Coll.”

45. Alias, “Amministrazione,” 91.

46. Olla Repetto, “La politica,” 468.

47. Conde y Delgado de Molina, Reyes y archivos, doc. 261 (May 13, 1334).

48. Olla Repetto, “La politica,” 469–70.

49. Even the Sardinian governor maintained an intense communication with Barcelona’s mestre racional, as demonstrated by the several outgoing letters transcribed in his registers, for example, ASCa, AAR, K3, which includes records from 1407 to 1451.

50. In ACA, RC, C, Martí, caja 8, no. 854 (November 11, 1405), Cagliari’s urban elite explained to the monarch that, ‘as we have previously explained to you in various other letters, [the envoy] misser Iohan de Valterra was and is in Arborea for negotiating peace, but we still do not know what is going on.’ The topic is discussed in two other surviving letters ACA, RC, C, Martí, caja 7, no. 846 (November 4, 1405), and ibid., caja 8, no. 872 (November 18, 1405).

51. ACA, RC, C, Martí, caja 1, no. 4 (July 11, 1396).

52. ACA, RC, C, Martí, caja 1, no. 32 (August 22, 1396). A following letter informed the monarch that Sassari castle’s garrison had surrendered (ibid., no. 33, August 30, 1397).

53. Lafuente, “Fiscalidad.” See for instance, the 35,000 florins of Aragon that Martin I asked his Barcelona subjects for Sardinia’s socors by imposing the dret de pariatge tax in ACA, RC, R, 2227, fol. 10 rv (October 16, 1402), fol. 12 r (October 14, 1402), fol. 19 rv (November 3, 1402), and in many other records in the same volume.

54. Learning that the jewels had been pawned, Ferdinand I of Aragon later ordered their retrieval (ACA, RC, R, 2404, fols. 7 v-8 r (January 1, 1414).

55. ASCa, AAR, K3, fol. 67 rv (December 30, 1410).

56. As discussed in detail by Ferrer i Mallol, “El patrimoni reial,” King Martin I started the difficult retrieval of the royal patrimony and rights that had been alienated. The reference is in ACA, RC, R, 2398, fols. 93 v-94 r (June 8, 1414).

57. ACA, RC, R, 2398, fol. 64 r [1413].

58. ACA, RC, R, 2398, fols. 93 v-94 r (June 8, 1414).

59. The instructions are recorded in ACA, RC, R, 2398, fols. 100 r-105 v, and 108 v-110 r.

60. ACA, RC, R, 1990, fol. 42 r (February 26, 1387).

61. Floris, “La procurazione,” 42.

62. Serci, Corona d’Aragona, 186.

63. Alias, “L’amministrazione,” 92–3.

64. Urban, “Joan Guerau,” doc. 11. Some useful examples of documentary dispersal in Sardinia are discussed in Serci, Corona d’Aragona, 188–98.

65. There is some useful information on the Majorcan archives’ history, holdings and relevant bibliography in Urgell Hernández, Arxiu.

66. Among the various series of the governors preserved at ARM, see Lletres comunes, Lletres reials, Llicències i guiatges, Pregons and Suplicacions; the royal procurators’ series include Comuns, Dades, Lletres i provisions, Lletres reials, Rebudes.

67. ARM, G, Lletres reials, 33, fol. 172 r (December 12, 1449).

68. ACA, RC, R, 1990, fols. 84 v-85 r (March 23, 1387).

69. ACA, RC, R, 1992, fols. 83 v-84 r (February 3, 1389).

70. Ibid., fols. 92 v-93 r (February 3, 1389), and fols. 89 v-90 r (February 10, 1389).

71. Ibid., 93 v (January 26, 1389).

72. ACA, RC, R, 1994 (April 5, 1389), and ACA, RC, R 1992, fols. 89 v-90 r (February 10, 1389). On John I’s fiscal policy in Majorca, see Cateura Benasser, “Fiscalidad Real”, 460–1.

73. The reference is in ACA, RC, R, 1994, fols. 8 v-9r (May 20, 1389), which is followed by the list of the 56 recipients to whom the same letter was sent.

74. ACA, RC, C, Joan I, caja 9, no. 1008 (May 13, 1396).

75. ACA, RC, R, 2263, fols. 60 v-61 r (August 20, 1397). ‘Because of the huge distance from here [Majorca] to the above-mentioned city [of Zaragoza]’ (ACA, RC, R, 2356, fol. 43 r, November 18, 1397), the viceroy Hug d’Anglesola constantly kept the monarch informed via letter of the Kingdom of Majorca’s management, as well as of the continuous piratical attacks along the realm’s coasts (ACA, RC, R, 2357, fols. 15 v-16 v, July 26, 1397).

76. ACA, RC, R, 2356, fol. 18 rv (June 22, 1398).

77. ACA, RC, R, 2357, fols. 15 v-16 v (September 26, 1397).

78. Sastre Moll, “Aportación mallorquina.” More broadly on piracy in the Kingdom of Majorca, see the recent doctoral thesis by Burguera i Puigserver, “Els perills de la mar.”

79. ACA, RC, R, 2356, fol. 43 (November 18, 1397). But in 1392, Majorca’s lieutenant governor Francesc Çagarriga explained to King John I that the latter’s appointment of Antoni Font as lieutenant of the Majorca’s royal castle ‘was in detriment of yours and of your royalties’, via a detailed letter to the protonotari Bartomeu Sirvent (ARM, AH, Lletres comuns, 64, fols. 4 v-5 r, January 2, 1392).

80. ACA, RC, C, Martí, caja 8, no. 951 (March 17, 1406).

81. ACA, RC, C, Martí, cajas 1–15.

82. ACA, RC, R, 1962, fol. 29 v (March 30, 1392). Subsequent letters addressed to Martin the Humane concern the Crown’s marriage policy (ibid., 1964, fol. 71 rv, April 11, 1393, and ibid. fols. 202 v-203 r, December 3, 1394), the acquisition of relics (ibid., fols. 72 v-73 r, April 13, 1393), and the dispatch of two leopards by the King of Cyprus (fols. 100 r, July 18, 1393).

83. The existing cartas reales pertaining to the age of John I do not include Martin the Humane’s letters about the Sicilian campaign (ACA, RC, C, Joan I, cajas 1–11).

84. Silvestri, “Swine,” 195–7. As discussed, ibid., 194–5, the entire kingdom’s memory had been destroyed in 1356 due to a fire at the royal palace of Messina. On the records pertaining to the age of the Martins (1392-1410), see Silvestri, “Prime note.”

85. ASPa, PR, 4, fol. 107 v, August 29, 1393.

86. Ibid.

87. ASPa, PR, 4, fols. 107 v-108 r (August 29, 1393). Unsurprisingly, also the chronicler Zurita, Anales, book X, ch. LII, describes the role of oral communication in gathering information from Sicily: ‘Having listened to don Berenguer de Cruillas and having understood the difficulties his brother the Duke and the his nephews the monarchs were facing, [John I of Aragon] answered that he would have organized the army [to be sent] to Sicily, with which he was planning to move to Sardinia.’

88. Respectively, ASPa, PR, 4, fol. 107 v, August 29, 1393 and ASPa, RC, 18, fols. 70 v-71 r, September 25, 1393. Possibly to exercise pressure on his brother, Martin the Humane also informed the queen of Aragon about the forthcoming embassies, but with separate letters (respectively: ASPa, PR, 4, fol. 107 v (August 29, 1393), and ASPa, RC, 18, fol. 71r, September 25, 1393).

89. ACA, RC, R, 1966, fols. 116 v-117 r, January 18, 1394. On the fleet organization: ibid., fol. 115 v (January 28, 1394).

90. ACA, RC, R, 1966, fol. 117 v, undated. See the two letters recorded in ACA, RC, R, 1966, fol. 116 r (both dated January 28, 1394).

91. ACA, RC, R, 1966, fol. 130 v (April 10, 1394). On the Catalan and Valencian support to Duke Martin, see D’Alessandro, Politica e società, 140–2.

92. ACA, RC, R, 1966, fols. 138 v and 138 v-139 r, both dated (May 13, 1394).

93. See the three letters in ACA, RC, R, 1966, fol. 154 rv, with the first one dated July 16, 1394, and the others, July 18, 1394.

94. See respectively: ACA, RC, R, 1967, fol. 21 rv (April 30, 1395), and fols. 23 r-25 r (undated); ACA, RC, R, 1967, fols. 41 v-43 r, undated, as well as the undated report the monarch received from Pisa (ACA, RC, C, Joan I, caja 11, no. 1174); and ACA, RC, R, 1968, fol. 28 rv (April 24, 1395).

95. On Sicily’s administration firstly under the duke of Montblanc and later under Martin of Sicily, see Silvestri, L’amministrazione, ch. 3. Specifically on the duke’s archivists, ibid., 416–17.

96. On the reign of Martin of Sicily, see the following records: ASPa, RC, 17–47; ibid., PR, 4–17; ibid., TRP, Lettere reali, 1–4. More in details, see: Silvestri, I registri.

97. Corrao, “Cartas reales,” 291. The Sicilian cartas reales are mostly included in ACA, C, Martí, cajas 11–15.

98. Sciascia, “Signuri.”

99. See for instance, ACA, RC, C, caja 12, no. 1329 (February 27, 1406) – which has been recently published by Sciascia, “Signuri,” doc. II – and no. 1392 (May 26, 1405).

100. ACA, RC, C, caja 15, no. 148 (3.9.1405); and caja 12, nos. 1330 (October 4, 1405) and 1363 (January 26, 1406). The account of Martin of Sicily’s travel across the two islands has been published by Sciascia, “Due lettere,” doc. 1.

101. There are countless examples, as one can see by examining the already mentioned Martin of Aragon’s Sicilian registers preserved in Barcelona (see above, note 33).

102. ACA, RC, R, 2263, f. 116rv (December 2, 1398).

103. For instance, see the correspondence published by Corrao, “De la Vostra Gran Senyoria,” namely the letters the Kingdom’s of Sicily treasurer Andreu Guardiola and secretary Juan Tudela wrote to the Kings of Aragon in 1415–17.

104. ACA, RC, C, Martí, caja 1, no. 32 (September 30, 1397). Here, the governor of Logudoro’s lieutenants explains to King Martin that the friar Pere Deuna will tell him in more detail the matters discussed in the letter.

105. Required by Martin of Aragon in Iberia, misser Iohan de Volterra replied to his monarch that ‘I am currently leaving Cagliari to meet your son in Sicily and to brief him, and as soon as possible, my lord, I will be at the service of your high lordship, to whom I will report the affairs both concerning Sicily and Sardinia’ (ACA, C, Martí, caja 8, no. 940, March 6, 1406).

106. ACA, RC, C, Martí, caja 8, no. 932 (March 1, 1406).

107. ARM, AH, Lletres comuns, 64, fols. 4 v-5 r (January 2, 1392).

108. ACA, RC, R, 2263, fol. 60 v, 208.1397. The question of information reliability has been discussed by Dover, “Good Information,” with reference to Italian diplomacy.

109. For instance, the Archive of the Crown of Aragon today preserves 28 cajas of cartas reales pertaining to the brief reign of Ferdinand I of Aragon: ACA, RC, C, Ferran I, cajas 1–28.

110. Details on the chancery records that the Crown of Aragon’s administration produced under Alfonso the Magnanimous in Canellas and Torra, Los registros.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Beatriu de Pinós programme (2018 BP 00274), funded by the Direcció General de Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, and by the European Union through the COFUND programme (contract no. 801370), funded under EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. This essay arises from the investigations led in the context of the research project ‘Movement and Mobility in the Medieval Mediterranean: People, Terms, and Concepts’ (PGC2018-094502-B-I00), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICINN), as well as of the consolidated research group ‘The Crown of Aragon, Islam, and the Mediterranean World’ (CAIMMed), recognized by the Government of Catalonia (2017 SGR 1092). https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/801370.

Notes on contributors

Alessandro Silvestri

Alessandro Silvestri is currently an associate professor of Medieval History at the Università degli Studi di Salerno. He is author of the monograph L’amministrazione del regno di Sicilia. Cancelleria, apparati finanziari e strumenti di governo nel tardo medioevo (Rome, 2018), as well as of various essays and journal articles dedicated to administrative history, information management and taxation in Sicily and the Crown of Aragon of the later Middle Ages.