Political manipulation in the 1385 change of dynasties in Portugal: an Iberian detail named Blanca

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the role of Blanca (1319–79?) – the granddaughter of monarchs Sancho IV of Castile and Jaume II of Aragon —in the context of the legal process supporting the election of João I of Portugal in the 1385 Coimbra parliament. The topic prompts an inquiry into the different viewpoints on a little-known character in the Iberian royal families. First, the methodology employed contrasts the information known about Blanca and the description that Portuguese documents dating from 1385 make of her. These are an inquest and the official election act of João, the first king of the second Portuguese dynasty. After this section, the article seeks to shed light on the impact which the events described in the latter document had on Blanca’s historical context between the end of the 1320s and the 1340s. The article ends with a fresh look at chroniclers’ portrait of Blanca. In short, this article assesses and contrasts several portrayals of reality over several periods in time: the short term in the 1385 parliamentary meeting, Blanca’s lifespan, and finally a long period during which she almost vanished from historiography.

KEYWORDS:

• Blanca of Castile
• diplomacy
• legitimation
• Iberian royal families
• royal marriages

Notes on contributors

Adelaide Millán da Costa is lecturer of Medieval History at the Universidade Aberta of Portugal and subdirector of the Instituto de Estudos Medievais (FCSH/NOVA). The scientific area of expertise lies at the intersection of Institutional and Politic History with Urban History, especially in the research on institutional relations established between the crown and the Portuguese cities and towns in the Middle Ages.

ORCiD

Adelaide Costa http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9335-9386

Notes

1 The period of political crisis and military confrontation which took place in Portugal in 1383–1385 resulted from the following events: when King Fernando I died in 1383, Beatriz, his only legitimate daughter and heir to the throne, was married to the Castilian monarch. This endangered the independence of Portugal. After nearly two years of armed struggle, in a meeting held in the city of Coimbra, the Portuguese parliament elected João, illegitimate brother of Fernando I, among several candidates to the throne. This period in Portuguese history has been researched extensively. The most representative studies are: Arnaut, A crise nacional; Arnaut, “A Crise Nacional dos Fins do Século XIV”; Coelho, A revolução de 1383; Mattoso, “Perspectivas económicas e sociais”; Mattoso, “A nobreza e a revolução de 1383”; Serrão, O carácter social da revolução; Sousa, “O discurso político dos concelhos”; Tavares, “A revolta dos mesteirais em 1383”; Tavares, “A nobreza no reinado de D. Fernando”; Tavares, “Os estratos sociais em 1383-85”.

2 See the biographies of Portuguese queens-consort of the Middle Ages, published between 2011 and 2012: Amaral and Barroca, A condessa-Rainha; Andrade, Rainha Santa; Campos, Uma rainha inesperada; Marques et al., As primeiras rainhas; Menino, “D. Beatriz de Castela”; Rodrigues, As tristes rainhas; Silva, A Rainha Inglesa. See, Silva and Rodrigues, “Women’s and Gender History" and [the biographies].

3 See Péquignot,” ‘No hay nada’” “Au nom du roi”, “Les instructions aux ambassadeurs”, “Les diplomaties occidentales”.

4 Namely Alfonso XI of Castile (1311–1350) and Alfons the Benign (1299–1336) and Pere the Ceremonious (1319–1387) of Aragon.

5 This synthesis is based on Martínez Ferrando, Jaime II de Aragón; Martínez Ferrando, Els fills de Jaume II; Sainz de La Maza Lasoli, El Monasterio de Sijena; Masiá de Ros, Relación Castellano-aragonesa; Giménez Soler, Don Juan Manuel; García Fernández, “La infanta Doña María”; Costa, “As mulheres de D. Pedro”.

6 ACA, Cancillería,Registros, num. 339, 379v; Martínez Ferrando, Jaime II de Aragón, II, doc. 379; Martínez Ferrando., doc. 408; Giménez Soler, Don Juan Manuel, II, doc. 377.

7 Costa, Monumenta, II, CXLV-CXLVI.

8 Martínez Ferrando, Jaime II de Aragón, II, doc. 422.

9 ACA, Cancillería, Registros, num. 249, 76v–77.

10 ACA, Cancillería, Registros, 99 and 112v–113; Masiá de Ros, Relación Castellano-aragonesa, II, doc. 163; Giménez Soler, Don Juan Manuel, II, doc. 414.

11 Costa, Asmulheres de D. Pedro, 273–81.

12 Zurita, Anales de la Corona de Aragón, II, 77v.

13 On this subject see Rodrigues, “For the Honor of her Lineage” and “ Infantas e rainhas”.

14 ACA, Cancillería, Registros, num. 562, 4v-5, 6v e 7.

15 ACA, Cancillería, Registros, num. 525, 114v.

16 Costa, As mulheres, 324–5.

17 APL, Pergaminhos, doc. 2.

18 Pedro Estevão (ACA, Cancillería, Registros, num. 1057, 59v).

19 Berengaria Garcia (ACA, Cancillería, Registros, num. 1057, 59v).

20 Costa, Estudos sobre Álvaro Pais, 151.

21 Zurita, Anales, II, 111.

22 Giménez Soler, Don Juan Manuel, II, doc. 530.

23 ACA, Cancillería, Registros, num. 1053, 196; Giménez Soler, Don Juan Manuel, II, doc. 655.

24 TT, Gavetas, XV, m. 24, doc. 4; Rego et al., As gavetas da Torre do Tombo, 9, 299–303; Rego et al., As gavetas da Torre do Tombo, 5, 662–9.

25 Zurita, Anales de la Corona de Aragón, II, pp. 135v–136.

26 Costa, As mulheres de D. Pedro, 329–34.

27 Peña Pérez, Documentación del monasterio de las Huelgas de Burgos, docs. 280, 284 and 285.

28 TT, Gavetas, XIII, m. 10, doc. 12. The transcript of the election act is found in Caetano, A Crise Nacional de 1383-1385, 91–101.

29 TT, Gavetas, XIII, m. 3, doc. 8.

30 See Arnaut, A crise nacional; Brásio, “As razões de João das Regras”; Brásio, “A argumentação de João das Regras”; Brásio, “Os casamentos de D. Pedro I”; Caetano, “As cortes de 1385”; Coelho, D. João I; Costa, “O célebre Conselheiro e Chanceler régio”; Gomes, D. Fernando; Pinto, O carácter complexo da eleição de 1385; Silva, “O Discurso do Doutor João das Regras”; Tavares, Fernando e Leonor.

31 On Diogo Lopes and his family, see Fernandes, “Diogo Lopes Pacheco”; Lourenço, “Lopo Fernandes Pacheco”; Franco Sousa and Garcia Lujan, “Los Pacheco”; Pizarro, Linhagens medievais portuguesas, vol. 2, p. 373; Pizarro, Os patronos do Mosteiro de Grijó, 262–3.

32 On Vasco Martins, see Pizarro, Os patronos, 201–5; Pizarro, Linhagens medievais, I, 176–7. See also Pizarro, “De e para Portugal”.

33 Comparing these statements with the questions put to Isabel, illegitimate daughter of King Fernando of Portugal, in the annulment process of her marriage to the son of Henrique of Castile, it is possible to conclude that the inquest had been conducted in order to prove the consummation of marriage and the status of the betrothed as legal adults. It was also intended to formalise the marriage and eliminate any possible impediments (Rego et al., As gavetas da Torre do Tombo, VI, 616–23).

34 Homem, O desembargo régio, 301–2, 343–4; Gomes, A corte dos reis de Portugal, 102–3.

35 Aznar Gil, La institución matrimonial en la Hispania, 45.

36 TT, Gavetas, XIII, m. 10, doc. 12; Caetano, A Crise Nacional, 91-101.

37 Caetano, A crise nacional, 34–8.

38 Santarém et al., Quadro elementar das relações, IX, 335, 336.

39 Zurita, Anales de la Corona de Aragón, II, 78.

40 Zurita, Anales de la Corona de Aragón, II, 92; Cerdá y Rico, Cronica de D. Alfonso el Onceno, 140–1; Catalán, Gran Crónica, I, 455–6.

41 Cerdá y Rico, Cronica de D. Alfonso, 156–7; Catalán, Gran Crónica, I, 474–6.

42 Zurita, Anales, II, 92v.

43 Cerdá y Rico, Cronica de D. Alfonso, 156–7; Catalán, Gran Crónica , I 474–6.

44 ACA, Cancillería, Registros, num. 541, fol. 40 (partially published by Giménez Soler, Don Juan Manuel, II, doc. 484); Zurita, Anales, II, 94v; Santarém et al., Quadro elementar das relações, I, 153

45 Santarém et al., Quadro elementar das relações, I, 153.

46 ACA, Cancillería, Registros, num. 541, fol. 40 (partially published by Giménez Soler, Don Juan Manuel, doc. 484). Zurita, Anales, II, 94v.

47 Peña Pérez, Documentación del monasterio, doc. 7.

48 ACA, Cancillería, Registros, num. 536, fol. 84v.

49 Caetano de Sousa, Lopes de Almeida and Pegado, Provas da História Genealógica, II, 380-382.

50 ACA, Cancillería,Registros, num. 1057, fol. 159.

51 Zurita, Anales, II, 111.

52 Giménez Soler, Don Juan Manuel, II, doc. 361.

53 Giménez Soler, doc. 129.

54 Masiá de Ros, Relación Castellano-aragonesa, doc. 163.

55 Zurita, Anales, 78.

56 Rego et al., As gavetas da Torre do Tombo, VII, 280-282.

57 Costa, Estudos sobre Álvaro Pais, 43.

58 Costa, 151.

59 On the origin, scope and reach of the impediment of public honesty to the present, see Aznar Gil, Derecho matrimonial, 441–44.

60 Aznar Gil, 430, 437.

61 Costa, Estudos sobre Álvaro Pais, 121.

62 Calado, Cronica de Portugal de 1419, cap.138, 225.

63 Costa, Estudos sobre Álvaro Pais, 142-145.

64 Published by Costa, Estudos sobre Álvaro Pais, 143–4.

65 Published by Costa, Estudos sobre Álvaro Pais, 113–15.

66 Costa, Monumenta Portugaliae Vaticana, I, 35–6.

67 Costa, Estudos sobre Álvaro Pais, 119–21.

68 Cerdá y Rico, Cronica de D. Alfonso, 89-90, 93–5, 140–1, 156–7; Catalán, Gran Crónica, I, 383, 385, 455–6, 474–6; Zurita, Anales, II, 77v–78v, 83v, 92–92v.

69 Zurita, Anales, II, 111.

70 Zurita, Anales, II, 126–7.

71 Zurita, Anales, II, 135v–136.

72 “( … ) dona Blanca estava en mejor disposicion de su persona en aquellas cosas que convenia” (Zurita, Anales, II, 135v–136).

73 Cerdá y Rico, Cronica de D. Alfonso, 179; Catalán, Gran Crónica, I, 501–2; Catalán, Gran Crónica, II, 99–100.

74 “perigosas payxones de doenças de perlizia, &com disposiçam de etica & alguua quebra do natural entendimento” (Pina, Crónicas, 351–2).

75 Pina, Crónicas, 419.

76 João das Regras has remained an elusive character in the historian’s terms: Homem, O desembargo régio, 149–58.

77 Lopes, Crónica de D. João I, I, cap. CLXXXVII, 407–8.