DP
129
.A33
C 469,156

ARTES
18.175
SCIENTIA
LIBRARY
VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
TUEBOR
SI QUERIS PENINSULAM·AMⱭENAM
CIRCUMSPICE
THE
CHRONICLE
OF
JAMES I, KING OF ARAGON,
SURNAMED THE CONQUEROR
(WRITTEN BY HIMSELF).
DP
129.
· A33
то
29466
THE

CHRONICLE
OF
JAMES I, KING OF ARAGON,
SURNAMED THE CONQUEROR
'(WRITTEN BY HIMSELF).
TRANSLATED FROM THE CATALAN BY THE LATE
JOHN FORSTER, ESQ.,
M.P. for Berwick.
WITH
An Historical Entroduction, Notes, Appendix, Glossary, and General Ender,
PASCUAL
BY
DE
GAYANGOS,
Member of the Royal Academy of History,
and Formerly Professor of Arabic at the University of Madrid.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED.
1883.
1
{
LONDON:
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYI.or,
BREAD STREET HILL.
DP
129
A33
Vil
DP
129
A33
PREFACE.
THE present translation of the Chronicle of
James I. of Aragon, surnamed "the Conqueror "-
one of the most remarkable historical productions
of the thirteenth century—was undertaken nearly
eight years ago, though not quite finished, by the
late John Forster, Esq., M.P. for Berwick during
the period of 1852 to 1857. The idea sprang
entirely from him after a private conversation held
in the Athenæum Club in August, 1875.
"The
history of Spain," said he to the writer of these
lines, "particularly that of Aragon during the
"middle ages, is so exciting and full of interest,
"and at the same time so little known among us,
"that I am seriously thinking of translating James's
((
(
Royal Chronicle into English. I happen, as you
"know, to possess an imperfect copy of the rare
edition of 1557, besides a modern Castilian
"version—which by the by does not seem to me
vi
PREFACE.
"to be a faithful one-and I have besides by me
"M. de Tourtoulon's remarkable work, Études
"sur la maison de Barcelone (Montpellier, 1863),
"which will, I have no doubt, be of great assistance
"to the scholar wishing to dive into the history
"of Aragon. Altogether, I have been so charmed
"with the perusal of the Royal Chronicle, that I
"have almost made up my mind to turn it into
"English! However, the Provençal, or, properly
speaking, Catalan, language in which the Chronicle
was written, has become antiquated; the Valencia
"edition is incorrect and full of blunders, so replete
"with obscure words, perhaps derived from the
((
Arabic, and the meaning of which is quite un-
"known to me, that I apprehend serious difficulties
"in the accomplishment of my task. There are,
moreover, questions connected with the author-
ship and composition of the Chronicle itself, to
"solve which, greater knowledge of the history and
"literature of the Spanish Peninsula during the
"middle ages is required than I happen to possess
"just now. Of the Spanish Arabs I myself know
nothing at all. Will you help me?"
((
*The above is the substance
of Mr. Forster's conversation in
1875, and of his ideas on the
I
subject. Letters written since
show that he had not abandoned
them up to the time of his death.
PREFACE.
vii
Such a request on the part of a friend, whose
acquaintance I had made many years before,
and with whom I had been on familiar terms
and correspondence ever since, could not
not well
be declined. I accepted; Mr. Forster set to work
immediately, and laying aside other works more
or less connected with the history of Spain, in
which he was engaged at the time, devoted himself
exclusively to the translation of the Royal Chronicle.
This was on the point of being completed, wanting
only one or two chapters at the end, when on the
night of the 7th of January, 1878, Mr. Forster
was found dead in his library, surrounded by the
many valuable books and manuscripts assiduously
collected for the illustration of his intended work.
((
After Mr. Forster's death, deeply lamented by
his relatives and friends-among which latter the
undersigned had the pleasure and the honour to
count himself-nothing remained to be done but
to put in order and classify his various writings,
separate those relating to a History of the
Spanish Inquisition"
"-a work of scrupulous re-
search and patient labour, to which he had devoted
the best part of his life-from his own English
version of James's Catalan Chronicle, and lastly,
commit this latter to the press.
viii
PREFACE.
An early application by one of Mr. Forster's
executors, the late Matthew Hutton Chaytor, Esq.,
Chairman of the Alliance Bank in London, could
not be disregarded by the writer of these lines,
and after considerable delay, owing to various
causes, the Royal Chronicle comes at last before
the public in English.
It was, however, Mr. Forster's original intention
that his translation should be preceded by some
sort of "Introduction," or "Prolegomena," on the
history of Aragon before its union with Catalonia,
as well as by detached pieces on the Mohammedan
dynasties ruling over Mallorca, Valencia, and
Murcia-Almoḥades or Almoravides—at the time
of their conquest by James. The former task the
deceased evidently reserved for himself, though
unfortunately he had no time to accomplish it;
the latter he had from the beginning entrusted,
as above stated, to the undersigned, as well as a
Glossary of obsolete words, chiefly derived from the
Arabic, and any other additional matter likely to
illustrate the Royal narrative. He was not aware
at his death in 1878 that the year before a second
and more correct edition of James's Chronicle was in
course of preparation at Barcelona, its text having
been first carefully collated with two manuscripts
PREFACE.
ix
of the fourteenth century, one of which, made by
Celestí Destorrens for the Abbot of Santa Maria
de Poblet, on the 17th of September, A.D. 1343, is
now preserved in the public library of that city.
Had he been aware of this fact, Mr. Forster
would undoubtedly have visited Barcelona, for the
sole purpose of collating certain passages of the
Chronicle evidently vitiated by scribes or printers,
most likely by both, and which must have sorely
puzzled the most accomplished and ingenious student
of the Catalan language. As, moreover, the original
manuscript, which according to all accounts was
preserved at Poblet as late as 1651, is nowhere to
be found, it naturally results that the second and
revised Barcelona edition of the Catalan text, of
which the translator could not avail himself, has
supplied his present editor with the means of
correcting its many blunders, and supplying its
deficiencies.
I
As to the much debated question of the authorship
of the Chronicle itself, and its relative merits—one
among others which the deceased reserved for
himself the reader is referred to the "Historical
¹It is generally asserted that
Archbishop Marca, royal intend-
ant of Catalonia for Louis XIV.,
during the short occupation of
that principality by the French,
took it away from Poblet.
X
PREFACE.
Introduction," where it will be amply discussed.
Among the numerous loose memoranda left by
the deceased as materials for the illustration of his
work, one is found in which, after abstracting what
Tourtoulon says on the subject, he expresses his
opinion that the Libre dels feyts esdevenguts en la
vida del molt alt senyor En Jacme, lo Conqueridor,
is really and truly the work of James, and could not
have been written by any one else; also that the
arguments produced by Villarroya in 1800 against
the generally admitted opinion prove nothing at
all. This opinion the undersigned shares also, and
therefore, without hesitation on his part, the words
(written by himself) have been added to the title
page according to the translator's desire.
PASCUAL DE GAYANGOS.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
ALFONSO I. of Aragon, surnamed "El Batallador "
(He of the battles), succeeded his brother, Pedro I.,
in the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon in 1104,
when no longer young, for he had greatly dis-
tinguished himself as early as 1094 in a campaign
against the Moors. At his accession, Aragon com-
prised only the mountainous fringe of the Pyrenean
range, and part of those valleys through which the
Aragon and other rivers pour their waters into the
Ebro to the east of what is now called "Aragon."
A marriage contracted about 1109 with Urraca, the
daughter of Alfonso VI., and Queen of Castile and
Leon in her own right, promised fairly for the
Christians of the Peninsula, for shortly after
Alfonso assumed the title of "Emperor of Spain,"
and prepared to invade the Moslem territory. Un-
luckily for the Christian cause a bitter quarrel
sprang up between husband and wife, followed by
a desultory and cruel war between their respective
kingdoms, ending in the total expulsion of Alfonso
from Urraca's dominions in Castile, Leon, and
Galicia, Not at all discouraged by this reverse,
xii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Alfonso resumed with increased vigour the war
against the Infidel, and conquered one by one the
petty Moorish kingdoms in Aragon. In 1120 Sara-
gossa, the capital, was taken, and in the ensuing
years Calatayud and Daroca. He was prosecuting
his successes against the Aragonese Moors, and
endeavouring to secure further conquests to the
east and south of Saragossa, when a campaign
undertaken against Lérida and Fraga-two im-
portant cities-ended disastrously for him, he having
been defeated close to the latter place on the 17th
of July, 1134. Alfonso died soon after, in September
of that year, worn out, as it is asserted, by old age
and fatigue, if not in consequence of wounds re-
ceived in the battle, as generally believed.
I
After the foregoing sketch of Alfonso's field of
action, it will seem rather strange-though the fact
is recorded both by Christian and Moslem writers—
that in 1123, just after his ejection from Castile, he
should have personally led a most successful raid
into Andalusia; should in his victorious career have
approached Cordoba, reached the sea at Almeira, on
The battle was fought under
the walls of Fraga, which Alfonso
was besieging at the time. The
Almoravides being commanded
by Aben Gania (Ibn Ghániyah).
Whether Alfonso, himself, fell on
that day, as asserted by three
ancient authorities, or, as we are
informed by a contemporary monk
of San Juan de la Seña, he re-
tired to that monastery of Bene-
dictines, and died there of grief
and disappointment, is doubtful;
but the circumstance of his body
not having been found on the
field of battle, makes us believe
that the latter conjecture is more
probable, inasmuch as it gave
rise to an imposture, which will be
mentioned hereafter.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xiii
the coast of Granada, and returned safely to his own
dominions. Only by taking into account the dis-
tracted state of the Moorish settlements at the time,
and the feeble cohesion of their Mohammedan
rulers, no energetic hand happening at that moment
to grasp the sceptre, can faith be attached to the
narrative of Al-makkarí and other Arabian his-
torians, describing Alfonso's successful raid through
the thickly populated provinces of Islam."
One must, indeed, presume that this warrior-
prince, one of the most remarkable men the Peninsula
produced during the middle ages, must have be-
lieved himself invested with a mission from Heaven
to restore the whole of Spain to the Christians
and free his country from the Moslem invaders, for
having no heir to his crown but a daughter, still a
child and unmarried, and a brother-a monk, and
thereby excluded from the succession-he sedulously
The account of Alfonso's suc-
cessful raid to the shores of the
Mediterranean is too minutely de-
scribed by Al-makkarí Ibnu-ș-
şeyrafí and others to leave any
doubt on the subject. The last-
named historian says that Al-
fonso's raid was chiefly undertaken
at the desire of the Mudhidin, or
Christians, living in those districts
under the Mohammedan rule, who
furnished him with provisions and
guides. They were, however, well
punished for their treason, for by
order of Ali Ibn Yúsuf, the Al-
moravid, thousands of them were
transported to Meknesah, Salee,
and other places in Africa. Ibnu-
1-Khattíb, the historian, who
visited the latter port about 1360,
bears testimony that the adjoin-
ing town of Rabát was entirely
inhabited by Christians, the result
of that expulsion, whence the
name of Rabatines given to the
corsairs of that coast in the
fifteenth century. See Al-makkarí,
Mohammedan Dynasties, vol. ii.,
p. 305.
xiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
looked out for some prince capable of applying the
national resources to the prosecution of the holy
war, and finding no one to his taste, placed the
government of his kingdom in the hands of the
Military Orders of the Temple and Hospital at
Jerusalem.
The consequences of such a will could not be
but disastrous. The administration of affairs by
the Military Orders, and the prosecution of the
war against the Infidel, might have been carried on
by a Council of Regency composed of Templars
and Hospitalers during a minority, but who was
ultimately to inherit Alfonso's already considerable
dominions, comprising almost the whole of Aragon
and Navarre? History does not record what steps
the knights of those two Orders took to vindicate
their right to their at first doubtful inheritance; but
neither Aragon nor Navarre paid the least atten-
tion to Alfonso's disposition. Immediately after his
death Ramiro, his brother, abandoned the cloister,
and had himself proclaimed King of Aragon, whilst
the Navarrese, whose union to that kingdom had
not met with general approval, appointed a monarch
of their own at Pampeluna.
Ramiro's reign was not of long duration. At
first he had to contend against Garcia IV., the
newly-elected King of Navarre, as well as against
Alfonso VIII. of Leon and Castile, both of whom
molested him on the borders. Indeed, it was
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
XV
probably through disgust with the never-ceasing
pretensions of the former and the intrigues of the
latter, as well as from the stings of conscience
at having broken his vows, that in 1137, in the
third year of his reign, Ramiro resolved to marry
his niece, Petronila, to the Count of Barcelona, re-
sign his dignity to his future son-in-law, and return
to the cloister, where he died in 1157. The choice
then fell on Ramon Berenguer, Count of Barcelona
and Provence, who immediately after entered on
his duties as Supreme Governor and Prince Consort
of Aragon.
The energy, self-control, and sacrifice of national
vanity shown by the Aragonese barons during that
eventful period will appear highly creditable, if we
consider that they deliberately consented to place
their land under a foreign prince, for such was
Berenguer to them. Thus was the union of
Catalonia and Aragon effected, though Navarre
still continued under Garcia Ramirez till 1150.¹
In the twelfth century Catalonia was, as it is
now, a more important country than Aragon in
point of population and wealth. It had a navy,
and the trade of Barcelona with the ports of the
Mediterranean coast, as far as Italy and Greece,
was very flourishing. The same differences of
¹ Garcia Ramirez, the Fourth,
was the son of Sancho. He was
succeeded by his son, Sancho V.,
whose daughter, Berengaria, was
married to Richard I. of Eng-
land.
xvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
language,' character, and habits, which then divided
the two nations, prevailed, and yet the Aragonese
barons did not hesitate to consent to a union, which
could not but be profitable to their country. Not
only during Ramon's life did they allow their
Queen Petronila to be a mere cipher, but after the
death of the Count, on the 7th of August, 1162,
an attempt was made to set her entirely aside, and
place her son, though a mere boy at the time, on
the throne. The Count died at San Damiano,
between Genoa and Turin, on his way to meet the
Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, and ratify the treaty
previously made with his ambassadors respecting
his own possessions, rights, and conquests in the
east of France, which that emperor undertook to
recognise and defend, provided the Count engaged
himself to support the Antipope Victor against
Pope Alexander III., in the great struggle between
the Empire and the Papacy (1159). By a nuncu-
patory will, dated the 6th of August, the Count had
made his eldest son, Ramon, heir to his possessions
in Spain, and his second son, Pedro, to those in
France, i.e. Cerdagne and Narbonensian Gaul, these
last, however, to be held in fief of the eldest. To
his Queen, Petronila, he left the town of Besalú in
Catalonia, besides Ripas and the adjoining territory
It is a very remarkable fact,
but one that cannot be contested,
that though Aragon remained ever
since the eleventh century incor-
porated with Catalonia, the Pro-
vençal language did not penetrate
north of the Ebro.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xvii
for her residence; his realms, however, and his two
sons, he left under the guardianship of Henry II.
of England.'
On the death of her husband Petronila summoned
the Cortes, both of Catalonia and Aragon, to meet at
Huesca; and as the Count, her husband, had made
no provision for a regency-though his son Beren-
guer was only eleven years old at the time-the
Count of Provence (Ramon Berenguer) was then
and there made Governor of Catalonia, whilst
Petronila herself, with the consent of the Aragonese
barons, assumed the administration of the kingdom.
Presently there appeared on the scene an impostor,
who pretended to be Alfonso I., dead twenty years
before.2 The evidence-usual in such cases-was
produced in this instance, for the man, whoever he
was, could remember and recall to the memory of
persons still living many incidents in their past lives.
He was, nevertheless, sentenced to death and
hanged. What share Petronila herself may have
had in this dark affair is not known; but the fraud,
no doubt, brought to light her own unpopularity, for
I
During the war which Ramon
Berenguer waged against the
Count of Toulouse (Raymond V.),
in 1193, he sought and obtained
the alliance of Henry II. of the
house of Plantagenet, who claimed
the Duchy of Aquitaine as the
inheritance of his wife Eleanor,
the repudiated queen of Louis
VII. of France.
2 Ramon Berenguer died in
1162, leaving only one daughter,
Doulce (Dulce), who had been
promised in marriage to the son
of Raymond V., Count of Toulouse.
The latter naturally attempted to
establish his right to the succes-
sion, though in vain, for Pro-
vence remained to the house of
Aragon.
h
xviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
on the 18th of June, 1164, she was obliged to
abdicate, and her own son Ramon was put in
possession of his father's inheritance, the youthful
monarch changing his name from Ramon to
Alfonso II.
On the death of his cousin, the Count of
Provence, to whom his father had granted that fief
in perpetuity, Alfonso II., surnamed "the Chaste,"
re-united to Aragon that lordship and others in
France, besides Roussillon, to which he succeeded
by inheritance. Following the example of his war-
like predecessors, he assailed the Moorish settle-
ments bordering on his dominions, and took several
fortresses south of the Ebro (1168—1177). He
also assisted Alfonso IX. of Castile, whose niece he
had married, against the Almoravides, and though
that king's defeat at Alarcos, and his own dissen-
sions with Sancho of Navarre, somewhat retarded
the aggrandisement of his patrimonial kingdom, he,
nevertheless, was the first monarch of his race to
free the whole of Catalonia and Aragon from the
Mohammedan rule. He died at Perpignan in 1196,
leaving his Spanish dominions, besides Roussillon,
to his eldest son, Pedro; Provence and the rest to
Alfonso; a third (Fernando) became monk of
Poblet, and abbot of Montaragon.
Pedro II., in the first year of his reign, had some
disputes with his mother (Sancha) respecting certain
fortresses left to her as a dowry by the late king,
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xix
her husband. In 1203 he embarked for Rome to be
crowned by the Pope. He was well received by the
Sacred College of Cardinals, solemnly anointed by
one of them, and presented with the crown, the
globe, and the sceptre, by the hands of Innocent III.
himself, and not only did he do homage on the
occasion as a feudatory of the Church, but, by a
public instrument, which is still in existence, engaged
that Aragon, Catalonia, and the rest of his dominions.
should for ever remain a fief of the Holy See, and
be considered the property of the successors of St.
Peter. This disposition, however, did not meet with
the approval of the Aragonese barons; in 1205 the
States assembled at Saragossa, protested against the
act as derogatory to the honour of the nation and
injurious to its people, and, consequently, the deed
was annulled, and remained without effect.
In 1204 Pedro married Maria, daughter and
heiress of the Count of Montpellier, Guillaume VIII.
Wishing moreover to secure his dominions in the
south of France, already threatened by the Capetian
monarchs, and ally himself with the feudal lords
of Gascony and Provence, Pedro married his two
sisters, Eleanor and Sancha, one to Raymond VI.,
the other to Raymond VII., both Counts of Toul-
ouse, and prepared himself for the struggle, more
political than religious, which, under the name
of the "Albigensian War," was inevitably to take
place soon in the south of France. In June, 1209,
62
XX
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
thousands of Crusaders, having at their head two
Papal legates, Milon and Arnaud Amalric, the Duke
of Burgundy, the Counts of Nevers, Saint Paul,
and Auxerre, the ruthless Simon de Montfort, the
English Earl of Leicester, two archbishops, eight
bishops, and numerous other barons and knights,
invaded the south of France, that is the country
where Pedro II. of Aragon, his brother-in-law
Raymond VI. Count of Toulouse, Raymond Roger
Viscount d'Alby, Beziers, and Carcassonne, the
Counts of Foix and Comminges, the Viscount
of Bearn, ruled, among whom the "detestable and
pernicious heresy of the Albigenses," as it is called
by the monkish writers of the time, had made and
was making great ravages. 'It was," as a modern
French historian¹ observes," the struggle between the
"North and the South; between the German and the
"Latin races, between Frank rudeness and Roman
"civilization." . . . In such a struggle between the
sworn enemies of the southern nationality and the
rebellious barons excommunicated by the Holy See,
Pedro's position must have been a difficult one.
What could a monarch, whose orthodoxy had never
been suspected, himself a dutiful son of the Holy
See, who had accepted the title of "Catholic," and
had on a former occasion by his excessive com-
plaisance towards Innocent III. brought on himself
Études sur la maison de Bar- pellier, MDCCCLXIII., tom. i. pp.
104-9.
I
celona. Facme I., le Conquerant,
by M. Ch. de Tourtoulon; Mont-
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxi
the reproaches of his own subjects, do under such
circumstances? How could he in the midst of the
struggle forget and abandon his position as first
national Prince of the South of France, and what
could he do, placed as he was, between the standard
of the Cross, which he was heroically defending in
the Peninsula, and the great national cause of the
South, of which he was the natural representative ?
Though his sympathies seem to have been
for the Albigenses he remained neutral. After the
taking of Beziers and the indiscriminate massacre
of its inhabitants, when the Viscount of Beziers
himself (Raymond Roger) had fled to Carcassonne
and fortified himself against the Crusaders, Pedro
did all he could to save his nephew from their
hands. He went in person to the camp of the
Crusaders, negotiated with the Papal legates, and
obtained a promise that should the Viscount leave
the place accompanied only by twelve of his own
companions, he would be allowed to depart un-
molested, the rest of his force and the city of Carcas-
sonne remaining at the mercy of the conquerors.
Such humiliating conditions were heroically rejected
by the Viscount, who remained prisoner in the hands
of the Crusaders.* The partition, however, of his
property was the cause of dissension among the
Crusaders. The Duke of Bourgogne, the Counts
¹ Gomez Miedes, De vita et
rebus gestis Facobi primi, lib. i.;
Blancas, Aragonensium Rerum
Commentarii, p. 650.
xxii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
of Nevers, and St. Paul, honourably refused to take
part in the spoliation; most of them separating
and returning to their respective estates, only
Simon, Count of Montfort, L'Amauri (Amalric),
and Leicester accepted from the Papal legates
the confiscated domains and continued at the head
of the Crusaders, the former fixing his residence
at Carcassonne, which was a fief of Aragon.
Montfort is known to have been of a stern,
rapacious, and remorseless disposition. Most pro-
bably the complaints respecting his administration,
which daily reached the ears of Pedro, may have
been one cause, among others, of the latter re-
fusing to receive the homage of the new Viscount;
yet in 1211, Pedro, being at Montpellier, was re-
luctantly persuaded not only to receive the Viscount's
homage but to agree to the proposal of a marriage
between his son James and a daughter of Montfort,
he, Pedro, going as far as to deliver the young
Prince into the hands of the Viscount, both as a
pledge of his sincerity and that he might be educated
in France according to the manner of the times
under so renowned a leader.
After the campaign of 1212, in which the
Almoḥades, under Mohammad An-náşir, were
completely defeated at Las Navas, near Ubeda,
Pedro was urgently pressed by his brother-in-law,
Raymond of Toulouse, as well as by his relatives,
the Counts of Foix and Bearn, all protectors of the
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxiii
Albigenses, to arm in their behalf. Pedro had
every reason to be dissatisfied with the Crusaders,
who in the last war had seized several fortresses
belonging to the appanage of his sister, married to
the former of those barons; he, therefore, listened
to their pressing demands for help, and passed the
Pyrenees at the head of a considerable force; yet
his object appears to have been rather to act as a
mediator than as a belligerent. Whatever his
proposals to the two Papal legates may have been
on the occasion, certain it is that he formally
declared that he could not forsake his allies.
the head of a combined army of Aragonese and
Catalonians, Pedro advanced against Muret, a
fortified town on the Garonne, about two leagues
from Toulouse, where on the 12th September, 1213,
he met with his death,' "for such had ever been,”
remarks his son James, "the fate of my race to
conquer or to die in battle.'" (P. 18.)
At
Pedro had been married since 1204 to Maria of
Montpellier, daughter of Guillaume and of Eudoxia
I
James, himself, alludes to his
father's death in a manner that
leaves no doubt as to the causes of
his defeat. "Don Pedro," says he,
"had passed the previous night in
“debauchery, and was so exhaust-
"ed by it that he could hardly
"stand up at mass on the ensuing
"morning; so much so, that
"when the priest came to the
"gospel, he was obliged to sit
"down. Neither would he wait
'for the arrival at the camp of
several of his knights, who had
remained behind, and begged
"him not to engage the enemy;
"he would not listen to their
prayers, and fought the battle
"with those few who were with
"him." This is the only pas-
sage of the Chronicle where the
battle of Muret, or Murel, as it is
erroneously called in the two
printed editions, is alluded to.
xxiv
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
Comnène, the daughter of Manuel, Emperor of
Greece. It is a singular destiny, that of both
mother and daughter. Alfonso II. of Aragon
having asked Eudoxia in marriage, she was about
to join her future husband, when she heard, at
Montpellier, that the king had already married
Sancha of Castile. Guillaume then married her,
and had a daughter named Maria, but shortly after
he repudiated her and married Agnes (Inés), a
relative of the King of Aragon. Maria's fate was
equally sad; she fell a victim to Pedro's lust of
power, as well as to the political views of the people
of Montpellier. As Muntaner, the Chronicler,
says:
King Pedro lowered himself much by such
"a marriage; if he took Maria to wife, it was
'merely for the sake of Montpellier, for she was
"not of royal descent, though honest and of
'pleasing manner enough. He, therefore, from
"the very beginning deserted her, and would never
"see or hear of her." Such is the account given
by Muntaner and Desclot, and confirmed from
hearsay by James himself in Chapter V., beginning
with the words: "Now I will relate how I was
begotten." I (P. 9.)
{
((
• His birth took place on the
2nd of February, 1208. The cir-
cumstances attending it, possibly
much adorned by Muntaner, must
have reached Bocaccio before
1358, since his Giletta di Narbona
is evidently based upon it. To
say nothing of Shakespeare, who
borrowed them as the theme of his
All is well that ends well, several
Spanish dramatists, and among
them Calderon, have made use of
the story.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
XX.V
James was only six years of age on his father's
death, living at Carcassonne under the keeping of
Montfort, whose daughter, it appears, he was to
have married according to stipulation. The Count
at first refused to surrender him to his subjects;
but Pope Honorius III., at the instance of the
Aragonese nobles having summoned him to deliver
the Royal child into the hands of his legate, Pietro
di Mora, the order was promptly obeyed, an assem-
bly of the States convoked for Lérida, and young
James recognised and sworn as dominus and hæres
of his father's realms, under the guardianship of
the provincial Master of the Templars in the castle
of Monzon; the administration of the kingdom
during his minority resting in his uncle Don
Sancho, Count of Roussillon, assisted by two col-
leagues, one for Aragon, the other for Catalonia.
We need not record here the various events of
James's reign, they will be distinctly set out by his
own autobiographical narrative, without dispute one
of the most remarkable productions of the middle
ages. It will be seen how, with a courage and
wisdom hardly credible at his tender age, he con-
trived to establish his authority over the ambitious
and turbulent nobility (richs-homens) of his domi-
nions, conquer the Balearic Islands, and drive the
Moslems of Valencia and Murcia to their last ram-
part in the Spanish Peninsula, the beautiful city of
Granada, at the foot of Sierra Elvira.
Yet, upon the whole it must be owned that, apart
xxvi
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
from his brilliant qualities as a ruler, there is little
left in James's long reign to command our respect.
His private conduct appears to have been exceed-
ingly profligate. Himself the son of Pedro, a prince
who revelled in debauchery, and the grandson on
his mother's side of Simon de Montfort, said to have
been equally licentious, James surpassed those
princes in his passion for the fair sex, disregarding
altogether, for the sake of its gratification, any tie of
honour, religion, and even decency. His marriage
with Eleanor of Castile, daughter of Alfonso IX. of
Leon, was at his own solicitation declared null by
Pope Gregory IX., on account of their being
within the forbidden degree of consanguinity,
although the Infante Alfonso, issued from the
connection, had formerly been declared legitimate.'
In 1235 he sued for, and obtained, the hand of
Ioland, an Hungarian princess, the daughter of
Andrew, at the time that he was about to contract,
or had already contracted, a morganatic marriage
with Theresa Gil de Vidaure. On the death of
Ioland, in 1252, he again took to his bed his dis-
carded wife Theresa, with whom, however, he was
soon disgusted, for soon after he himself made
pressing solicitations to the Holy See on the plea
that some women of her household, and that
princess herself, had been attacked by leprosy ; but
The brief dated xii calendas
Mai, and year ix of his pontificate
(1235), is abstracted in Raynaldus,
Annales Ecclesiastici, continued
by Baronius, ann. 1235, No. 32.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxvii
in reality because he wished to make Berenguela
Alfonso, a princess of the royal blood of Castile,
and the daughter of Alfonso de Molina, son of
Alfonso IX. of Leon and brother of St. Ferdinand,
his queen.
In 1246, as his confessor, the Bishop of Gerona, a
most honourable and learned ecclesiastic, who had
hitherto enjoyed his favour, undertook to reprimand
him for his excesses, or, which is more probable,
was imprudent enough to reveal part of his con-
fession, he was punished by the loss of the offending
member, and had his tongue severed at the root."
James, of course, was excommunicated, his king-
dom placed under interdict, and himself subjected
to a penance and to finish at his own expense
the monastery of St. Boniface of Morella. Yet the
year before his death, the seventy-sixth of his age,
As James himself does not
mention the fact in his Commen-
tari, the evidence rests entirely on
the authority of Muntaner, Desclot,
and the chroniclers of Aragon.
Raynaldus (Annales Ecclesiastici,
ad annum 1246) copies the letter
written by James on the occasion
or rather the brief of Innocent
IV. in reply to it-in which the
king, in justification of his con-
duct, says that Father Castell-
bisbal, already Bishop of Gerona,
had conspired against him, "Alias
66 complura contra se gravia ma-
"chinando." There can be no
doubt, however, that the cause
of the bishop's ill-treatment
was his espousing the cause of
2
Theresa Gil de Vidaure, James's
mistress, who, having learned in
1234, that James was about to
contract a marriage with Ioland,
daughter of Andrew, King of
Hungary, applied through him
to Gregory IX., then Pope.
2 In 1237 James had been ex-
communicated by Pope Gregory
IX. on account of certain injuries
done to the Bishop of Saragossa.
What those injuries were, which
caused the Papal anathema, is no-
where specified, that we are aware.
We only know that at the king's
own request an absolution was
granted, of which the bearer was
St. Raymond de Penyafort.
xxviii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
he forcibly carried off a married woman, who had
the misfortune to please him, and when upbraided
in a Papal brief for the unhappiness introduced into
her family, and the scandalous example afforded to
his subjects, the hoary sinner replied, with unusual
bitterness, that he considered he had a right to do
as he pleased in such small matters. Neither was
he a particularly loving father to the many sons.
issued from his various morganatic marriages. In
1274 Fernan Sanchez, baron of Castro, his own
natural son by a noble Aragonese lady named
Blanca de Antillon, after a quarrel with his step-
brother, the Infante En Pere, the presumptive heir
to the crown, was surprised at Pomar, and cast into
the river Cinca. On the receipt of such intelligence
his father coolly observed: "I was glad to hear of
"that, for it was a very hard thing that he, being
((
my son, should have risen against me, who had
“done so much for him, and given him so honour-
"able an heritage in my kingdom."!! (P. 663.)
I
The Chronicle is a commentary on the principal
events of James's reign (1218-76). It is divided
into four parts, the first of which relates to the trou-
bles that followed his accession to the throne down
to the final conquest of the Balearic Islands in 1233.
In the second, the stirring events which preceded
the invasion and conquest of Valencia, and the
• The original title was Commen.
tari dels feyts esdeuenguts en la
uida del molt alt senyor, &c. In-
stead of Commentari" one of
the copies preserved at Barcelona
has Libre, &c.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxix
surrender of that capital, are graphically narrated.
The third refers to the war of Murcia (1266), under-
taken entirely for the benefit of his kinsman Alfonso,
surnamed "the Learned," (El Sabio); whilst in the
fourth and last, the embassies received from the
Khan of Tartary, Abagha-Khan, and from the
Emperor of Greece, Michael Paleologus, as well as
his own unsuccessful attempt, in 1268, to lead an
expedition to Palestine, are recorded."
2
An Abstract of the Chronicle, or rather of that
part of it, the second, which, as above stated, relates
to the conquest of Valencia, was published as early
as 1515 in that city, the first in Spain, as generally
acknowledged, to receive the admirable invention of
typography;³ the complete work, however, did not
make its appearance till 1557, to satisfy, as it is
emphatically stated in the preface, a "craving and
requisition of Philip II." The edition, however,
though handsomely printed, is anything but correct;
The division, however, is not
observed. The chapters follow
each other numerically, and have
no headings at all. Only on two
occasions, after Chap. 289, and
after Chap. 456-and that only
in one of the copies-is something
added to indicate the beginning
of a new subject. The chapters
have no titles of any sort, though
in the Valencia edition the defici-
ency has been supplied by a Table
of Contents, which might well have
been added to this translation had
it been considered of any use to the
readers. Another table of vocables
obscurs at the beginning, doing
very little honour to the Valencian
editor in 1557, has likewise been
suppressed, and replaced by a Glos-
sary of antiquated words used in
the royal book.
2 In the Aureum Opus, privile-
giorum Regni Valentiæ.
3 Barcelona has disputed for
some time the priority, but on
such feeble and unsupported foun-
dations that the best Spanish
bibliographers have not hesitated
in giving that honour to Valencia,
where the Certamen Poetich was
printed in 1474, in 4to.
XXX
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
passages and even chapters are frequently omitted;
indeed, had it not been for a second one made at
Barcelona within the last three years, many passages
would have remained for ever unintelligible.
As to its merits, this much can be said about it.
It is written in a simple and manly style, which,
without any pretension to elegance, sets before us in
living reality the events of a long and agitated reign,
frequently exhibiting a happiness of manner and
phraseology which a monkish scholar of those times
seldom could attain. Whether the work was un-
dertaken in consequence of the impulse given by
Alfonso the Learned to vernacular stories, and in
imitation, as it were, of the Gran Conquista de
Ultramar, and the Cronica General de España, or
whether the idea originated in Catalonia or Aragon,
then the residence of the exiled Provençal trouba-
dours, it is not easy to determine.' Most probably
both James's Commentari and Alfonso's Cronica
were produced in obedience to the demands of their
age; but as the Aragonese king was by many years
Alfonso's elder, and on more than one occasion his
wise and efficient counsellor, it may be conjectured
that he was the first on the field.
Was the Chronicle written by James himself, or
• Alfonso X. was born in 1221,
on the 23rd of November; James
thirteen years before, in 1208 (the
2nd Feb.); but as the latter began
certainly to write before the con-
quest of Valencia (1238), and the
Cronica General comes down to
the death of Ferdinand III. in
1252, it is hard to decide to which
of the two kings the priority of
composition is to be ascribed,
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
xxxi
was it the work of a contemporary historian? It
has already been stated elsewhere' that the late Mr.
Forster, its translator, firmly adhered to the almost
general opinion, in and out of Spain, that the
Commentari dels feyts, &c., was the work of that
king, and that the arguments produced by Villarroya
against that assertion had no weight at all in a
question of this sort. Such is also the editor's
opinion. Both Marsilio, who wrote before 1314,
and Muntaner (Ramon), whose chronicle bears the
date of 1325,2 must necessarily have known in their
youth King James, who died in 1276, on the 26th
of July, and they agree in ascribing the authorship
to him. Various passages of the Chronicle give
besides evidence of the fact, as, for instance, that
of chap. xvi. (p. 29) where, whilst treating of the
siege of Albarracin, in the confines of Aragon and
Valencia, the King says: "I had with me at the
"time.
Don Guerau de Poyo (Pueyo), father
"of En Guillen de Puyo (Pueyo), who is with me
"at the time that I am writing this present book."
The charming story of the "horeneta," or swallow,
that came to rest on the top of the royal tent
(p. 322) on the road to Burriana, is for us another
evidence of it; no one but James could have
recorded the fact. True it is that the last chapters
of the Chronicle, in which the king himself speaks
I
Pref. p. x.
2 Of the former author (Mar-
silio) we only have the Spanish
version by José Maria Quadrado
(Palma, 1850, 4to.). Muntaner's
Cronica was printed twice
Valencia 1558, and Barcelona
1562, fol.
xxxii
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
of his last illness, cannot be attributed to him; they
are no doubt the work of some monk of Poblet,
or scribe of the Royal Chronicle, who having heard
of James's illness, voluntarily recorded its fatal
progress, and noted the king's death. As to other
kinds of argument founded on occasional anachron-
isms, such as the wrong date assigned to the con-
quest of Valencia, and other mistakes of minor
importance, they have been sufficiently refuted by
M. de Tourtoulon. The taking of Valencia, says
the Chronicle, happened on Saturday, the 9th of
October, 1239, whereas the date of its capitulation
and surrender is 1238; but the difference of one
year in so remarkable an event can easily be ex-
plained by the king adopting indiscriminately the
two eras then in use, the Incarnation and the
Nativity, the former of which ought logically to
have preceded by nine days that of the latter,
and his believing that the month of September,
A.I. 1239, coincided with September, A.D. 1238.
Occasional mistakes of this sort prove nothing
against James's authorship; on the contrary, they
constitute a further argument that the Chronicle, or
Commentari, was entirely the work of that king,
though we admit that the same monk of Poblet,
who, as before stated, added the final chapters, may
possibly have put it into its present form, either
from James's dictation, or from loose materials in
his own handwriting.
THE CHRONICLE
OF
JAMES OF ARAGON.
I.
THE KING'S PREFACE.
My Lord Saint James declares that Faith without
works is dead; our Lord wills that that saying be
fulfilled as to our deeds: and though Faith without
works be worth nothing, when both are joined they
bear fruit which God will receive in His mansion.
And although it was that the beginning of our
birth was good, yet improvement was needed by
our works; not that there was not faith in us to
believe in our Creator and His works, and to pray
His mother that she should pray for us to her dear
Son, to forgive us our sins towards Him: wherefore
for the faith we had, He leads us to true salvation.
And as our Lord Jesus Christ, who knows all
things, knew that our life would be prolonged so
that we should make addition of good works to
B
2
THE CHIRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon.
the faith we had, He did us so much grace and
mercy that, sinners though we were, both in mortal
and in venial sins, He would not that we should
come to evil or harm to our shame either in court
or elsewhere; neither would He that we should
die till we had fulfilled our task.' And the grace
He did us was such that He ever procured us
honour from our enemies in deed and word, and
gave us in our life health in body; if sometimes
He sent us maladies, He did it by way of chastise-
ment, like a father who chastises his son; for
Solomon says that he who withholds from his son.
the rods of chastisement does him hurt, and it
appears not that he loves him well. And yet our
Lord did not chastise us so strongly that He did
us hurt, wherefore we thanked Him when He
chastised us, and more now, when we see that He
did it for our good. And we remember well a
saying that Holy Scripture declares, which says,
"Omnis laus in fine canitur;" meaning this, that
the best praise that a man can have is that at the
last of his days. And the grace of the Lord of
Glory has done to us in such wise that the word
of Saint James is fulfilled at the last of our days
He brought it to pass that the work befitted our
faith. And we, regarding and considering what
this world is, in which men live after their fashion,
'Here the original has the word aço, which means "thus" or "in
this manner."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
3
and how small and short this life is, and how weak
and full of scandal, and how the other life has glory
without end, and how our Lord gives it to those
who desire it and pursue it; considering also how
great is His power, and how weak and little we
all are; knowing and understanding fully that true
saying of Scripture, "Omnia pretereunt preter
amare Deum," which means that all the things of
this world pass away and are lost, save only the
love of God; knowing also that that is truth and
the rest a lie, we turned our thoughts and gave our
works to do the commandments of our Saviour,
and left the vain glories of this world that we
might attain to His kingdom; for He says in the
Gospel, “Qui vult venire post me, abneget seipsum, et
tollat crucem suam et sequatur me," which means in
our vernacular tongue, that who will follow Him,
must leave his own will for His. Again, we remem-
bering the great favours that He many a time has
done us in the course of our life, and especially at
the last of our days, determined to leave our will
for His. And that men may know when we have
passed from this mortal life, what we have achieved
by the help of the powerful Lord, in whom is true
Trinity, we leave this book for a memorial to those
who desire to hear of the favours our Lord did
us, and for an example to all the other men of the
world that they may do what we have done, that
is put their faith in that Lord who is so powerful.
B 2
4
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
2
3
II.
I
4
True thing and certain is it that my grandfather,
Don Alfonso [of Aragon], treated of a marriage
alliance to the Emperor of Constantinople, whose
name was Manuel; that the said Emperor should
give him his daughter to wife. And while parley
and treaties and agreements were in hand be-
tween the two, that is, between our grandfather
and the Emperor, our grandfather [Don Alfonso]
made a marriage with Queen Doña Sancha, who
was a daughter of the Emperor of Castille. The
Emperor of Constantinople, not knowing of this
marriage, sent his daughter to King Don Alfonso
of Aragon, who was [also] Count of Barcelona and
Marquis of Provence. A bishop and two nobles
who came with her, when they got to Montpellier,
learned that our grandfather, King Don Alfonso,
had taken to wife Queen Doña Sancha, the daughter
of the Emperor of Castille. They saw themselves
in great embarrassment and in great doubt as to
what to do, since he (the King) had already taken
1 Alfonso II., el Casto, or the
Chaste, King of Aragon from 1172
to 1196.
2 Emmanuel Comnene, from
1143 to 1180.
3 Eudoxia.
4 That is, Alfonso VIII. of
Castille, born in 1106; he married,
in 1128, Berenguela, or Berengère,
daughter of Raimon Berenguer,
Count of Barcelona. His daughter
(Sancha) was married in 1174 to
Alfonso II. of Aragon.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
сл
5
another wife. At this time En Guillen was Lord
of Montpellier, and the surrounding territory. The
nobles who had come with the Emperor's daughter
asked him what they should do after this deceit and
disappointment that had befallen them; they had
come to Montpellier with the daughter of the
Emperor Manuel to have her married to King
Don Alfonso, and he [the King] had taken another
wife! They asked him to advise them how they
should act in the emergency. En Guillen de Mont-
pellier replied that he would take counsel on it.
When, therefore, he had assembled his Council, all
the nobles, the knights, and the men of wealth and
importance in the city advised him to keep her for
his wife. Since God had done him that grace, that
the daughter of the Emperor Manuel (at that time
the first man among Christians) had come to the
city and place where he actually was, and she (the
daughter) had been disappointed of the husband
she was to have; he, En Guillen, should take her
to wife, and not let her go back [to Constantinople]
on any account. Thereupon En Guillen framed
his reply to the bishop and the nobles who came
with her; and the reply which he sent them by his
messengers was to this effect: that since God had
done him that grace, that the Emperor's daughter
should come to Montpellier, and there learn that
she was not to have the husband she should have
had, he himself would take her to wife. When
6
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
the Emperor's envoys heard this message, the
discomfort and sorrow they had at first experienced
was increased twofold, that the Emperor's daughter
should take a husband who was not a King nor
an Emperor; for no other man was fit for her.
They, therefore, prayed him very earnestly, for his
own worthiness and for God's sake, to let the
Emperor's daughter go back to Constantinople,
for they had promised that if the marriage were
not made they would take her back to her father
by land or by sea; and not to hinder them in that,
for there was no just cause to do it, and she had
not come there for him. Thereon En Guillen de
Montpellier and his Council answered them: That
it should be no otherwise.
When the Emperor's envoys perceived this their
will and determination, and that it would not be
otherwise, they asked for time to consider the
matter; they were allowed till next day. Where-
upon the bishops and nobles who had come with
her, seeing that the will of En Guillen de Mont-
pellier, and of his Council, would ultimately prevail,
they thought that they would make the marriage
with this condition: that if there was a son or a
daughter, begotten of En Guillen de Montpellier
and the Emperor's daughter, and he or she should
survive, he or she should be Lord of Montpellier.
They therefore went back with this answer, and
told Guillen de Montpellier and his Council that
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
7
they might do them hurt, or imprison them, or take
her from them, but neither with their will nor with
hers would they make that marriage except in
this wise That he (En Guillen), should promise
them on oath and doing homage,' and all the men
of Montpellier of ten years and upwards should
also swear to it, that any son or daughter that
might be born of the said marriage, should be Lord
of Montpellier, whether a man or a woman.
These
terms were put down in writing, whereupon En
Guillen de Montpellier, having first taken counsel
of his nobles and of his Council, granted the terms,
and thus was the marriage made. And En Guillen
de Montpellier had by that lady a daughter named
Mary.
III.
And in after time there was a treaty of
marriage between my father, King Don Pedro,3
and the daughter of En Guillen de Montpellier,
who was Lady of that city and of all its appurte-
nances, it being stipulated that she should give
"Ab sagrament e ab homen-
atge," says the text.
2 This account of the marriage
of William of Montpellier, in
1174, with Eudoxia, the daughter
of the Emperor of Constantinople,
Emmanuel Comnenus, is accepted
by history. Hist. du Languedoc,
tom. iii. p. 376, tom. iv. p. 263, and
Zurita, Anales de Aragon, lib. ii.
cap. 33 and 54.
3 Pedro II. of Aragon, son of
Alfonso and Sancha, and father
of Jacme or James. He was
born in 1176, became king in 1196,
and died in 1213. He was mar-
ried in 1204 to Maria of Mont-
pellier, who died in 1214.
8 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
herself and Montpellier and all its appurtenances.
And so was the marriage made, and her title
increased, for she was henceforward called Queen
Doña Maria.
IV.
2
And then En Guillen de Montpellier, she
living, took another lady, who was from Castille.
The name of the father of that lady I do not
remember, but she was called Doña Inés (Agnes),
by whom the Count had that son, En¹ Guillen
de Montpellier, who held Peyrolla till the hour
of his death, and another, En Burgunyo, and En
Bernard Guillen, to whom I gave a heritage and
a wife, by name Na Juliana, by descent from the
mother of the name of Entença, daughter of En
Pons Huc, brother of the Count of Ampurias,
whose name was Huch, and one other brother
whom my father brought up, whose name was
Tortoseta. And that Guillen de Montpellier, the
eldest son of En Guillen de Montpellier, pretended
to become Lord of Montpellier, because he was
a man. And contention came before the Pope,
so that our mother, the Queen Doña Maria, had
to travel to the court of Rome to maintain her
• En is equivalent to Don in
Spanish, and was always prefixed
to the proper names of nobles in
Catalonia. Ena ó Na being used
for the ladies.
2
Peyrolla says the text, but it
must be a misprint for Peyolla, as
in the Spanish translation.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 9
rights, and demand that I, who was her heir, might
be Lord of Montpellier. And Doña Maria's claim
was contested before the Pope till His Holiness
sentenced in her favour, as is written in a Decretal,
and declared the children of En Guillen de Mont-
pellier and of Na Inés (Agnes) not to be born
in lawful wedlock, since they were begotten in
adultery, he (En Guillen) having another wife at
the time. Montpellier and its country was, therefore,
adjudged to Queen Doña Maria, and to me, who
was her son.
V.
Now I will relate in what wise I was begotten,
and how my birth was. Firstly, in what manner
I was begotten. Our father, King En Pedro,
would not see our mother, the Queen, and it
chanced that once the King, our father, was in
Lates, and the Queen, our mother, in Miravals:
and a nobleman, by name En Guillen Dalcalá,
came to the King, and besought him till he made
him go to Miravals, where the Queen, my mother,
was. And that night that both were together at
Miravals, it was the will of our Lord that I should
be begotten. And when the Queen, my mother,
perceived that she was with child, she and my
father went to Montpellier. And thus it was the
will of our Lord that my birth should be in the
IO
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
house of the Tornamira, the eve of our Lady Saint
Mary, Candlemas day. And my mother, as soon
as I was born, sent me to Saint Mary's; they
carried me in their arms; matins were being said.
in Our Lady's church, and as they took me through
the porch they sang Te Deum Laudamus. The
clergy did not notice the arrival of those who
carried me, as when they entered they were singing
that canticle. And then I was taken to Saint
Fermin, and when those who carried me entered
the church the priests were singing Benedictus
Dominus Deus Israel. And when they took me
back to my mother's house, she was very glad
because of those prognostics that had happened.
And she made twelve candles all of one weight
and one size, and had them lighted all together,
and gave each of them the name of an Apostle,
and vowed to our Lord that I should be christened
by the name of that which lasted longest. And so
it happened that the candle that went by the name
of Saint James lasted a good three fingers' breadth
more than all the others. And owing to that
circumstance, and to the grace of God I was
christened "En Jacme." And thus am I descended
on the side of my mother and that of King En
Pere, my father. All this seemed the work of
• From the various dates men-
tioned in the chronicles, and from
other authentic sources, the birth
of James must be assigned to the
1st of February, 1208.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. I I
God; for the agreement which our grandfather
made to marry the Emperor's daughter was virtu-
ally carried out by the marriage of the descend-
ants of that Emperor and of my father, King En
Pere, and the breach of promise of the former
marriage was thus repaired. And after this,
as I lay in the cradle, there dropped through a
trap-door over my head a great stone which fell
close to the cradle; but it was our Lord's will to
save me from certain death."
The marriage of Guillen, or
Guillaume de Montpellier, with
Eudoxia, daughter of Manuel
Comnenus, Emperor of the East,
was in 1174; and the account
given in explanation of it in the
text is accepted by historians.
Only one child, Maria de Mont-
pellier, was born of it, about 1182
(she stated herself in 1197 to be
upwards of fifteen years old). No
cause but the want of a male heir
was avowed by Guillaume for
driving away his wife, in 1187,
and entering into a pretended
marriage with one Agnes, of whom
it seems known only that she was
of the royal house of Aragon.
(Histoire du Languedoc, t. V.,
p. 534.) His marriage contract
with her appears to make no
mention of his previous marriage,
and declares that this was for the
sake of male issue (amore pro-
creandorum filiorum, Hist. Lang.,
t. iv. p. 115). Having two sons
by his new companion, he ex-
torted from his daughter Maria a
renunciation of her inheritance of
Montpellier, on marrying her to
Barral, Count of Marseilles; this
must have been when she was
not ten years old, for her husband
died in 1192.
His death seems
to have been considered as annul-
ling her renunciation; and her
father forced on her another mar-
riage, in 1197, with Bernard,
Count of Comminges, when an-
other renunciation was made by
her, in favour of her two half-
brothers successively; she being
therein made to declare emphati-
cally that she made it knowingly,
being more than fifteen years old.
(Hist. Lang. t. v. p. 59.) Two
daughters were born of this mar-
riage, within two years; but within
that time also strife arose between
husband and wife. Bernard, after
failing in an application for a
divorce, so treated his wife that
she fled to her father, in 1200.
(Hist. Lang. t. v. p. 69.)
Guillaume de Montpellier died
in 1202, after in vain urging
I 2
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
VI.
My father, the King En Pere, was the most
bounteous king there ever was in Spain, the most
courteous and the most gracious, so that he gave
Innocent III. to declare legi-
timate his sons by Agnes (Inno-
cent III. Epist. lib. v. ep. 128):
a measure without which Maria's
renunciation in their favour
was of no avail. She thus be-
came the lawful Lady of Mont-
pellier, and as such Pedro II.
desired to marry her. Through
his brother-in-law, the Count of
Toulouse, he promoted the Count
of Comminges' repudiation of her,
on the ground that when he mar-
ried her there were living two
ladies with whom he had gone
through the ceremony of marriage
as well as on the usual pretext of
affinity; and in 1204 the King be-
came Maria de Montpellier's third
husband, and, consequently, step-
father of her two daughters.
A daughter, Sancha, was born
to them in the next year ; but
Maria, in this marriage, was as
unhappy as before. Pedro II.
(whose conduct was licentious,
even for that age) ceased to live
with her, and his aversion was
such, that an especial representa-
tion of the importance to Aragon
of a male heir was necessary to
restore a temporary union, such as
was brought about by a knight
of the name of Alcalá. But
even the birth (2d February
1208) of the desired son did not
restore peace to their household.
Pedro instituted a suit for nullity
of marriage against the Queen,
alleging that that between her and
the Count de Comminges was a
valid marriage after all; she went
to Rome to plead her own cause.
On the 19th February, 1213,
Innocent III. decided it in her
favour, giving reasons for holding
that she had not been duly mar-
ried to the Count de Comminges,
and commanding the King to take
her back to his hearth; but she
lived only a few weeks longer,
dying at Rome in April following.
(Innocent III. Epist. lib. xv. ep.
221; Hist. Lang. t. v. pp. 207-
209.)
The statement that a daughter,
Sancha, was born to Pedro and
Maria in the year after their mar-
riage, rests on the authority of a
treaty between the King and Ray-
mond VI., Count of Toulouse,
betrothing her, with Montpellier
as her dowry, to the Count's son,
afterwards Raymond VII. (Hist.
Lang. t. v. p. 89.) But other docu-
ments show that Raymond VIII.,
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 13
away much treasure, through which his revenue
and lands were diminished. He was a good man
at arms, as good as any in the world. Of his
other good qualities I will not speak, not to
lengthen this writing.
VII.
Of the Queen Doña Maria, my mother, I will
say thus much, that if there was a good woman
in the world it was she, in honouring and in fearing
God and in other good ways that in her were.
And much good could I say of her; but let me
sum up by stating that she was beloved by all who
knew her good qualities; that our Lord loved her
so, and gave her such grace, that she is called the
Holy Queen, not only at Rome, where she died,
but all over the world besides. Many sick are to
this day cured by drinking in water or in wine the
dust scraped from her tombstone in the church
of Saint Peter at Rome, near Saint Petronilla, the
in 1211, married another Sancha,
the sister of Pedro II., from whom
he separated in 1230, and whom
he formally repudiated in 1241
(Hist. Lang. t. vi. p. 328.) And,
besides, the present history of
King James makes him solemnly
declare, in a speech in Cortes (fol.
xviii.), that his father and mother
had no child but him.
The historians of Languedoc
reconcile the conflicting docu-
ments under their eyes (the King's
own declaration not being among
them), by supposing the Sancha,
Pedro II.'s daughter, to have died
young; to which must be added
the supposition that she died so
mere an infant that even King
James had lost sight of her exist-
ence, which is not wholly im-
probable.
14
JAMES OF ARAGON.
THE CHRONICLE OF
daughter of Saint Peter.
And look
And look ye who peruse
miraculous thing that my
this writing. Is it not a
grandfather, King Don Alfonso, promised that the
Emperor's daughter should be his wife, and yet he
took afterwards Queen Doña Sancha? And it was
the will of Our Lord that that promise that the
King had made first, that is, that the daughter
of the Emperor Manuel should be his wife, should
come round, that it ended in that the granddaughter
of the Emperor Manuel was afterwards wife of our
father, of whom I myself came. And thus it was
the work of God that that agreement which was
not completed in that time was fulfilled afterwards,
when my father took to wife the granddaughter
of the Emperor.
VIII.
And after my birth, En Simon de Montfort,
who had the land of Carcassonne and Badarres,'
and of Toulouse, what the King of France had
conquered, desired to have friendship with my
father, and asked for me, that he might bring
me up at his court. And my father trusted so
much in Montfort and in his friendship, that he
delivered me to him to bring up. And being in
Bedarrieux (Biterre) in the
county of Béziers.
2
Zurita, Anales, II. c. 63, ex-
plains this, by stating that Simon
de Montfort was to marry his
daughter and heiress to the young
prince Jacme.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 15
his (Montfort's) power, the people of the above-
named countries came to my father and said to
him that he might well become the lord of those
countries, if he would only occupy them. And King
En Pere, my father, was liberal and compassionate,
and for the pity that he had of the deputies, said
that he would take possession; but they deceived
him with fair words, for if on one hand they gave
him promises, on the other they were deficient in
deeds. And I afterwards heard it said by En
Guillen de Cervera, and Arnau de Castellbó, and
En Dalmau de Crexel, and others, who were then
with my father, that the deputies said to him, "My
'lord, here are our castles and our towns; take
(6
""
((
(6
possession of them, and put your own officers
(batles) in them.” And when my father was about
to take possession of the land they said, "My lord,
how will you turn our wives out of our houses?
"We and they will be yours; we will doy our will."
But they did nothing they had promised him. And
they showed him their wives and their daughters,
and their kinswomen, the fairest they could find;
but when they knew that he was a woman's man,
they took away his good thoughts, and turned them
to what they wished. However, as it would take
me too long a time to relate those things, I will
pass on to more important matters.
I
• "Com gitarets nostres mullers
de nostres cases, mes nos e eles
ne seren vostres, en faren vostra
volentat. E per aquesta manera
16
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
IX.
En Simon de Montfort was at Murel with
from eight hundred to a thousand horsemen and
my father came on him there. And there were
with him from Aragon Don Miguel de Luzia and
Don Blascho de Alagon, Don Roderich Liçana,
Don Ladron and Don Gomes de Luna, Don Miquel
de Rada, Don Guillen de Puyo, Don Açnar Pardo,
and others of his household, besides several more
whose names I cannot remember, though I recollect
very well hearing some of them say that, with the
exception of Don Gomes, Don Miquel de Rada,
Don Açnar Pardo, and some of my father's house-
hold who were killed in the battle, all the rest
abandoned him and fled. There were from
Catalonia, En Dalmau de Crexel, e Nuch (En Huch)
de Mataplana, En Guillen Dorta (de Horta), and
En Berenguer de Castel Bisbal, who also fled with
the others. I also recollect hearing, and indeed
know well, for certain, that Don Nuno Sanxes
and En Guillen de Montcada, the son of En
Guillem Ramon de Montcada and of Na Guillema
noli atenyen ço que li prometien,
e mostrauen li llurs mullers, e
llurs filles, e llurs parentes les plus
belles que podien trobar. E can
sabien que ell era hom de fembres
tolien li son bon proposit, e feyan
I
lo mudar en ço que ells volien."
I
Na is the feminine for En,
a prefix then much used in
Catalonia, equivalent of Don and
Doña in Castillian. See above,
p. 8, note 1.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
17
de Castelvi, were not in the battle; they sent a
message to the King that he should wait for them;
but the King would not wait, and fought the battle
with those few who were with him. The night
of the day that the battle was fought the King
had passed in debauchery, so that as I afterwards
heard his own seneschal, called Gill (who became
afterwards Knight Hospitaler), and many other eye-
witnesses say, the King was so exhausted by the
preceding debauch, that he could not stand up
[at mass], when it came to the Gospel, but kept
his seat all the while it was read. And before the
I
battle, En Simon de Montfort wished to put himself
in his power, and do his will.
and do his will. He wanted to come
to terms with him, but my father would not accept
of them. And when Count Simon and those
within (Murel) saw that, they confessed and received
the body of Jesus Christ, and said, "We will
rather die in the field than here, shut up in this
town." And thereon they came out to fight in a
body. On my¹ father's side the men did not know
how to range for the battle, nor how to move
together; every baron fought by himself and
against the order of war (natura darmes). Thus,
I
1
"Havia jagut ab una dona, si
que nos hoym dir puix a son re-
boster qui hauia nom Erf, e puix
fo frare del Spital, qui auia stat
en aquell consell, e de altres que
ho verem per sos ulls, que anch al
Evangeli no poch star de peus, ans
se assecha a son siti mentre quel
deyen." The name of Jacme's
stewart (reboster) is said in the
Chronicle, c. viii. f. 4, to have
been Erf, as in the above
text, but he is called elsewhere
Gil.
C
18
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES of Aragon.
through bad order, through our sins, and through
the Murelians fighting desperately since they found
no mercy' at my father's hands, the battle was lost.
There died my father, for such has ever been the
fate of my race, to conquer or die in battle.
During this time I was at Carcassona, in the
Count's power, for he was, as I said, bringing me
up, and had possession of that place.
X.
And thereupon my born subjects [of Aragon]
demanded me, and made war on the French, and
on the lands they occupied: that is, Don Nuno
Sanxes and En Guillen de Cardona, father of En
Ramon Folch [de Cardona]. Besides carrying on
war from Narbonne and other places, a mission
was sent to Pope Innocent III., begging he should
take council and put pressure on En Simon de Mont-
fort by interdict or otherwise, that he might give
me up, since I was their liege lord, and there was
no other son of my father born in lawful marriage
but me.
That apostolic Pope Innocent was the
best of Popes. For a hundred years before the time
that I am writing this book, there had not been so
good a Pope in all the Church of Rome, for he was
I
"E per la merce que noy tro-
baren aquels que eren de dins."
Refers, no doubt, to the refusal by
the King of Montfort's offer to
treat. The Spanish version omits
this sentence.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
19
a good clerk in that sound learning that a Pope
should have; he had a good natural sense, and
great knowledge of the things of this world. He
sent such strong letters, and such sturdy envoys to
Count Simon, that this latter had to consent to
restore me to my subjects. The French brought
me as far as Narbonne, whither many of the noble-
men and citizens of Catalonia went, and received
I might then be six years and four months
old. When they got to Catalonia, a consultation
was held as to who should bring me up. All agreed
that the Master of the Temple should bring me
up at Monzon. The name of that Master was
En Guillen de Montredon; he was a native of
Osona, and Master of the Temple in Aragon
and Catalonia.
me.
I
XI.
An order was then issued in Council, in my
name and under a new seal made expressly for me,
convoking Cortes at Lerida, for the Catalans and
Aragonese; at which the Archbishop [of Tarra-
gona], the bishops, the abbots, the noblemen of
each kingdom, and ten men from each city, were
to be present, furnished with powers from the rest
to approve that which might be done by all. All
Vich, in Catalonia, called Ausona during the Roman domination.
C 2
20
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
came on the day fixed for the Cortes, save Don
Fernando and Count Don Sancho, each of whom
hoped to be King. All swore to protect my body
and my limbs, and my lands, and to keep and
defend me in everything, and against every one.
The place where the Cortes were held was the
Archbishop En Asparech's palace; he, who was
of the house of Barca, and our relative; he held
me in his arms. The palace, which is now vaulted
over, was then built of wood, the ceremony of the
oath taking place under the window where the
kitchen now is for those who eat in the palace.2
The oath being taken, the Cortes separated.
The Master of the Temple then took me to
Monzon, and I stayed there two years and a half
uninterruptedly. All the revenues my father had
in Aragon and Catalonia were pledged to the Jews
Zurita, Anales ii. c. 66, ex-
plains that "Don Sancho, Count
of Roussillon, and the Infante
Don Fernando, uncles of the King,
went out alienating and stirring
up the people of the kingdom,
each thinking that the succession
belonged to him, notwithstanding
it had been declared that the mar-
riage of the Queen Doña Maria
had been according to the rules
and direction of the Church."
What has been said of the mar-
riage well accounts for attempts
to throw doubt on the legitimacy
of King James. Fernando, the
third son of Alfonso II., and
brother of Pedro II., had been
brought up as an ecclesiastic, a
Cistertian monk and abbot of
Montaragon, but had of his profes-
sion only the revenues. Pedro II.
gave him, in 1204, the count-
ship of Roussillon. Sancho was
the King's great uncle, being
the third son of his great grand-
father, Ramon Berenguer, the
Prince of Aragon.--Zurita, Ana-
les ii. c. 25, c. 50, c. 66, c. 76.
2
"Sus el palau de uolta qui
ara es, e laores era de fust, a la
finestra on ara es la cuyna per on
dona hom a menjar a aquels qui
mengen en lo palau.”
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon.
2 I
and Saracens, as also all the fiefs (honors) which
rented at that time seven hundred "cauallerias
or knights' fees.' My father, King Don Pedro, had
given away or sold them all except one hundred
and thirty of them, and when I entered Monzon I
had no food for one day, the land being so wasted
and mortgaged.
2
XII.
And while I was in Monzon, there were bands.
and feuds among the noblemen of Aragon: Don P.
Ahones and Don Atorela Palasin, Don Exemen
Dorrea and Don Arnau Palasin, Don Berenguer de
Benavent and Don Blasco Maça, and others, whose
names I do not remember now. Some noblemen
and knights made band and party with the Count
of Roussillon Don Sancho, their chief, and followed
his leading, whilst Don Pedro Fernandez de Albar-
I "Honors" in the old feudal
language of France was often
synonymous of fief, and served to
designate all manner of land pro-
perty.
In Aragon honors were the towns
or estates, the revenues of which
were by the King given to the
"ricos-hombres" or barons, who
in their turn distributed them to
caballeros (knights). The revenue
was then called "cavalleria ;” it
was a true military benefice, and
represented what might be called
the honorary of a knight. A large
portion of the towns and villages
of Aragon was thus distributed
among the barons, and held “in
honour" under certain conditions,
either directly from the barons or
from the knights themselves. The
honors, however, were not here-
ditary like the "fiefs," properly so
called; at the beginning of each
reign the King could re-take them,
and make a new distribution. The
right, however, was not exercised
with great regularity.
2 En Pere Ahones, also written
Aones and Auncs.
22 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
racin, and Don Rodrigo Liçana, and Don Blasco
Dalagó held with Don Fernando, and made him
their chief. Don Pedro Cornel, and Don Valles
Dantilló had no land or honor yet, because they
were too young; they sometimes sided with one
party, at other times with the other. And Don
Exemen Corneyl was already an old man; he
grieved for the evils that he saw so great in
Aragon, for he was the wisest man in all Aragon,
and the best adviser. And at times, several of
the above-named came to Monzon, and entreated
me to go out of the castle with them, that I might
go to their side and destroy the other.
2
XIII.
And when I was nine years old, they could not
keep us in Monzon, neither me nor the Count of
Provence my cousin, who was also there; as I, con-
sidering it was necessary for the country, wished to
go. It was then agreed by the Master and the others
that they should let me leave the place. And, ac-
cordingly, full seven months before I left Monzon,
there came a message to the Count of Provence from
the noblemen of his country, that on a certain day
they would come with a galley to Salou, and secretly
In the Spanish translation
Don Volés, which is decidedly a
misprint.
2 Ramon Berenguer descended
from the Counts of Barcelona,
and cousin of James.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 23
take him out of the castle of Monzon, and that
they would go with him to Provence; and as it was
planned by them, so it was done. And when the
Count had to leave, he said that he wished to
speak to me; and he disclosed his secret, and took
leave of me, weeping, as did also those who came
for him; and I wept with him and with them for
grief of our parting; and yet I was very glad
that he went away. And next day, at dusk, the
Count left the castle with En Pere Auger, who
brought him up, and two squires of his, and they
passed that night and went through Lerida in
disguise, and next night went to Salou, and the
Count went on board the galley, and got away to
Provence. And that men may know my age and
his at this juncture, the Count was then two years
and a half older than I was.
XIV.
And when the Templars saw that the Count of
Provence had gone away without their knowledge,
they perceived that my stay in the place was no
longer good for them. On the other hand, when
Count Don Sancho heard of the departure of the
Count of Provence, it vexed him much; and when
he and those of his party in Aragon knew of it,
they wished to take possession of the kingdom.
Whereupon I sent a message to Don Pedro
24 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
Fernandez, and to Don Rodrigo Liçana and their
party, and to En G. de Cervera, to come to me
at Monzon, as for every reason I wished to leave
that town immediately. They assured me that
they would help and support me with all their
power. And when Count Don Sancho heard this
he made a compact with those on his side, and said
that he would willingly cover with scarlet silken cloth'
as much ground as I, and those with me, went over
in Aragon beyond the Cinca. And I left Monzon
at dawn, and when I got to the bridge my company
was waiting for me, and they told me that Count
Don Sancho was at Selgua with all his forces, and
that he would fight me. I was not more than nine
years old at the time, and for the battle that was
expected a knight (whose name I do not recollect)
lent me a light coat of mail or hauberk (gonio),
which I put on, and that was the beginning, the
first arms that I ever took.
Berbegal without meeting with any opposition on
the road; and next day I entered Huesca; thence
I went to Zaragoza, this being the first time that I
was in Aragon. The people were very glad at my
coming.
"Perset vermeill
are the
words. Perhaps "perset" is meant
for silken cloth manufactured or
coming from Persia. Raimond
de Miraval, a troubadour of the
And I went that day to
twelfth century, says :—
'Mantel non es de pesset ni de
saia."
2 Monzon is, however, in
Aragon.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 25
2
XV.
And when in Zaragoza, Don Pedro Fer-
nandez and those above-named being with me, a
message came to say that Don Rodrigo Liçana had
taken prisoner Don Lope de Alvaro,' a relative of
Don Rodrigo Liçana, and that Don Pelegrin de
Trosillo had taken the daughter of Don Lope de
Alvaro to wife. And Pelegrin and his brother, Don
Gil, asked and besought me for love and mercy's
sake that I should give counsel and aid as to the
imprisonment of Don Lope de Alvaro, inasmuch as
Don Rodrigo Liçana had taken him when he was
not on his guard against him, and without having
first defied him, and had taken from him the
castle and town of Alvaro and fully ten thousand
"cafizes "3 of grain, besides doing him other harm,
as well to the Christian as to the Saracen in-
habitants of Alvaro. And all those who were with
us at the time thought the thing ill done, and also
all the Aragonese who knew of it. And it was
resolved by my Council, for I had not yet judg-
ment enough to advise myself and others, that I
Lop. Dalveró, or d'Alveró,
seems
name.
to have been his right
2 Elsewhere d'Atrocil and Atros-
sil. Pelegrin is generally written.
Palegrí, which is the Catalonian
form of that name.
3 Cafiz, in Castillian cahiz, is a
nominal measure, equivalent to
twelve fanegas, or English bushels.
Both cafiz and fanega are de-
rived from the Arabic; the former
from, the latter from äs, a
sack.
26
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
And when the
should march against Don Rodrigo, assist Don
Lope de Alvaro, release him from prison, and
repair all the damage done to him. And so I did,
for I marched against Alvaro with a "fonevol" that
I had caused to be made at Huesca.
"fonevol" had battered the castle for two consecu-
tive days, those whom Don Rodrigo had put in for
garrison surrendered. I then departed thence, and
went to Liçana, where Don Rodrigo held Don
Lope de Alvaro prisoner, and the castle was also
besieged. And inside were Don Pedro Gomez
and another knight, whose name I forget, and
several esquires and other company; Don Pedro
Gomez was chief of all of them, and governor
of the castle, and the greatest and best man of
them all. And I set up the "fonevol," and that
was in May; and when it was ready it threw no
less than five hundred stones in one night, and one
thousand more in one day. And about the time
of vespers the stones had broken down so much of
the wall that a great breach had been made. And
the cry for the assault went through the army.
Every one armed himself and the fight commenced;
and those of the army outside fought the enemy
with lance and shield, and so did the crossbowmen,
who were there, in my camp. The "fonevol" did
I
Fonevol, from the Latin fun-
dibulus or funnibulus, was a sort
of war-engine, which threw out
very large stones as a funda
honda, or sling would do.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
27
not cease throwing stones; it shot in such wise, and
the fight was so hard, that many of the squires and
others in the place were wounded. When Don
Pedro Gomez saw that the castle which he held
for his lord was being lost, he himself, clad in
armour, his shield on his arm, his iron cap on
his head, and his sword in his hand, took his
stand on the breach like a man who wished to
die rather than live. Meanwhile the "fonevol"
was doing great execution,' and Don Pedro was up
to his knees in the earth and dust which had
been raised by the crumbling of the wall. But
still the fight was maintained so that no one could
mount the breach, though there were men good
enough for the task, and who wished to do it.
There was among them a squire, whose name I
do not remember at the present moment, but be-
lieve it to have been Don Pedro Garcés de Alfaro.
He had put on a hauberk (gonio) and an iron
cap on his head, and taken a sword in his hand.
Thus armed he went as far as his feet could carry
him, and began to mount the breach, so that Don
Pedro Gomez could not prevent his mounting, for
he could not help himself, so buried was he in
the earth of the ruined wall. In this manner the
army mounted the breach, and the castle was
taken. And I got possession of Don Pedro de
1 “El fonevol que feya de grans
errades ; so in both the printed
""
editions. I think the meaning
must be that given above.
28
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
Alvaro, who, as above-stated, was a prisoner inside.
After this Don Rodrigo Liçana, who was a friend
of Don Pedro Fernandez de Açagra, spoke to Don
Pedro Gomez and advised him to depart from the
castle, and thus escape the calamities of war, offer-
ing, if he did so, to receive him and give him
shelter at Santa Maria de Albarracin.
And so
Don Pedro Fernandez, who was with me at my
entry into Aragon, joined Don Rodrigo, and both
renounced my allegiance, and did me all the harm
they could from that hour ever after. On the other
hand Don Pedro Aones and his party joined our
side, and were with me at the capture of those two
castles (Alvaro and Liçana), and Don Exemen
Corneyl, the greatest person in Aragon (except my
uncle Ferdinand) was also on my side at that time,
because he was wiser than the rest.
2
I
XVI.
There was
was at this
at this time talk of a marriage
between the niece of Don Exemen Corneyl, sister of
Don Pedro Corneyl, and Don Pedro Aones, who
was to take her to wife. And I, therefore, summoned
my army in the summer and went against Albar-
racin. I pitched my tents in front of the Andador
See above, Ahones and Aunes.
2 Elsewhere Cornel and Corn-
eil, and Pedro for Pere, accord-
ing as the author chose the Cas-
tillian or Catalonian appella-
tive.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES of Aragon.
29
I
tower, on a hill commanding it, and I think I was
at that siege about two months, a little more or less.
And I had there a "mangonel" made, which battered
the Andador tower, and besides that had the "fone-
vol" surrounded by palisades for greater protection.
And inside the town there were fully a hundred and
fifty knights, Castillians, Aragonese and Navarrese,
commanded by Don Pedro Fernandez [de Açagra]
himself, the lord of the place, and by Don Rodrigo
Liçana. I had with me Don Exemen Corneyl, and
En Pere Corneyl, and En Guerau de Cervera, and
Don Vallés [D'Antilló], and Don Pedro Aones and
Don Pelegrin, his brother, and Don Guerau de Puyo,
father of that G. de Puyo, who is with me at the time
that I am writing this present book. And there
were there men from Lerida, Zaragoza, Calatayud,
Daroca, and Teruel. All the noblemen, who then
followed my banners, did not exceed the number of
one hundred and fifty knights, for I was still a
child, not more than eleven years old at the time.
And all that I then did was done by the advice of
the noblemen who were with me. For reason was it
that, since I knew not how to govern my own land or
give advice as was needed, others should advise me.
So it was that the relatives and friends of Don
Pedro Fernandes, who were then with me, kept
sending messages to the besieged, informing them
· The “mangonel," also called
Almanjanech, was a kind of
"fonevol" or war-engine, as im-
mediately appears.
30 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
of our plans; day and night knights and squires
went away from our camp in sight of our army,
entered Albarracin, told the besieged what we were
doing, besides carrying crossbows and supplies into
the town. And except Don Pedro Aones and his
brother Don Pelegrin and Don G. de Puyo, all the
rest served me badly and acted so treacherously as
they could. In this way those who were with me
made known to those, who were in the town, the
night that Don Pelegrin would guard the "man-
gonel." And he and En G. de Puyo were on guard
that night. And when midnight came the besieged
prepared their torches, and came out to the palisades
with all their power of knights and squires, and all
the footmen they had in the place. And they
brought out burning torches to fire the "
"fonevol"
with. And Don Pelegrin and Don G. de Puyo, who
were on guard, went out to attack them; but those
who were with them seeing the great numbers of the
enemy coming from the town abandoned them and
fled. And Don Pelegrin de Aones' and Don G. de
Puyo were slain there, for they had more dread of
shame than the rest, and would not run away. The
"fonevol" was burnt, and yet none of the army
would give help. And, thereupon, when my Council
saw that I was betrayed and ill served by my own
subjects, they advised me to raise the siege; and so
it was done, for there were as many knights in the
• Elsewhere "Ahoires.”
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 31
place, or more, than I myself had outside. And I
could not take council about it, nor had I any one
to consult, being only eleven years old at the
time.
XVII.
I
So was the siege of Albarracin raised. One
year and a half after this Queen Doña Berengaria,
the mother of King Don Ferdinand,' proposed to
me a marriage with a sister of hers, whose
name was Doña Leonor. Both were daughters of
King Don Alfonso,³ who had the following sons
and daughters, namely: Queen Doña Blanca, who
was married to King Louis of France, son of King
Philip; Doña Beranguela (Berengaria), wife to the
King of Leon, father of King Don Ferdinand,
whose name was Don Alfonso; another was Doña
Urraca, who was Queen of Portugal; and another
Albaraccin (Albarrací) had
been taken from the Moors by the
father of Don Pedro Fernandes
de Azagra, who acknowledged
no sovereign, saying that he
was the vassal of Saint Mary, to
whom he dedicated the principal
church.
2 Ferdinand III., or Saint Fer-
dinand, of Castille.
3 Alfonso VIII. of Castille. The
kings of Leon and those of Cas-
tille, before the union of the
crowns, were nevertheless num-
4
bered as if of the same dynasty.
Thus Alfonso VI. was so called
because he was the sixth king of
that name in Leon, though the
first in Castille; and this king
Alfonso VIII. was so styled,
though he never reigned in Leon,
and was only the third of the
Alfonsos who reigned in Castille.
So there reigned at the same time,
in Castille and in Leon respect-
ively, one Alfonso VIII. and an-
other Alfonso IX.
4 Alfonso IX. of Leon.
32
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
was Doña Leonor, whom I myself afterwards took to
wife. Besides these daughters, King Alfonso of Cas-
tille had two sons: the Infante Don Fernando and
the Infante Don Henrique, who afterwards became
king of Castille. The Infante Don Fernando died
before his father, King Don Alfonso, whereupon, on
the death of Don Alfonso, Don Henrique was made
king. And in play with some lads of his age, one
of them struck him with a tile on the head, and he
died. The thing happened thus: the Infante had
divided the lads, some on one side, some on the other.
He himself put himself on the side of those who
fought on a hillock to represent a castle; he was
struck by a tile on his head, and died of the blow."
And so the kingdom fell to Doña Berenguela
(Berengaria) whose son, Don Ferdinand, became
king of Castille.
XVIII.
And thus, by advice of my great vassals, I
took to wife the Infanta Doña Leonor, for my
father had left no son but me. They advised me to
marry while still young, because they said they
were in great anxiety for my life, either from
maladies or from poison. And likewise because they
wished on my account that I should leave an heir,
Don Henrique died on the 6th of June, 1217.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon. 33
so that the kingdom might not go out of the royal
line; for Count Don Sancho, son of the Count of
Barcelona, and Don Fernando, my uncle, son of
King Don Alfonso, wished each to be king, and
had both tried for it in my childhood whilst I was
at Monzon, as before related. And from apprehen-
sion of that evil, they advised me to take to wife,
as aforesaid, the daughter of King Alfonso of
Castille. Such was the advice of En Exemen
Corneyl, and of En G. de Cervera, who were then.
my head councillors, and of En G. de Montcada,
who was killed in Mallorca, and of others whose
names I do not remember now. And I married
her, the Infanta Doña Leonor, at Agreda [in
Castille].
XIX.
And then I was made a knight in Saint Mary's
of Orta, off Tarazona,' where having first heard
the mass of the Holy Ghost, I girt myself with a
sword, which I took from the altar. At that time
I had completed my twelfth year, and was entering
upon the thirteenth I was, however, one whole
year with my wife before I consummated the
marriage, for I was not old enough for that.
On the western frontier of
Aragon. Agreda, where he mar-
ried Queen Leonor, is in Castille
at a few miles distance.
D
34
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
2
XX.
The marriage done, I went into Aragon and
Catalonia, and my wife, the Queen, with me, when
all the barons' strove with one another to become
my confidents, in order that what I did should be
done on their advice. And it came to pass that
Don Nuño Sanchez, son of Count En Sancho, to
whom my father had given Roussillon and Conflant
and Cerdagne for life, had once had great friend-
ship with En Guillen de Montcada; but, owing to
a quarrel which the said Don Nuño Sanchez picked
with En Guillen de Cervello about a falcon, which
the latter would not give or sell to the other, both
became angry, and spoke ill to each other. Upon
which En Guillen de Montcada said to Don Nuño
that thenceforth he would not be his friend, and
Don Nuño replied that since he (Montcada) did
not desire his friendship, so he did not desire his.
He told him besides not to trust on him any longer,
as he would not thenceforwards be his friend. And
thereon En Guillen de Montcada made up friendship
and alliance with Don Pedro Fernandes [de Açagra]
The word rendered here and
elsewhere by "barons" is rich
homes, in Castillian ricos hombres;
rich being taken for "powerful,”
rather than for "abounding in
richesses."
2 Nuño (sic) is the Castillian
form of this name. In Cata-
lonia and Valencia it would be
written Nunyo, as Munyoz instead
of Muñoz, &c.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
35
I
and with his party, whilst Don Nuño contrived to
make, and actually made friendship and alliance
with Don Fernando and with Don Pedro Ahones
and with their party. And some time after this En
G. de Montcada and En Pere Fernandes prepared to
come to Monzon for the Cortes, which had been con-
voked of such prelates and knights as could there
be assembled, and there came full three hundred
of them; and they all came to a town belonging
to the Temple, which is called Valcarca. And
Don Fernando and Don Pedro Ahones got
together their retainers and came to Casteyló del
Pont de Monzon." And as I was going from
Lerida to the said Cortes at Monzon, Don Nuño
met me on the road, and asked me for assistance
and advice, telling me that if I refused, he would in-
fallibly meet with great dishonour or death at the
hand of his enemy. And upon my asking what
dishonour that might be, he said to me: "My lord,
there is Don Guillen de Montcada, who is coming
"here, and Don Pedro Fernandes [de Azagra] with
"him; and, as you know, I and Don Guillen have
fallen out of friendship. They will be to-morrow
"at Valcarca with full three hundred knights, and
they want to pick a quarrel with me, and in
some way or other give me the lie, or utter words
(C
((
· Elsewhere written Aunes, and
Aones. See above, pp. 3, 21. Pere
Fernandes is for Pedro Fernandez
de Azagra.
2
Castejon de S. Juan (?), a short
distance to the north of Monzon.
Valcarca, or Valltarcha, is a few
miles south-east of Monzon.
1
D 2
36
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"of dishonour, which I cannot but return. And
"if I do return them, I apprehend that they will
me some affront as bad as
((
'kill me or do
"death."
At that time I was only fourteen years old. I
told Don Nuño that his words had grieved me
immensely, inasmuch as I considered an affront
done to him equal to an affront to my own person,
owing to the close relationship, there was between
him and me. And as to what he had complained
of, I answered him that I would take such counsel
as to prevent that harm and affront he was afraid
of. And that I would do thus: As soon as I had
entered Monzon, I would send for the chief men
of the town to come to me, and would say to them
this much "I pray and command you that you
guard the town and bar all the gates, and keep
66
61
((
porters and armed men at them, so as to hinder
'any baron or knight from entering it by day or
night, without your first letting me know of it.
And if they insist upon coming in, let only one
"knight enter with a couple of mounted retainers at
"a time, and no more." And so it was.
And so it was. And when
Don Nuño heard what I had done for him, both for
the sake of his honour and my own, he said that he
thanked me as much as he could, and knew well that
I loved him, and was confident that I had formed
such a resolution as would spare him affront and
death. And upon this there came to the gates of
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 37
Monzon En G. de Montcada and Don Pedro Fer-
nandez with all their power, but neither of them was
allowed to enter the town save with two retainers
each, as had been ordered, whilst Don Fernando and
Don Pedro Ahones entered with as many more.
And when En G. de Montcada and Pedro Fer-
nandez saw that they could not carry out their plan,
they had to desist and go away. Many injurious and
threatening words did Montcada and Fernandez
utter on this occasion, but I forbade it, and told them
that if they said anything injurious to Don Nuño
they would pay for it; and so Don Nuño went away
in honour, and they, having failed in their attempt,
also departed.
XXI.
After that I went into Aragon. And soon after
En Guillen de Montcada began to assemble his
men in Catalonia, and Don Nuño was informed
thereof. I was then at Huesca, and the Queen also;
and Count Don Sancho and Don Nuño came to me,
and told me, in the presence of the Queen, that En
Guillen de Montcada was about to enter Roussillon
at the head of considerable forces, for the purpose
of doing harm to the latter, and wasting the
land that my father had given to him, and was
ultimately to revert to me. And he prayed me,
38
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
•
and called on me for love and grace, that I should
help him against those, who were trying to bring
harm and shame on him, as he and his father (he
said) had no relations and friends in Aragon and
Catalonia but me. He was quite ready to do right
to any man who had complaint to make of him, but
he entreated me to help and protect him, so great
was the faith and hope he had in me; for, while
En Guillen de Montcada had plenty of relatives
and friends to do his bidding, he himself had no
friends to defend him but me. And Don Nuño
besides, then and there pledged his most solemn.
word and that of Don Ato de Foces and Don
Blasco Maça, and his own holdings in Roussillon,
as well as theirs, which my father in his time had
given him, that he would do full right to En Guillen
de Montcada or any other man who should bring
complaint against him. And upon this I sent my
letters to En Guillen de Montcada, commanding
him not to do Don Nuño any harm, since he had
put security in my hands that he would do right to
whomsoever asked him for it. But Montcada cared
little for all this, and did not desist from his under-
taking; on the contrary, he entered Roussillon with
his followers, and took with shield and lance a
castle called Avalri, which belonged to
to one En
Ramon de Castell Rosello, and thence went to
Perpignan, wherein was one En Jaçpert de Barberá,
who had thrown himself into it to do service to Don
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 39
2
I
Nuño; but Muntcada so harassed the people inside
that they made a sally and were defeated, and in
that raid En Jaçpert de Barberá ¹ was taken prisoner.
Seeing that my letters to En Guillen de Montcada
were of no use at all, that he would not obey my
orders, but went on doing hurt to Don Nuño, and
had entered Roussillon against him, I summoned
my forces in Aragon, and went against him, and
took one hundred and thirty fortresses, castles, and
towers from him and his supporters. I also took
Cervellon, the siege of which lasted thirteen days.
And thereupon I went to besiege the castle of
Montcada, and En Guillen threw himself hastily
into it, and Don Pedro Cornel, and Don Rodrigo
Liçana, and Don Vallés Dantilló, and En Bernat
de Sancta Eugenia, brother of En Ponç G. de Tor-
reela,³ were with him; and I was then not more than
fourteen years old. And there were with me Count
Don Sancho, and Don Nuño, and Don Fernando,
and Don Pedro Ahones, and Don Ato de Foces,
and Don Artal de Luna, and some of my own
great vassals of Aragon; and there might be in
all four hundred knights, whilst those inside the
castle might be about one hundred and thirty
* The text, which is rather ob-
scure, has, "E era en Gisbert de
Barbará llains que sen era mes
per fer seruici a don Nuno: e
broca en aquells de la vila, si que
exiren de fora, e haguerense a
venere aquells de Perpinyá."
2 Cervelló according to the
Catalonian form. See above,
p. 22.
3 En Ponce de Torredel says
the Spanish version.
40 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
knights. And I summoned En Guillen de Mont-
cada to surrender his castle; and he answered that
he would willingly have given it to me had I asked
for it in another way; but whereas I had done him
great wrong by coming down with such a strong
force against him, he thought that it was dishonour-
able for him to surrender his castle, and would not,
as in fact he did not. And I encamped with my force
on a hillock against the town, on which the market
was held, and remained there three months, a little
more or less. And had it not been for the supplies
the besieged obtained from our own camp by the
connivance of the Aragonese, who were with us
(the Catalans from Barcelona also furnishing them
with provisions against the money of the Aragonese
in our camp service) the besieged would have sur-
rendered, as they had not food for three days. Being
yet a child, I really knew not how to obviate
this, all those who were with me, excepting only
Don Sancho and Don Pedro Ahones, being then
much displeased at my trying to do harm to those
inside the castle, which is certainly one of the
strongest in Spain, and one which, being well
garrisoned, could not be taken save by famine,
for it has water enough from a spring rising on
the side towards the north, and this no man could
take from the besieged unless the castle itself was
first taken. And so I was obliged to raise the siege
and return to Aragon; upon which En Guillen de
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
4I
Montcada sallied out against Terraça, which he took,
its garrison taking refuge in the castle; and went
thence to Sarboç, which he also took and destroyed;
and came lastly to Piera, which he could not take.
And he and Don Fernando and Don Pedro Ahones
came to an agreement; and En Guillen de Mont-
cada entered Aragon and came to Tahust,' which
Don Pedro Ahones held of me as an "honour;" and
in that agreement between them were included Zara-
goza, Huesca, and Jaca. I was then in Alagon,
and on my side were Don Nuño, and Don Pedro
Fernandez, and Don Blasco d'Alagó,² and Don
Artal, and Don Rodrigo Liçana; in Alagon
itself were only Don Nuño and Don Pedro Fer-
nandez, and Don Ato. And thereon there was
negotiated a compact of friendship between Don
Fernando and Don Guillen de Montcada and Don
Pedro Ahones, that they would stand by Don Nuño
and Don Pedro Fernandez against all men; and
Don Lop Xemenis de Luziá, vassal of Don Nuño,
brother of Ruy Xemenis, negotiated that. And
they sent me a message saying that they would.
willingly come to me, and would do in everything
my will, but that they had made agreement by
I Tauste.
2
Alagon, a town of Aragon, in
the province of Saragossa, twenty-
one miles to the north-west of
that capital. Don Blasco d'Alagó,
or Dalagó, was at this time the
lord of it; for in Catalonia proper
names ending in on lose generally
the final n, as Cervelló, Antilló,
Rosselló, which in Castillian would
be Cervellon, Antillon, &c.
42
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
oath and by writing; so Don Nuño and Don Pedro
told us on their behalf. And therefore they prayed
me to go out and receive Don Fernando, who was
my uncle, and En Guillen de Montcada, who was
an honourable man, and Don Pedro Ahones. I
accordingly went out, and told them that it was
winter and late in the day, and that they should
come in with only four or five knights, and leave their
companies in the villages outside. And thereupon
it was settled that I myself should go home to my
own house, and so I did, whilst they remained, as
agreed, at the gates of the town, which I had
ordered to be closed behind me. But Don Nuño
and Don Pedro, to whom I had given charge of the
gates, let in as many as wished to come in, without
my knowledge; and in this manner there entered
fully two hundred of the knights, who had come with
them into Alagon. And I was then a boy, not more
than fifteen years old; and I said to the Queen
Doña Leonor, "Know ye that all the knights who
"came with Don Fernando and with En Guillen de
"Montcada and with Don Pedro Ahones, are already
“inside the town?" Great indeed was my
¹ astonish-
ment thereat. I asked those who guarded the
gates why had they allowed them to enter the city,
and who had let them in. And they told me that
I CL
I
Sapiats que tots los caual-
lers son entrats qui venien ab don
Ferrando e ab en G. de Muncada,
e ab Don Pero Ahones. E vels
vos aqui en Alago, e marauellam
nos molt de aquesta cosa."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
43
Don Nuño and Don Pedro Fernandez had let them
enter. I then said to myself, "By St. Mary!
((
great treason is this; that those in whom I trusted
"should thus betray me, bringing my enemies inside
"the town!"
XXII.
And when morning caine, I went to hear
mass in the great church of Alagon; and above,
in the choir, where the priests chaunted, were Don
Fernando, and Don Guillen de Montcada, and Don
Pedro Ahones and Don Pedro Fernandez de
Azagra and Don Nuño, who was supposed to be
of my side; but they all seemed then to be of one
mind. And Don Fernando stood up and said: “Sir,
((
(C
you know well how near of kin I am to you, and
"that I am a brother of your father. I will not do any-
thing to displease you, and therefore am I come
here with Don Guillen de Montcada and Don Pedro
Ahones, to obey your commands as our Lord; as to
"war with you we will have none." And, thereupon,
En Guillen de Montcada' stood up and said: "Sir,
"what men say that you wish us ill, is great evil to
us; and pray bethink
you come to Zaragoza and
"enter into our city and our homes; there you can
"better say and act as you please; we are all pre-
pared to do your bidding." And Don Pedro
((
I The name of this nobleman this Chronicle: Montcada, Munt-
is variously written throughout cada, and Moncada.
44
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
2
Ahones said: "Enter Zaragoza; we are ready to
do towards you as towards our Lord." And there-
upon they cajoled me so with fair tales and words,
that I entered the city next day. And when I
was inside and in my own palace, called La Suda,'
at the Toledo gate, they came and told us after
sunset that there were fully one hundred armed men
between the aforesaid gate and a postern there was
close by, through which one got to the city wall.
Soon after Guillen Boy and Pere Sanz de Martel
came, sent by the people of Zaragoza, and entered
my house; they had their beds made, and laid down
where the women usually lay. Meanwhile, the
Queen, hearing the noise of the armed men who
remained outside, and of those who had entered the
house to lie down before us, took to weeping very
bitterly. I comforted her as well as I could. And
there came in before me the said Guillen Boy and
Pere Sanz de Martel; and Guillen Boy said to the
Queen, "Lady," said he, "do not weep; for soon you
"will be comforted; tears destroy reason; and all
“those tears of yours will turn to joy, and your anger
"will pass away." This state of things lasted fully
three weeks; the guard, and they (Boy and Sanz)
lying down before us. Then came Don Ato de Foces,
who had lately got into Zaragoza; at first they would
¹ Sudda (in Castillian azuda)
was the name for the Moorish
Alcazar or palace at Saragossa.
in Arabic, Porta domus, ves-
tibulum.
2 Thus in the edition of 1557 ;
Tudela?
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 45
not let him come in to me to advise, nor have private
communication with me, little or much. At last he
came and told me that since his stay at Zaragoza
with dishonour he was there, and he was not called.
into Council, perhaps it should not grieve me if he
retired and went home. I replied, "Go, for it is
"not to our honour nor to yours, that you are here."
He therefore departed and went to the country of
Huesca. And thereupon I took Don Pedro Ahones
apart, and said to him: "Don Pedro Ahones, much
"have I loved you, and caused you to be honoured
"by Don Artal d'Alagó; and yet you now take part
"in this great dishonour that I am now suffering.
"I therefore, from this moment, cast myself loose
"from your love, and while I live will love you
"not." And he said, "For what cause?" "Because,"
said I to him, "you behold my dishonour and my
"hurt; if it were not for you, this dishonour and
“hurt could not have befallen me; and because you
"could remedy it, and did not." Don Pedro argued
with me about that, and said that in what he and
the others were doing there was no dishonour nor
hurt; and that he cared little for my words.
XXIII.
And after that talk I went to the Queen, and said
to her: "Well do I know and see the hurt and dis-
"honour that you and I are suffering; and though
46
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"I am still a child, I intend having my revenge, and
you will also, if you will only follow my advice."
Then I said to her: "In this house there is a trap-
"door leading to a subterraneous passage; I will get
((
(
'two ropes; I will seat you on a board, and lower
you down; then I
then I will send for En Artal
(d'Alagó),' that he may come here with his men
the very night that we are to do this; and when
"we know that he has arrived, you will go out [of
"the house] by the door below, and Don Artal will
(6
((
((
go away with you, and I will remain here at Zara-
"goza. I dare not attempt anything for fear of
their hurting you; but as soon as you have gone
(( away, I will address. Don Fernando, or Don
“Guillen de Montcada, or Don Pedro Ahones, and
66
will tell them that they all did treason in what
they did against me. I will then mount a horse,
which I will have in readiness, and this they cannot
prevent, because if any of them attempt to stop
"me, I will kill him. I do not believe that they can
"overtake me; I will have such a swift horse
"that I have no fear of their coming far after me."
And she replied: "Know ye that for nothing.
"in the world will I be lowered down from this
“on a board with ropes. And I begged and
"E dixem li be conexem e
veem lo dan e la onta que vos y
(sic) nos prenem, e jatsia que nos
siam infant nos ne vengarem siu
voleu vos.
E dixem li en esta
""
casa ha una trapa e haurem dos
cordes, e seurem vos en una taula,
e auallar vos hem de aqui enjus,
e enviarem la nuyt que aço deurem
fer per don Artal Dalago," &c.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES of Aragon.
47
entreated her much, but she would not do it. I,
therefore, let the thing rest, and did nothing on
account of her fears.
I
XXIV.
And then came En Guillen de Montcada and
made Don Fernando beg of me that for the harm
that I had done him (Montcada) in Catalonia, I
would make amends to him. I replied that what I
had done, I had done rightfully, and that I would
make him no amends. And they both said that
indeed I should; that the amend would be much to
him and little to me; that I should give him twenty
thousand morabatins; and I persisted that I would
not. At last, in the expectation that the aforesaid
knights would leave the traitorous ways that they were
in, I yielded and promised them the twenty thousand
morabatins. And when I had stayed at Zaragoza
for a while, I went to Tortosa, and the Queen went
Burbaguena. And Don Fernando and Don
Guillen de Montcada and Don Nuño began to
distribute the fiefs and "honors" of Aragon among
to
I
The original gold coin of that
name, struck by the Sultans of the
Almoravide dynasty, in imitation
of the Roman Aureus, seems to
be meant. It was about the
seventh of an ounce, and would
be worth now about IIS. This
was the
"maravedi de oro," or
morabetinus aureus. There was
another called 66 maravedi de
plata" (argenteus), which by suc-
cessive expansion of the currency
has, like the Portuguese reis,
become a coin of nominal value.
48
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
their friends, pretending that they were bestowing
them with my sanction; but the truth is that they
divided them as they liked best.
XXV.
After that I left Tortosa without their knowing
of it, and came to Orta, which belongs to the
order of the Temple; whereupon I summoned the
barons and knights holding land in fief from the
crown to come to me at Teruel, for that I intended
to enter the kingdom of Valencia and make war
on the Moors, and that they should do service for
the land they held of me, and accordingly named
a day for their being there. And, thereon, I made
contract for supplies with Don Pasqual Monyos,
who had been a great favourite of my father, and
one of the best townsmen in the whole country in
those days. Monyos told me that he would supply
very willingly, and for nothing, as much as he
could of his own and of his friends' wealth; and
so he supplied for three weeks all that was wanted.
And when the day arrived that they, that is, the
barons of Aragon, were to come to me, there came
only Don Blasco d'Alagó, and Don Artal de
Luna, and Don Ato de Foces; and I saw plainly
that the rest would not come on the day fixed
for the meeting. And in consequence of this their
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
49
2
absence, I had to consume the supplies that had
been stored up to invade the country of the Moors.
And, therefore, I resolved to make a truce with
Seit Abuzeit,' who was then King of Valencia, the
truce to last three weeks, after which he should
give me the fifth of all his revenue from Valencia
and Murcia, excepting the "zeka." " And Seit
bound himself to that in writings, and by deeds
and agreements which he signed; and so the truce
was made with him. And when the three weeks
aforesaid were passed, I, who had by that time.
consumed the supplies that should have been
employed in the raid, left Teruel, and entered
Aragon. And when I got to the second village
below Calamocha, I there met Don Pedro Ahones
who was coming with fifty or sixty knights, and
I asked him whence he came, and where he was
going. And he told me that he was going to
enter the country of the Moors, he and his brother
the Bishop of Saragossa.³ And I said to him,
"Turn back with me, for I wish to speak with
you about that." And he begged me not to delay
him on his journey, as he wished to go on. And
I said to him, "Don Pedro Ahones, I will not
سید ابو زید Seid
1 Abu Zeid.
I
was his real name. See Appen-
dix A. at the end of the volume.
2 The words of the original are:
after deducting the zaká, or con-
tribution for the poor." Zaka, in
Spanish azaque, is from the
Arabic
.
3 The Bishop of Saragossa at
this time was Sancho de Ahones,
from 1216 to 1236.
E
50 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon.
((
delay you much if I ask you to ride one short
"league with me, for I wish some of the Aragonese
"barons to be present when I come to speak my
"mind to you." And he said that he was content;
and so I went to Burbaguena, to a house belonging
to the order of the Temple, which is on the Daroca
and Teruel road, at the entrance of the village as
one comes from Daroca; and there were with him
Don Blasco de Alagon, Don Artal de Alagon,
Don Ato de Foces, Don Ladron, Don Assalit de
Gudar, Don Pelegrin de Bolas, and himself, with
his purpoint on, and his sword girded, and a hood
of mail on his head. And I was then entering
upon my seventeenth year. And I said to him,
"Don Pedro Ahones, I waited for you at Teruel
"fully three weeks from the day I had appointed for
you and the others to come, intending, as I pub-
“lished in my ban, to make a good raid against the
"Moors with you and with the barons of Aragon;
" and when I say a good raid I mean this, that I have
I
"E ell vestit son perpunt e
sa spassa cinta, e un bauyt de
"malles de ferre al cap." Perpunt
(pourpoint) was a thick quilted
vest to wear under the armour;
in old French gambesson, gambi-
son, and gambosson. (See La-
combe, Dictionnaire du vieux
Language François, vol. i. p. 238.)
As to bahuyt, it is explained as
follows in the "Tavla de les par-
avles dificils" prefixed to the
Chronicle de En Jacme: "arma-
"dura de cap feyta de malle, de la
66
qual abaxaua malla fins a la cara
"e al coll." I doubt, however,
from the explanation given if
bauyt or bahuyt be the true read-
ing. Why not babuyt (babera)?
At any rate it seems equivalent to
the Spanish almofar from the
Arabic, lixo cassis, galea of a
peculiar form.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 51
"not yet seen Moors in war, and it would have
66
pleased me much to see them in their own country
“and fight with them; but for want of you especially,
"(
((
' and because I was told at the time that with so few
knights as I had at Teruel, I should not enter the
"country of the Moors (for if God did not help me
"I might there meet with disgrace or death), I
"desisted from the undertaking, and thereon Seit
"Abuzeit sent word to me that he would willingly
'give me the fifths of Valencia and Murcia if I
"made a truce with him, and I accepted; wherefore
I
I pray you, Don Pedro Ahones, and command you,
"that you keep that truce, and do not break through
"it." And he said to me, that the preparations that
he had made for the undertaking had cost much
money both to himself and to his brother, the
bishop; and that I could not really wish for him
and his brother to lose their cost, and be thereby
impoverished. And I replied: "Don Pedro
66
66
Ahones, very wrongfully speak you to me; the
truce I speak of was entirely made through your
"default, and through your not coming to me on
"the appointed day. Now you tell me that you
1 “E sobre aço, feu nos parlar
"Zeytabuzeit quens donaria les
"quintes de Valencia e de Murcia,
"e que aguessem treua ab ell.”
The word quintes, in Spanish
quintos, means the fifth part of
all the revenue of Valencia and
Murcia. Seit Abu Zeit, or Zey-
tabuzeit, is the name of the king
who then ruled over those coun-
tries; but it is badly spelt, for
are his title and his سید ابوزید
kunya (alcuña). His real name
was Abde-r-rahman. See above,
p. 49, note 1, and the Appendix at
the end of the volume.
E 2
52
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"will not give up this expedition as I command
you. See what you are doing; you go against
my sovereignty, and I certainly did not expect
that of you.
I therefore wish to know if you
"will give up your purpose for our prayers and
"commands." And Don Pedro replied that he would
do everything for my prayers and commands; but
this thing he could not do, for it cost him so much
money that he could not give it up; and that he
entreated me to let him enter into the Moors'
country, he and his brother, the bishop, and that
he would do me good service therein. And I
said: "Rather bad service would that be, if you
"broke the truce that I have granted. I wish
"therefore to know if you will obey my orders or
"not." And he said to me that he could do nothing
else. And therefore I said to him: "Then since
"you wish to break what is so dear to me as my
"word and promise of this truce, know ye that I
"resolve to take you prisoner."
XXVI.
Thereupon no more words were said. Don
Pedro stood up; and those who were about me,
that is, the above-named knights, left the room, and
all went to the top of the house, and took their
swords in hand, rolling their cloaks about their
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon. 53
arms, with their quilted coats on, and left me alone
with Don Pedro. And Don Pedro was a good
knight, and very good at arms, and he put his hand
to his sword, but I held the sword and the hand,
so that he could not draw it. And Don Pedro's
retainers were still outside of the house, and had
not dismounted from their horses; and when they
heard the noise that was made inside the house,
fully thirty or forty of them at once dismounted.
Don Pedro, in the meanwhile, hearing his people
come up stairs, tried to get his sword out of the
scabbard, but I hindered him, and he could not draw
it. His men, however, came into the room, and as
my own were in their quarters at the time, and
could not help me, they had it all their own way;
they released Don Pedro, and took him away from
me by force, for I had secured him, and he could not
help themself. On this occasion those of my men
who were with me in the house did not help me in
the least, but looked on at my struggle with Don
Pedro. And after that Don Pedro's men mounted
him on his horse, and sent him away; and they
themselves, with his armour,2 went after him. I then
told a knight of Alagon, named Miquel Dagues,³ who
happened to have his horse at the door of the
I
61 Que el no hauìa poder de sì
ques partis de nos."
2 His arms or his armour, for
both may be meant: "E sobre
"aço caualcaren lo en lo cauall seu,
"e meteren lo dauant ells, e apres
"avec ses armes anarense ab ell."
3 Also written "Daguas."
54 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
house, to let me have it; he did, and I mounted it. I
had then a quilted coat on, and they brought me my
arms, and forthwith I went in pursuit of him. But,
before all these preparations could be made, Don
Ato* rode off, followed by four esquires of his on
horseback; and shortly after Don Ato, Don Blasco
and Don Artal also rode off with their respective
followers, all of them in pursuit. Don Ato was the
first to overtake Don Pedro at the end of some
walls inclosing the vineyards of Burbaguena. And
one of Don Pedro's men said to him, "Here comes.
Don Ato, who is following you." And Don Pedro
Ahones said, "Let us turn, and let not the villain
strike us in the back. But Don Ato was not a
villain, nor basely nurtured, yet those who were
with him gave way, and, instead of keeping close
to him, made room for Don Pedro's men to attack
him; and so they did, for two of them approached
Don Ato and wounded him-one struck him below
the mouth on the left side, and the other struck him
on the shield. Then Don Ato, for fear of another
blow that was aimed at him, and lest he should
not be able to withstand the full force of it, let
himself fall on the right side of his horse, and
Ato, sometimes Atho de Foses
or Fosses.
2 The Spanish translators have
rendered this passage by “ Vamos,
((
pues, hácia éll; no sea que se nos
escape el villano." The original
text has, "E dix don Pere Ahones
"tornem a ell, e nous pague detras
"lo vilá, ço que ell no era vilá ne
"mal ensenyat," which is rather
obscure.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
55
go."
threw himself on his shield, for fear of being killed.
Meanwhile Don Blasco de Alagon and Don Artal
Dalagon came up along the road; and I, passing
by Don Ato, asked him how he was, and what had
happened. And he said, "I am wounded, and
behold those who wounded me, where they
And there were with me at the time only Don
Assalit Daguda[r] and Domingo Lopez de Pomar.
And I saw Pedro Ahones, with twenty of his
mounted followers, pushing up a hill to my left ;
he wished, no doubt, to take shelter in a castle of
his brother, the bishop, called Cotanda.' And Don
Blasco de Alagon and Don Artal de Alagon went
after him, about a cross bow-shot off. And Don
Pedro Ahones got to the top of a hill with his
men, and halted there; and Don Exemen Lopez de
Rigols dismounted, and told Don Pedro Ahones to
mount his horse, as his own was tired, and to think
of getting into shelter at once. And while doing
that, they threw stones, great and small, at those
below, that they might not push up the hill behind
them; and Don Pedro Ahones then changed horses
as above said. And when he saw that we were in
pursuit, he said to Don Assalit and Don Domingo
Lopez de Pomar, "I know of a short cut that will
enable us to get to them." "Let us go," said I
and I myself went considerably in front of the other
;
• Now Cutanda, which was then, as it is now, within the see of
Saragossa.
56
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
66
I
2
two, for my horse was faster than theirs. And
when I got up the hill, Don Pedro's men began
throwing stones at those of Don Artal and Don
Blasco's; and they stopped, and did not push up
the hill. But I, followed by some of my own men,
pushed on, and arrived at the top, and then cried,
Aragon! Aragon!" upon which Don Pedro's
men began to abandon him, except one, called
Martin Peris Desquita, who came in my suite,
following his lord. Meanwhile Sancho Martinez
de Luna, elder brother of Martin Lopez, came up,
and struck Don Pedro a blow with his spear, and
put half a foot of it into his right side, through the
opening of the quilted coat just under his arm.
And Don Pedro was riding in front of us, no man
riding between him and me, so close was I to him.
When he felt himself wounded, he stopped, and
threw his arms round the neck of his horse; I was
then close to him, and saw him slide from his horse,
and fall; I dismounted, and put my arms over
him. And, pitying him, I said, "Ah, Don Pedro
Ahones, in evil hour were you born; why would
((
66
you not believe the advice I gave you?" And
he answered not, for he could not say a word to
me, but he looked me fully in the face.³ 3
((
The original has: "E al
venir que nos fem cridam Aragó,
"Aragó !"
2 The Chronicle has, Marti Peris
de Mesquita.
3 According to Zurita, ii. p. 80,
a new confederation, of which
Pedro Ahones was the leading
spirit, had been formed to control
and turn to their own advantage
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 57
"(
XXVII.
And on this Don Blasco came there, and said:
"Ah! my lord, leave that lion to us, that we may
"take revenge for the harm he has done to us."
And I said to Don Blasco: "God confound you,
that at this time you should say such things! I
"tell you that if you strike Don Pedro Ahones,
"you shall have to strike me first.
I forbid you
"to touch him." I then had him mounted on a
beast, with an esquire to support his body; but
he died on the road before we got to Burbaguena.
I thence went to Daroca; and I carried thither
Don Pedro Ahones' body in a coffin, and had it
buried in Saint Mary's of Daroca. And when I
left, the people of that town (Daroca) insulted
my men, namely those who had remained behind,
and were to follow me; and they struck one of
my esquires, a relation of Don Pelegrin de Bolas,
in the mouth 2 with a
a stone, because of his
calling them liars.
I
Don Pedro Ahones, whilst he lived, had held
the government of Aragon, and
the knowledge of this determined
the king's vigorous action on this
occasion.
"E lleuam don Pere Ahones
en un taut a Daroca." Taut, in
Spanish atahud, comes from bb,
tabút, which means a coffin.
2 “Ab una pedra en les barres,"
literally on the cross-bars of the
vizor.
58
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
in pledge both Bolea' and Loarre," which my father
had pawned to him for a sum of money; and he
had held these pledges so long that he must have
thought himself fully paid for his loan. I, there-
fore, went thither, but found on my arrival [at
Bolea] that Don Fernando and Don Pedro Cornell
had thrown themselves into it, and that they had
with them from seventy to eighty knights. I
really thought, when I went thither, that I should
find no one inside the town to oppose me, and
that the inhabitants would be in my favour as
good and loyal subjects; but I was mistaken; they
had agreed to take the others' side against me,
and do me all the harm they could, as if I were
not their natural lord. Perceiving, therefore, that
the castle was strong, and defended by a numerous
garrison of knights and footmen, and that there
were provisions inside the town for fully a year,
I thought it better to move away, and depart
therefrom, and so I did.
4
XXVIII.
And when I had departed thence, the cities
of Aragon rose against me, with Don Fernando
"Tenia en penyora Bolea,"
&c. Penyora, from the Latin
bignus, in Spanish “enpeño.”
² Here the Spanish version
has: "Tenia don Pedro Ahones
empeñados (?) Bolea y Loarre,"
instead of which the original has
Sobrarbe, which is decidedly a
mistake, for Sobrarbe is the name
of a county, not of a town.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
59
I
and with Don Pedro Cornell and the party of
Don Pedro Ahones at their head. And thereon
I sent for En Guillen de Moncada to come to
me, and he came with all his power. And the
cities of Aragon were all against me, save only
Calatayud. I went to Almudevar, and stayed there
for three weeks; then I removed to Pertusa, and
sent for En Ramon Folch de Cardona, who came
to my aid at the end of a month, with good sixty
knights-he and his brother En Guillen de Car-
dona. I then sent to the front, against them of
Zaragoza, Don Blasco Dalagó and Don Artal
de Luna; and there remained with me only Don
Ato and Don Rodrigo Liçana and Don Ladró.
Meanwhile the Bishop of Zaragoza, brother of
Don Pedro Ahones, sent his men on a foray; and
they came after sunset 3 to Alcovera, which they took
and sacked completely. This happened during Lent,
yet the good bishop gave his men absolution for
the evil they had done, and besides gave them
licence to eat meat, to whoever would eat it.
After this the people of Zaragoza, whilst Don
Blasco and Don Artal were in Alagon, went again
to Castelar. But the two above-named knights
crossed the Ebro, and attacked the Zaragozans
"E que hi havien que menjar
"de ço que trobaren en la vila be
per un any."
"
2
2
and other names ending in ó, are
meant for Alagon, Ladron, &c.
3 Don Sancho Ahones from
Dalagó (de Alagó), Ladró, 1216, to 1236.
60 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon.
on the hills opposite Castellar, when there were
fully three hundred of them killed and taken
prisoners. And En Ramon Folch came mean-
while to Pertusa; and I was enabled with his
assistance to get hold of the provisions which the
people of Zaragoza and of Huesca, and the knights
who had come in their aid, had bought at Mon-
zon, fully two thousand cafizes of wheat, Aragonese
measure. After that I made a "mangonel," went
to Ponsano, and took its castle.
2
I
XXIX.
4
And thence I removed my camp to Cellas,3 and
set up the " mangonel" against that town, and, on
the third day that it had battered the castle, an
esquire, who was inside, opened a parley, and
asked me to appoint a day at which, if he were
not succoured, he should surrender the castle.
It was the opinion of En Ramon Folch, and of Don
Rodrigo Liçana, and Don Ato, and Don Ladró,
and Don Pedro Pomar, that I should give the
esquire time, but that it should be short; he
asked fifteen days, I gave him eight, and the
agreement was made accordingly.
Don Ato,
• On the meaning of the word
cafiz, see above, p. 25, note 3.
2 Ponzano in the Upper Aragon.
3 Cellas and Las Cellas, now
called "Las Ciellas" in the pro-
vince of Huesca.
4 The Manganellus, a war
engine.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 61
moreover, said that he would cross the river, and
if he perceived any one coming against us, he
would at once come and let me know of it.
On
the eighth day, accordingly, I returned to Pertusa,
and held a council there early in the morning.
And I ordered the people of the town, in virtue
of the dominion I had over them, that early
next day they should go to Cellas with their
arms, on pain, for him who should not be there,
of losing all he had in that district. And I
ordered letters in like style to be written to the
inhabitants of the towns of Barbegal and Bar-
bastro, summoning them to be all there with us
on that day.
I
And, surely, when I had had my dinner (it hap-
pened to be a fast-day), there came by the road
from Huesca Don Pelegrin Datrosil and Don
Gil; they came by themselves, without followers,
but armed with lance and shield, trotting, and
even galloping as hard as they could. They
pointed them out to me, but
I could not recog-
2
nise them at first, till they got to the Pertusa
bridge, whereupon I went to the foss close to
St. Mary, and waited for them to hear what
their errand was. And they came, and said to
me: "God protect you! Behold, here come Don
2 66
* The original has Atrofil.
Speram los aqui a la sglesia
de Sancta Maria en lo fossar."
Fossar, in Spanish "osario," is
properly speaking a cemetery.
62 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
((
66
64
Fernando and Don Pedro Corneyl,' and they of
Zaragoza and of Huesca with them; they come.
to succour Cellas; we left them near Vilella, and
they are coming here as fast as they can."
Hearing this, I gave orders to saddle. There
were with me at the time only four knights; but
I ordered the townsmen [of Pertusa] on pain of
treason to
to come and follow me; similar orders
were sent to Barbegal and to Barbastro. I then
went to Cellas, and found there En Ramon Folch
and En Guillen de Cardona and Don Rodrigo
Liçana and my own train, yet in all there were
not more than from sixty to seventy knights.
I told them to arm and get their horses
ready, as Don Fernando was coming, as well as
those of Zaragoza and Huesca who followed him;
and all, accordingly, set themselves to arm and
prepare their horses. And whilst I was giving
the above-said orders, En Pere Pomar, who
was an old knight, and one of my own train,
addressed me in these words: " My lord, I will
give you good advice: here is a hill,² very strong,
"almost impregnable; take possession of it, and
"whilst you are there, the towns will hear of it
and flock round you."
I
* Corneyl, Corneil, Cornel. See
above, pp. 22, 28, 39, &c.
2 "Puig," pronounced puch, as
in Puig Cerdá, Puig d'Ollers, &c.,
is a hill; in Latin "podius." The
And I replied: "Don
word translated by "train" in this
and other instances is maynada,
in Spanish "mesnada," equivalent
to, and evidently derived from,
the French "mesnade."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
63
"Pedro Pomar, I am King of Aragon, and I de-
"fend my right; those who come against me are
((
my subjects, and they do wrong in coming to
'fight against me.; I am in my right, they are
wrong, and God will help me. I will not leave
"the town alive; I will conquer them, and not do
as you advise this time." I, therefore, waited
for them, and took the Castle of Cellas after all,
for they never came to its relief.
XXX.
After this I returned to Pertusa; and the Arch-
bishop of Tarragona, by name. En
En Esparech,'
and a kinsman of mine, when he saw Aragon in
such bad state, and my subjects doing against
me what they should not do, came to Pertusa,
and begged hard of me, for his and for God's
sake, that I would make terms with my subjects,
and let him treat between them and me.
I con-
sented, and the Archbishop, having my word to
that effect, opened parley with them. Yet he
could not make any arrangement, for they de-
manded things against my sovereignty; and con-
sequently the parley was broken off. And when
the people saw that Cellas had been taken, they
¹ Esparago, or Sparago de
Barca or de la Barca.
2
2 Las Celles. See above, note,
р. бо.
64
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
of Huesca sent message by Don Martin de
Perexolo, who was my merino, and by other
friends I had in that town, that if I went to
Huesca, they were sure I might do what I pleased
there. And so I went, and I would not on the
march thither put any of my knights into armour,
for fear those of Huesca should take alarm. And
before I got there, about twenty of the chief men
of the town came out to meet me to Saint Mary
de Sales, and I spoke with them, and said that
I wondered much at their coming out to meet
me, as I never intended doing them harm-on
the contrary, nothing but good; and that if my
ancestors had done them good, and had loved
them, I would certainly love them as much or
perhaps more. And when the people of Huesca
heard that, they thanked me much for it and bid
me welcome into their town, and, moreover, said
that they would do for me what faithful vassals
should do for their natural lord.
And on my
making entry into the town, the children and the
common people showed great joy at my coming.
I entered Huesca at the hour of vespers, and there
entered with me Don Rodrigo Liçana and Don
Blasco Massa, and my train, Don Assalit and
Don Pelegrin de Bolas, and many others. And
they did not invite me [to eat], and when I had
X
Merino, from "Majorinus," the officer now called in Spain
alcalde mayor.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
65
eaten I began joking, and told them in jest that
it was very plain that I might do what I pleased
in the town, since they had received me so well.
XXXI.
And when I and all those who usually slept
about me had lain down, there came my porter
and said that there were full a hundred armed
men before the door [of the house]. I said to
him : "Go away! I have just put off my armour,
and you want me to get into it again: those
"men you speak of are no doubt the watch of the
town.' He said: " My lord, send one of your
<<
""
own esquires, and I will show him." And I said
"Let me go to sleep; it can be only as God
"wills." When morning came, and I rose and had
heard mass, I proclaimed a council to be held in
the open space¹ between my house and that of
Montaragon.2 And I being on horseback, and
they all standing before me, I held a great
council; and said to them : "Men, I believe in-
"deed that you know, and ought to know, that I
"am your lord by birthright, and that of long
"standing; that with me there have been no less
1 Corral is, properly speaking,
a courtyard, an enclosed piece of
ground at the back of a house;
Spanish, "patio" and "corral."
2 The convent of that name,
being a league away from Huesca
can hardly be meant. Montara-
gon seerns to have been the title
of the Town Hall.
F
66
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon.
"than fourteen kings in Aragon, and the longer
"the loyal connection between you and us has
been, the closer should it be now, for in pro-
portion as kindred is extended, and connection
"becomes more intimate, loyalty is strengthened.
"Hitherto I have done you no harm, nor do I
"intend it to you, but rather have at heart to
"love and honour you, and to preserve all the
"good customs and usages under which you have
"hitherto lived, and all the privileges granted to
you by my ancestors. If any more are required,
"I will grant you fresh and better ones; but I
"marvel much at this, that I should have to guard
เ
against you, and dare not enter your town, and
'the others that God has given me, and which I
"inherited from my father. It grieves me much,
(6
indeed, that there should be war between me and
you; and I pray and command you that it be
"not so, for war is a thing that grieves me most.
"This you can very well imagine, when you see
"me thus coming alone among you. I trust in
"you, and in your love, which I prize above all
things, and wish to keep." And with that my
speech ended, and they replied and said that
they thanked me much for what I had said, and
that the Town Council would assemble and
deliberate, and would reply to me. They accord-
ingly went
went to the house of Montaragon to
deliberate, but were a long while about it.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
67
XXXII.
And while I was waiting for the result of
their deliberations, there came word to the
Town Councillors that En Ramon Folch and the
companies, who were outside, were surrounding
the town on
on all sides. The councillors were
alarmed, and I sent them word: "Have no fear,
"and hear what I will say to you when you come."
And I sent for those who were assembled in the
Town Council; part of them came, but made no
reply to my message. I then said: "Good men,'
"I marvel much that you take alarm at nothing;
"it cannot be that while I am with you any man
"dare do anything against you; for every penny
'you lose (what cannot happen) I will willingly
"forfeit ten to you." And the councillors replied:
"You say well; but let the order be given as if
"it came from you." And I said: "So it shall
(C
be; from this moment I, the king, forbid any
"harm being done to you." And I sent imme-
diately some one to ascertain the cause of the
rumour, and found that there was nothing at
all; yet with all this the councillors returned no
I "E dixim los: Barons mara-
uellam nos molt," &c. The word
barons, from the Teutonic bahr,
cannot be translated in this in-
stance by barons in English, since
they were townsmen or citizens,
and did not belong to the nobility
of the land.
F 2
68
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon.
answer to my message, but got up from their
seats and went away.
*
And I went into my house, and there went in
with me Don Rodrigo Liçana and Don Blasco
Maça and some of my own train, and Don
Assalit, and Don Rabaza, my notary; and it was
said that the townsmen were actually barring the
streets with chains, and closing the gates. I said
to Don Rabaza: "Have you any law that is good
for me and you at the same time?" and he re-
plied: "My lord, neither law nor right is here
of any avail." And I said to him: "
"Know ye
aught else to advise?" He said, "No; but ye
may take counsel of these nobles.” And I ac-
cordingly asked the advice of those present, and
they said, "Great treasons are being concocted;
but nothing more would they explain. Thereon I
said: "
"Since no one will give advice, I will ex-
plain my own as best I can. Let us send to
"the shambles (said I to the notary) to buy sheep ;
that will make them believe that we are pre-
'paring dinner; meanwhile do you all get to
saddle and go with the rest. When that is done,
"I will send for my horse, my quilted coat (cami-
((
"}
sole), for my coat of mail, and for my arms;
"and you be all ready, and wait for me in the
square."
And the thing was done as I said; there came
En Rodrigo Liçana and Don Blasco Maça, and
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 69
I
three more, for we were only five in all. I went
down to the gate which goes out to the Isola ¹
and the road to Bolea; but, finding the gate shut,
inquired who had shut it. A woman there was,
who said the Town Councillors had ordered it to be
shut. And I said to an esquire of mine: "Where
is the porter?" And he said: "He is usually
up there." I sent two of my esquires for him,
and they brought him down; and he came, all
pale, and I asked him, "Who has the key of
this gate?"
?" He said: "The Town Councillors
have it." I said to him:
((
((
I said to him: "Now give it me in-
stantly, or else I will lay thee dead with a sword-
cut on thy head." I made the esquires go up
with the porter; they soon brought down the key,
and the porter also a prisoner. I made him open
the gate, and waited till all the knights came in.
When they all had come, I went outside; but news
came that some esquires of my train and some
baggage-mules had been retained inside, upon which
I told twenty or thirty men of Huesca, who were
with me outside : "You send one man to the
town, and see that all my belongings be allowed
"to quit unmolested." Having said as much, I
went down to the Isola, crossed it, and found
there En Ramon Folch and En Guillen de Car-
dona, with all the other knights, and with their
"(
1 Isuela.
70
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
train, besides Don Ato, all of whom were lamenting
my loss, for they thought that we had all been
kept prisoners. Those of Huesca, in the meantime
considering me in their power, had sent word
to Don Fernando and to those of Zaragoza to
come.
XXXIII.
This
After that I went to Pertusa. And being there,
Don Fernando and Don Guillen de Moncada and
Don Pedro Corneyl came to Huesca, and they
had among themselves some talk of coming to
terms with me. They would admit that they
had acted wrong, and would send me, as they
did, a messenger acknowledging their error.
pleased me and my Council much, and the mes-
sage was very acceptable to all of us. I then asked
the messenger: "What sort of agreement is it that
you propose ?” He replied that they would go out
to the mountains above Alcalá, and that I and my
company might go thither also; that I should go out
with seven of my Council, and that they should come
with six or seven of their chief townsmen, and that
the rest of the company should be left behind.
The messenger said also that they would gladly
come to me to Pertusa, only they were afraid that
some bad man might pick a quarrel with them;
and that they wished to speak with me as vassals
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 71
ought to speak with their natural lord, and that
before they separated from me they would so act
that I should be content. And as it was said, it
was done. We went out to meet them, with coats
of mail on and swords girt. There went with me
En Ramon Folch, En Guillen de Cardona, Don
Ato de Foces, Don Rodrigo Lizana, Don Ladró,
the son of the other Don Ladró (En Pere), a knight
of noble and great lineage, Don Assalit de Gudá, and
one knight more besides Don Pelegrin de Bolas.
On their side there came Don Fernando, my uncle,
En Guillen de Moncada, father of Don Gastó,
Don Pedro Corneyl, Fernando Perez de Pina,
and others of their party, whose names I do
not remember. Don Fernando was the first
to speak, and began thus: "My lord, we have
"come here before you; we grieve
we grieve much for
"the war that has been between us and you,
"and we fully intend to put an end to it; we
'pray you to pardon us, for it is our wish to
"serve you, I and En Guillen de Moncada, and
"Don Pedro Corneyl, and as many as belong to
"our party; for though we have suffered harm by
((
(6
you, we acknowledge having done you harm, for
"which we are very sorry. Had we to make
amends for the harm we have done, we could in
"nowise make the compensation required, for cer-
tainly the harm done has been very great, and no
reparation can be made for our faults; wherefore
(C
(6
72
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
"we
we implore your forgiveness, and your mercy,
and humbly beseech you to take good care of us,
“and treat us well; towards me, in particular you
"are bound to do so on account of the relationship
((
that I have with you, and towards Don Guillen
"de Moncada, for no king in the whole of Spain
had ever so good a vassal as you have in him,
"or who can do so good service." And with that
he ended. And then spoke Don Guillen de
Moncada, and said: "My lord, the obligation in
"which I stand to your royal person, no one knows
"it better than you do, for the Counts of Barcelona
"from whom you descend, gave my ancestors large
"domains and lands, whereof I, by the grace of
God, have more than others of my race, for I
possess the domain of Bearne in Gascony, which
no other [of my ancestors] had. All that I have,
“and can have, I will put at your service. God,
"Who knows all things, knows that what I did was
"intended for your advantage, and your honour; but
since my doing does not please you, it does not
((
(6
((
please me either. I am not ashamed to say that
"I was mistaken, and did wrong to you; be merciful
"and forgive me and those who were with me in
"this business, for you may be sure that never more
(
I will I war with you, holding it as certain that you
"will not willingly do wrong to me, nor to my
"<
friends, nor to my relations; and if you should,
"I am sure, by supplications, and with love, to
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 73
"overcome any bad feeling you may entertain towards
((
me and mine, and to conquer your affection through
"the good service I intend to render you in future,
"and which I hope will avail me with you." And
so their speech ended. And thereon I told him
and them that I would consider the matter, and
return an answer. So I left them, and they went
away. The barons who were with me said that
well and nobly had they (Don Fernando and Don
Guillen) spoken, and that they had shown great
submission. And upon that I made them come.
back, and said: "What you have stated with such
humility, and with such submission to me, I am
" content with; I take your good will as amends for
"the past, and am willing to keep you in my love
""
((
and grace.” And thereupon the knights on each
side who were at a distance came on and inspected
the settlement and agreement that had been made,
at which all were joyful and content. And after
that I went to Lérida,
XXXIV.
More than a year and a half after this, being at
Lérida, there came the Countess of Urgel, daughter
of Count Ermengol,' and of the Countess of Subirats,
who had been wife of En Alvar Perez (they were
Armengol.
74
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
now separated on account of consanguinity to each
other, and she had no child by him); her name
was Na Arambiays. I received her well, and
when she had been two days at Lérida, went to
see her. En Guillen de Cervera,² Lord of Juneda,
was with her as counsel, and certainly she did
more through him than through any one else in
the world; he advised her in her difficulties, be-
cause he had had her mother to wife, and also
because he was an old man, and one of the wisest
in all Spain; all that the Countess proposed to
me, and to others, she did by his (Servera's) advice;
and he did in her business, and in everything,
whatever she needed done. And she said to En
Guillen de Cervera, to propose the business for
her. And En Guillen de Cervera said, "Lady,
propose it yourself, for you know how to propose
and state your own business better than I." So
they made her propose it: and she said to me:
"that she had come to ask a favour of me, in
((
as much as she knew, and so people said, that
"she would find justice and grace in me; she had
66 come to Lérida because she suffered great
66
wrong; all
all the land knew that she was the
daughter of the Count of Urgel, En Ermengol,
"and that the county belonged to her rather than
"to any other, because of her being the Count's
I
· Aurembiaix. Na is the femi-
nine for En.
2 Sometimes written Servera.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 75
66
daughter, and of there being no son nor daughter
"but she; and that she called on me for love and
66
grace to do justice to her, since from no man in
"the world could she get the same, save from me."
And En Guillen de Cervera and En Ramon de
Peralta took up her case, and promised to help
her. En Ramon de Peralta, however, had refused
to surrender Montmagastre till the Countess her-
self came; when she came he gave it up, and
likewise the dues the Count had in the place,
though he kept four castles for himself.
[knights] came to me, and Cervera said,
"it is a king's office and duty, that those who cannot
"have right by any other means should apply to
66
66
66
66
The two
My lord,
'him, and obtain justice at his hands. God has put
you in His place to do right; this lady who has
come before you is of great lineage by father and
mother, as you know. She has been disinherited
of her father's estates within your own dominions,
"and she comes to you for grace, that you cause
"to be returned to her the property which her
father left her; she is so good in herself, that her
"virtues alone might prevail with you; help and
"assist her, as we beg and entreat you, and as she
"herself can and will do better than we." After
Servera, En Ramon de Peralta said words to the
same effect. I said to them: "Your prayers are just ;
"I will consult on the matter, and do what ought
"to be done." I then took council of the bishop
76 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
2
I
whose name was En Bng (Berenguer) Daril, of
En Guillen de Moncada, of En Ramon Folch, of
En Guillen Ramon, brother of En Ramon de
Moncada and father of En Pedro, of Don Assalit,
of Don Garcia Perez de Meytats, and of the
principal inhabitants of the city of Lérida. And
they asked me to appoint En Guillen de Çasala
to defend the Countess' suit, and so I did, and
the Countess granted him for life the dues known
as "Caldera de Lérida." which at that time were
not worth more than two hundred sols a year,
and have since risen to three thousand.
XXXV.
En Guillen de Çasala having been appointed for
the defence, and having pleaded the Countess' case
before the above-mentioned bishop and barons, they
decided that the Count of Urgel, En Guerau de
Cabrera, should be summoned to appear at Court,
I
5
Berengar, or Berenguer de
Erill. He was bishop of Lérida
from the 22nd of December, 1205,
to the 7th of October, 1235.
a
2 Meitats.
3 Prohomens.
4 A tax paid by the dyers of
Lérida on each vat or pan they
used. Caldera in Spanish means
"caldron." By "derecho de
Caldera," or cauldron's dues, a tax
is meant which the dyers of Bar-
celona and other towns of Cata-
lonia used to pay on each vat or
copper pan used. It is reported
that in 1270 the amount of tax
thus collected in the city of Lérida
amounted to 15,000 sols.
5 En Guerau, son of Ponce, or
Pontio, Viscount of Ager and
Cabrera, had already, upon the
death of Armengol, Count of
Urgel, in 1208, laid claim to his
estate, owing to his having left no
male issue. The Count's widow,
Doña Elvira, contrived during
her life to maintain her right, but
at her death, in 1220, or there-
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 77
and do right to the Countess, and that all the three
[customary] summons should be made as was
proper. The Count did not come on the first sum-
mons that was made. And, therefore, before giving
sentence against him or proceeding by form of law,
I addressed myself to the Countess and said, "I
66 cannot sentence this case unless the formalities
"of law are complied with; you and your advisers
must wait." En Guerau was then summoned a
second time, and on the day fixed, not before, En
Guillen de Cardona,' brother of En Ramon Folch,
at that time Master of the Temple, appeared as
proxy and representative for En Guerau, and
alleged before those sitting in Court, that "En
Guerau, Count of Urgel, marvelled much, as did
"all those who had heard of the summons, that what
"he (En Guerau) had held for twenty or thirty
((
66
years without opposition of any sort, the pretended
"Countess being alive, and yet making no claim on
"him, should now be put in question and disputed.
"He was not bound to answer such a preposterous
CC
demand, and he begged me desist therefrom; for
"the Count, my brother (he said), is not a man
upon whom such an unfounded claim, and so dis-
courteous a demand should be made." Then En
abouts, En Guerau invaded the
county of Urgel, and took pos-
session of it on the plea that the
last count having left no male
heirs, the succession belonged to
him.
I Instead of Guillen de Car-
dona, as printed, the Chronicle
78 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
Guillen Çasala spoke as follows for the Countess :
"My lord, En Guerau de Cardona, who certainly
"is a
man of dignity and honour, of illustrious
"descent and much respected, shows wonder at
"this our demand! A much greater wonder it is
"in my opinion that he should refuse to do right to
"so good a lady as the Countess is, and that whilst
"he himself is suing for justice in this your court,
"he should say that he is not prepared to do it to
"others. This is enough to prove that he acts and
66
66
speaks by proxy against all reason; and God, my
lord, put you in His place that to those who
"have not met with right or justice, you should
"administer it; and the Countess prays you to
66
(6
give her her right." And then En Guillen de
Moncada said, “"Have you brought powers from the
"Count?" No, I have not," answered Cardona.
"I came not here to plead, nor for aught else, but
"to say what was given me in charge, and therefore
"will now go away." En Ramon de Moncada said,
(6
Wait then till the King has deliberated, and he
"will reply to what you have said." They accord-
ingly left, and the Council met to deliberate. It
was decided that I should tell Cardona, when he
should come back into the room: "En Guillen de
reads En Ramon; but it is evi-
dently a misprint, for everywhere,
in the following chapters, the
nobleman who appeared at the
court of James, as his proxy, is
called En Guillen. Flotats and
Bofarull, the translators of James'
Chronicle, fell into the same
mistake. (Page 57.)
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 79
"Cardona, you have brought here no power of
"attorney from En Guerau; further, you refuse to
"answer the claim and demand made in form of law ;
"I wish to know whether you will or will not make
"answer to the demand that En Guillen Çasala
"makes of you." Cardona answered and said, that
he would give no further answer. And I said to
him: Then I will do my duty; I will summon [the
Count] once more, and that will be the third
"summons, and if he will do right, I will accept it;
"if not, I will proceed as law requires." Thereon
he went away and the third and last summons
was made, after which En Guerau de Cardona came
on the day fixed.
(6
1
6
XXXVI.
At the time that Guillen de Cardona, in obedience
to the summons, appeared again, I was with all my
court, and many nobles (ricoshomes), in the house
of En Ramon Raboster, and all the Court and the
barons heard what was said. En Guillen Sasala
was also there, who rose and said, "My Lord, I
pray you and those present to listen to
(6
((
I
me;
God willed that in this world there should be
"kings, and He gave them this duty to perform, to
"do justice to those who needed it, and especially
The name of this lawyer, for
such he was, is sometimes written
Çasala, at others Sazala, and even
Savala.
80
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"to widows and orphans; and inasmuch as the
"Countess has no one to resort to but you, she
"has come to your court for two reasons ; one
"because the claim she makes is in your land;
"the other because you can give her counsel and
"advice in the matter, and no one else in the world
Therefore, the Countess beseeches you for
grace, and as a subject would his good lord, that
((
(6
66
can.
you should compel En Guerau, or En Guillen de
"Cardona, to answer the demand that has been
"made, because this is the third summons, and
owing to En Guerau's default the proceedings
"are stayed and nothing is being done. Now
"this is the last day; wherefore the Countess
prays you as her lord, of whom she expects
justice, that she may get it from you in this wise;
"that if En Guillen de Cardona has not come duly
""
(6
prepared to meet the claim, you do at once pro-
"ceed against En Guerau and his property, so that
"the Countess may have rightful satisfaction of
(6
the claim she makes against him." En Guillen
de Cardona then said: "Listen to me, En Guillen
"[Sasala]. Do you suppose for a moment that
through your specious pleading, which you learned
"at Bologna, the Count will lose his countship?"
And En Guillen Sasala said: "I only ask right
"for the Countess; and if our claim be a just one,
"we have confidence in my lord the king that he
"will give it us. I will not leave defending my
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
81
((
'lady's right for you and your threats." And En
Guillen de Cervera said: "Have you something
more to say." And En Guillen de Cardona took
no notice, and said: "My lord, give me a safe
"conduct, and I will go."
"What else do you
"intend to do?" said I. He replied, "Nothing."
And En Guillen de Cervera observed: "I am
very much afraid, En Guillen de Cardona, that
66
your intentions are different.” And Cardona
replied: "We shall see! it will be as God pleases."
And he bade us adieu, and went away.
XXXVII.
And meantime letters were despatched to Tamarit,
for the townsmen to be on a certain day with their
arms and with supplies for three days at Albelda, as
I would certainly be there with my own train: and
I said to En Guillen de Moncada, and to En
Ramon, and to En Guillen de Cervera, to come to
me with all their followers, as I wanted to go against
En Guerau. While the letters were on their way,
Don Pedro Corneyl came to me, and I, finding that
there were already thirteen knights in the camp,
went to Albelda. On my arrival there I did not find
there those of Tamarit nor the others, but only En
Bertran de Calassans and En Ramon de Calassans
with sixty or seventy footmen. It vexed me much
to find that those of Tamarit were not there; for
G
82
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
they of Albelda held the town, and were prepared
to defend it with shields and crossbows and other
arms. And I said to those who were by me, "So
"it appears that they hold the town against us?
"Do they? We shall see.” I dismounted, left the
horses in charge of the esquires, took my arms,
assailed, fought with them, and took the town.
Shortly after some of the Tamarit people made
their appearance, and at sunset a capitulation was
signed. The people in the castle also sent a
messenger to say that if I promised not to hurt
them they would give it up, and it should remain
in my subjection. And when the morning dawned,
they surrendered the castle to me.
XXXVIII.
After this I moved thence, and said to my men :
"Let us go to Menargues, for before they know of
our coming I will have secured much of their
((
country." Some knights of my train had come to
me, so that I had fully thirty knights; and I went
with them to Menargues. I said to those who
were with me, "You wait here, whilst I send
forward three or four knights." En Rocafort
went accordingly on with three other knights,
whose names I do not remember at present. The
men had all gone up to the castle with their
arms and with all the supplies they could get in
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
83
the town. I went to the gate of the castle, and
said: "Men, you know well that the Countess
"is your liege lady, and she does not desire your
"destruction, nor that you die here, nor lose any-
thing that is yours; go down to your houses, and
"I will assure you, in my royal name and in hers,
"that no harm will be done unto you, but that you
"will be defended against all men.” One of them
then said: " My lord, what are we to do with the
"castle that En Pons de Cabrera [the Count of
Urgel] gave us in charge?' I answered: "You
64
"know well that our sovereignty prevails over that
"of any one else. I will be warrant that you shall
"not do anything against your duty; go down in
66
((
peace, and I take your trust upon myself."
"Since the King says it, so will we do," said one
of them. Before, however, they opened the gate
they again said to me, "And you really say that
"we may go down, on your word?" Yes," said
I. And they actually came down with their arms
and their goods; and I sent for the knights to
come forthwith. When the people saw how few
knights I had with me, they were greatly discom-
forted. Though we had no meat in our camp, I
would not take any from them; and sent about
twenty horsemen to make a foray in the environs
of Balaguer; they brought us as many as sixteen
cows and calves; we bought bread and wine, and
thus prepared food for three days.
G 2
84
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
XXXIX.
And presently companies from Catalonia and
Aragon came to me, so that we were in all two
hundred knights, and had besides up to a thousand
footmen. I went against Linesola (Liñola), and
arrived there after the third day. And while I was
before Linesola, the day after our arrival there came
R. de Moncada, upon which all the army got ready
to fight; and they (the enemy) entered the town
and took possession of it. And En R. de Cardona
came to me and said: "I would counsel you, my
"lord, not to fight; there are good soldiers there
"inside the town, and its capture would not really be
worth the harm that you and yours might receive.
"Let me parley with them, and see if I cannot get
good terms for you?" But I would not listen to
him, and went up to the town and fought with those
inside, and on foot, as I was, with my own men I
took the town. Upon which the besieged barricaded
themselves in the fortress, where there was a very
good tower and several outworks; but the same
day they surrendered to me, and the day after I
established my camp there.
I
"Els homens embarrarense en la força hon hauia una torra molt
bona e albacar."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
85
XL.
I
Thence I went to Balaguer to besiege it; I
crossed the river at a place called Almata, and there
ordered two "fonevols
fonevols" to be made.
to be made. Then came
En Guillen de Moncada, En Guillen de Cervera,
and some other barons of Aragon, and we were in
all up to three hundred knights. And when we
had been eight days at that place, a messenger came
from Menargues and besides him from En Pere
Palau, two of the chief people in the town, saying
that, if I wished to finish the. work at Balaguer I
should send for the Countess, who was then at Lerida,
as she should summon them on their allegiance to
her, having been once her father's subjects, and she
was their lady, to surrender the town to her. And
as I saw that these words were important and had a
hidden meaning, and that they could not, for fear,
The Valencian edition of 1557
omits from this point to we
have heard your words and will
deliberate on them," in c. 42.
Evidently the copyist who pre-
pared the book for the press
turned over two or more pages of
the MS. instead of one, the result
being in the printed copy as fol-
lows, in two consecutive lines :—
Que havien ab ella, car eren
stats de son pare, que li retessen
la vila car lur dona. Acorde
farem ço que far deurem, e no res
als. E respos un cavaller de part
de la.
It is strange that such nonsense
can have passed under the eye of
a reader or editor without being
observed, and the omission de-
tected and remedied.
I need scarcely add that the
omission has been supplied, by
the help of a Spanish friend, from
one of the two copies of this
Chronicle preserved at Barcelona.
86
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
send me such an answer as they wished, I sent
them a message, thanking them much, and assuring
them that I would repay the love they showed me,
in such wise that it should profit them and their
houses. And thereon, after a few days, the mes-
senger returned to me; he was a young scholar,
whom I did not hold in much account, and he
repeated to me the very same words formerly
uttered on their behalf. And I said to myself,
"Of two things one either they do this of them-
"selves, or by the advice of others; it is so im-
((
portant a thing that if there be a party against
"them [in the town] they may yet not be strong
"enough to carry their point." I then asked the
messenger: "When do your people wish the
"Countess to come to the camp?" And the
messenger said: "I will send to them, and ask."
He sent, and a day was fixed for her coming, and
on that day the Countess came. At the end of
four or five days the people of Balaguer sent to me
again, to ask that I should bid a number of men
with shields and in armour go before the Countess
for protection and approach the wall, so that those
on it might hear her speak, and that with the will
of God they would comply with her demand, and do
what they had said to me. Thereon I did as I had
arranged with them. And so the Count [of Urgel]
heard that there was some parley between us and
those in the town.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
87
XLI.
En Ramon de Moncada had guard by day and
night of the fonevols [war-engines], and one day
between nones and vespers he was on watch, and
with him were En Sancho Perez de Pomar, son of
En Pere de Pomar, En Bardoyl, who was his bailli
or governor at Castelsera, and A. de Robio, a knight.
When the men of Balaguer saw how few they were,
they and En Guillen de Cardona, who was also in
the town, came in armour, on horseback, through an
opening they had made in the wall, and into the
ditch, unobserved, with dry faggots soaked in grease.
I happened to be at the time in the tent of En
Guillen de Cervera, whom I had gone to visit; I
was talking with him, when there was a cry: "To
"arms, to arms! They are coming to set fire to the
"fonevols, and are bringing burning faggots for that
purpose." And En G. de Cardona had with him as
many as twenty-five knights in armour, besides two
hundred footmen, including those who carried the
faggots. And there came out with him Sire Guil-
leumes, the bastard son of the King of Navarre by
a certain woman, and others. And Don Sancho
Perez de Pomar had not courage to stand the attack;
and he ran away towards the camp; so that there
remained with En Ramon de Moncada only A. de
Robio and En Guillen Bardoyl. En Guillen de
("
88 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
Cardona came lance in hand against En Ramon de
Moncada, and said to him: "Surrender, En Ramon,
((
surrender." And En Ramon said: "To whom am
"I to surrender, foul minion-to whom am I to
"surrender?" Meantime Cardona's men approached
the palisade and set fire to it, but could not get to
the "fonevol," for I came up with the men and
prevented it. On this occasion Blasco Destada, a
young knight, made trial of his arms; and went up
with the rest, helm on head and lance in hand, and
fought with the people of Balaguer; and followed
by Joan Martinez Dezleva on foot, with shield on
arm and sword in hand, both attacked the Bala-
guerians as they were re-entering [the town], over-
took them in the moat of the castle, and wounded
one of the horsemen who had attempted to burn
the fonevol. Blasco de Estada himself went a
stone's throw into the moat, wounded there a knight
with his lance, and got away without receiving a
blow from any one of them, nor from stones which
they threw from the top of the wall.
I
The original here is rather
confused: "E Joan Martineç
Desleva exi a peus escut abraçat
e lespan en la ma, e al entrar que
els faeren consegui aquel de caual
de laigns (lains ?), e esgarra un
caual al tornar que ells sen fayen
can volgueren cremar lo fonevol."
The Spanish translators seem to
have been as unable as the present
writer to give a clear translation
of this passage.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
89
XLII.
On the third day the Countess came, and in
presence of En Guillen de Cervera I told her of
the parley with those in the town. She said that
she would do whatever I might bid her, and would
willingly repeat the words I wanted her to say; she
only asked to be protected from the arrows of the
Balaguerians. I said to her: "That you shall."
Accordingly I caused upwards of fifty knights, with
their coats of mail and shields, to go with the
Countess and protect her: and she riding up, dis-
mounted and approached the wall within a stone's
throw, and one of the knights spoke for her. "Are
((
you there, people of Balaguer?" As nobody
answered the first time, she herself said to them,
"The Countess is here; are the chief men of the
"town there?" Some one said:
Some one said: "Yes, they are;
"what do you want of them; and what is your
"errand?" Then one of the knights said: “The
"Countess prays you to listen to her for a little
"while she is a woman, and cannot speak loud.”
Then the Countess said: "Good men, you know
"well that you were my father's men, his born
(C
((
lieges; and as you were his you are my liege
men, for I am his daughter; wherefore I pray
"and command you, by the sovereignty I have
"over you, that you surrender Balaguer to me,
90 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
""
I
your liege lady." And they replied: "We have
"heard your words, and will deliberate on them,¹
"and do our duty, and nothing else." Then
another knight replied on behalf of the Countess
and said: "Good men, the Countess thanks you
"much for saying you will do your duty, and hopes
"that of you." Thereon the Countess returned to
the camp.
And at vespers the student who had
been carrying on messages between me and the
town came and said that my plans had met with
complete success. The Balaguerians sent word
that if I and the Countess agreed to the terms they
proposed, the town would be ours immediately.
She would with my consent appoint a baron to
hold Balaguer for En Pons and for the Countess
conjointly until such a time as the dispute was
settled. They did not dare to stir because there
was a great power in the castle, and they could
not complete the business, but if they only could
get the Count's forces out of the town on any
pretext, they would manage that both town and
castle should be surrendered to the Countess.
To this point, from "your
liege lady," is omitted in the
edition of 1557.
2 The Count of Urgel, who held
2
the castle, or a son of his? The
Count's name was En Guerau,
and he was the son of Ponce or
Pons.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
91
66
XLIII.
I
And one morning, whilst the chiefmen of the town
were talking together on a terrace, En Guerau ¹
made a cross-bowman of his bend his bow and shoot
an arrow into their assemblage, but he hit no one.
“And so,” said they, "he shoots arrows at us, while
"we are defending the place and doing what we
ought not to do, for his sake." They sent to him
two chiefmen to say they wondered much at him
that he shot at them while they were in danger of
death from the king, who had come against them and
was laying waste their country; if he did so, they
must protect themselves and take another course.
When this message was received En Guerau (the
Count of Urgel) and En Guillen de Cardona and
their Council saw that the Balaguerians wished
to submit to the Countess, and as they knew
nothing of what had been planned in the town,
they sent to me and offered terms. They would
surrender the castle to En Ramon Berenguer
Dager, and the question between the Count and
Countess should be judged by my authority. And
they of the town sent word agreeing to that; for
I would (they said) get everything I wanted the
moment the Count left the place. I spoke to En
Guillen de Moncada about this, and said to him that
I was willing to subscribe to those terms; that is,
I Here the edition of Barcelona has En Pons.
92
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
that the castle should be surrendered to En Ramon
Berenguer Dager,' for him to hold it in fealty and
trust, and that whichever of the two, En Guerau
or the Countess, won the suit, should have it. En
Guillen de Moncada replied: "I do not hold that
"advice to be good; you should not do that. Since
<<
46
66
4.6
you have come as far, you should carry out your
"first intention, and not leave this till the castle is
'yours." I had not yet disclosed to-En Guillen what
they in the town had communicated to me; so I said
to him: "En Guillen, skill in most cases is better
"than strength. Now that you have spoken what
you thought it your duty to speak, I will tell you
"the secret reason I have for wishing to do what I
4 tell you.
The chiefmen in the town have treated
"with me; they have sent me messages that they
"are quite willing to surrender both the town and
the castle. The Countess came here because of
that; and so I tell you that if the castle comes
"into the power of En Ramon Berenguer Dager, as
"soon as En Guerau is out of it, you may consider
"both castle and town as mine; and need not pay
“attention to the conditions under which he (Beren-
guer) may receive it, for, as I say, he will lose
possession of it at once." And En Guillen said:
66
66
You tell me that?" "Yes," said I;
66
and you
"will see immediately that it will be as I say."
¹ De Ager, or from Ager, a town of Catalonia, in the bishopric of
Urgel.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 93
XLIV.
Meantime I sent word to En Guerau de Cabrera
and to the townsmen, that I agreed to the condition
that En Ramon Berenguer Dager should hold the
town and castle in trust, for whomsoever had better
right to it. Hearing this, En Guerau, who had not
the wisdom of Solomon, and who was afraid of the
townsmen, took a very good and fine falcon he
had, placed it on his hand, crossed the bridge, and
sent a message to me by En Berenguer de Finestres,
saying that he was prepared to give up the castle
to En Ramon Berenguer. The townsmen also
sent word, that if I sent my standard, they would
have it hoisted on the top of the castle. And
thereupon I sent a knight and five esquires with
the Royal standard, which they were told to keep
concealed, and also with a lance on which to fix
the said standard when they would get into the
castle. Meanwhile En Berenguer de Finestres
talked to me, and begged that I should send En
Ramon Berenguer Dager forthwith to receive
homage, and take the castle in trust, as everything
was ready for that. Having already done that,
and sent my standard to the castle, I kept Finestres
in parley for some time; he pressed me to despatch
him, as the Count (he said) wished to leave; but I
did not grant his request, and kept all time watching
94
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
for the sight of my standard on the castle. When
I saw it I said to him: "En Berenguer de Finestres,.
((
you can go now; for I see that Balaguer is already
"mine." ((
How, yours?" said he. I said to him,
"Look yonder, and you will see my standard
"waving on the battlements." He (Finestres) was
astonished, and experienced great shame and con-
fusion thereat; he went away forthwith without
saying another word, whilst the Count himself went
to Montmagastre.
XLV.
The Count's friends, however, resolved to send
[messengers] to Agramunt, and see what they could
do there. He himself went thither; En Guillen
de Cardona, and some fifteen knights accompanied
him. When the people of Agramunt heard that
there had been negotiations between Balaguer and
me, they made an agreement with En Ramon Jafa
de Agramunt and others of the town to this effect,
that should the Countess present herself at Agra-
munt they would surrender it to her. That had
been agreed on before Balaguer was taken. And
so En Ramon de Moncada held a parley with
En Berenguer de Perexens,' the result of which
was that he said to me, and to the Countess, and
'Agramunt and Perexens are also written Agremunt and Peraxens
in this chapter.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 95
to En Guillen de Moncada, and to En Guillen de
Cervera, and to my Council, that immediately after
the taking of Balaguer, I should go to Agramunt,
for En Berenguer de Perexens had come to him,
and settled that they would surrender. So, after
handing over the castle of Balaguer to the Countess,
I went with her to Agramunt, and encamped on
the side of the Dalmenare hills, in sight of the
town. When En Guillen de Cardona saw that
he left the town, at dusk, and marched all
night; and when in the morning I heard that he
had left, and that the camp was raised, Agramunt
was entered by my men, and the Countess was put
in possession of its castle.
I
XLVI.
And the people of Pons having sent me
message for the Countess to go also thither, I
determined she should go. I myself would not
accompany her because I had not defied En Ramon
Folch, who held the castle; I had not defied him,
nor had he defied me, and we were friends. The
Countess, however, went, accompanied by En Guillen
• Dalmenare is for a'Almenara,
the name of a village in Cata-
lonia. Menára, li in Arabic,
is a watch-tower, on the top of
which a fire is made.
2 At this time, if a feudal
2
lord wished to proceed by way
of arms against any of his liege
men he was bound to defy him,
i.e. to declare the friendship
existing between them as dis-
solved and broken.
96
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
and En Ramon de Moncada and the whole of my
force, save five knights who stayed behind with me,
as I would not go for the above-mentioned reason.
The Countess found the town deserted, but the
warder of the castle came out with all his men
on horseback and ready. They who were with
the Countess set spurs to their horses and charged,
and drove them at the point of the lance under
the castle. And as I was told afterwards, En
Bn. Dezlor, brother of the Sacristan of Barcelona,
was he who most distinguished himself on the
occasion. The same day, at vespers, En Guillen
and En Ramon de Moncada sent me word, that I
ought without fail to go there; if I did, they said,
the Countess would get possession of the castle;
otherwise, she would not. And I said: "How can
"I go there when I have not defied En Ramon
"Folch, and he is holding the castle?" They said:
Know, that if you do not go the Countess will
not have the castle." I said: "What am I to do
when I am there?"
"If you
(6
And they said: “If
I summon them to surrender the castle to the
"Countess, they certainly will." "Very well," said
I, "I will do that, saving the right of En Ramon
Folch, if right he have." And thereon I went
there but I ordered those who accompanied me.
up to the castle to leave horses and arms behind.
The morning that I got there some twenty of the
townsmen and the Castellan himself came down ;
}
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 97
((
and I asked them, "Why have you sent for me?
They said: "To ask your advice as to what we
shall do with the castle." I said:
I said: "My advice is
that you surrender it at once. I and the Countess
'promise you, and the castellan also, that En Remon
"Folch's rights in the castle shall be reserved; and
"you
shall give assurance that since she obtains the
"rest of the county by judgment of our Court, and
"by law and justice,' these other possessions in your
"hands shall go to her, and that you will surrender
"her castle." And straightway they surrendered it.
After this the Countess's people sent to Oliana,
and when the inhabitants heard that the castle of
Pons had surrendered, they also surrendered to
the Countess. And they did not ask from me
anything in return, for it was by her right that
she obtained it.2
I "E no volien res demanar en
"Iloch de nos pel dret que ela hi
"avia." This statement assumes
what is not said elsewhere, that
King James's Court had decided
in favour of the Countess.
2
Zurita, Anales II., c. 57, c. 77,
c. 86, enables us to add to the
king's own account the following
particulars. Guerau, Viscount of
Cabrera, had been in possession
of Urgel from the beginning of
James's reign, but always with
reserve of the question of the
claim of Aurembiax, daughter of
Armengol, the last count. In
1228, when Guerau had been
twenty years in possession, the
king recognised the lady's claims
as entitled to a hearing; but after
she had undertaken to give up to
him the important town and for-
tress of Lerida, and to acknow-
ledge him as her suzerain, and
bound herself to admit him, in
peace and war, into nine of her
castles, if she ever found the
rightful heiress. Then followed
the operations described by the
king in his chronicle. At their close
Don Guerau became a Knight
Templar; his son Pons was made,
after all, count of Urgel, Aurem-
biax dying without children.
H
98
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
XLVII.
Half a year afterwards I went to Tarragona.
And it was the Lord's will that, without my
having summoned Cortes, the greater part of the
nobles of Catalonia went thither with me, notably
Don Nuño Sanchez, son of the Count Don Sancho,
who was a son of the Count of Barcelona; En G.
de Moncada, the Count of Ampurias; En R. de
Moncada, En Guerau de Cerveyló, En Ramon
Alamany, En Guerau de Clermunt, and En Bernart
de Sancta Engenia, Lord of Torroella. En Pere
Martel, a citizen of Barcelona, who had great
knowledge of the sea, invited me to dinner one
day, and all the barons who were with me. To-
wards the end of dinner a conversation began
among them. And I asked: "What kind of
((
country is Mallorca, and what is the extent of
"that kingdom?" They asked En Pere Martel,
because he was a shipmaster; and En Pere Martel
said that he would give an account of it, as he
had been there once or twice. He supposed the
island of Mallorca to be about three hundred miles
round. Minorca was on the side of Sardinia,
facing the north-east (a la part de Grech); and Iviça
was towards Morocco. Mallorca ruled over the
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 99
((
other neighbouring islands, and they did what
the Lord of Mallorca commanded. There was
another island inhabited by Saracens, named For-
mentera, near Iviça, from which it was separated
by a strait a mile wide. When dinner was over,
they came before me, and said: "My lord, we
"have asked En Pere Martel about Mallorca, and
"he has told us what we think will please you.
"It is a good-sized island, in the midst of other
"smaller islands, called Minorca, Iviça, and For-
"mentera, all of which are subject to the King of
"Mallorca. What is God's will, no one can take
away or change; and, so please you, we hold
"it right that you conquer that island for two
"reasons: the first, that you and we will thereby
"increase in power; the other, that those who
hear of the conquest will think it a marvel that
you can take land and a kingdom in the sea
"where God pleased to put it." This speech of
theirs pleased me much. I answered: "I am much
“indebted to you for the thought that you have
given me what I can do in that matter shall
not be wanting." There, at once, it was settled
in Council that general Cortes should be held at
Barcelona, at which the Archbishop of Tarragona,
the bishops, abbots, and the nobles of Aragon, as
ઃઃ
The term general Cortes was
usually applied to Cortes of all
the realms of the king: these
I
appear to have been of Catalonia
only.
H 2
Uor M
100 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
well as the citizens of Catalonia,' should appear on
a certain day.
XLVIII.
And on the day fixed for the meeting of the
Cortes, the archbishop [of Tarragona], the bishops,
and the nobles came to Barcelona; and the day
after they all met in the palace built by the Count
of Barcelona. And when all were before me, I
66
began my discourse in this manner: Illumina
"cor meum, Domine [et verba mea de] Spiritu
"Sancto. Wherefore I beseech my Lord God and
"the Virgin Saint Mary, His mother, that I may
،6
speak words to my honour, and to the honour
of you who listen, and that they be pleasing to
God and to His mother our Lady Saint Mary;
"for I would speak of good works, for good works
come and are of Him; and the words I intend
(6
66
((
saying to you shall be of good works. May it
please Him that I can bring the said words
"to performance.
"Certain is it that my
my birth was through
"God's interposition, for my father and mother
"did not love one another, and so it was by
"the will of God that I was born into this
"world; and if I were to tell you the circum-
* "Ciutadans de Catalunya," or deputies from the towns of
Catalonia.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. ΙΟΙ
66
66
stances and marvels that attended my birth,
great would be your astonishment; but I will
"omit them, because of their having been narrated
66
66
66
at the very beginning of this book. Nor do you
"ignore that I am your liege lord, and am alone,
without brother or sister, for my father had no
"child but me by my mother; and I came to
you a child of six and a half years old, and
"found Aragon and Catalonia in confusion, man
fighting against man, and not agreeing on any
thing; that which some would have done, others
"would not; and you were in ill-repute in the
"world for the things that had passed. And
"that evil I could not remedy but in two ways;
"by the will of God that directed me in my work,
." and makes me undertake such things for you and
for me as were pleasing to Him, so great and
"good as to take away the ill-repute that is on
.66
66
you; for the light of good works dispels dark-
ness. Wherefore I pray you very earnestly for
"two reasons, the first for God's sake, the second
"for your allegiance to me, that you give me
"counsel and aid in three things: the first, how
am I to put my land at peace? the second, how
66
66
may I serve the Lord in this expedition that I
"mean to make against the kingdom of Mallorca
I
"Car al començament de
'aquest libre hauem parlat.”
The sentence in italics stands
in the original as part of the
king's speech! This strange con-
fusion argues in favour of the
Chronicle being James's own
composition.
I02
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"and the other islands that pertain to it? the third,
"how and whom am I to consult so that that action
"shall be for the honour of God?"
I ended my speech.
Saying which
XLIX.
And the Archbishop of Tarragona, En Esparech,
arose at the prayer of the barons, who wished him
to speak first; and his answer was: "My lord,
"we know well that you came young among us,
“and that you have need of good advice on such
great matters as you have brought before us here;
"we will give such advice to you, and make you
"such answer as shall be for the honour of God and
"of you and of us." En Guillen de Moncada then
answered for the barons and for himself, and said
that he gave great thanks to our Lord for the good
intent that He had given me; but because the thing
was of great importance, they (the barons) could
not reply without much counsel; "this however we
"say before you all, that the advice shall be such as
"you should take and we give." And they of the
cities spoke next, and En Berenguer Girart, who
was of Barcelona, answered for them; he rose and
said, "The Lord, who is your Lord and ours, has
"put into your will those good things that you
"just said to us; and may it please Him that our
'reply be such that you may fulfil your wish to God's
"
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
103
<<
“honour and your own. We will hold our consulta-
"tion with the nobles, and will reply to you." The
Archbishop then said, "The Clergy will deliberate
apart, and the nobles apart, and the men of the
"cities by themselves." And all assented to this.
In that way, on that day the Cortes were divided; and
they deliberated, and on the third day made their
reply. And then we all were in secret council apart ;
and the barons were there, and spoke to me before
the archbishop and the bishops. And the Count
of Ampurias arose and said: "This I will tell you,
"before the answer your barons make; if any men
"in the world have evil repute, we have, instead
"of the good repute we once used to have. You
"have come among us as our liege lord, and it
"behoves you to do such works, with our help, that
"the good name we have lost we do recover it;
"and we will recover it in this way: if you conquer
a Saracen kingdom in the sea with our help,
"all the bad repute that we have will be taken away
"from us, for it will be the greatest dẹed that
"Christians have done for a hundred years; it is
"better that we die and regain the good name that
''
66
66
66
66
we were wont to have, and the esteem that our
'lineage used to have, than to live in this evil
repute in which we now are; wherefore, I say that
on every account in the world, by my advice, this
enterprise should be done." All agreed with the
speech of the Count of Ampurias, and every one
104 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES of Aragon.
said such good words as he could for the promotion
of the undertaking. That evening it was settled
that in the morning there should be general Cortes,
and that they (the barons) should first speak, to
lead on the clergy and the men of the cities; and
a message was sent by the barons to the arch-
bishop, the abbots, and the bishops to be before me,
in the morning, to make answer.
L.
And in the morning, when morning masses were
said, all came to Cortes, and entrusted G. de
Moncada to speak what they had agreed on. He
rose and said: “
"My lord, true thing is it that God
"made you to rule us, and made us that we should
66
serve you well and loyally; but we cannot serve
you well and loyally if we do not raise your reputa-
"tion and honour with all our power, for your rise is
(6
:
our rise, and your welfare falls also on us so good
"reason is there that we should wish what is good
"for both. And as it seems that the enterprise of
which you have spoken to us, i.e. conquering the
"kingdom of Mallorca in the sea, will be a greater
"honour than if you conquered three kingdoms on
"land; and as we ought, my lord, to strive for
66
your honour above all things in the world, there-
"fore we speak to you on the three things on
" which you asked our advice, that you make peace
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 105
"in your land, and that we [the barons] help you
66
66
so that this action may be performed to your
"honour and ours. First, that you make peace.
"and truce throughout Catalonia, putting down in
your writings and deeds all those who will be
"in it; and Don Nuño here, who is grandson
"of the Count of Barcelona, shall be included
"in the peace for two reasons, one for the good
"kindred he has with you, the other for the good
"works you wish to do; and if any one of
"Catalonia will not be in it" (the peace) "we will
"make him be, whether it please or displease him.
“And also we will that you levy 'bovatge'' on our
men; this we give to you as a gift, for once
already you have taken it of right, as is custom
"of the kings to take it once [during their reign];
"but this we give you of grace and love that
(C
CC
((
you may do well your enterprise. As to my-
self, I offer to you that I and my lineage will
"serve you in it with four hundred armed horse,
"and that until God have given you the island of
Mallorca, with the lordships of the other islands
"that are around it, Minorca and Iviça, we will
"not leave you till the conquest be complete.
"Don Nuño and the others will each for himself
what aid he will bring; and we pray you that,
"since we do those three things for you, you do
((
((
'say
give us a share in the conquest that you make
· Feudal tax levied on each yoke of oxen.
106 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"with us, a share of the movables as well as of the
"immovables; for we will serve you well, and we
"wish to have such a share that for all time shall
"be a memorial of the service that we do you."
So he ended his discourse.
LI.
And Don Nuño Sanchez, who was a son of the
Count of Barcelona, rose and said, "My lord, the
"discourse that En G. de Moncada has addressed
to you is very good, and he speaks well for him-
"self and for his lineage. I will make answer for
66
myself; the Lord who made you willed that you
"should be our lord and king, and since it pleased
"Him so, it should also please us, and me more
"than all because of the kindred I have with you,
"and the sovereignty you have over me. If you get
"honour and advancement, I shall have my share
also, for it was the will of God that I should be of
66
66
your lineage; it is a good and meritorious work,
"for it is the work of God, and he who works with
"God cannot work ill. I pledge myself and the
"land your father gave me to peace and truce, that
"is to say, Rosellon, Conflent, and Cerdagne, and
"will keep peace in my days. I grant you the right
"of levying a 'bovatge'; moreover, I will accom-
I
Grandson, not son, of Remon Berenguer, great-grandfather of
King James.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 107
66
66
pany you with a hundred armed knights at my
own expense. Do you give me a share of land
"and movables according to the horse and foot I
bring, and to the ships and galleys that may be
"fitted out by me, and I will serve you in that land
66
66
'till God shall give you to gain it." And when
Don Nuño had finished his discourse, the Count
of Ampurias rose and said, "My lord, one cannot
praise too much the enterprise you intend, for
"the honour and advantage it will bring are clear;
"and I promise you to go with sixty knights on
66
armoured horses. And although God made me
"Count of Ampurias, yet En G. de Moncada is
"the foremost man of our lineage and the noblest,
"for he is Lord of Bearn and Moncada, which he
"holds of you, and of Castelví, which is his own;
"and I give the same pledges that he has given.
"To that number of four hundred knights I put my
sixty, for he shall lead there for you all our lineage;
"and from the share promised to him and to the
"others do you give to me according to the horse
"and foot I take; and the knights that we and others
"take will all have armoured horses."
LII.
And then the Archbishop of Tarragona rose and
said, Viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum.' Those are
"the words of Simeon when he received our Lord
108 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"in his arms and said, 'Seen have my eyes thy
"salvation; [so do I say] my eyes beheld your
"salvation.' And I add, though Scripture does not,
“that since we see your salvation we see our own.
"Our salvation is, that you begin the work of
setting your heart to good works. And that is
ours, when you advance in repute and honour and
power; for if your power and your advancement
are works of God, we consider yours as ours; and
"the intent that you and the noblemen who are
"with you have formed and mean to begin to
66
66
66
46
66
<<
execute is to the honour of God and all the
"court of Heaven, and to gain that you and your
men receive and will receive in this world, and in
"the other which is without end; and so may it
"please God, who has thus assembled this Cortes,
"that it be to His service and to your gain, and
"that the barons here assembled may all do you
such service that you may thank them much
"for it.
When God shall give you that kingdom
"that you have in your heart to conquer, and
"they with you, may you do well by them, and
"divide the lands and movables with those who will
66
66
66
help and serve you. For myself and the Church of
Tarragona I tell you this much; that for myself I
never yet bore arms, and I am of an age at which
"I could ill bear them; but as for my goods and my
"men I give you power to use them as you could
And if any bishop or abbot wishes
use your own.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 109
66
to go
with you and serve in person, it will please
me well, and I give him licence to do it in God's
"name and in mine; for in so good a venture as
"this every man should aid in word and deed;
and God, who came on earth for our salvation,
"let you end that enterprise to your and our
" content."
(6
LIII.
And then arose the Bishop of Barcelona, En
Berenger de Palou, and said, "To you one may
"apply the vision that the Father sent to our Lord
'Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whose name was [in]
"Excelsis, for there was our Lord the Son of God,
"and Moses, and Elias, and Saint Peter." And
"Saint Peter said, 'It would be a fit thing that we
"made here three places of tabernacles; the first
""for our Lord Jesus Christ, and the other for
Moses, and the other for Elias.' And thereon
"came a great thunder from heaven, and all fell on
"the earth, and when all had fallen fear seized them.
"And the cloud from heaven came, and lowered on
"them and spoke, 'Ecce Filius meus dilectus qui in
""corde meo placuit.' Such a vision can one apply
"to you, for you are a son of our Lord, when you
"Car hi era nostre senyor
"Jesu Christ, fill de Deus, Moysen,
"Elias, e sent Pere." The bishop
or his reporter, not the present
translator, has to account for this
extraordinary sentence.
ΙΙΟ THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
<<
""
"resolve to pursue the enemies of the faith and of
"the cross.
I trust in Him that, for this good
"intent you have, you may gain the kingdom of
“Heaven. And I offer you for myself and the
"church of Barcelona a hundred knights or more
"to be maintained by me till God gives us to
conquer those islands of Mallorca; and do you
give me my share, according to the men I take,
"for seamen as well as for knights." And then the
Bishop of Gerona said, "I give thanks to our Lord
"for the good intent that God has given to you
"and to your Cortes, and if I would I could say
"much in praise of that good work; but that our
Archbishop, the Bishop of Barcelona, En Guillen
"de Moncada, Don Nuño, and the Count of
Ampurias have already said so fully what I meant
But I offer you for myself and for the
church of Gerona that I will go with you with
66
"to say.
44
thirty knights; and do you give me a share
"according as you give it to the others."
LIV.
And the Abbot of Saint Feliu de Guixols rose
and said, that he would accompany me with five
well-appointed knights. And then the Provost
of Tarragona rose and said, "I have not so many
knights as they have; but I will follow you with
* "Lo Provost" (præpositus ?) appears to be some ecclesiastic of rank.
I
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. III
I
"four knights and an armed galley." And after
those En Pedro Grony arose and said, "My lord,
all we of the city of Barcelona give thanks for
"the good intent God has given you, and we have
"trust in the Lord that you will complete it to
2
your wish; we offer you first the light barques
"and the ships and the vessels of burthen that
"are in Barcelona to serve you on this meritorious
"expedition, undertaken for the honour of God;
"and we will so do that we may have your thanks
"for ever for the service that we shall now do you;
((
((
and we will not say more for the rest of the
cities, for only Barcelona is [represented] here.”
And Tarragona and Tortosa made the same engage-
ment as the chief men (prohomens) of Barcelona.
LV.
After these addresses they asked me to prepare a
writing, setting forth the division to be made of the
lands I might conquer with their help, as well as of
the movables; and the purport of the writing was,
that according to the knights and the armed men,
and ships and galleys and vessels, and the equip-
ments in them, I, when the Lord had given us
victory, would give to them a share, and to those
who went with me, horse and foot, according to the
I Desclot calls him En Pere
Groyn.
"Los corsos e las naus e els
leñys."
II 2 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
munitions they brought. And that division of the
booty would be made as to everything captured in
the expedition after the army started; and so I
promised them, on God's faith, that I would keep it
without fail; they on the other hand promised
that they would serve me well and loyally,
and would not put down more men than actually
went [to the expedition]. That was the be-
And
ginning that I made of the crossing to Mallorca ;
and I appointed a day in the middle of May
for all to be at Salou. So the Cortes separated,
and every one thought of his preparations.
the barons all took an oath to be at Salou on the
1st May, with all their equipments, without fail.
On that day I myself was there, and remained till
the beginning of September waiting to cross, and
for ships and galleys to come to me; and so I
waited till the fleet was complete. Part of it was
at Cambrils; the greater part, with which I was,
in the port of Salou and on the shore; the rest
at Tarragona, for most of the ships belonged to
that place. And the fleet was this: there were
twenty-five full-sized ships, and eighteen taridas,"
and seventeen galleys, and a hundred brices and
I
Taridas, tartans, large open
vessels used especially for carry-
ing horses. Some such craft ap-
pear in the Bayeux tapestry. The
word seems of Arabic origin,
.طريدة
"E entre brices e galeases C.
2
"E axi foren CL lenys capdals
66 menys de les barques menudes."
Brices, pl. of brica, are said to
be flat-bottomed vessels, destined
for the transport of horses and
engines of war. But then what
are tarides terides? The
or
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 113
}
galliots; and so there were in all a hundred and
fifty large vessels, besides small barques.
LVI.
And, before starting, I ordered how the fleet
should go first, that the ship of En Bouet, in
which Guillen de Moncada went, should lead, and
should carry a lantern as light; and that that of En
Carrós should take the rearguard, and carry another
lantern as light. And that the galleys should go
round the fleet, so that if any galley [of the enemy]
came to the fleet, it should first encounter our galleys.
And I started on a Wednesday morning from Salou
with a land breeze. I had stayed there so long that
any wind was good for us that could move us from
the land. And when at Tarragona and Cambrils they
saw that the fleet moved from Salou they too made
sail; and it made a fine sight for those who stayed
on land and for us, for all the sea seemed white
yvith sails, so large a fleet was it. I myself sailed
in the rear of the whole fleet on the galley of
Montpeslier; and I collected fully a thousand men
in boats who wished to go with us, and would not
And when I had gone
I
otherwise have gone.
mea ning of lenys, elsewhere called
fustes, is, literally speaking,
(6
woods." About this time leño
and Austa served in Castille and
in the rest of Spain to designate
any kind of vessel.
"E nos moguen en darrera
"del stol en la galea de Mont-
"pessler, a faem be M. homens
"recullir en barques, que volien
(6
anar ab nos, que nangu no hi
"passara."
I
I 14 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
((
((
((
2
twenty miles of sea, the wind changed to the south-
west,' and the sailing-masters of my galley came to
me, in concert with the sailors, and said, “ My lord,
we are your subjects, and are bound to guard
you life and limb, and to give you good advice,
'as well as we know. This south-west wind is not
good for us nor for your fleet; rather it is so
against you that you cannot make the island of
Mallorca with it; by our advice you will put about
"and
go back to land. God will soon give you a wind
"for crossing." When I had heard their words and
counsel, I told them that I would not do so on any
account; for many were in the ships who, for the
harm the sea did them, would willingly run away
from it, and dared not cross over with us, and
if we put back to land would most certainly leave
us, for they were not men of courage. I further
told them that I was going on that expedition for
the love of God, and against those who do not
believe in Him, and that I went thither against them
for two reasons, either to convert them and turn
that kingdom to the faith of our Lord, or destroy
them; and since I went in His name, I had faith in
Him that He would guide us. When the masters of
the galley heard that such was my will, they told

"Mudas lo vent a llabeig."
Llabeig, in Span. lebeche, is the
wind from
from the south-western
coast of Africa. At Marseilles
and in the Provence it is still
called "labech" from Lybicus,
and "garbin" from Garb. (Al-
garbe), or Western Africa. {
Comit, in Span. comitre.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 115
me that they would do what they could in the
matter; and that they had no doubt the faith I had
must guide us. The hour of vespers had come;
and in the first hours of night I overtook the
ship of En Guillen de Moncada, who had the lead;
and I went to the lantern and hailed him, and
And the men asked
it?" and my men
Whereupon they
thousand times
asked, “What ship is that?"
in return, "What galley is
replied, "It is the king's galley."
told us, "You are
a hundred
welcome: this is the ship of
"Moncada;" and we sailed away.
En Guillen de
So that though
I sailed last from Salou, by the first watch of the
night,. my galley was in the morning of next day
before all the other ships. In this way we went
all night with the south-west wind, my galley, I,
and all the rest as close hauled to the wind as we
could; and so ran all night before the fleet without
shifting or shortening sail as fast as my galley could
run. And between nones and vespers, as the
wind rose the sea got higher and higher; so high
was it that a third of my galley forwards went
under water when the heavy waves of the sea
came upon her. Towards vespers, before sunset,
the wind abated, and we saw in the distance the
island of Mallorca, and could distinguish La
Palomera and Soller and Almerug.'
* "Soyler e Almaluig" in Des-
clot. A hundred and twenty or
in a straight line
thirty miles in
from Salou.
I 2
116 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
""
LVII.
And thereon they said to me, that as we came
in sight of the island it would be well to lower
sails, if I pleased, that we might not be seen from
the land. I said that it might be done so, and
accordingly the sails were lowered. The sea was
calm when we did so. Then they said that they
would light a lantern, but that they feared the
watchmen on the island would see it. I told them,
"There is a plan to adopt. Put a thick cloak on
"the side towards the island, and the lantern on
"the poop, covered on the side of the high land by
"the cloth, so that the fleet might see it, and your
object will be attained." They said they thought
that plan good, and did as suggested. And I then
could see lanterns on ships and lanterns on galleys;
I knew that they had seen us, and that the fleet was
coming. And when it was nearly the first watch
two galleys came to us, and I asked them for news
of the fleet. And they said that all were coming
as they best could. At midnight I could see and
count from thirty to forty ships, galleys, and trans-
ports. The moon was bright, a breeze had sprung
from the west, and I said, “By that breeze we can
reach Pollença," which had been from the begin-
ning fixed as the place of landing. We therefore
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 117
made sail for it, as well as all those who were on
the sea at the time. As we were sailing thither in
smooth water and with fine weather, there came
a cloud against the wind from Provence; and a
seaman on my galley, En Berenguer Sagran by
name, who was sailing-master, said, "I do not
"like that cloud that comes from the quarter of
"Provence wind." And he ordered sailors to be
ready at the ropes, some forward, some aft; and
when they were ready, and the galley in good
order, the wind came taking the sails aback; and
when it came the master called out, "Lower, lower!"
And all the ships and vessels about us were in great
confusion, and had great difficulty in lowering sail.
And there arose great clamour among them, for the
wind came suddenly on them; indeed, it was a
white squall. We furled sails, as did the rest;
and a bad sea got up as that Provence wind drove
back the south-west wind. The ships and galleys
and vessels around us in the fleet were under
bare poles. And there was a bad sea with that
Provence wind, and no one in my galley spoke
a word; all were quiet, and the vessels were driving
round us. I saw the danger we were in. I was
greatly discomforted, but I turned to Our Lord
and His Mother, and prayed thus: "Lord God,
I
""
"Cala, cala! Carga, carga! sailors about the same time. See
would be the cry in Spanish. Jale, Dict. Naut. v. Cargar.
Carguer voiles," said the French
118 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"I know well that Thou hast made me king of the
66
66
'land, and of the goods that my father held by Thy
grace. Until this time I had not begun any great
"or perilous enterprise, seeing that Thy help has
"been felt from my birth up to this time, and Thou
"hast given us honour and help against our bad
'subjects, who would overthrow us. Now, O Lord
my Creator, help me, if it please Thee, in this so
great danger, that so good a work as I have
begun may not be lost, for I alone would not
lose, but Thou wouldst lose more; for I go on
this expedition to exalt the faith that Thou hast
given us, and to abase and destroy those who do
"not believe in Thee; and so, O true and powerful
"
""
(6
"God! you can guard me in this danger, and fulfil
((
my will, which is to serve Thee.
"remember Thee, for as yet no
"called to Thee for mercy that did
And I should
creature ever
not find it, and
especially they who have it in their heart to serve
"Thee and who suffer for Thy sake, and I am
"one of them. And, O Lord, remember so many
"people who go with me to serve Thee; and
"Thou, Mother of God, who art a bridge and
"a pathway for sinners, I beseech Thee, by the
"seven joys and the seven sorrows that Thou
"hadst for Thy dear Lord, to remember me, by
'praying to Thy dear Son to
to take me from
""
"this affliction and danger in which I am, and
"those with me."
{
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 119
LVIII.
")
"Is
And I asked
And after that prayer the thought came to me
how it had been previously agreed between the
barons and those who were expert in sea matters
that we should land at Pollença. I asked,
"there in this my galley any one who has been
"in Mallorca and in the island?" And En
Berenguer Gayron,' master of the galley, replied
that he had been in the country.
him: (( What harbours are there near the city,
on the side towards Catalonia?' And he said
that there was a hill three leagues from the city
by land and twenty miles by sea: the hill was
called Dragonera; it was not on the mainland
of Mallorca, but separated from it by an arm of
the sea; that there was a spring of fresh water
on it, and that when he himself was there with
his ship his men got water from it. And that
near it was another hill, not connected either with
the mainland, the name of which was Pantalere,
and it was a long cross-bow shot from the main-
land to that hill. And I said to him, "Why
"should we seek any place but that to land at,
"since we have there fresh water and a good
"harbour, where the horses can rest, despite the
Saracens; and all our fleet will come, and we
•
In Desclot, "Guayron."
120
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
"can attempt to advantage what we choose?"
So I told them to sail before the Provence wind,
and that they could get in with that wind. We
therefore made sail for it, and told the people
of the galley to tell all other ships to make sail
also, and that it was by my command; and every
ship and galley to follow us to the harbour of
Palomera. And so all made sail when they saw
my galley make it. And behold the goodness of
God, what it is! With that wind, which took us
to Mallorca, we could never have taken Pollença
as intended; that which we thought was against
us helped us on, for all and every one of the
vessels that were to leeward went with that wind
to the Palomera, where my galley was; so that
not a vessel or barque was lost or missing from the
whole fleet. We entered the harbour of Palomera
on the first Friday in September,' and by Saturday
night all the fleet had anchored in its harbour.
A
LIX.
And on that same Saturday I sent for the barons
and nobles of my court, that is for Don Nuño, for
the Count of Ampurias, and En Guillen de Mon-
cada, and for the others; and I sent also for some
of the shipmasters of most authority in the fleet,
and consulted them as to what had better be done
17th September, 1229.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 121
first. The advice given was this: to send Don
Nuño in his own galley, and En Ramon de
Moncada in the galley of Tortosa, to go along
the coast as if they were going to Mallorca; and
we all would land wherever they thought the fleet
should stop. They found a place called Santa
Ponza, and they thought it a good one to land
at; there was a hill near the sea, on which hill,
if five hundred men were put, there was no fear
of their being dislodged before the rest of the
fleet arrived. So it was determined that on Sun-
day we should rest on that hill of Pantaleu, and
so we did. At mid-day on Sunday a Saracen,
named Ali, came from La Palomera, swimming,
and told us news of the island, of the king, and
of the city. At midnight I ordered the galleys to
weigh anchor, and that no one should cry ayós,²
but that in order to keep time at weighing anchor,
they should strike with a stick on the prow of
the transports and galleys. It was a good har-
bour, and vessels required only one anchor down.
And that was done so, for before us, on the shore,
were no less than five thousand Saracens, and
fully two hundred horse, and their tents pitched.
And when midnight came, you would say that
The edition of 1557 has one
hundred men: the Spanish ver-
sion "quinientos hombres." No
reason, however, is given for the
alteration.
2 "Ayós," pronounced Aaa-yós,
is the monotonous and prolonged
cry uttered by sailors in the act
of drawing up anchors.
人
​122 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
not one man spoke in all the fleet. Each of the
twelve galleys towed a transport,' and went tow-
ing them gently out of harbour. The Saracens
perceived this, and roused themselves; our people;
who towed transports, stopped rowing and listened,
but went on towing gently. And after a bit, the
Saracens shouted loud for a time, and I saw that
we were completely discovered. They shouted;
and we shouted, "Let us go, and good luck be
with us." The Saracens went by land, horse, and
foot, watching well where we should land; and our
twelve galleys and twelve transports made such
exertions that they actually got to the landing
before them.
LX.
And those who landed first were Don Nuño, Don
Ramon de Moncada, the Master of the Temple, En
Berenguer de Santa Eugenia, and En Gilabert de
Cruyles. Before they arrived on the shore, there
were fully seven hundred Christian footmen on the
hill near the sea; the cavalry might be a hundred
I The
word translated by
(6 transports" is terides, which
is another form for tarides. See
above, p. 112, note 1," E lu galeas
que hi hauia carsuna tiraua sa
"terìda e anauen traent les terides
"del port guit e suau."
Each knight or man-at-arms
2
had four or more squires and
servants under his orders; this
must be well borne in mind
throughout this narrative of
James's campaigns, or else the
number of knights must appear
exceedingly small.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 123
and fifty. The Saracens were ranged in battle before
them; and they were fully five thousand foot and two
hundred horse. En Remon de Moncada came up and
said that he would reconnoitre them; he went alone,
saying, "Let no one come with me." And when he
got near the enemy, he called for our people, and
when they got up to him, he said, "Let us charge
them, for they are good for nothing."
He was
the first to reach them; when the Christians were
within four lance lengths of them, the Moors turned
their heads and fled. They did their best to reach
them, and more than fifteen hundred Saracens were
killed on this occasion, for our men would take
no prisoners. When they had done this, they re-
turned to the sea shore. When I landed, I found
my horse saddled, and I heard one of the Arago-
nese knights, who had just landed from one of
the transports, say, "Ill luck for us! that the first
"battle in Mallorca is already won, and we were
not in it." I then said, Are there any knights
"who will go with me far into the island?" And
those who were already armed went along with
me, about twenty-five of them. And we all went
trotting towards where the battle had been. And
I
c
Darlot. "E ixquem trotant e
"darlot contra alli hon era stada
"la batalla," says the text (fol.
xxiii.). The word "darlot" is en-
tirely unknown to me, nor is it to
be found in any of the Provençal
((
dictionaries that I have con-
sulted. Arlot, in old French,
meant a camp-follower, a worth-
less fellow. Exir d'arlot might
therefore mean
"ride fast though
without orders."
I24
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
we saw on a hill there from three to four hundred
Saracen foot. They saw us also, and went down
from the hill on which they were, and made for
another hill there was farther off. And a knight,
one of the Ahe of Tahust, said, “My lord, if you
wish to overtake them, let us be quick." So I
made haste, and on reaching them killed four or
five of them; and as my people continued to come
up they overthrew and killed the Moors as they
encountered them. I, and three more knights with
me, came against a dismounted knight, who had his
shield on his arm, his lance in his hand, his sword
girt, his Zaragozan helmet on his head, and a coat
of mail on. We summoned him to surrender; but
he turned against us with his lance, and would
make no reply. I then said, "Barons, horses
"are of great value in this country; each of us has
"but one, and one horse is worth twenty Saracens.
"I will show you how to kill this one; let us
surround him, when he thrusts at one of us with
"his lance, let another strike him in the back,
"and send him down; so he will hurt no one."
As we were about doing that, Don Pedro Lobera
came, and ran at the Saracen; the Saracen, who
saw him, thrust his lance into the chest of the
horse so that it went half a fathom in. The horse,
however, went up against him (the Saracen), and
threw him down; he tried to rise, and put his hand
to his sword. Thereon we all fell upon him and
((
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 125
told him to surrender. Still he would go on and
die rather than surrender. We again said to him,
"Surrender." He said "Le," which means "No."
Some eighty besides him were killed. And we
returned to the camp.
LXI.
2
As I entered it (it might then be near sunset), En
Guillen de Moncada, En Remon de Moncada, and
other knights with them, came to greet and welcome
me. I dismounted and went towards them on foot;
En Guillen de Moncada smiled; I was glad, for I had
been afraid of his scolding me for my rashness, and
perceived that he would not be so hard upon me
as I had thought. En Remon de Moncada said
"What have you been doing? Did you want to
'kill yourself and us all? Had we by ill luck lost
"you-and you have no doubt run risk of it-the
(6
army and all else would have been lost; and then
"this good work we have in hand would never have
"been done by any man on earth." En Guillen
de Moncada said, “En Remon, true the king has
"done a very foolish thing; nevertheless we may
"hold it for a good deed of arms; it was right well
"of him to be so angry and impatient at not being
Lá or lé is the negative in
Arabic.
2 Ramon, Remon, Raymundo,
are only varieties of the same
name. Ramon is the Castillian
appellation, and it will be observed
that Don Ramon de Moncada is
often used in these pages instead
of En Remon de Muntcada, which
was that of the Catalonian baron.
126 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"in the battle. And, my lord," continued he,
addressing me, "restrain yourself, for in you lies
"life or death for us; comfort yourself with one
thing, that since you have set foot on this land
you are henceforwards king of Mallorca; if you
"die in the attempt, you die as the best man in the
world; and even if you lie disabled in bed you will
"hold this land for your own, for yours it is."
En Remon de Moncada then said: "My lord, we
"must now consider how we are to guard ourselves
"to-night, for in this night will be the greatest
danger that you will encounter in this country; for
"if we do not keep good watch, so that we may
arm ourselves before they get at us, all of us will
"be lost." And I said to them: "You, who know
"better than I, say at once what to do; what will
"be our next step?"
66
They said, "Then, my lord,
arm a hundred horse to-night, and let them be on
the lookout so far off that the camp can be under
arms before the Saracens get at us." My answer
was that he spoke well. I had not yet eaten any
dinner, and I said that after it I would send messages
to the nobles, for each of them to arm the third part
of his retainers, horse and foot as well, and send out
scouts to bring in news if they heard any.
And so,
after I had eaten a morsel, I sent my porters to each
of the barons, but found they could not send out
any people, owing to the disorderly state of their
bands, both men and horses, owing to the sea and
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon. 127
the battle that had been fought on the coast. I
relied, however, on their sending out scouts, and
went to sleep. Our ships, with full three hundred
knights and their horses on board, were then at the
Cape of La Porrassa; and at vespers they saw the
army of the King of Mallorca on the hill above the
harbour of Portupi. Then Don Ladron, an Ara-
gonese noble in my suite, who was on board one of
the ships, arranged with the knights inside of her to
send a barque by sea to tell me of the King of
Mallorca and his army being on the hills above the
harbour of Portupi with their tents pitched, and that
I should keep on my guard. That message came
to me at midnight before Wednesday. I then sent
a messenger to En Guillen de Moncada, Don Nuño,
and the nobles of the army, but for all that they did
not rise till daybreak. When day broke we all
rose, and heard mass in my tent; and the Bishop of
Barcelona preached the following sermon.
LXII.
Barons, this is not the time for a long sermon,
"the occasion does not allow it; the enterprise in
"which the King, our lord, and you are engaged, is
"the work of God, not ours. You should reckon
CC
upon this, that whoever should die in this meri-
"torious work will die for our Lord, and will have
"Paradise and everlasting glory therein for all time;
128 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"and they who shall live will have honour and
66
66
(6
praise in life and a good end at death. And,
barons, strengthen yourselves in God; for our
"lord, the king, and we, and you, all desire to
destroy those who deny the name of Jesus Christ.
"Each man should and can trust, that God and His
"Mother will to-day not depart from us, but rather
"will give us victory; so you should have good
heart, and trust that we will overcome everything,
"for the battle will be this day. And comfort you
well and rejoice, for we go with our good liege
66
((
lord, the King, and God who is over him and over
"us all will help us." And so the bishop ended his
sermon.
LXIII.
He
And after mass, En Guillen de Moncada partook
of the communion. I and the greater part [of
the army] had taken it before embarking.
(Moncada) received his Creator on his knees, sob-
bing, and the tears falling down his face. After
that they talked about who should lead the attack.
En Guillen de Moncada said, "You take it, En
Nuño." And En Nuño said: "To-day, do you
rather take it." En Remon de Moncada said:
"En Nuño, we know well why you say and do
"that-you speak out of love for the hard blows in
"the battle that we shall get at the Porrassa."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
129
En Guillen de Moncada said: "Any how, it does
not matter to me." And En Guillen and En
Remon de Moncada had agreed that till they got
to the battle line of the Saracens they would not
pause. Thereon came one of my men to me and
said: "Lo! all the infantry are going out of the
camp, and intend to advance." I mounted a
hackney, and En Rocafort went with me; he found
a mare and mounted her, for he had not his horse,
which was yet on board ship. I ordered my horse.
to be brought, and meantime went up to the
infantry, who were between four and five thousand,
and addressed them in these words: "Bad traitors'
"that you are! How can you go in that way ?
"for if a few horsemen come down on you, they
"are sure to kill you to a man." The men per-
ceived that I spoke sense to them, and accordingly
stopped and said: "The King speaks the truth,
we were proceeding like so many blockheads."
I thus kept them till En Guillen and En Remon
de Moncada, the Count of Ampurias, and those
of his house, came up, and I said: "Here are the
"infantry, whom I have stopped as they were going
"out."
t." They said: "You have done right well."
The infantry was handed over to them, and all
went away together. And when they had gone
"Mal traidors." The king
could use the words only as in-
definite abusé. He spoke, it
will be remarked, pure Provençal
grammar in making mal a plural.
K
130 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGon.
a little way, I heard a great noise, whereupon I
sent a message to Don Nuño to tell him of that,
for certainly a great noise was in the air, and I
was much afraid that our people had fallen in
with the Saracens. The messenger did not return,
and I began to think that he had been too long
away. I then said: "En Rocafort, since our
messenger does not come back, go you there and
warn them; tell Don Nuño that I take amiss
"his delay this day, for peradventure I may get
"such hurt from it as all his money could not
repair; it is not right that the vanguard should
"be so far from the rearguard, that the one cannot
see the other." En Rocafort said: "You, my lord,
"are here alone, and on no account will I leave
"you." And I presently said: "Saint Mary! that
Don Nuño and the knights should be so slow;
very badly are they acting against me this day."
As I spoke I distinctly heard the clash of arms, and
cries, and I said: "O, Saint Mary! do thou aid
(6
((
((
our men, for it seems as if they had met the
enemy." And meanwhile Don Nuño came, and
Bertran de Naya with him; and Lope Xemenez
de Lusiá, Don Pedro Pomar, and all his company,
En Dalmau and En Jaçpert de Barberá. They
said to me: "Why are you here?" I said: “I
"came here through the infantry, that I had to
"stop;
it seems now as if they were engaging the
"Saracens; for God's sake let us be on our guard."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 131
En Bertran de Naya said: "Have you your quilted
coat here?" I said:
I said: "No I have not." "Then
take this," replied En Bertran. I dismounted,
put on the coat he gave me, and my own coat of
mail over it, had my iron cap well secured on my
head, and sent word to Don Pedro Corneyl, Don
Eximen Dorrea and En Oliver to be on their guard,
as the battle had actually commenced.
<<
((
LXIV.
66
He
And when the battle was nearly finished I met
a knight, and said to him: "How has it gone with
you, and what have our people done?"
said: "The Count of Ampurias and the Templars
"attacked the tents, and En Guillen and En
Remon de Moncada attacked the left." I said:
And you know no more?” 'Yes, that the
<< Christians have beaten back the Saracens three
times, and the Saracens the Christians three
times also." I said: "Where are they?" He said:
"At that hill." I then met En Guillen de Mediona,
than whom they said there was in all Catalonia
no man who tilted better; he was a good knight,
and was coming away from the battle bleeding
from his upper lip. I said to him: "En Guillen
de Mediona, why do you leave the battle ?'
He said: Because I am wounded." I thought
he had some mortal wound in the body, and said:
((
K 2
132 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"How are you wounded?" "I am wounded by
a stone that struck me on the mouth." I took
hold of the reins of his horse and said: "Turn
again to the battle; a good knight for such a
"blow as that should be enraged, not leave the
"battle." But after a while, when I looked out
for him, I did not see him. When I had got up
on the hill there were not more than twelve knights
with me, the banner of Don Nuño, and Rothan
who had charge of it, the Sieur Guilleaumes, son
of the King of Navarre and others; there might
be in all as many as thirty knights, and they passed
before me. Up on the hill where the Saracens
were, there was a great body of footmen; and a
banner of red and white divided lengthways, with
the head of a man, or if not that, a wooden head
on the spike. I said to Don Nuño: "Don Nuño,
"let us go up to that body of infantry yonder on
"the top of that hill; they seem already beaten,
"and are evidently disorderly and in confusion;
"when men in a field of battle are in that condi-
I
tion, any one can attack them, and, if vigorously
"assailed, they will soon disperse." And he and
Don Pedro Pomar, and Ruy Ximenez Delvesia
took my horse by the rein and said: "Your mad-
ness on this day will be the cause of our death."
They went on giving great pulls at the bridle until
I said "You need not do that; I am not a lion
¹ De Lusiá? See above, page 130.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 133
"or leopard, and since you will have it so, I will
(6
wait; God will that ill do not come of it!"
LXV.
Thereon En Jaspert de Barberá came up and told
Don Nuño to go forward, who said, "I will." I
then said: "Since En Jaspert goes, I will go."
And why you?" said Don Nuño, "have you already
"become a lion of arms? You may chance to find
"yonder as good a one or better than yourself.'
And before En Jaspert had moved on with the
seventy knights, the Moors shouted, threw stones,
and advanced a little, upon which the banner of
Don Nuño and they who were with him turned
back. And though they kept a good countenance,
they came down a good stone's throw towards me,
and some of my men cried out "Shame!" The
Saracens did not follow them, and they stopped;
meantime my banner and following, with a hundred
knights or more who guarded it, came up, and the
men said, “Here comes the King's banner." We
went down the hill, and joined the troop of the
banner. Then we pushed up all together. The Sara-
cens took to flight; we found fully two thousand
Saracen infantry, who went before us in flight;
we could not overtake them, neither we nor any
of the other knights, so worn out were our horses.
And when the battle was won, and we were on the
134
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
hill, Don Nuño came up to us and said, "A good
day for you and for us; all is ours, since you have
"won this battle.
66
((
LXVI.
Then I said to Don Nuño: "Let us go to the
town; the King of Mallorca is on the hills, and
cannot get there so soon as we can; you may see
him there in the midst of that crowd, dressed in
"white; we will cut him off from the city." As I
began to descend from the hills and go into the plain
towards the city, En Remon Alaman came to me
and said: "My lord, what are you doing?" I
said, "Going to the city, to cut off the King from
"putting troops into it." "Oh! my lord, you are
doing what no king ever did; no general who has
((
.
I
"won a battle, but passes the night on the field to
((
"
learn what he has lost and won." I said, " Know,
'En Remon Alaman, that what I intend doing is
'best." Meanwhile I descended the hillside, and went
slowly along the road towards the city. And when
I had ridden about a mile the Bishop of Barcelona
came up to me and said: "My lord, for God's sake
"do not make such haste." "Why not, bishop?
"this appears to me the best thing to do." He said,
"Let me speak to you;" and he took me aside and
said, “Oh, my lord! you have this day lost more
"than you imagine; En Guillen and En Remon
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 135
"de Moncada are dead." "Dead!" said I, and I
burst into tears; presently I said to the bishop,
"Let us not weep, this is not a time for weep-
ing; and let us carry their bodies off the field
""
since they are dead." "So we will," said the
bishop. "Do you wait for us here.” "I will,"
said I.
"
LXVII.
And I went little by little up to the hill of Portupi,
and from thence saw Mallorca in the distance, and
it seemed to me the finest city I had ever seen, and
those who were with me thought the same. There
I met Don Pelegrin Atrosillo,' and asked him if
there was any water by, at which we could camp
for the night. He said, "Yes, there is yonder a
small stream; I have seen the Sheikh go thither
with fully twenty horsemen, and drink; but as
(( 'we were only four, we dared not attack
"them." I went forward and found the water,
and encamped there that night.
Nuño came, and I said to him,
"
(6
"I am very hungry, for I have
"all day."
2
Soon after Don
By God's faith
eaten nothing
And he said, "My lord, En Oliver
"has pitched his tent yonder; he has cooked food,
"and you can eat with him."
said I, "wherever you please."
I D'Atrosil.
2 The King of Mallorca, gene-
rally called Xeque, from the Arabic
"Let us go then,"
We went there and
an elder and the chief
of a tribe. His name was Abu
شيخ root
ابو يحي حاكم Yahya Haquem
136 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
ate. When I had finished my meal, there were
already stars in the sky. Don Nuño then said,
((
My lord, if you have done eating, it would be
"well to go in search of the bodies of Don Guillen
and Don Remon de Moncada." I said that he
spoke right well. We all went, with torches and
candles; and found the former lying on a mattress,
and a coverlet over him; we stayed there a while,
weeping, and did the same over En Remon, who
was close by. After that I returned to the tent of
En Oliver, and slept there all night till day. And
when morning came, they said, "Let us shift the
camp.' I said, "I will first make it secure against
a sudden attack;" and having put on my quilted
coat and a coat of mail over it, I put the Aragonese
on one side and the Catalans on the other, the
water course (cequia) dividing them, and an encamp-
ment was made, though it was so small that it
seemed as if only one hundred knights with their
horses could hardly hold in it, yet the cords of the
tents were so close together and so interlaced that
for eight days no one could ride into it.²
I
"se tenien entrellaçades duna a
"laltra, si que be dura huyt dies
(6
The word used is gonyo,
which I presume to be the same
as "perpunt" (purpoint). In old
French "gonelle" meant
(6
casa-
que d'homme ou de femme."
66
66
2 "E faem la albergada tan
streta que non paria que alber-
gassen de C cauallers a evant;
"si que les cordes de les tendes
que no podia home fer carrera
en la host," says the text of
the Chronicle (fol. xxv. vo). The
passage is evidently vitiated.
The Spanish translators appear
unable, as I am myself, to under-
stand its meaning.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 137
(6
LXVIII.
On the morning that the camp was established
the bishops and barons assembled and came to my
tent, and the Bishop of Barcelona, En Berenguer de
Palou, said: My lord, it is necessary that those
bodies of the dead be buried." And I said,
Certainly; when shall we bury them?" They
said, "Now, or to-morrow morning, or after dinner.'
I said, "It will be best at matins,' when no one will
be up, and the Saracens will not see us." And
the barons said that I said well. At sunset we col-
lected wide and long cloths, and put them up
towards the town that the candles at the burial
might not be seen. And when it came to burying
the bodies, weeping and lamenting and crying out
began. And I bid them be silent and listen to
what I was about to say, and spoke thus:
"Barons, these two nobles died in the service of
God, and in mine; if it were possible for me to
"redeem them so that their death might be turned
into life, and God did me so much grace, I would
willingly give so much of my land that those who
heard of it would think me mad. But since God
"has brought me and you here on so great a
service to Him, let no one mourn or weep. And
66
((
(C
(6
though your affliction be great let it not appear
1 “L'endemá mati, al alba." Immediately after midnight.
138 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
externally. I command you by the sovereignty I
"have over you, that no one weep or lament, for I
"will be a lord unto you; that duty of honour and
"well doing which they held towards you will I
"henceforward fill. If any of you happen to lose a
"horse or aught else I will make it good, and will
supply your wants fully you shall not miss your
"lords nor perceive their loss; in such wise will I
:
meet your needs. Your lamentations would dis-
"comfort the army and do you no good; therefore I
"command you, in virtue of my power as your
liege lord, not to lament or weep any more.
((
66
Do
you know what would be a true and proper
"lamentation over your lords? Rightly to esteem
"and honour their death, and to serve our Lord
"in that for which we all came here, so that His
""
name be sanctified for ever." And after that
speech the men abstained from lamenting, and
buried their lords.
LXIX.
Next morning I held council with the bishops and
the barons of the army as to unloading the transport
ships. I therefore sent for a "trebuchet" and
a mangonel," and the Saracens saw plainly that
we were landing timber from the ships on the sea.
And whilst we were getting ready two "trebuchets '
66
}
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon. 139
I
and two "algarradas," the masters and sailors
of the ships from Marseilles, of which there were
four or five, came to me and said: "My lord, we
came here in the service of God and in yours;
we offer on behalf of the men from Marseilles to
make you a 'trebuchet' after our own fashion out
"of the yards and spars of the ships, for the honour
"of God and yours.
We will construct and set up
"our 'trebuchets' and one 'fonevol' besides, before
"the Saracens can have theirs ready." And thus the
number of war engines both outside and inside the
town was twenty; outside, in our camp, there were
two trebuchets, one fonevol," and one Turkish
'mangonel." The Saracens, however, made two
"trebuchets " and fourteen "algarradas;" one of their
algarradas was the best ever seen; it shot into the
((
I This distinction between tre-
buchets, almajanachs, fonevols,
and algarradas, all slinging ma-
chines, appears to have consisted
principally in their size and the
weight of the stones they threw.
Possibly there was some differ-
ence in the way of stretching and
discharging them. All these
nevroballistic" engines of the
thirteenth century, as they have
been called from vevpov (cord) and
Bảλλw (I throw) may be reduced
to the funevol, or fonevol (fundi-
bulus), which threw large stone-
balls; to the trebuch and trebu-
quets, a kind of catapult; the
manganell (French, mangonneau
turquesque) supposed to be the
same as the almajanec, ill, of
the Arabs. The Algarrada,
öll, was a “ballista” of small
dimensions, and yet powerful
enough to be able to shoot at a
very long distance, and with great
force, javelins and big stones.
As to the "mantelet," called also
the she-cat (gata), I find it used
as synonymous of the musculus,
in later times catus, cat or chat;
it was a sort of house built with
large beams of wood, and covered
with a triple roof of planks
generally lined with branches
of trees and mud, so as
as to
deaden the shock of the enemy's
projectiles.
140 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
;
camp over five or six rows of tents, but the "trebu-
chet" that was brought by sea threw farther than any
of theirs. Our people began to shoot at the Saracens
inside the town, but they protected their engines as
well as they could. En Jaspert then said he would
show how to make a mantlet that should go up to the
very edge of the moat of the town, in spite of all the
engines on the walls, and of the crossbows also. He,
accordingly, constructed a mantlet to go on wheels ;
the hurdles were threefold and had strong good
timbers under them; it was, as I said, upon wheels
and it was built near the "trebuchets." It moved
as they pushed it on with poles, and was covered
like a house with a roof of hurdles, and brushwood
on the top of it, and earth on the brushwood,
so that if a stone from the "algarradas " of the Sara-
cens struck it no harm should be done. And the
Count of Ampurias made another mantlet, and had
it placed near the moat, with a small body of
sappers into it to work under ground, so as to come
out at the bottom of the moat. I had another of
the same kind made for my men. In this wise
we began to make our mines; and when the three
were finished, that of En Jaspert went above ground
and the others under ground, at which the army
was much pleased, for they saw that the work was
going on well. That was, indeed, an army, such
that no man in the world ever saw the like of it. So
well did they perform what Friar Michael, the
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 141
I
Dominican, had some time before preached to
them, that it was really wonderful. This Friar
Michael had been in the army from the beginning;
he was a reader in theology and a companion of
Friar Berenguer de Castelbisbal. When he had con-
fessed the men and given them absolution, for which
he had power from the bishops, he bade them bring
wood or stones for the engines; the knights them-
selves did not leave this sort of work for the foot
soldiers to do; they put their own hands to every-
thing, and brought stones for the "fonevols" before
them on the saddle, whilst their retainers took stones
to the "trebuchets "
trebuchets" on frames hanging by cords
from their necks. When ordered to keep watch by
day or night with their horses, as light horsemen to
guard the miners or to do any duty required in
the army, if fifty were ordered out for that service
a hundred went. And that they who hear this book
may know how hard a feat of arms was that which
was achieved at Mallorca, I will only tell this one
thing, that no foot soldier, sailor, or other, dared lie
in the camp for three weeks, except myself, the
knights and the esquires who served me; the other
foot soldiers and the sailors came early in the morn-
ing from their ships and returned at night; the
Provost of Tarragona was one of them; all day
The name of this Dominican
seems to have been Fabre; as to
his companion, Berenguer de
Castelbisbal, he became bishop of
Gerona, and died at Naples in
1254.
142
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
they were with me, and at night they went back to
their ships. My camp was fortified with strong
palisades and ditches all round. There were two
gates in it, and no one could leave without my
order.
LXX.
2
I
And while things were thus a Saracen of the
island, called Infantilla, collected all the mountain-
eers, fully five thousand, among them a hundred
horsemen; and he came upon a hill, which was a
strong position, over the fountain spring of Mallorca ;
he set his tents there-thirty or thirty-five, or as
many as forty-sent his Saracens with spades, cut
off the water of the spring from running towards the
town, and threw it into a torrent, so that we lost
that water and could not have it. And when I saw
I "En tant nos estan axi torna
nostre frau e un sarraz." I can-
not conjecture what the three
words in italics mean. Marsilio
(cap. xxv.) has, "Levá's un fil
del diable per nom ifantilla,”
whi Desclot (xliii. 383) says:
"En aquesta sahó exí de la
"ciutat un sarrahi molt valent
"qui havia nom En Fatilla.”
2 I should say that Infantilla
is an erratum for infantillo, the
diminutive of "infante," that is,
the son, brother, or nephew of a
king according to Spanish fashion,
for since the fourteenth century
such is the appellative or title
under which the younger members
of the royal family are designated.
But, notwithstanding that, I am
inclined to think, as Romey in his
Histoire d'Espagne, vol. vi. p. 406,
that Infantilla is but a corruption
of Fatillah (see Desclot, p. 43),
to which name the prefix En was
added. The conjecture appears
to me the more plausible that
alls, Fatih-billah, or the “con-
queror by the grace of God," is an
Arabic title assumed by several
Mussulman warriors of the thir-
teenth and fourteenth centuries.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
ARagon.
143
that the army could not endure that, and had
counsel upon that, I resolved that a captain or two
should go thither with one hundred horsemen to
I
fight with the Saracens and get back the water.
then addressed myself to Don Nuño, and put him at
the head of the force; he got ready and marched off:
having under him, of his own people and of those
I gave him, fully a hundred knights. The Saracens
tried to defend the hill, but our people went against
them and routed them; their chief, Infantilla, was
overtaken and slain: upwards of five hundred of the
Saracens were killed, the others fled to the moun-
tains. Our people took possession of their tents,
destroyed the enemy's camp, and brought the head
of Infantilla to me; I had it put in the sling of the
almajanech," and threw it into the town.' The
<<
I
Desclot, who wrote sixty or
seventy years after these events,
says (Hist. de Cataluña, f. 43),
that all Infantilla's party were
Killed, and that King James had
the heads of all, four hundred
and twelve in number, thrown
from engines into the city:
that the Moors, doubting if
Infantilla's was really one
of
them, sent out a party of forty
men to get certain news, who
were all killed in their turn, ex-
cepting three, who got back, and
whose report greatly discouraged
those in the city. These addi-
tions, made at a period so near
the time, seem to confirm faith in
the earlier date of the more
simple and probable narrative.
Another instance, in confirmation
of this remark, may be given
from Desclot himself (f. 41):
"The Moors, seeing their 'tre-
"buchets' broken to pieces, and
the walls ruined in many places,
"in despair of other remedies, in-
"vented one of their wonte...
cruelties, which they thought
"would hinder the attack. The
"next night they tied up all the
"Christian prisoners they had in
"the city, naked, on crosses on the
part of the walls the Christians
were battering with their 'tre-
"buchets.' When morning came,
((
144 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
water came back to the camp, and the army rejoiced
that night for the great blow we had given the
enemy.
LXXI.
And on this a Saracen of the island named
Beanabet sent me a message by another Saracen,
I
"and the Christians saw so sad
"a sight, with great wonder and
anger they went to the moat to
"hear what those Christians might
66
have to say, which was, that they
earnestly entreated the army to
" continue battering and throwing
down the wall, without regard to
"the hurt they themselves might
"receive; since, relying on God,
they themselves would endure
"with great patience that trial and
((
death, knowing that the city
"would be difficult to win, if they
"did not take it on that side; and
"it would not be right for their
((
sake not to take it. The King
"of Aragon wished to take counsel
"of his barons as to what should
"be done in such a case; all were
"of opinion that the battery should
66 not be slackened on that side;
"for if those Christians died in so
"good a cause, God would receive
"their souls, giving them the re-
"ward for their torment; whereas
"the Moors would not remain
"without punishment in soul and
"body for such cruelty. With this
"resolution the battering was re-
"sumed, directing the shots to
"where the Christians were tied ;
"but though the stones of the
trebuchets' struck so near to
them that sometimes they grazed
"their bodies, taking off their very
"hair off their heads, yet a just
"God hindered their hitting any
of them, so that not one was
"killed or maimed. When night
(6
came on, the Moors, seeing their
"artifice was of no avail, took the
“prisoners off the wall, returning
them to their dungeons."
66
Among Desclot's additions to,
and embellishments of, the story
of this siege, repeated mention is
made of the hurdles (hourdes) or
wooden galleries, for a knowledge
of which in modern times we are
indebted to M. Viollet-le-Duc,
Essai sur l'architecture militaire
au moyen age, who (f. 45) speaks
of an inner line of defence, built by
the Moors, of stone and lime,
"with many turrets of wood,
"and niches for cross bowmen "
(ballesteras), and (f. 49) of the
fall of a wall, (6 with all the
scaffoldings and turrets of
"wood."
((
¹ Benahabet in Marsilio (cap.
ابن عباد xxvii
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 145
who brought his letter, that he would gladly come
to me, and would bring it about that one district
out of the twelve into which the island was divided,
should furnish as many supplies to the army as they
themselves got in the country; and that he was
sure that, if I behaved kindly to him, he could
make the other districts come on to me. I showed
the letter to the commanders of the army, and they
all said that it was good for us to accept. Then
the Saracen told me to send some knights to a
safe place, which he named, a league from the
camp, and that he himself would go there, trusting
in me, and would make an agreement to serve us
faithfully and without deceit, that I might see the
good service he would do us. I accordingly sent.
twenty knights, who found the Saracen there.
He had come with his present, full twenty beasts
laden with barley, kids, fowls, and grapes; the
grapes were brought in bags, and were neither
broken nor crushed. This angel's present was
divided among the barons in the army. I call
him an angel, for though a Saracen, I have no
doubt that God sent him to us; and he stood
us in such good stead, that under such circum-
stances we likened him to an angel. He asked me
for one of my flags, that if his messengers came to
the camp my people might not do them hurt, and
I gladly gave him one. And then he sent me
messages to say that two or three other districts
L
ㄴ
​146 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
in the island wished to do as he himself had done;
and there did not pass a week without the Saracen
sending supplies of barley, flour, fowls, kids, and
grapes, to refresh the army. with and comfort it; so
that in fifteen days' time all the districts of Mallorca
belonging to the city, up to the part against the
Minorca division, were at my service and paid
me obedience. I put my entire trust in that
Saracen, for I found him all truth. After that he
again came to me, and asked me for a Christian
governor (bailli) who should hold those districts
for me; and by his advice I made two governors
(baillis) to rule over the districts he had brought
under my sway.
One was En Berenguer Durfort,
of Barcelona, and the other En Jaches Sans, both
gentlemen of our household, and men who knew
what they were about.
LXXII.
And that they who shall see this book may know
how many districts there are in Mallorca, they are
fifteen. The first is Andrayig, and Santa Ponça,
Bunyola, Soler, Almerug, and Polença; these are
the greatest mountains of Mallorca, looking towards
Catalonia. And these are the districts in the plain :
Montueri, Canarossa, Incha, Petra, Muro, Ffelenig,
where the castle of Santtueri is, Manacor, and
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 147
I
Arta. In the district of the city are now fifteen
markets; in the time of the Saracens there were
twelve. [But to return to the narrative.] The
mines were ready in three different places, one
above, the others under, ground, till they got under
the rampart. The enemy attacked these mines,
but we defended them, some of our men going
through the mines and others above, till we drove
the enemy from the rampart once, and many times.
The miners with picks and tools got to the towers,
and began to mine them in despite of the Saracens,
who could not hinder it. In this manner they first
got one of the towers on props of wood, and when
that tower was resting on the props, they set fire
to them, till the tower came down. When the
Saracens saw what mischief was being done, they
came down from the other towers; but in the same
way three more were thrown down at once. Before
the first of these was thrown down, the Provost
of Tarragona said, "My lord, will you let us have
some fun?"
"Yes," said I, "what is it?" "I
"will have," said he, "a cable put under yonder
tower, and they in the mine shall draw it, and
"the props will come from under the ruined
tower." As he said, so it was done; and when
(6
2
The edition 1557 gives these
names thus: Andraig, Sancta
Ponça, Bunyola, Soller, Alma-
liug, Pollença; Montueri, Canar-
rossa, Inqua, Petra, Muro,
Felanix, hon es lo castell de sent
Tueri, e Manacor, e Artha.
2 And fastened to the props.
I, 2
148 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
the tower fell three Saracens came down with it;
my people went out of the mines, and brought them
in prisoners to the camp.
LXXIII.
Then came two men from Lerida, named En
Prohet, and En Johan Rixo, besides a third in their
company, and said, "My lord, if you let us, we
"will so level the moat that heavy-armed horse
can go into it.” I said, “Are you sure of that ?”
"Yes," said they, "by God's will we can do it, if
"you will only have us properly protected." This
pleased me well; I thanked them for their offer,
and told them to begin the work at once, and that I
would give them guards for protection. And they
began levelling the moat in this way; they first put
on a layer of timber in it, and then one of earth.
When that work of levelling the moat had lasted
for fifteen days, the Saracens could not possibly
hinder it, so close to the town had our people got.
One Sunday I dressed myself well and carefully, and
looked well to the duties in the camp, the cooking,
the victuals, and the working of the slinging engines.
The Bishop of Barcelona was near me at the time,
as well as En Carroç and other knights. I saw the
smoking from a mine which the Saracens had made
under it to the mound; and when I saw that, it
vexed me mortally that all the labour applied and
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon. 149
all the time bestowed on it should be lost in one
moment. I had trusted that by that work the town
would be taken; that our chance should see it lost
in so short a time vexed me immensely. All round
me were silent. I myself remained thinking for a
time until God gave me a thought, which was to
turn the water again into the moat. I accordingly
ordered one hundred men, armed with shields and
lances and their full equipments, to go with spades,
but so that the Saracens should not see them, and
to turn the water from the higher ground to where
the mound of earth was, and let it soak in there so
as to put the fire out; and so it was done. The
Moors did not repeat the attempt, but turned their
attention to the mines that were being dug under
ground, and made one counter-mine against each
of ours, so contrived that they actually encoun-
tered our people in the mine, and drove them out.
When the news came to me that the Saracens
had driven our people from the mine, and that
they were in possession of it, I sent for a windlass
crossbow, and it so hit two Saracens, who were in
front in the mine, that it killed them both at one
shot, piercing their shields. When they in the mine
saw that shot they abandoned it altogether; and in
this way the mines under ground were completed
while the moat was being filled up.'
I
Villaroya (p. 134) gives, in
support of his assertion that S.
Pedro Nolasco was "the author
"and mover" of the king's con-
150
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGÓN.
LXXIV.
After that, when the Saracens saw that they could
not maintain the defence, they sent us a message to
say that they wished to speak with a messenger of
ours, provided he were one in whom I and they
could put trust. So after taking the advice of the
bishops and the barons in the camp, they said to me.
quests, the following letter, said
by him to be preserved in a
convent at Barcelona, the Mer-
cedes. It refers to this stage of
the siege. The reader will not
perhaps think it proves more
than that the king was in com-
munication with the saint, as
with a friend. Villaroya gives a
Spanish version of the Catalan
original.
"REVEREND FATHER.-It has
"pleased God that we should lay
siege to Mallorca; as you are so
66
""
powerful with our Lord that He
sent you the Holy Virgin through
your prayers, you will continue
"them that the Saracens may sur-
"render to us, and that He may
remove all obstacles to our siege.
"But your prayers are good for
"thus much, that all may fall into
((
our hands; for they put them-
"selves in arms because the
"Christians had made a mine in
"the wall. The Saracens per-
"ceived it through the lights that
were in it one night, and saw that
"a subterranean digging or mine
was being made to overthrow the
"walls they began to dig from
"the city towards that loophole,
"eyelet, or breathing-place they
"had seen, till they reached the
"Christians' mine, so that a great
"battle ensued between the
"Christians and Saracens, till the
"Aragonese were actually forced
"to depart and leave the place.
"But it happened as you had
"told me, that God was on our
"side. And God will have mercy
66
"6
CC
on us, as we have heard from you.
I tell you the truth, and put
myself wholly in the hands of
the Virgin Mary, that I will not
raise the siege of Mallorca till
"her praise is sung in it: to that I
"have sworn. Do you, who have
((
so much power with Heaven,
“gain favour for me against the
Saracens, and I will remember
you and your religion.-In the
camp of Aragon, 8th Sept. 1229;
"of the Religion of the Virgin
"XI." (that is the eleventh year
from the foundation of S. Pedro
Nolasco's Order of Mercy).
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 151
66
that since the Saracens wished to parley, I could not
refuse, and that it was good that some one should
go to them. I then sent thither Don Nuño, with
ten of his own retainers on horseback, and a Jew
of Saragossa, who knew Arabic, as interpreter; the
name of this latter was Don Bahihel.' When they
got there, the Saracens asked Don Nuño what he
wanted, and if he wished to say anything to them.
Don Nuño said, "I did not come here on my own
account; but you sent a message to my lord, the
King, to send to you a messenger in whom he
"could trust, and he chose me. I am, moreover, his
relative, and the king, to honour you and to hear
"what you had to say, sent me here." The King of
Mallorca then answered him: "You had better
go back, for I have nothing to say to you." Don
Nuño therefore came back, and I at once sent for
all the members of my Privy Council, for the
bishops and the nobles, that they might hear Don
Nuño's account. However before Don Nuño began
what he had to say, he burst into a laugh. I asked
him, "Why do you laugh, Don Nuño?"
"I have
((
(6
((
good cause for it," replied he; "for the King of
Mallorca said nothing to me; he only asked what
"I wanted, and I answered that I marvelled much
"that so wise a man as he was should have sent a
I
Habrel, Bachiel, and Bahiel,
for the readings vary in the
Chronicle, as well as in Marsilio
and Desclot; his true name was
Rabbi Babiel. He had a brother
called Selomoh; both were na-
tives of Saragossa.
152
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
message asking for one of the army in whom we
put full trust, and then ask me, point blank, what
I wished to say to him. He had sent a message
"to say he wanted to speak to the King or to his
delegate; one had been appointed; and therefore I,
"Don Nuño, would say nothing to him unless he
"told me first what his errand was." Whereupon
the councillors deliberated, and unanimously agreed
that the time would come when the King of Mal-
lorca would be glad to speak and come to terms.
And so we broke up.
LXXV.
A little time after this, Don Pero Corneyl, who
had been at the Council, said to me,
"Guil Dalagó,'
"surnamed Mahomet, has twice sent me word that
"he wishes to speak with me; if you please, I will
"listen to what he has to say, and peradventure
"he may disclose something of advantage to us all.”
I said, "Let it be so;" and Don Pero went away
on his business. Next day, early, he came and told
me all that Guil Dalagó had said to him; he had
been first a Christian and a knight, and had then
become a Mohammedan; he fancied that on that
account, and owing to his knowledge of the language,
he could arrange with the King of Mallorca, and with
Gil de Alagon, a renegade, who had taken the name of
Mohammad.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 153
the sheikhs of the town and country and with all
the Saracens of the island, that they should give me
all that I and the barons had spent in the expedi-
tion, and let us retire home safe and sound; and
that they would besides give us such surety as might
be asked. When I had heard this, I said to him:
"Don Pero Corneyl, I marvel much that you speak
"of such a bargain to me; for I take my pledge to
God, by the faith that He has commanded and
((
<<
given, that should any one offer me to pave with
"gold the space between yonder mountain and this
camp, for me to leave this island, I would not take
"it, nor can they (the Saracens) enter into any
agreement about Mallorca, save my getting the
"town itself and the whole of the island; for never
will I return to Catalonia unless I pass first
"
((
through Mallorca. I therefore command you, on
pain of losing my love, never to speak to me again
"of such a proposal as that."
LXXVI.
After this the King of Mallorca again sent a
message, begging that I should send Don Nuño to
speak with him. I accordingly sent him, and Don
Nuño went. The King of Mallorca came outside the
Port Tupi² gate, and had a tent pitched there, with
I
Portopi, Portupi, Port Opi.
154 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon.
seats for himself and Don Nuño. Don Nuño's
followers were quiet whilst the interview lasted;
they did nothing against those in the town, nor did
the town's people do anything against those outside.
When the King of Mallorca and Don Nuño met,
they went into the tent, and spoke there for some
time; the king, with two of his sheikhs only, and
Don Nuño, with the Alfaqui, who went as inter-
preter, the mounted retainers of Don Nuño remain-
ing without with some Saracens. Then Don Nuño
asked the King of Mallorca why he had sent for
him. And the King said, "It is for this reason,
"because I do not call to mind having ever done
wrong to your king; therefore, I marvel that he
so rages against me that he wants to take from
"me this kingdom which God gave me; wherefore
"I would pray him, and you also, to counsel him,
"not to try and take my land from me.
If he or
"you, who have come here with him, have made
“any outlay for that purpose, I will make it good to
("
"so
'him, and to you, I and the people of the land; and
“do you go back, he and you, who have come here
"with him, in peace and good will; for I will do
"nothing to you but good and love. And so let the
"king go back, and name the sum that I and the
people of this land will have to pay, and that
"within five days. By the grace of God, I have here
provision of arms, and meat and food of all kinds,
"and anything that is needed for a city's defence;
"(
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 155
"and that you may better believe what I tell ye, let
your lord, the King, send two or three trusty men,
and let them come on my pledge that they shall
"come and go safe and sound, and I will show them
the stores of provisions and the arms that I have
"in this place; and should it not be as I have said,
"let there be no agreement at all, and let my pro-
posal be rejected. Know further, that I do not
"care for the towers you have overthrown; I have
"no fear at all of your entering the city on that
"side."
"(
LXXVII.
And when Don Nuño heard the king's speech,
he answered and said, "As to what you say, that
you have done no wrong to our king, you certainly
"did do him wrong, when you took a ship belonging
"to his realm with great store of merchandise, which
((
"
merchants carried in it. The King, my master,
sent you his message about it,' and prayed you
Desclot (Hist. de Cataluña,
f. 45) tells the story thus: “A
"little after" (the unsuccessful
attack on Peñiscola in 1225) “it
"happened that two Catalan cor-
"sairs, cruising in the Mediter-
'ranean, came to Iviça, where
"there were a galley and a trans-
port of the Moorish king of Mal-
"lorca, loading ship timber; they
“captured the transport and the
galley escaped to Mallorca.
(C
•
'A few days afterwards a Barce-
Ci
"lona ship arriving at Mallorca,
"the King captured it, its cargo
and crew, and immediately sent
"his galley to Iviça, where there
was another Barcelona ship, with
"a valuable cargo for Ceuta, and
brought her to Mallorca. The
King of Aragon then sent to Mal-
"lorca, demanding the two vessels..
"The King of Mallorca called
"together the Pisan, Genoese, and
Provençal merchants, of whom
"there were many in the island,
156 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"lovingly by a man of his household, named En
66
66
Jaques, and you answered him very fiercely and
harshly, asking, 'Who was that king that asked for
"the ship? The ambassador replied, 'that he was
"the son of the king who won the pitched battle
"'of Ubeda.' ' And thereupon you were offended
I
"and asked what power the
666
King of Aragon had, and if
"he should be afraid of him,
""or if it seemed to them better
to give up the ships than to
"'irritate him?' A Genoese, who
was very rich and experienced,
"answered for all, that he 'need
"'not fear the King of Aragon, nor
"❝his little and feeble power, since
"it was not enough to take the
"castle of Peñiscola, though so
(6 (
'small, and besieged by him a
""long time; so it did not seem to
"them that he (the King of Mal-
'lorca) should give up anything
"of what he had taken, for no
"❝harm could come of keeping it.'
"The reason of his giving such
"bad advice (good for the King
“of Aragon),was that the Catalans
"might not be able to sail in those
seas, the kings being at war, and
"they themselves might have the
"field open to buy and sell their
"merchandise everywhere. Rely-
"ing on this advice, the King of
"Mallorca had replied to the
"King of Aragon's messenger,
"that he would not give up the
((
ships, persons, and goods; he
"of Aragon might do what he
(6 could, for he did not fear his de-
"fiance or his power. This answer
put King James in such anger,
"that he swore before God not to
rest nor to deem himself a true
"monarch till he had destroyed
"the Moorish king, conquered him
"by force of arms, seized his per-
((
son, and taken him by the beard
"in insult and vengeance for his
“ill behaviour and discourtesy."
Beuter, a chronicler of the
sixteenth century (Chron. de
España, lib. ii., f. 10), tells the
incident thus, making no mention
of any previous consultation of
the Moorish king with the Italian
merchants: he says that the Mal-
lorcan "replied with great scorn:
"Who is this king, your master,
"who sends you here? I know no
'such king.' Then some Pisan
'traders said, 'This is a king who
((
666
went against Peñiscola, a castle
"in the kingdom of Valencia, and
“could not take it.' He (James's
"envoy) made answer, and said :
'The King, my master, is son of
"the king who won the battle of
'Ubeda, and vanquished all the
"power of the Moors of Spain
"and Africa.'"
The battle of Ubeda, or
rather of Las Navas de Tolosa,
was fought in 1212 by the com-
bined forces of Castille, Aragon,
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 157
"with the ambassador, and much enraged at him,
"and told him that if he were not an ambassador, it
"had been ill for him that he said that. Whereupon
"the ambassador replied to you that he had come
relying on your faith, and that you could do with
"him as you pleased. You must know (he said) the
name of his lord; all the men in the world knew
"it, and knew how powerful among Christians he
was, and how high; wherefore you should not say
“of him in scorn that you did not know his name.
'say
this to you, for the evil answer you made him.
"For the rest I reply to you that our lord, the King,
"is young, not more than twenty years old. This is
"the first great undertaking he has begun, and you
<< must know that it is his heart and his will that
“for nothing in the world will he go hence till
"he have the kingdom and land of Mallorca; and
"if we should advise him to accept your proposals,
((
(6
I
we know for certain that he would never do it.
"You may now talk of something else; for what
""
you propose is not worth talking about; that he
"would never do, nor would we advise him to it."
LXXVIII.
Thereupon the King of Mallorca said: "Since
"you will not take the terms I have proposed, I
and Navarre, against Abu Ab-
dillah Mohammad, Sultan of
Africa and Mohammedan Spain.
Pedro II., James's father, was in
it, and contributed most efficiently
to the taking of Ubeda.
158 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
((
"will do this; I will give five besants' for every
"head, man, woman, and child, and I will leave the
"town on condition that you give us ships and
transports in which we may cross over to Barbary,
"and let those who choose remain here." When
Don Nuño heard what the King said, he returned
to me in great glee. No one knew the news except
he and the Alfaqui, who had acted as interpreter.
He said in my ear that he would soon tell me good
"Let me then (said I) send for the bishops.
“and the barons, that they may be present when
news.
you announce the good tidings; since they are to
"be made public sooner or later, it is better that you
"should speak them out before everybody." Don
Nuño thought that right; I sent for the councillors,
and while they were coming he told us all that had
passed.
When the councillors came, Don Nuño said how
he had spoken with the King of Mallorca and what
he had replied. He summed up by saying that the
King would surrender the town, and would besides
give for every person inside, man, woman, or
child, five besants, and would make the delivery
within five days, and that we should pass him over
The besant was at this time,
and up to the sixteenth century,
worth three sols and four deniers
of those of Barcelona, or about
I reales (forty centimes) at the
present day. The city of Mal-
lorca having then, according to
Desclot, 80,000 inhabitants, that
would make 650l. of our English
money, no insignificant sum for
the Amir of the Balearic islands
to offer.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 159
into Barbary, him and his family and all his house-
hold, men and women; the ships should put them
on shore, and they would be content with that. The
Count of Ampurias, who, as above stated, was with
the army, would not come to the council: he was
in a mine, and had declared that he would certainly
not leave it till the town was taken, and therefore
that he could not attend. There remained of the
kindred of En P. de Muntcada En R. Alaman and
En Gardu de Cerveyló, a son of En G. de Cerveyló
and a nephew of En R. Alaman and En G. de Clar-
munt; all these had a seat in the council. The
Bishop of Barcelona was also one of them, as well
as the Bishop of Gerona, the Provost of Tarragona,
and the Abbot of Sant Ffeliu. All asked the
Bishop of Barcelona to give his opinion. The Bishop
answered and said, that they had suffered great loss
in the island, so many noble and good men had
been slain whilst serving God there, whose death
ought to be revenged. That vengeance (he said)
would be good and just, but he (the bishop) de-
clined giving his opinion; the nobles and knights
knew more of military affairs than he did; they had
usage of arms and should speak first. Then they
told Don Nuño to speak, and he spoke thus:
""
Barons, we have all come here to serve God and
"our lord, the King, here present; he came here
"and we with him to take Mallorca. It seems to
"me that if our lord, the King, makes the treaty
160 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"that the king of this island proposes, our master
"will achieve that for which he came here. I will
<<
say no more; I was the messenger of the news;
"do you give your opinions on them." Thereupon
spoke En Ramon Alaman, and said: "You, my
"lord, crossed over here, and we with you, to serve
God, and you have lost here, slain in your
"service, vassals than whom no king had better.
"God has given you an opportunity for taking
((
((
((
vengeance for them, and in so doing you will
gain the whole land. But the King of Mal-
"lorca has such skill and such knowledge of this
country that if he be allowed to pass into Bar-
bary nobody can tell what he is capable of
doing. What with what he can tell there, and
"with the skill he undoubtedly has, he can bring
"so many Saracens into this land that, though you
"have gained it with the help of God and of us,
((
((
you will be unable to retain possession of the
"island though you were able to take it. There-
"fore, since you have your opportunity, avenge
'yourself of them, and keep the land to yourself,
"and then you need not fear Barbary." And En
Guerau de Cerveyló and En G. de Clarmunt said
with one voice: "My lord, we pray you for God's
“sake to remember En G. de Muntcada, who loved
(6
'and served you so well, and En Remon, and the
"other barons and knights who together with them
"died in the field."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 161
((
"(
LXXIX.
And when I had heard their counsels I said:
"As to the death of the nobles (richs homens) who
"fell in battle I have nothing to say. What
"God Almighty ordains has to be fulfilled; but for
"the rest, I can say that it was my design to come
"to this land to serve God and conquer it. Our
"Lord has granted my wish, since the proposal has
“been made of giving me exactly what I came here
for, namely, to get the land and great wealth
"besides. It seems to me as if it were really a
thing to accept. Though I have gained land and
riches, those who are dead have better reward than
myself; they have the glory of God. This ad-
vice I submit to you; let me know what your
opinion is." All the barons and bishops then
said with one voice that it was far better to take
the town by force, than to accept such a proposal.
So I sent word to the King of Mallorca that his
terms were rejected; he might do what he could,
we should do what we could. When the parley
was over and the Saracens learned the resolution
taken, they went away in consternation, and when
the King of Mallorca saw them in that state he held
a general council, and said to them in his Arabic :
Barons, you know well that the Miramamolin
"
• Miramamolin is a corruption
of Amira-l-mumenin, or "Prince
of the true believers," the title.
assumed by the khalifs of Cor-
M
I
162
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
has held this land more than a hundred years; it
was his pleasure that I should be your lord, and
"it has been held despite of the Christians, who
never dared to attack it till now. Here we have our
66
(6
(C
wives, our children, and our kindred, and now
they bid us give up the land, so that we become
"their slaves; and what is still worse than slavery,
(6
they will search our women and our daughters and
see that they carry nothing away. And when we
"all are in their power, they will do violence to
our women and daughters, and treat them at their
""
(C
pleasure. I, who am here among you, rather
"than bear so hard a thing against our law, I
would willingly lose my head; I desire to know of
you what seems fit to you under the circumstances,
"and wish that you tell me your mind." All the
people cried with one voice, that they would die
rather than suffer such great shame. And the
king said: "Then since I see you of so good
"mind, let us think of well defending ourselves,
"in such wise that one man be as good as two."
Thereupon they separated, and went back to the
walls, and one Saracen after that was better than two
had been before.
LXXX.
And after a few days I said to Don Nuño: "Don
"Nuño, it seems to me as if our barons were wishing
doba of the house of Umeyya,
from Abde-r-rahman downwards,
and after them by the Almowa-
hedin or Almohades.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 163
"that they had not given the counsel they did give
"the other day; now perhaps they would listen to
a capitulation, whereas formerly they would not.”
And I said to those who had sat with me in council
on the capitulation, "Think you not that it would
"have been better to accept the terms offered, now
"that the Saracens are defending themselves so
stoutly?" All were silent, and ashamed of what
they had said, and at vespers there came to me two
of those who had been of that opinion, the Bishop
of Barcelona and En Ramon Alaman, and they
said to me: “Why do you not accept the capitu-
lation of the other day? I said to them:
"Would it not have been much better that you had
(6
66
"
'agreed to it then, than now come to me and say
that I should have accepted it? I now say to
you, that it does not behove me to move in this
affair, as it would be a sign of weakness.
If the
"Moors again propose the terms they offered the
"other day, would you think it well to accept
((
them?" They replied: "Not only shall we
"deem it rightly done, but will make those who
formerly opposed agree to it. If the Saracens send
again a proposal, and you think it acceptable, we
"will agree, and act wholly on your opinion."
we parted; but our Lord who upholds those who
"E faerense les caues, mas
"totes les desempararen a la der-
"reria sino aquela que anaua
(
So
"sobre terra, e en aquela metem
nostra punya tan fort que a
"pesar dels se feu."
M 2
164 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
1
follow His paths, did not will that the enemy should
again treat with us, and ordered things a better
way. The thing happened thus, that just as the
Saracens were strengthened by the word of the
King of Mallorca, so it was God's will that the
Christians themselves should be equally strength-
ened and encouraged, in proportion as the Saracens
grew weaker. Though the mines and trenches were
completed, all were given up, with the exception
of one, into which we put so strong a force that
it was finished in spite of them.
LXXXI.
Four days before the general assault on the
city, the barons and the bishops agreed to hold a
general council with me, and that in that council
all should swear on the Holy Gospels and on the
Cross that on entering Mallorca no noble, horse-
man, or foot-soldier should turn back, nor should
he stop unless he had received a mortal wound.
If a man received a mortal stroke, and no relative of
his or soldier of the army was near him, he should
put himself apart, or in a place to rest against;
whilst all the rest should go forward entering the
town by force, not turning head or body back; and
that he who acted otherwise should be held as a
traitor, like those who kill their Lord. I myself
wished to take that oath, as the men were about to
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 165
(
do and actually did; but the barons forbade me to
swear it. I nevertheless told them that I would act
as if I had sworn it. When the oath was taken, the
bishops and barons went aside with me, and one
of my train, I do not recollect who he was, said:
Lords, if we do not do one thing we shall have
"done nothing; for if the Saracens of the country
"resolve on breaking the agreement they have
“made with our lord, the king, and if peradven-
"ture there enter into the city from the country
a thousand, or two, or three, or four, or five
"
(6
thousand of them, it will not be so easy to take
Mallorca; for they have plenty of food inside,
“and if their numbers are increased, they will
"easily defend the city against us; wherefore I
"would advise you to look closely that no one
gets into the city from the outside." And all
with one voice said, that the knight gave good
advice, and that it should be followed.
LXXXII.
Next day the lieutenants (batles), whom I had
sent into the district of Mallorca, En Jaques and En
Berenguer Durfort, came back, for they dared not
remain longer there for fear of the Saracens. When
the men saw them come, they said one to another,
"The plan we have now agreed on is certainly
better than it was before." I then proceeded to
166 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
establish three watches; the first for the engines.
and the lines of attack; another one opposite the
gate of Barbolec¹ near the castle, which was en-
trusted to the Temple; the third against the gate
of Portupi. Each guard or watch to consist of
a hundred horsemen clad in armour. It was then
between Christmas and New Year's Day, and so
cold the weather that when men went outside of
the camp, and marched a league or two, they
immediately came back to their tents and huts on
account of the cold, and had to send out scouts
to watch for any coming to the camp. And one
night I happened to send out people to report
whether the sentinels I had placed were still at
their post; I was told that they were not. Upon
which I rose, scolded them for their ill behaviour,
and put new sentinels taken from the followers of
the barons and from my own household. This
lasted for five consecutive days, during which I
slept neither by day nor by night; if anything was
wanted in the mines and in the approaches by
which the town was to be entered they sent to
me for it, as well as for advice as to what had to
be done, as no one would do anything, however
trifling, without consulting me. And besides I had
got from merchants in the camp sixty thousand
• Elsewhere "Bab-el-beled,"
, or the "gate of the
fields."
2 "Si que valent de xii diners
"nuyl hom no volia fer en la ost
"si a nos non demanassen."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
167
((
libres," to be repaid when the town was taken,
wherewith to furnish things necessary for the army
and for me; as I considered the town to be near
capture. I was, therefore, awake for three con-
secutive days and three nights; for when I thought
that I could sleep messages came from those who
wanted directions, and even when I wished to sleep
I could not, and was so wakeful that when any one
came near the tent I heard him approach.
LXXXIII.
The night before the last day of the year came,
and it was ordered through the camp that at dawn
all should hear mass, take the Sacrament, and armı
for battle. And in the first watch of that night
Lop Xemeniç da Luziá came to my bed, called to
me, and said: "My lord, I come from the mines;
“I ordered two of my esquires to enter the town
"and they have entered it; they saw many dead
"lying in the streets, and found that there was no
"Saracen on watch between the fifth and the sixth
"towers. My advice is that you order the camp to
"(
arms, for the town in my opinion is as good as
"taken; there is no one to defend the place; a
"thousand and more of our men can enter before a
single Saracen knows of it." I said: "Ah, my old
"friend, how can you give me such advice as to
((
I
1 Don Veyl.
168 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"enter a city by night, and by a dark night too!
"Even by daylight men are often not ashamed of
((
behaving badly under arms; would you send them
"thither by night when one man could not know
"another? For if the soldiers enter the town
"and are driven out, we shall never take Mallorca
"afterwards." Don Lop saw that I spoke the
truth, and admitted it.
LXXXIV.
(6
At dawn orders were given for the men to hear
mass and take the Sacrament. Having myself done
the same, I bade all to arm, and each to take the
arms he was to bear. And we all went out before
the town, in the space between us and the enemy.
At that time the day was becoming light; I went
to the footmen, who were ranged before the knights,
and said to them, Ho, my men, go on in Our
Lady's name!"
Even for that no one stirred,
and yet the knights heard it as well as the foot-
men. When I saw that the men did not stir, great
care came on me, since they disobeyed my com-
mand. I turned myself to the Mother of God, and
said: "Lo, Mother of our Lord God, I came here
"that the Sacrifice of your Son might be celebrated
(6
here; pray to him that we may not come to
shame, I and those who serve me in your name
"and that of your dear Son." Again I called to
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 169
them, saying: "Up, my men, in God's name; why
do ye delay?" And I said this three times, and
then my men began to move on slowly. When all
were in motion, the knights and the men-at-arms
approached the breach in the walls, and then all the
army with one voice began to call, "Saint Mary!
Saint Mary!' Those words never
never left their
mouths, and once pronounced they went on repeat-
ing them; the more they uttered the words the
louder arose the cry, and they called it thirty times
and more. When the armed horse had entered by
the breach, the cry ceased, and by the time the
passage was cleared for the horsemen there were
fully five hundred footmen inside the city. The
king and all the force of Saracens in the city were
pressing so sorely on the footmen who had got in,
that had not the men-at-arms got in all would have
been killed. And as the Saracens themselves after-
wards told us, they saw a knight on horseback with
white armour on enter first. My belief was that it
must have been Saint George, for I find in history
that in many other battles of Christians and Saracens
he has frequently been seen. Of the knights, the
first who entered was Johan Martinez Deslava, of
my household; after him En Berenguer de Gurp;
and after him a knight who was with Sire Guil-
("
"E quan los caualls armats
començaren dentrar cessa la
uou e quan fo feyt lo pas on
"deuien entrar los caualls armats,
"hauia ja be lains D. homens de
"peu."
170 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
leumes, whose nickname was Soyrot,' an appellative
given him in jest. After these three, Don Ferran
Peris de Pina entered, but I do not remember who
went in after. Each got in when and where he
could, and there were besides in the army one
hundred or more men who, had they been able to
enter among the first, would certainly have done so.
2
LXXXV.
3
Meantime the King of Mallorca riding on
a white steed came up. His name was Sheikh
Abohehie; and he called to his people "Roddo,"
-Roddo meaning "steady." There were [in the
breach] twenty or thirty Christian footmen with
shields, and some men-at-arms among them. On
the other
other side were the Saracens with their
bucklers, and swords drawn on a line, but neither
dared to close. When the knights with their
armoured horses got in, they at once charged the
(C
66
• The edition of 1557 has: "E
apres ell en Berenguer de Gurb
e prop en Berenguer de Gurb un
"cavaller que anaba ab sire Guillen
qui hauia nom Sirot, e aquest
nom li havien mes per scarni.”
The copy used by the modern
translators (Bofarull and Brocá)
reads no doubt Soyrot, but neither
reading helps me; I cannot
explain the joke, unless sirot be
meant for the diminutive of sire,
which in French as well as in
Catalonian is the equivalent of
lord, master, &c.
2 Retabohihe, in the edition of
1557. Shej Abu Yahye,
as has been said elsewhere, was
the king's name.
3
درد وا
3 Rodo, the imperative of
radda, which means 66
to stand
ŵ,
ورد
"firm, to resist or repel the attack
"of an enemy."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 171
Saracens; but so great was the multitude of the
latter, that their lances stopped the horses, and
they reared up as they could not get through the
thick ranks of the enemy. So they had to turn.
And by turning back a little, more horsemen
managed to enter the breach till there were forty
or fifty of them; still horsemen and footmen with
their shields were so mixed up, and so close to
the Saracens, that they could strike one another
with their swords, and no one dared put out his
arm for fear the sword should reach his hand from
the other side. Presently, however, there were
from forty to fifty knights with their horses all
clad in armour, and they went against the
Saracens, and cried with one voice, Help us,
Saint Mary, Mother of our Lord!"
I
"Shame, knights!" and so they
Saracens, and drove them back.
And I cried,
attacked the
LXXXVI.
When the Saracens of the town saw that the
city was being conquered, full thirty thousand
of them, men and women, went out through two
gates, the gate of Berbelet and the gate of
Portupi, and took to the hills. And so great were
› “Vergonya, cavalers,” mean-
ing, "Beware of shame."
Berbelet might well be a cor-
-beb-el و باب البلد ruption from
beled, the gate of the country, or
that leading outside the town.
172 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
the goods and booty that the knights and the
footmen found inside the city, that they took no
heed of those who went away. The last Saracen
who left the breach was the King of Mallorca
himself. As to the other Saracens, when they saw
that the knights with their armoured horses had
got within the breach, they hid themselves in the
houses of the city, each as best he could: they
did not hide themselves so well as that twenty
thousand were not killed at the taking of the city.
When we got to the gate of the Almudaina,' we
found fully three hundred dead, against whom the
others had closed the gate at their trying to get
in; our Christians had come up, and killed them
all. When our men got there, there was some
resistance, but a Saracen, who knew our Romance
tongue, said they would surrender the Almudaina if
we gave men to protect them from death.
LXXXVII.
And while we were in this parley, there
came to me two men of Tortosa, and said they
wished to tell me something very important and
of great advantage to us all. I went aside and
heard them, and they said that they would put in
I
Almudaina, ¿.e. the small city, the diminutive of
(citadel), comes from the Arabic
dina."
(6 Me-
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 173
(
my hands the King of Mallorca. And I said to
them, "What do you ask for that service?" They
said they wanted two thousand "libres." I said to
them, "You ask too much; since the king is inside
"the town, we must have him in the end; but to
"insure his not being hurt, I would willingly give
"a thousand libres.'" They said they were con-
tent with that. I left one of the nobles to com-
mand in my place, and gave orders that no one
should attack the Almudaina till my return. I then
sent for Don Nuño, and told him that I had found
the King of Mallorca, and to come to me imme-
diately. His answer was that he was delighted,
and that he would come forthwith. Don Nuño
came, and the men took us to the house where the
king was. Don Nuño and I dismounted, clad in
armour as we were, and went in. There was the
king standing with three "exortins" (or men of
his guard) by his side' armed with javelins. When
we got near him he stood up in his white bornus;
he wore besides a quilted coat under his cloak, and
• “Qui estaua al cap de la casa,
"e stauan li iii. exortins denant
"ab lur atzagayes." I suppose the
word exortins to be derived from
the Arabic word äbüll, ex-xorta,
meaning the body-guard of a king.
Sahib-ex-xorta was under the
Umayya Khalifs of Cordoba, the
"captain of the royal guard." The
Spanish translators changed "ex-
ortins" into exortiquins, having, no
doubt, found the word thus written
in the two copies of the Chronicle
preserved at Barcelona, but exor-
tins, as above stated, can only be
the plural of, xorti, a guard
with the article Ax-xorti or Exorti.
As to Atzagayes, I believe it to
be a Berber word, meaning a
javelin or short spear.
174 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
under that a robe (guardacors) of white damite.'
And I made one of the two men of Tortosa say
to him in his Arabic, that I would leave him in
charge of two knights of my train, and to have
no fear, as he should not die, since he was in my
power. Thereon I left there some of my people
to protect him, and went back to the gate of the
· In Spanish “albornoz,"
which, however, is not an Arabic,
but a Berber word. "Et quant
"fom prop dell lleuas ab sa capa
"blanca e bernuz, pero vestia un
"gonyio de ius un guardacors
((
que vestia de amit blanch."
On the meaning of the word
gonyjo, or gonyo, as elsewhere
written, see note at page 24.
Amit, from the Latin "amictus,"
might be the shirt or inner gar-
ment, unless the reading samit
(samitum) be adopted, as the
Spanish translators have done,
in which case a thin silken cloth
of Syrian manufacture is meant.
2 Muntaner's Chronicle, cc. 7 and
8, after a very brief summary of
the incidents of the siege of Mal-
lorca, gives an account of the cap-
ture of the king as follows: “And
"the lord king knew the Saracen
"king, and by force of arms got
"up to him, and took him by the
"beard. And that he did be-
cause he had sworn, that he
"would never depart from that
66
((
place till he had taken the Sara-
cen king by the beard. And he
"wished thus to make good his
"oath. That oath the said lord
"king made, because the said
"Saracen king had thrown into
"the
camp from trebuchets,
"Christian captives; wherefore
"it pleased our Lord Jesus Christ,
"that he should take vengeance
"for it." On comparing this
story, which is known to have been
written about fifty years after the
king's death, with that which is
given in the text, it will be seen
that it shows the natural growth
of fable and the influence of a
love of the marvellous, in such
times; and furnishes a strong
presumption that the simple nar-
rative given in the king's name
was really of his time, and fur-
nished by a witness on the spot.
I may add that Desclot, writing
thirty or forty years before Mun-
taner, says simply (cap. xxxiv.)
that "some Tortosa men gave up
"to him" (James) "the Moorish
"king, whom they found in a
((
courtyard; the king handed him
to the Count Don Nuño." How-
ever this may be, to "seize a man
by the beard" or "beard a man
"
was considered in the middle ages
the greatest affront that could be
made.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 175
Almudaina, and told them to give me hostages,
and come out to the old wall, and parley with us.
They then brought out the son of the King of
Mallorca, a lad about thirteen years old,' and said
he was the pledge they gave us; they would open
the gate, but we ought to look well whom we put
at it as guard. To protect the king's house and
treasury, as well as guard the Almudaina, and those
who were inside, I appointed two Dominican friars,
escorted by ten knights, all good and prudent men ;
for I was wearied out, and wanted to go to sleep.
The sun was already set.
LXXXVIII.
Next morning I examined the state of things,
to put matters in order. Lo! our Lord had so
dealt with us, that every man in the army found
so much spoil that no one had occasion to quarrel
with his neighbour; each thought he was better off
than his comrade. Don Ladró, a noble of my train,
then invited me, saying that one of his men
had told him of a good house, with every accom-
modation; he had had cooked some good beef, and
I might be housed there, if I chose. I told him
I
James had him brought up at
his court, under the tutorship of a
Dominican friar, who converted
him to Christianity, the king him-
self acting as godfather at the
baptism. Later on he married
him to a lady of the house of Ala-
gon, and gave him the baronias
or baronetages of Illueca and
Gotor.
176 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
that I thanked him much, and would go to it.
When day came, all the men of my household went
away, not one came back for eight days; each held
to what he had taken in the city, and was so
pleased with it that not one would return.
LXXXIX.
After the taking of the city, the bishops and
barons met, and said they wanted to speak with
me. There should be a sale by auction, they
suggested, of all the Moors taken, and of the
goods, and of everything. I said that I did not
approve of that, because the auction would last a
long time, and it would be better, while fear was
on the Saracens, to conquer the hill country, and
then quietly divide the booty. They asked me
how I intended to divide the booty? By gangs
"or troops,¹ (said I); the Saracens and all their
"property will be so divided that the army will
(6
be content." That could well be done in eight
days; after that we could go against the Saracens
outside, and conquer them, and keep their goods.
till the galleys came to fetch them; that would
be the best to do. But En Nuño, En Berenguer
de Santa Eugenia, the Bishop of Barcelona, and
the Sacristan [of Tarragona], wanted the sale by
auction above all things; they acted together so
¹ Per cadrelles. The word cadrelles in Castillian "quadrillas.”
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 177
that they made every one else partake of their
opinion, for they were craftier than the rest of the
army, who did not see their intention. I said to
them: "Look here; the auction you speak of will
"not be an auction, but a cheating transaction,' and
besides a blunder; I fear it will delay us so much
"that the Saracens will fortify themselves, and then
we shall not conquer them so easily as we could
if we give them time to recover, God
"knows what may happen." But the barons per-
sisted, and adhered to their plan, saying it was a
better one. I yielded, and said, "May it please
God! but
you will
repent it."
("
now;
XC.
The auction commenced; it began
it began in the
Carnival and lasted till Easter. And while the
auction was going on, the knights and the common
people expected each to have their share; every
man bought something, but would not pay for it.
The knights then joined the common people, and
said all over the town, "This is wrong, this is
wrong!" Then they put themselves in motion, and
cried with one voice, "Let us sack Gil Dalago's
house." They went and sacked it. When I arrived
A kind of pun; "aquest encant
no sera encant, que engan sera ;"
encant meaning a sale by auction,
and engan a mistake, an imposi-
tion, falsehood, fraud, &c.
N
178 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"(
((
""
(6
on the spot the mischief had been done; I could not
help it. I said to them: "Who ordered you to sack
"the house of any one, where I am residing, before
laying a complaint against him?" They answered,
My lord, each of us deserves his share of the
prize; others have had it, we have not; we are
dying of hunger here, and would go back home
to our people; that is the reason of our doing
"this." I said to them, "Good men, you have
"done wrong, and will be sorry for it; do it not
again, for we will not allow it.
Much worse
"would it be for you were I to call you to judg-
"ment for your misdemeanour; you would suffer
"grievously, and I should have to lament the evils
"that fell on you."
XCI.
Two days after this they rose again, and
raised the cry, "To the Provost of Tarragona's,
and let us sack his house!" The men went
thither, and plundered the house as they had
plundered that of Gil Dalagó, and took away all
the good things he had in it; so that nothing was
left but two horses he rode, which happened to
be in our quarters. Then the nobles and the bishops
came to us; and I said to them: "Barons, this is
"not to be borne; I might submit to such things
"till not one of you would remain alive, or not
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 179
plundered of what you have. But I will give
"you a piece of advice; let us keep ourselves in
readiness, and when next they begin with their
sacking let us arm ourselves and our horses, and
"fall on the delinquents in the square, where there
"is no barricade or chain, and hang twenty of those
"we find at this sort of mischief. If we do not
"succeed in capturing any at it, let us take the first
we find in the streets, and hang them as a warning
"for the others. Unless we do that, we shall
"be all of us in great trouble. Let us move our
(6
"share of the prize from the Almudaina to the
Temple, and put our followers there, and make
"a stand in it." Then I addressed the people of
the town, and said to them: " Good men, you have
begun the newest work that ever was, such as
"plundering houses, and especially of those who
"have done you no wrong, neither much nor little ;
"I would have you know that henceforth it will not
be borne; I will first hang so many of you in the
"streets that the town will stink of them. I, and
the barons, who are here, desire that you should
"have your share, as well of the goods as of the
"lands." When they heard those good words I
uttered, they came to their senses, and stopped the
mischief they had begun; but I did not give
courage to the Bishops and to the Provost so that
they dared leave the Almudaina in all that day,
till the people were pacified; and I told them that
N 2
180 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
蕙
​I would make a reckoning, and give them their
share. At night, when the people were quiet, they
went away, each one to his house.
XCII.
When Easter was over, Don Nuño fitted out
a ship and two galleys to cruise on the coast of
Barbary. And while he was fitting out the ship,
En G. de Clarmont fell ill, and in eight days from
the beginning of his illness he died. At his
burial, En R. Alaman fell ill, and Don Garcia
Perez de Meytats, who was of Aragon, and a man
of good descent and one of my household, and
in eight days both were dead. And when both
these were dead, En Garau de Cerveyló, son of En
G. de Cerveyló, elder brother of En R. Alaman,
also fell ill, and eight days after he died. And
Count de Ampurias, when he saw the death of those
three, said that all those of the house of Muntcada
had to die, and he was ill only eight days, and at the
end of that time he likewise died. All four were
barons, and great men in Catalonia, and they died
within a month. The mortality among such great
men of the army grieved me much. Don Pero
Corneyl said he would go to Aragon, and that
if I gave him one hundred thousand sols he
would bring me one hundred and fifty knights, that
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 181
is, one hundred for the money received, and fifty
for the "honor" or fief he held of me.
I gave him
the money, and besides, a passage free to Aragon.
XCIII.
It had been agreed with Don Nuño, who remained
with me and with the Bishop of Barcelona, that as
those knights, En Guillen and En Remon de Munt-
cada, and the nobles already named, were dead, I
should send letters to Don Atho de Foces and to Don
Rodrigo de Liçana in Aragon summoning them to
do service for the honours and fiefs they held of me.
I sent accordingly for them, and they wrote letters
saying that they would come with good will. While
they were making ready to come, I determined to
make an expedition; the Saracens had got into the
mountains of Soller, Almerug, and Bayalbahar, the
whole of which they held; they moreover kept the
Christians back as far as Pollença. I left Mallorca,
and went along a valley called Bunyola with what
knights and footmen I could collect, for the greater
part were already gone, some to Catalonia, others to
Aragon. I therefore set on the expedition with
those I could get, passing by a castle called Alaró,
close to the mountain range, and the strongest
in all the island on the right-hand side.
When I had got on the mountain, the leader of
the van sent word to say that the footmen would
182 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon.
I
not take up quarters where he had ordered them,
but were decidedly going towards Incha. I then
left the rearguard in charge of En Guillen de
Muntcada, son of En R. de Muntcada, intending to
overtake and stop them. When I got up the
mountain, I saw the men below going towards a
farm called Incha, but I dared not leave the com-
pany, for the Moors had captured two or three
beasts of burthen (asembles) from us. I went with
all speed to the rearguard, followed by three knights
who were then with me, but when I got there the
rearguard had already attacked and driven the
Saracens over a slope there, and recovered the
beasts.
XCIV.
When I arrived on the spot I found that the men
were already on the march, and that six hundred
Saracens, or more, were watching from a hill for an
opportunity of hurting them. Indeed they had
already attacked the moment they saw the vanguard
separate from the rear. All of us in a body went to
the place where we intended taking up quarters, and
there consulted as to what we should do. En G. de
Muntcada, the son of En Remon, Don Nuño, and
Don P. Corneyl, who had come back, besides other
knights well skilled in arms, told me that it would
I
Inca, eighteen miles N.E. of Palma, as the capital of Mallorca is
called now-a-days.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
183
not be wise to take up quarters so near the enemy,
for they were fully three thousand, and the mules
and the greater part of the convoy and the footmen
had all gone off, so that it would not be prudent to
remain where we were. I therefore determined to
go that very night to Incha. I put such of the
mules and beasts of burthen in front as remained,
and when they were down below, at the botton of
the hill, I descended slowly and gently. There
were not in the whole rearguard at the time forty
knights. When the Saracens saw that I marshalled
my men so well, they dared not come against me,
and we went to quarters in Incha, which is the
largest farm and village in the island, and returned
thence to Mallorca.
XCV.
On our return to the city the Master of the
Hospital, En Huch de Fuylalquier came to me,
followed by fifteen of his brethren; he was not at
the taking of Mallorca, but when he heard of it he
came with fifteen knights of his order. I had made
this En Huch de Fuylalquier master of the Hospital
in my dominions, after asking leave of the Grand
Master beyond the seas. He was a man whom I
loved much, and he loved me. When he came
he said he wished to speak to me in the pre-
sence of his brethren only, and he prayed me very
1
184 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
earnestly, by the love I had for him and the faith
he himself had in me, to consent ourselves, and pro-
cure of the bishops and the nobles, that the Hospital
should have its share in the island, urging that the
Order would be shamed for ever that in so good a
feat as that of taking Mallorca it had had no
participation; "for (said he), you who have been
((
((
((
our lord, and you are the king to whom God
"has given to take this island; should the Hospital
"have no part in it, people will hereafter say, the
Hospital and the Master took no part in that
great feat of arms at Mallorca, which the King of
Aragon accomplished by the grace of God, and we
"ourselves should be dead and shamed for ever."
My answer was that he would very soon know
that I had ever loved and honoured both him and
his Order, and that I would do that which he asked
` for willingly and gladly, as it pleased us much. But
that it would be the hardest thing I ever had to do,
for the land and the goods were already divided;
many of those who had got their shares had gone
away, otherwise it were easy to do, “but for all that,
I said, "I will not fail to help you, so that you shall
depart from me content."
XCVI.
I got together the Bishop of Barcelona, Don
Nuño, En Guillen de Muntcada, and as many as I
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 185
2
To
could of the councillors remaining in the island, and
entreated them very earnestly to give the Master a
a share of what we had gained thereat. I found
them very hard on this point; they said to me,
"How can that be? for all is already divided.
"take away what is already divided is not a thing
"that can be done, especially as the barons who had
"their share, have gone away and are no longer
here." I said, "Barons, I know of a way to let the
Master and his Order have what they want." What
is the way? said they. "I myself have half the
"land as my own; I will give them out of my share
a good and honourable farm. Here is Remon de
Ampurias who knows well what the shares of each
"of you are; I would not take away from you or
"the others what has fallen to your lot, but each
"man could proportionally give some small portion
"of his share, and with that and the farm that I
' am ready to give the Master he will have a suit-
"able share. So if it please you, let us make this
(6
66
(C
arrangement, for it is not well to offend such a man
"and such an Order as his, but to content their
"desire. As to me, it will not matter what I give
66
up.' These words of mine had the desired effect,
for the councillors said: "Since you wish for that,
so let it be; we will do as you desire.”"
186 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
XCVII.
I then sent for the Master of the Hospital, and
as the barons said that I was to speak for all, I said to
him: "Master, you came here to serve, first God,
“then me, in the conquest we have made. Know
now, that I and the nobles are willing to do what
you have asked of me; yet this is our difficulty,
"the division has been made, and the greater part
"of those who have had shares have gone home;
"but for all that, we will give you your share as for
((
66
((
66
thirty knights, and we will have it entered in the
"book with the others, and will give you besides a
good and honourable farm-of my own. The
others, however, cannot give you a farm, but will
give you instead a proportionate share of the
"lands, each of them has had of the spoil as much as
"the share of thirty knights. In so doing I do you
"as great an honour, give you as good a portion,
"as the knights of the Temple had who were here
"with me." Whereupon the Master stood up with
his knights and wished to kiss my hand; I would
not let him do it, only the other brethren. After
this they said: "My lord, since you have done so
CC
66
great a favour to the Master and to the Hospital
'and to ourselves, we pray you to give us also part
"of the goods gained, and houses in which to
"live?" Then I turned to the barons laughing,
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 187
and said: "What do you think of this fresh
petition of the Master and Brethren?" "My
"lord," said they, "that cannot be done; those
((
"(
among us who have got money and goods will
certainly not give them up; as for the houses, it
"is proper that they should have them, or at least
ground on which to build them."
(6
way
"If I find a
for that," said I, " and it cost you nothing, will
"Let us give
you agree?" They all assented.
"them then the navy yard; there are already
"walls there, and they can build good houses in-
"side; and for goods, I will make them a present of
"the four galleys which were once the King of
"Mallorca's, and now belong to me, so that they
"will have a share of everything." The Master and
the Brethren were very glad, and kissed my hands,
the Brethren themselves weeping profusely, whilst
the Bishop and the Barons were pleased at the good
arrangement I had made.
XCVIII.
With Don Nuño, the Bishop of Barcelona, and
Don Exemen Dorrea, again with me in the island,
I sallied out one day against the Saracens in the
hills. When I reached Incha (Inca), the Master
of the Hospital was with me. I sent for the barons
and knights to take counsel with them, as well as
for those who knew the ways into the country.
188 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
The opinion of Don Nuño, Don Exemen Dorrea
(de Vrrea), and the Master of the Hospital, was,
that with the force under my command it would
not be wise to go into the hills, for in the hills
of Soller Dalmerug, and Bonalbahar,' where I
intended to go, there were fully three thousand
fighting Moors. Their chief was Xuaip (or Xuarp),
a native of Xurert, who had with him twenty or
thirty mounted men. Their advice was that I
should not go into the hills, for I should run great
risks of losing myself and those with me. I
acknowledged that their advice was the best, and
I followed it; but it grieved me much that I could
not do what I had intended.
XCIX.
When the barons were gone, and each had
returned to his quarters, I sent for the guides, and
spoke apart with them. There was no one but
me with them: and I said: "I command you
"as my born subjects to tell me the truth on what
I will ask; do any of you know of any Saracens
"in any other part of Mallorca than in this range
"of hills? those other hills that I see from this
"seem to me very high, and I wish to know if
any of
you have ever been across?" And one of
them said: "I was once there in a raid not more
• Probably Bayalbahar, as at p. 181.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 189
"than eight days ago;
days ago; we thought we should
(6
capture some Saracens in a cave in the hills
you see, and when we thought we were about
"to take them, full sixty armed Saracens sallied
"out to protect them, and received them in the
(4
cave." When I heard that, I was greatly pleased,
and sent at once for Don Nuño, the Master of the
Temple, Don Exemen Dorrea, and other knights
skilled in arms, who followed me on this expedition,
and said to them: "I have found a way that will
"not make it necessary for us to return to the city
"of Mallorca so discomforted as we might be by
"the people saying that we went not on a raid
among the hills and had accomplished nothing;
"which would be tantamount to going back in
"shame." They asked what way had I found out.
I said: "Here is one of the scouts, who will show
us a good troop of Saracens, which he left not
"eight days ago, and they are in the part of the
"mountain I will show you, in the Dartana country."
They said: "So may God help us; that seems
a very good thing for us to do." The scout came
and told us how he had found the Saracens, and
where they might probably be at the time.
C.
It was agreed that early in the morning, we
should pack up our tents and baggage, and go
thither, but that we should send light troops to
190 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
*
engage them first, and prevent their escaping before
we got to the spot. As was intended, so it was
done. We got there at vespers, when our fore-
runners came to me and said: "You have not
"far to seek, for we have already had to deal
"with them, and there they are." Indeed, the*
Saracens were then lighting signal fires on that
side of the hills where the larger party was. Our
mules were worn out by the heat, and quartered
by a river at the bottom of the hill. It was agreed
that at early dawn we would arm ourselves and
our horses; there might be with me at the time
thirty-five men-at-arms, and no more. The men
were to attack the rock, and keep the Saracens
at bay, when I would determine what to do. And
so it was done, and the men-at-arms fought the
Saracens at the entrance of the cave.
So steep
was the mountain, and so high, that it formed a
sort of peak, from which the rock projected. Caves'
were hewn in the middle of the rock, so that no
stone from above could reach the caves and
do harm to the Saracens,
Those of Artá, in the north-
eastern part of the island. The
principal of them, La Cueva
de la Ermita, on the coast, is a
profound natural excavation, re-
plete with the most curious crys-
tallizations.
2 It will be observed that the
words Saracens and Moors are
2
and yet some of our
شرقيين
here indistinctly applied to desig-
nate the inhabitants of Mallorca,
and yet their meaning is different.
Saracens, from the Arabic
Xarquin, means people from the
Xarq (in Spanish axarquia) or
the East, whereas Moros (from
Mauri) means the people of Mau-
ritania, or the West.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 191
projectiles could reach the huts they had built about.
Thus, when our people fought with the Saracens,
and had to come out to defend themselves, some
stones thrown by our men did hurt them. That
lasted a good long time, a fine sight for those who
saw the fight.
CI.
Then Don Nuño said: " My lord, why do you
"and we stay here? All we do is in vain; the
"stones we throw from above can do no harm to
"the Moors; nothing can be done against them
"from below. It is midday; were it not better
for us to go down? You
You are fasting, for it is
"a fast day; you should go down, eat your dinner,
"and then consider what had best be done."
I said to Don Nuño: "On your faith! do not
grow impatient and faint-hearted; we will yet
get at the Moors." The Master of the Hospital
then said; "Don Nuño, it seems to me as if the
'king spoke truth and reason to you; but do as
"you say, let the king and you go and eat, and
((
I
And
afterwards send some of your men here, and we
"will consider what to do." "The Master says
well." said I. Don Nuño assented, and we went
down.
"E es be mig dia, e seria bo
queus en deuallassets que dia es
de dijuni, e menjarriets, e puis acor-
dar vosets com ho deuriets fer."
192
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CII.
While we were having our dinner, the Master
strung his beasts of burthen together, tying one
to the other; a man was then attached by a good
cord to the end of the train, with lighted wood in
a pan, and lowered with the fire gently down.
When the man reached the huts, he set fire to
one; the wind blew hard at the time, and the
fire spread from one hut to another; in this
manner full twenty of them were burnt, and I
was very glad to see the fire as I was eating. The
Master then summoned the Moors to surrender,
as otherwise they were all dead men. They said
they would agree to this, that, counting from the
morning of the next day, Saint Lazarus in Lent,
if in eight days the Moors in the hills did not
succour them, and cause the siege to be raised,
they would surrender themselves, but not as
prisoners, and also the stronghold and all there
was in it. The Master came to me with that
proposal, and said to me before I replied, "Do not
I
accept it, unless they surrender as prisoners; they
"are at the last gasp: the wretches are done for."
Accordingly, I agreed that that should be the
answer. The Master went up again, and the Moors
:
• Catius meaning no doubt that they were to be allowed to depart
as free men.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 193
at last agreed to surrender as prisoners unless
those in the hills succoured them within eight days.
The eighth day was Palm Sunday; they gave
us as hostages the sons of the ten most im-
portant people in the caves, and I stayed there
waiting for the day to come; but the little bread
we had with us lasted for two days less than was
thought, on the last of which Don Nuño and I
passed with only seven loaves for one hundred
men we had to feed. The army itself had no
bread except the wheat they took from the farms.
of the Saracens, which they roasted and ate; they
came to ask me if they might eat meat, and I
gave them leave to eat it.
CIII.
Meanwhile Don Pedro Maça made a raid with
his own men and with men from the army, and
almugavers.' He found a
a cave, inside which
were many Saracens ; he sent to me for cross-
bows, arrows, and picks,
they fought for two days, and captured five
hundred of the enemy. When Palm Sunday
which I
I gave him;
came, at sunrise I sent word to the Saracens in
the caves that they should keep the agreement
'Almogavares, an Arabic word
meaning raider, one who makes
raids, is applied to a formidable
class of light-armed soldiers,
who gained a terrible name
for themselves in Sicily and the
East under the next kings of
Aragon.
194 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
they had made with us. They answered that it
was not yet tierce, and that they would wait till
then. I agreed to that, but said that they should
at once get ready and come down. They accord-
ingly equipped themselves and packed up their
apparel, leaving behind a good deal of wheat and
barley. And at half tierce (about ten o'clock) they
actually began to come down from the cave, and
fifteen hundred came out. There were in the cave
no less than two thousand Saracens, the train of
them was fully a league long, and we captured
fully ten thousand cows and thirty thousand sheep,
so we entered the city of Mallorca joyful and
contented.
CIV.
A message came then from Aragon to the effect.
that Don Athó de Foces and Don Rodrigo Liçana
were coming to us, and I was very glad to hear
of it, because we had very few people. Don
Rodrigo Liçana chartered a transport, one of those
which had brought us to Mallorca, and two other
vessels to carry stores. The transport was fit to
carry horses; the other vessels carried his stores,
and in this way we reached Pollença. Don Rodrigo
brought thirty knights well provided with all neces-
sary arms and stores. Don Athó de Foces, more-
over, hired a "cocha" from Bayonne. When at sea
I
I
Cocha, and Cocca, a kind of ship.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 195
the "cocha" made a great deal of water, so that at
two or three places they caught the water in little
pans; they caulked the holes as well as they could
with tow, and the crew endeavoured to reach land
either in Catalonia or Mallorca. And this "cocha,"
(ship) in which Don Athó de Foces and Don
Blasco Maça and their companies of knights were
coming, had to return through stress of weather to
Tarragona, for the wind drove them there; they
thought they would all perish, for the "cocha"
(ship) made a good deal of water and was old,
so that they had hardly got their baggage and
horses out when she foundered and went down in
the sea.
CV.
And when I had spent all that summer in
Mallorca, there came En Berenguer de Santa
Eugenia, Lord of Torroela, and I prayed him, as
I had been in Mallorca a long time since it was
taken, and wished to go to Catalonia, that he should
remain instead of me in Mallorca, and that I would
advise the knights and all others to do for him as
they would do for myself. En Berenguer said
that he would willingly do that; but he prayed
me that, in order that the people might know that
he was loved by me, I would give him Pals, a
castle near Torroela and Palafragel, for his life;
'Torroella de Montgré, in Catalonia.
I
0 2
196 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
people might then understand that I loved him.
This I granted; the love I showed him was of
more price than the gift, for the place was not
worth much. When I had done that, I signed an
engagement to pay him what he might spend in
his stay in Mallorca. I then assembled a general
council, that is, all the knights and settlers who
were in Mallorca, and spoke thus to them: "Barons,
"I have been here fourteen months, without ever
leaving you; winter is now coming on; it seems
"to me that the country has nothing to fear, thank
God, and I wish to leave; I can better send
"
"
""
(
you directions than give them here; I can at
"any time send you reinforcements to defend the
'islands, or come in person if need be. Believe,
"on my faith, that at any season, by day or night,
"the best part of my thoughts will be with you.
"And since God has done me such grace, and
""
given me such a kingdom in the sea as no King
"of Spain was able to conquer, and I have built
"here a church to Our Lady Saint Mary, besides
"other churches, be sure I will never desert you,
"but will think of you, and help you if necessary.'
I wept, and they took leave of me. And when
it had been a while that I and they could not speak
for grief, I told them that I would leave them for
commander En Berenguer de Santa Eugenia, for
whom they should do what they would do for
myself; and I ended by saying that if ever they
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 197
heard of a fleet coming from any quarter against
them, they should let me know, and I would come
to their aid in person.
CVI.
Thereupon I departed, and they had to bear
my departure, which, as it happened, was best for
them and for me too. There were two galleys in
the port, one of En Remon de Canet, and the other
of Tarragona. I left behind the horses and arms,
in case those who stayed had need of them, and
went to Palomera on board the galleys; I was in
that of En Remon de Canet, one of the best in
the world, and some of my suite went in the other.
And on Saint Simon and Jude's day we put to
sea, and were all that day and all night and another
day, and at midnight of the third day we got to
Porrassa, between Tamarit and Tarragona, with
very fine weather. I there found En Remon de
Plegamans,' who saluted me, and kissed my hand,
and then burst into tears for great joy. He knew
of the agreement that had been made between
me and the King of Leon, who had promised to
give me his kingdom, and his daughter to wife,
and behold the King of Leon, Plagamans said,
* En Remon Guillen Marimon
de Plegamans (de Plicamanibus),
the same rich citizen of Barcelona
who contracted to provision the
fleet for the conquest of Mallorca.
198 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
was dead.' I asked him if he knew that for
certain. He said that men of Castille had come
to Barcelona who said so. When I heard that
news it grieved me much; but nevertheless I com-
forted myself, for the conquest of Mallorca was
of more
esteem with me than the gain of the
kingdom of Leon would have been; and as it
was not the will of God, I did not concern myself
with what He did not will. And I slept there
till daybreak.
CVII.
And when day broke I went on board the galleys,
and entered the harbour or roadstead of Tarragona.
The people of the town received me joyfully, men
and women, with sundry flags. After I had eaten,
and the men and the sailors had got all things out
of the galleys, a south-west wind suddenly sprang
up; so strong was it that it wrecked the two galleys
in their anchorage before the port, in front of the
church built by Archbishop En Esparech, called
Saint Michael's. Three men had remained in each
of the galleys; four of them were drowned and
two escaped. And in this Our Lord showed a
great miracle.
After my stay at Tarragona I went to Mont-
blanch and Lerida, and thence into Aragon. If
• Alfonso IX. the father of St. Ferdinand, died in 1214.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 199
any men in the world could receive their Lord
well, with great manifestations of joy and pleasure,
certainly my subjects in those places did it, greeting
me wherever I passed, and thanking God for all
the good He had done me.
CVIII.
After passing that winter in Aragon I returned
to Catalonia, where news came to me, at Barcelona,
that the King of Tunis was going to cross to
Mallorca, and was getting ready, and capturing
ships and men of the Pisans and Genoese.
Thereupon I asked counsel of the barons who
were with me at this time, and of the Town Coun-
cillors of Barcelona, as to how I should act on
the news that had come. They said it would be
well to know the thing more certainly than it was
known; men often told things from remote lands
that were untrue. And owing to some dispute
En G. de Muntcada had with the men of Vich,'
I had to go there to settle it. When I had been
one day in the place there came, at nearly half
tierce, a messenger sent by En R. de Plagamans,
who had travelled all night, and said that certain
news had come to Barcelona that the King of
Tunis was to be soon in Mallorca. When I heard
that, I was as distressed as man could be, for fear of
' Vich is about fifty miles from Barcelona.
200 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
the disaster that might happen to my people on
the island.
I took a little dinner, and rode without stopping,
and at vespers was at Barcelona, having made a
long day's work, and I rested that night. And
at morning I rode to the coast to hear news, and
saw a sail coming, and waited for it, and as it
was fair weather it soon arrived. It was a vessel
from Mallorca. A man landed first in a boat;
I asked him what news he brought from Mallorca.
And he stood before me, all pale, and said, "My
"lord, I believe the King of Tunis may be already
there." And I said, "Bad news do you bring,
((
("
man; but yet I trust in God that I will get there
before him." And I went to Tarragona on the
day we had fixed, and as to the advice they had
given me at Barcelona I said, “It does not seem
"to me as if that was good counsel for me or for
"the land, for it was Our Lord's will that I should
"do the best thing that any one has done for a
"hundred years when He made me take Mallorca ;
“and since God has given it to me, I will not lose
"it through sloth or cowardice, and I will certainly
"be there to succour it. This is my counsel, that
"a day be appointed for those who went with me
"to conquer Mallorca, and letters be sent to Aragon
"to those who hold lands in feu of me, and to
"those of my own train (meynada) to come to my
"help with what they have or can get, to be
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 201
((
((
with me within three weeks at the port of
Salou; for certainly it would be better for me
"to meet death in Mallorca than to lose that
"island by my default. And know that I will on
"no account lose that island; God and man shall
"know that nothing will be wanting in me to
defend it." And in that same manner I said
did I do.
(6
CIX.
I was at Tarragona on the appointed day, and
indeed before it, and set about chartering ships and
transports (tarides), besides a galley in which I
myself went, to get news of the Saracens if they
were already at Mallorca. The ships and the
transports (tarides) were fitted for carrying three
hundred knights; two hundred and fifty came, and
with fifty more who were collected there (at Tar-
ragona), the number of three hundred was com-
pleted. And before I made the passage there
came to me the Bishop of Tarragona, who was
of the family of La Barca and my own relation,
and En G. de Cervera, a monk of Poblet, and
they prayed of me for God's sake and on their
duty to me, and for the good counsel they gave me,
not to adventure my own person, but send on the
knights there assembled for the passage, and Don
Nuño as their captain. They besides took to
202 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
weeping as bitterly as they could, and I myself
was seized with grief at their weeping. I answered
them in this wise, and said, that for nothing in the
world would I desist from passing over. They
strove much, throwing their arms round me to
prevent my departing; but I broke from them, and
departed and went to Salou.
I had some time before exchanged the domain of
Mallorca with the Infante Don Pedro of Portugal,
and had once or twice sent him messages to the
effect that he was bound to succour the island of
Mallorca as soon as possible. He had answered
fairly, but had done nothing towards relieving the
island.'
I Don Pedro was a son of the
King of Portugal, Sancho I., and
of his Queen, Dulce, daughter of
Petronila of Aragon and Ramon
Berenguer of Catalonia; he was
thus brother of King Alfonso II.
of Portugal, and grand-uncle of
King James. On the accession to
the crown of Portugal of his
brother Alfonso II., in 1211, he
(Don Pedro) and another brother,
Ferdinand, left the country; which
in 1212 they invaded, with the
army of Alfonso IX. of Leon, in
a campaign seemingly intended to
assist the great invasion of the
Peninsula that year by the Sultan
of Morocco ! He was some time
in Morocco itself, whence he sent
to Portugal the relics of "the
Martyrs of Morocco," (whoever
they may have been). Then he
returned to Leon, ultimately going
to Aragon, where his kindred with
King James procured for him a
splendid marriage with Aurem-
biax, Countess in her own right of
Urgel, on whose death, childless,
in 1231, he was left lord of her
great possessions. Desirous of in-
corporating her estates with those
of the crown, James in the same
year exchanged with him for
them the kingdoms of Mallorca
and Minorca, to be held by him
for life in feudum et consuetu-
dinem Barchinona et faciatis inde
nobis homagium. After his death,
his successors were to hold on the
same terms "one third of them ;"
and the king was presently to hold
three fortresses then considered
the keys of the island, the Almu-
dayna in the city of Mallorca,
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 203
CX.
I
And just at midnight when I had given orders
for the galley and the other vessels to weigh anchor
and go along the land, Don Nuño came to the
sea shore, and shouted, "Galley ahoy!" The
men of my galley answered, "What is the matter?
Then they said, "Don Nuño begs you to wait a
little; the Infante of Portugal is here, and wants
"to speak with you." I wished very much to go
(6
but since the Infante was there, I thought I
would see him, without, however, desisting on his
account, whatever he might say, from the under-
taking. Presently I saw the Infante; he and Don
Nuño came in a boat; he ascended the galley;
and I asked him what he wanted? The Infante
said that he had come to cross over into Mallorca.
"How many knights have you here with you?
He said, "There are four or five here; the rest are
coming." I said, "So help me God, you come
Pollença, and Aloro. In 1244
Don Pedro returned this grant to
the King, receiving in exchange
many important towns and castles
in Valencia; ten years afterwards,
he gave these up for 39,000
sueldos annually, and some domi-
nion again in Mallorca: (possibly
the revenues of the city only.)
Don Pedro presently found his
way back into Portugal, where he
was living in 1256; but the later
history and the year of the death
of this restless and unsuccessful
prince are unknown.-Hist. Sesa
de Mallorca, I. pp. 412 and 428.
Herculano, Hist. de Portugal, II.
pp. 87 and 148. Monarchia
Lusitana, lib. 12 c. 21, lib. 13, C.
5, lib. 15, C, 4. Said by Lemos,
Hist. de Portugal, t. iii. p. 171,
to have been born in 1187, and
who died in 1258.
Oy de la galea.
204 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
66
((
not well equipped for the passage; but here are
my ships and my transports going to-morrow in
"the morning; if you choose to come on board you
(C
((
are welcome; I will go in any case. I must
know if the King of Tunis, or his army, is really
in Mallorca." Thereupon the Infante said that
he would remain in the galley with one knight and
one esquire, and that Don Nuño should undertake
to send on the others; an undertaking I thought
easy enough, for beyond the four knights of whom
he spoke, the Infante of Portugal brought no more
with him, and no more came afterwards. Don
Nuño then left the galley and went on shore, and
he (the Infante) remained with me.
CXI.
We weighed anchor, took to the oars, and went
out to sea. By sail and oars we got at noon of
the second day to Soller, where we found a Genoese
ship at anchor. When they saw us coming in, they
were frightened beyond measure, but when they
saw my flag they knew that the galley was mine;
the sailors threw themselves into a fishing-boat, and
came to us. I asked, "Good men, what news from
Mallorca?" They said, "Good news." I then
inquired if the fleet of the King of Tunis had
come; they answered that there were no strangers
They
Al pelech, from the Greek sea language.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 205
in the island. I was very glad at the good news
they had told us. They brought fowls; and I sent
two men of the ship to Mallorca to let them know
that I was at Soller. They came out to receive
us with great joy, and brought full fifty beasts
saddled for us to ride on and enter the town of
Mallorca.
CXII.
The galley rowed into the port of Mallorca, and
I entered the town. And those whom I had left
there told me, well did it appear that I had in good
remembrance them and the honour that God had
done me in conquering the kingdom; and they could
not keep from weeping with joy at my having come.
The third day after I came to Mallorca, all the
transports and knights came in in good order and
without harm. I then considered what was to be done
in case of the Saracens coming, and resolved that I
would put out scouts, to let me know in the town
before they came [to land]. And I told my people
that I would show them the way to defeat the
Saracens; that, wherever they might direct their
ships, I, with the knights and other men fit for
battle, would not go down there to the sea, but
into ambush on the very road they must necessarily
take. I would send against them horsemen without
armoured horses, and footmen with them, up to two
thousand; these would seem to oppose the landing
206 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
of the Saracens, and when a great part of them had
landed should begin to fly towards my ambush,
so as to allure them to follow, thinking there were
only those horsemen and footmen, and so would
they fall into my ambush. Then I would attack
the enemy with the armoured horse and with the
men in reserve, besides the two thousand. These
and the other horsemen, who had led them into the
ambush, would then return to me, and so till they
reached the sea I would not cease striking at them.
When those in the ships saw that the first landed
were defeated and dead, they would not dare to
land for the hurt their people had taken. I accord-
ingly kept scouts over all the island for full fifteen
days, to light fire signals if the fleet of the King
of Tunis appeared.
CXIII.
At the end of fifteen days I knew for certain
that the King of Tunis and his fleet would not
come to Mallorca. And then I set myself to
conquer the mountainous districts and castles they
(the Moors) still held in the island, such as Oloro,
Pollença, and Sentueri. The Saracens might be three
thousand fighting men, besides full fifteen thousand
more, counting women and children. And there
came a parley from one (his name was Xuaip),'
Xuarp" in the edition of 1557, but it is evidently a misprint for
I 66
.Xoayb شعيب
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 207
whom the Saracens of the mountains had made
their chief, saying that if I could only grant him
grace and treat him well, he would surrender the
castles on the mountains, in such wise, however,
that he himself could afterwards live in honour.
And because the treaty was good for me and for
all the Christians who lived there, or might come
afterwards, and because the island would not be
safe while such a war went on, it was the opinion
of the barons who came with me, and of the knights,
and of the others, that I should accept that capitu-
lation, the terms of which were as follows:-
That to him (Xuaip) and four others of his lineage,
I should give inheritances, and horses, and arms, to
each of them a pack-horse or mule, good and fit for
riding, and that the Saracens should be allowed to
remain in the land; those who would might do so,
and live free under my rule; as for those who
would not submit and accept that capitulation, I
should deal with them as I pleased. That was put
down in writing, and carried out as undertaken.
There remained, however, full two thousand Sara-
cens in the mountains, who would not surrender at
discretion,
CXIV
And when I was sure that the Tunisian fleet was
not coming at all, I returned [to Catalonia], leaving
there En Berenguer de Santa Eugenia, and Don
VorM
208 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
Pere Maça, Lord of Sant Garren, one of my own
train, with a number of followers, besides about
fifteen knights and esquires of the train of Don Pere
Maça, who wished to remain in the island. I then
crossed over to Catalonia, and those who remained
in Mallorca began war with those in the mountains;
the war lasted all winter, into May. So strong were
the Saracens in the mountains that no great harm
could be done to their persons. This, however, my
people managed to do; they hindered their getting
grain except in some wretched places, not enough
for their support; so that the Saracens came to such
distress that they had to graze on the grass on
the mountains like cattle. En Berenguer de Santa
Eugenia, and Don Pere Maça determined to sum-
mon them to surrender, which they did by letters,
and by a Saracen who carried them. They replied,
also by letter, that they would never surrender
except to the king who had conquered the land.
Seeing that, En Berenguer de Santa Eugenia, and
En Pere Maça, and the knights of Mallorca, took
counsel that they should come to me, and that I
should cross over thither; and so I should ulti-
mately have all the land.
CXV.
They accordingly came to me at Barcelona, and
said they wished to speak with me, and give me
Maou
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 209
good news. I said, that they were welcome; I
would listen to them and receive their good news.
They then asked me to consider how I was to
cross over to Mallorca; if alone, or with a train
of followers. It had been agreed that the Saracens
of the mountains would surrender on my setting
foot on the island, and, therefore, no retainers were
needed. I said that I rejoiced at their coming
with such good news, and that I would cross over
thither. And the opinion of those who had come
was, that no knights or others need cross over, but
only myself in person and a few men to attend on
me. They had enough force (they said) to con-
quer the mountains, as well as a thousand knights,
and my person was as good as one. En Berenguer
de Santa Eugenia then said: "My lord, order two
"or three galleys to be fitted out and armed; put
yourself on board, and we will go with you; as
"soon as the Saracens see you they will surrender
"at discretion."
CXVI.
It was done as En Berenguer told me. I had
three galleys armed between Barcelona and Tar-
ragona. On the fifteenth day they went with me
to Salou; the night was dark and stormy, and it
was against the opinion of the sailors that we put
to sea. When we had gone ten miles with rather
P
Won
210
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon,
I
bad weather, there came a fine night, calm sea
and bright moon, so that En Berenguer said:
"We may suppose that God loves us well; the
"sea is so smooth that we might cross it in
slippers; we expected to have bad weather,
"and
you have it so fine as armed galleys
"could wish; it is apparent that God works for
'you." I said to him that I served such a Lord
that we could not fail in anything we did in His
name, for which I thanked Him as well as I could
and knew. And early on the third day, between
sunrise and tierce, we were at Portopi, my flag
was hoisted on each of the galleys, and at the
sound of trumpets we entered the port of the city
of Mallorca,
66
CXVII.
All at
When they in the city saw me coming, they
knew who I was, and that those whom they had
sent had delivered well their message.
once men, women, and children, came out to the
port with great joy and pleasure at my coming;
also they of the Temple, and of the Hospital, and
the other knights in the city. And when I had
got into my quarters in the Almudayna, En R. de
Serra the younger, who was then Knight Com-
mander of the Temple in the island (I call him
the younger because there was another commander
Galotxes, in French "galoches."
Maou
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
2 II
of the same name, who was his uncle, and held
the commandery of Montso), came to me and
I
said he wished to speak to me a little aside.
listened to him, and he said: "Do you want to
"do a good stroke of war?
If you send the
'galleys, armed as they are, to Minorca that the
'people there may know that you have come to
"the island of Mallorca, they will no doubt be
"much afraid. Let them know that if they will
66
((
66
surrender to you unconditionally, you will receive
them, and that you desire not their death and
destruction; and with the fright they will take,
"I believe you will get both gain and honour."
I called for En Berenguer de Santa Eugenia, Don
Assalit de Gudar, and Don Pere Maça, and told
them of the advice which the Commander of the
Temple had given me (the Commander himself
was there present), and they said they thought
it good advice, and that I should do as the
Commander proposed.
CXVIII.
I then ordered En Berenguer de Santa Eugenia,
Don Assalit de Gudar, and the Commander himself,
who had proposed the thing, each to go in a galley
and tell the people of Minorca that I was there [at
Mallorca] with an army, and that I did not desire
their death. They had seen and heard what befell
P 2
212
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
those of Mallorca, who would not submit to us.
But if they would submit, and behave towards me
as they themselves had behaved towards the King
of Mallorca, I would willingly receive them to
mercy. If they would rather have death and
captivity than come in to me, I could not help it;
they would have to pass under it. I then had
credentials in Arabic drawn up by an Alfaqui of
mine from Saragossa, named Don Salomó, brother
of Don Bahiel,' bidding them give credence to my
three envoys, and believe that they spoke for me
and in my name. I also said that I would go to
Cap de la Pera, thirty miles by sea from Minorca,
and that they would find me there ready to hear
the result of their mission.
CXIX.
I made the galleys go all night with the
messengers, who got to Minorca next day between
nones and vespers. The Kaid, the sheikhs, and
the people of the country, came out to the galleys
to the harbour of Ciutadela, and asked: "Whose
are the galleys?" They said they belonged to
the King of Aragon, Mallorca, and Catalonia, and
that they themselves were messengers from him.
When the Saracens heard that they put aside their
arms, on the ground, and said: "You are welcome
1 See above page 151. ;
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 213
(C
to our island; on our heads! you can land
safe and sound! we will do you favour, honour,
"and pleasure." The galleys ran their poops on
shore, and the men sent for mattresses, mats, and
cushions, on which to lie down. All three messen-
gers landed from the galleys, besides a Jew I had
given them for an interpreter.
interpreter. Thereupon the
Kaid and his brother El Moxerif,' a native of
Seville, whom I afterwards made Rais (governor)
of Minorca, and all the sheikhs, listened with
attention and great devotion to my letter and
message, and said they would consider its contents.
CXX.
The result was, that they begged the messengers
to wait till next day, as they would send for other
sheikhs (elders) in the island who were absent,
that they might have a more complete council.
The messengers, that is, En Berenguer, Don
Assalit, and the Commander, replied that they
would do as was wished. Thereupon they were
invited to go into the town of Ciutadela, saying
they would show them great love, for love of the
King, whose men they were. They said that till
they got their reply they would certainly not enter
the town; they had no orders to do so. The
I
Almoxerif, in Spanish Almo-
xarife, is not a proper name, but
that of a tax-collector,,
or minister of finances among the
Spanish Moors.
214 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
Saracens replied that it should be as they pleased.
In a little time they brought ten cows, a hundred
sheep, two hundred fowls, and bread and wine as
much as the messengers wished, and stayed with
them till vespers to keep them company. And at
vespers, when the Saracens went into the town,
our messengers went into the galleys. That same
day, at vespers, I myself went to Cape Pera, which
is in sight of Minorca. And behold what the
Royal army consisted of! I had with me only
six knights, four horses, one shield, five esquires
to attend on my person, ten servants and some
scouts. And when it became dusk, before eating
my dinner, I gave directions to those who were
with me, and caused fires to be lighted in more
than three hundred places in the bushes, in the
likeness of an army encamping. When the
Saracens saw that, they sent two sheikhs to ask
the envoys,
"What were those fires on Cape
Pera?" Our people said, "It is the King with his
army there," (for I had instructed them to say so);
"he wishes to hear quickly your answer, one way
"or the other." When the Saracens heard that,
they were in great fear, and when morning came
they told the messengers to have patience a little
time, that they would soon have their answer.
The messengers replied they would do so.
I
O de hu, o de altre breument. Edit. 1557.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 215
CXXI.
And next morning, after the Saracens had had
prayers, the Kaid, his brother, the Moxerif, the
sheikhs, and full three hundred of the principal
people in the island, came from the town, and
said that they gave great thanks to God and to
me for the message I had sent them, for they
knew well that they could not long defend them-
selves against me, and that they would put in
writing the capitulation under which they wished
to surrender. It was thus worded: They said
the island was very poor, and there was not space
in it for growing corn for the tenth part of the
inhabitants; they would willingly take me for
their lord, and divide with me what they had,
for it was reasonable that a lord should receive
tribute from his vassals; they would give me
every year three thousand quarters of wheat,
a hundred cows, and five hundred sheep
sheep or
goats; but I should make an agreement with them
to keep and defend them as my subjects and
vassals: that duty and engagement would they
keep towards me and my successors for ever and
after. Then my envoys said to them, that they
had something more to do, which was to give
me possession of Ciutadela and of the hill on
which its castle stands, as well as of any other
216 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
fortresses, if any there were, in the island. To this
they agreed at last, though perforce and hard ·
pressed; for after some consultation among them-
selves they said that since I wished it they
would do so, for they had heard that I was a
good lord to my people, and so they hoped I
would be to them. In drawing up this capitula-
tion, and all the principal and best men in the
island swearing to it on the Alcoran, three whole
days were spent. Don Assalit, however, had in-
troduced a clause in the agreement that the people
of Minorca should give two "quintals" (two hun-
dredweight) of fresh butter' every year, besides
two hundred bezants for leave to transport cattle.
I was all the time at Cape Pera waiting for the
galleys and for the messengers, though still making
the same fires as at first.
CXXII.
Early in the morning of the fourth day, at
sunrise, after mass, there came news that the
galleys had arrived. And the envoys sent to tell
me to decorate well the house I was in, for they
brought good news. I, accordingly, had it well
swept and strewed with fennel, for we had nothing
else to
to serve
serve for rushes.² I caused all the
Mantega, i.e. butter, from the
Arabic i mantecah, “the
best part of milk, cream," &c.
2 Cañas (rushes), the flooring
made of them.
+
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 217
counterpanes I and those of my suite had to be
hung from the walls as if they were tapestry, and
I and those who were with me put on the best
clothes we had there. The envoys were accom-
panied by a deputation from Minorca, consisting of
the Kaid's brother (the Moxerif) and five sheikhs,
the most honourable in the whole island. I sent
out horses for them to ride on, and other beasts
of burthen for their luggage, and they came on.
When they were in my presence they saluted me
with great reverence, bent the knee before me,
and said that on the Kaid's behalf they saluted
me a hundred thousand times as their lord, in whom
he and they put their hope. I replied, that I
wished, in return, that God might give them hap-
piness; and added, that their coming pleased me
well. It was in order that those of my army might
not interfere with or in any way control the words
I would have to say to them that I had removed
to the spot where I now was, that I might hear
what they had to say, and the better speak with
them, upon which they thanked God and me for
the words I said to them.
CXXIII.
Then my envoys began to recite their negotiation
and the result, and showed me for my approbation
the agreement that had been made. I said that I
18
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
would consider of it, upon which the deputies from
Minorca went out of the room.
I then said to my
envoys, "Great thanks do I owe to Our Lord for
"that which He has granted me without sin on my
"part, and to my great honour. In this present
case there is no course left but to accept the
(6 terms which you have agreed to, and return
"thanks to the Lord for the favour He shows
me and you." I then addressed the deputies from
Minorca, and told them that I was content with
the agreement my envoys had made. Whereupon
I ordered letters to be drawn up, with my seal,
which I gave them, acknowledging them as sub-
jects of me and of my successors for all time to
come, they in return agreeing to pay the stipulated
tribute to me and to mine for ever after.
CXXIV.
Since that capitulation was made with the
Saracens of Minorca, I have received as much
again, or perhaps more, than was stipulated under
it; for they have given me whatever I have asked
for, and besides that have got every year from
them, without asking, all I wanted. I, moreover,
took as slaves, at my discretion, all the Saracens
who had risen in the hills; these I distributed
* In the island, ¿.e. in Mallorca,
for Minorca has no hills, and
I
besides that no resistance at all
was offered by the inhabitants.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon. 219
among those who might want them as slaves to
settle on their lands. So in that expedition with
only three galleys I achieved two enterprises,'
because it so pleased Our Lord, my creator.
After this Í returned to Catalonia and to Aragon;
and from that time to this, may God be thanked
for it, the island of Mallorca has not required any
help from me; indeed the Lord has so increased
it, that it produces twice what it did in the time.
of the Saracens.
CXXV.
Two years afterwards, the Sacristan of Gerona,
En S. de Muntgri, who had been elected Arch-
bishop of Tarragona, En Berenguer de Santa
Eugenia and his brother, came to me at
Alcañiz. I was right glad of the election of the
former. When in my presence he (the Archbishop)
asked leave to make a request. And he said that
if I would grant to him the island of Iviça, he,
with those of his household and family, would
conquer it. Since I myself had not attempted its
conquest, and had other things to do at the time,
I ought to be willing and glad that he should
undertake it, in order that men might say in future
times that an Archbishop of Tarragona had con-
quered the island of Iviça, which he would hold
I
By "two enterprises" the
final occupation of Mallorca and
the taking of Minorca are no
doubt meant.
220 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES of Aragon.
"tra-
in my name and for me. I deliberated, and con-
sidering it an honour that an archbishop in my
dominions should conquer land from the Saracens
and hold it of me, I granted his request. He then
made arrangements with those of his household
and prepared for the expedition, causing a
buquet" and a "fonevol" to be made. When
the Infante of Portugal and Don Nuño learned
this, they called on the Archbishop, and told him
that they would willingly assist him, if he would
only give them shares proportionate to the number
of men (horse and foot) they might furnish and
take thither. The Archbishop agreed, and all went
together.
CXXVI,
They therefore crossed to Iviça, and landed
without resistance from the islanders; they then
went with armoured horses, ships, and transports,
to the harbour of Iviça, set their camp there, and
attacked the town. When they had got their
machines ready, the "fonevol," which was the less
powerful, battered the town, and the "trabuquet "
the castle. There are three walls to the town,
one rising over the other. When they saw that
the outside wall of the town was giving way by
the battering of the "fonevol," the besiegers com-
menced mining; and when they saw it was time
to begin the fight, they tried first petty attacks,
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon. 221
*
and prepared for a general assault. The
arms, and
The army
was put
put under
one line of wall
was taken; one Johan Xico, of Lerida, being the
first man who entered by the breach. When the
Saracens saw they had lost that first wall, they were
dreadfully cowed, and parleyed for surrender. In
this way was the town taken, and the castle too,
for the "trabuquet" had not to throw ten stones
against the latter. After Ivica was taken, there
came many times [from Africa] Saracen galleys
against it; but by the grace of God the invaders
got there more hurt than did our own people.
CXXVII.
After this I was one day in my kingdom, in
Aragon, playing and disporting; I had with me
at Alcañiz, the Master of the Hospital, En Hugh
de Fuylarquer, and Don Blasco D'Alagó; and we
were on a terrace talking and amusing ourselves.
He took up the word and said: "My lord, since
"God has guided you so well in this matter of
"Mallorca and of the islands, why should we not
"and you undertake the kingdom of Valencia on
"this side of the sea, which has been for such
"considerable time affronting us and your house?
"Even your ancestors have striven to have it, and
could not. Wherefore, so God help me! it would
be well that we should think thereon, who are
222 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
((
66
"here present; for Don Blasco knows more [of
war] than any man in this world, and he can
"tell you by which means and at what place he
thinks we can enter and conquer that land."
Don Blasco D'Alagó then said: "I will gladly
"tell the King all I know and what can serve
him; since you wish, Master, that I should speak,
"I I will." Whereupon I asked him to tell me
where it seemed to him that we could enter the
kingdom of Valencia.
((
CXXVIII.
66
My
Don Blasco then turned to me and said,
"lord, the Master of the Hospital speaks truly.
"Since God has given it to you to make conquests
"beyond sea, you should now undertake that which
"is at the gate of your own kingdom. Valencia
"is the best land and the finest in the world.
My lord, I stayed two years or more in it, when
"you drove me from your land. There is not
"now-a-days so desirable a place as the city of
"Valencia and the surrounding territory; the land
"is full seven journeys long; if it be God's will
that you conquer it, I can assure you that no
"land of more fertile and luxurious plains and
stronger castles is to be found in the whole
"world. I will tell you my way of thinking in
"this matter; should I advise you to besiege any
(6
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 223
""
66
66
strong castle therein I should give you bad
advice, for there are in the kingdom of Valencia
'forty or fifty such strongholds that while they have
"provisions you and all your power could not take
"them. My counsel, to the best of my judgment,
"is that you go first to Burriana, and for this
"reason Burriana is on level ground, and near
'your own country; you can there get supplies
"from your own kingdom, by sea and by land,
"much better than if you were farther inland;
"and with the help of God you will take it at
"farthest within a month. You will find great
"stores in it; and that is undoubtedly the best
66
place I know for you to commence the conquest."
The Master of the Hospital then said, "My lord,
"Don Blasco speaks truly; in the world there is not
"a place so good and convenient to take possession
"of as Burriana, so say all those who have been
"in the kingdom of Valencia, and it is the common
"talk in this our country."
CXXIX.
And I said, "Now that I have heard your counsel
"and that of Don Blasco, I hold it for good and
loyal, and in the name of God be it so, since you
"have advised me for the best. I will now tell you
"one thing, which shows it is God's will that I
"should undertake that conquest. I was at Mal-
"lorca, at Cape Pera, when Minorca surrendered ;
224 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"Don Sanç¹ D'Orta was with me, and Don Garcia
(6
D'Orta, his brother, and Pero Lopez de Pomar,
"who had been on a mission from me to the Kaid
(governor) of Xativa. I happened to praise to
"them much the land of Mallorca, which I had
"conquered, and whilst doing so Don Sanç D'Orta
said, ' My lord, you are praising and extolling all
day the kingdom of Mallorca ; but if you do con-
quer Valencia, you will find that this island, good
'and fertile as it is, is nought in comparison with
yonder kingdom across the sea. In Valencia you
"'will find five or six thousand cross-bowmen, with
""two-footed crossbows and men innumerable who
"will not allow an army to approach the walls of
"their city, such is the strength of the crossbows
"and of the power there. And if you take that,
"you can well say that you are the greatest King
"in the world, and the one who has done most.'
2
)))
CXXX.
These words of Don Sancho stirred me on,
because of his dispraising Mallorca, and praising
Sanç is the Provençal form of
Sanctius, Sancho, whence Sanchez
and Sanchiz are derived.
2
Ballesters de II. peus. Du-
cange, v. "Balista," mentions,
without explaining, balistæ ad
duos pedes; duas balistas ad tor
et decem ad duos pedes: two
"(
winch crossbows and ten two-
footed." Perhaps "two footed
crossbows" meant that they had
stirrups in which a man could set
both feet, so as to put his whole
force to bending the bow. "Bal-
lesta de arco" in Spanish.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 225
Valencia. And I said to him, "Do you wish me to
"tell you how I think I should subdue the kingdom
("
((
((
"
((
you speak of? I will tell you. I had no wife once;
they proposed to me to marry the daughter of the
King of Hungary, or the daughter of the Duke of
Austria, and the Pope agreed to it. Yet I took to
"wife a daughter of one of the most honourable
kings in the world, and though they would have
given me more with the daughter of the Duke of
Austria, I would not take her; I preferred the
daughter of the King of Hungary. When I was not
"of so much account as I am now, they gave me the
daughter of Don Alfonso, King of Castille; it is
right that now when I am more powerful than I
"was then, I should take to wife a king's daughter.
"Now I will tell you how I will take Valencia and
"all the rest of that land. I will go to Burriana; I
"will take thither what supplies I can carry on mules
"from Teruel, and I will get by sea besides supplies
"for the army, and I will take two 'fonevols,' and
("
(6
66
when Burriana is taken I will make the queen, my
wife, go there, that people may see how resolute I
"am to stand by it. Then the castles that are on
"this side of Valencia-such as Peñiscola, Cervera,
Exivert, Polpis, the caves of Vinromá, Alcalaten,
Morella, Culler, and Ares, which live on supplies
"from the plain of Burriana-will be so shut in
“between me and my Christian lands, that all will
'It does not say which match the Pope favoured.
Q
226 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"have to surrender, for I will be in front of them,
and they will not be able to get supplies from
"Burriana."
46
CXXXI.
"When that shall be done, and I have those
castles, I will move on to a place the Christians
"call Puig de Cebolla (Onion Hill), two leagues
"from Valencia. Thence I will make raids on the
'city itself, ravage and waste the land wheresoever
'I go.
I know the way to weaken and molest the
enemy, and bring him to great distress by famine.
"Then I will set on them before they can gather
"the harvest again, and will besiege the city, and
"with the grace of God will conquer it." Don
Blasco and the Master of the Hospital then said to
me, "Had the Saracens in Valencia dictated your
"answer, you could not have said better. It seemeth
"to me that Our Lord will guide you, your reso-
"lution is so good." And then it was settled what
should be done and what should not be done. At
that time I was at Teruel, Don Pedro Fernandez
D'Açagra, Lord of Albarracin, had invited me to
hunt wild boar and dine with him in a village close
to Albarracin, named Exea, where he said I would
find him, and I promised to do so.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 227
CXXXII.
After I had dined, near vespers there came a
message that men on foot from Teruel and the
frontier had taken Ares; Don Pedro Fernandez and
Don Atorella were then with me. He who came
with the intelligence demanded a gift for the good
news he had brought. I told him that I would
give him one. Don Pedro Fernandez knew
nothing about that part of the frontier; but Don
Atorella said: " My lord, great good fortune has
“befallen you; much have you gained on this day ;
"the conquest of the kingdom of Valencia is
begun." I said to him: "Please God it be so!"
He replied: "My lord, do not delay; Ares is a
very good and very strong place, which you may
"keep despite of all the Saracens in the world;
66
((
put yourself on horseback to go thither, and do
"not delay, for God's sake. I know what a strong
place Ares is; and when you are there and see it,
you will say I have told you truth.
CXXXIII.
I then sent a message to Teruel for Fernando
Diez, Rodrigo Ortiz, and the knights there, to meet
me at Alfambra. I got there before dark, supped,
gave the horses barley, and went on after midnight.
Q 2
228 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
At dawn I had got to the end of the pass into the
plain of Muntagut; I passed through Pobo, got to
Vilaroja, one of the towns belonging to the Order
of the Hospital, and stopped there that night. At
dawn I left Vilaroja, and when I had got within
half a league of the end of the hills, a mounted
cross-bowman came after me, trotting and scamper-
ing to overtake me, and he said: "My lord, Don
"Blasco [d'Alagó] salutes you, and tells you that
Morella is his!" When I heard that news it
grieved me much.
66
64
And Fernando Diez said:
My lord, bethink you what you will do; you need
well think of it." I then made the cross-bowman
stand aside, and called for Don Pedro Fernandez
and for Don Atorella. But while I sent for the
other [knights], Fernando Diez spoke in my ear,
and said: "My lord, give up the journey to Ares;
"Morella is a more important place, and a great
thing! It were far better
were far better for you that the
"Moors had it than Don Blasco, and I would
66
rather that you gained it from the Saracens than
"from Don Blasco; though he is my lord, you
"are my natural sovereign.' Not for regard of
"a lord whom I can change when I please will
""
I fail to give you my best advice; that is, that
you may understand that I hold myself as your
"born subject." I then asked the opinion of Don
E iassia que Don Blasco sia mon senyor, vos sots mon senyor
natural.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 229
Pedro Fernandez, Don Atorella, and the other
knights, as to what I should do. Don Pedro and
Don Atorella said: "Our advice is that
((
you should
finish this journey to Ares, which you have begun,
"that then you should go to Morella, and thus get
"all done in one journey." But Don Fernando
Diez said: "My lord, I am here one of the least
"of your Council, but whatever any one else may
say, go you to Morella, and give orders for the
"light-armed foot of Teruel and the villages to
move on. Let them follow as fast as they can,
"without bringing on their knapsacks." I felt
that Diez's advice was the best, and that one should
take care of great things before lesser ones.
He then told me to prepare for much fatigue, for
it was (he said) a long ride to Morella.
}} I
CXXXIV.
I then ordered some of the footmen to stay
there, and the others to take their arms and follow
me; I myself riding at the trot, and without order ²
crossed the river of Calderes and went on to the
river which runs by the foot of the ridge on which
is Morella, When I got there, two light-armed
footmen came up with me. I asked them where
the others were, and they said they were coming.
• The word used is "serrons," * De trot e d'arlot.
Spanish, serones.
2
230 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
I ascended a ridge to a little hill standing out from
it, and afterwards called the King's Hill; I stopped
there waiting for my men to come up, and I set out
watches, horse and foot, to hinder any one from going
in or out of Morella till next day after I should have
resolved what to do; I passed all night on that hill.
It was snowy weather, for it was past Michaelmas;
it snowed and rained a good deal, so that no one
dared uncover his face; the horses and the beasts
of burthen lay down in
lay down in a hollow, here and
there, where they best could; the mules that were
to bring us supplies that night could not bring them
up, and I dared not go down to meet them lest the
people in the castle should communicate with Don
Blasco, and he should put a stronger force into it.
I had to go actually without eating or drinking
from the night I had some food in Vilaroja till
vespers of the third day, I, the horses, and the
beasts of burthen.
2
CXXXV.
At sunrise, Don Blasco came in sight with his
horse, the knights in pourpoints, and the esquires
bearing their arms; our watch saw them come
I
Puig del Rey.
2 "Tro al tercer dia a hora de
vespres," according to the Valencia
edition of 1515. From the night
in Vilaroja to the night of the day
following that the king passed on
Sierra of Morella, was forty-eight
hours; the time was part of three
days.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 231
down the hill. Thereupon Don Ferran Perez de
Pina, who was captain of the watch, sent me word
that Don Blasco meant to enter Morella, and
asked for orders how to act. I sent them word
that if Don Blasco tried to enter, they should
prevent him, and make him come on to me. Before
this message of mine reached the watch, Don
Blasco pushed on as
as far as he could towards
the entrance of the castle. Don Ferran Perez
de Pina went up to him and said: "What is
the matter, Don Blasco? He replied: “I
"wish to go into Morella and give orders to my
•
people; then I will go and see the king." Then
my messenger got there, and said in Don Ferran's
ear, that my orders were, not to let Don Blasco
enter; whereupon Ferran Perez said: "Don Blasco,
the king desires you to go to him." He said:
"Tell the king that I will be with him presently,
but I have a few orders to give to my men." He
replied, "Know that you will not be allowed to
"enter the place till you have seen the king, for he
"has sent to me to tell you so." And Don Ferran
went close to Don Blasco to bar the way, so that
he could not escape from him if he tried. Don
Blasco, seeing that it must be, turned his rein, and
came towards me, the watch following him closely.
232 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CXXXVI.
I
He dismounted, and I rose to greet him; then he
sat down, he, Don Pedro Fernandez, Don Atorella,
and Laceit Abu Ceit [who was with me at the
time]. He said he wished to speak with me.
alone. I made all go away, except himself, and
he then said, "Well, my lord, what do you
want of me?" I said, "I will tell you; Don
Blasco, you are my majordomo (steward of my
household), a man whom I have loved well and
"done good to, and you hold lands of me. God, as
you have sent to tell me, has given you Morella ;
((
((
(C
now the place is so strong and renowned, that
"though you deserve all the good that can befall
((
you, it is unfit for any one in the world to
“hold but a king; wherefore I pray you by your
"natural obedience to me, by the benefits I have
"conferred on you, and by the high office you fill
"in
my household, to give up that castle, so that
I
may do great things for you and yours; and
"that people may say hereafter that I gave you good
سید ابو زید Zeit Abu Zeit :
This Moslem prince, of the house
of the Almohade sovereigns of
Morocco, had been expelled from
Valencia, of which he was "king,"
by his subjects, suspicious of his
dealings with King James, with
whom he took refuge. There was
an agreement between them, that
what Zeit might recover of his
former state in Valencia he should
hold as a vassal of Aragon, and
that he should besides surrender
six strong places to the king, of
which Morella was one.-Zurita,
Anales, lib. iii. c. 2.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 233
'guerdon for the service you did me." He said,
My lord, do you not remember the words of the
letters patent you gave me?" I answered, "Yes,
"I remember them very well; I will tell you what
"the letters said that if you ever conquered any-
'thing from the Moors, it should be yours." He
said, “My lord, exactly so it is." And I replied :
Don Blasco, you must know well that a conquest
"of this kind is no province of yours, for this
((
((
("
((
castle, with its surrounding territory, is as good
"as a countship; but this is what it is proper for
you to do, that since God has given you so good
a place, you should deliver it to me at once. I
will do such things for you that men shall know
"how great a service you have rendered me, and
"that I will do with the greatest good will." He
said, "My lord, I will consider the matter, and
answer you."
CXXXVII.
And Don Blasco went aside with four of the
knights he had with him, and came to me after he
had had counsel with them, saying, "My lord,
do you wish altogether to have Morella?"
I
said,
"Don Blasco, you must know well that I wish
very much to have Morella and its castle; it is
proper that I should have it, and it is proper for
((
you to take my offer." He said, "Since I now
"see that it is your wish to have Morella, and you
234 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"make me such promises, I will do as you wish;
"I will give it up to you, though on one condition.
"I beg that since you will have Morella, that you
"show me love in this, that I may hold it for
""
""
you; good reason is there, since I surrender
"it to you, that I should hold it for you, rather
than any other man in the kingdom.' I
answered him that I agreed to that, and then
said: "Since that is settled, let us go to Don
"Pedro Fernandez, Don Atorella, Aceit Abuceit,
"and the other knights, and let them know that
"from this hour you hold Morella for us." He
assented, and we all went to them. Then Don
Blasco said: 'My lord, it is for you to speak
first." And I replied, "No, Don Blasco, it is for
you to speak.” Then he said, "My lord, you
""
(6
((
'granted me by charter that if I took any place
from the Moors it should be mine; but you have
"already done, and promise to do such great things
"for me, that it is reason that I should do you
("
""
any service I can; it is my will, since you desire
that this castle should be your own, that it be
" So. I do consent to it, but I
pray of you that
"I may hold it of you, since there is more reason
"that I should hold it than any other man in your
kingdom." I told him that I thanked him for
it, and would reward him for the service he had
done me.
Thereon he bent his knees before me,
and did me homage by hands and mouth, that from
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 235
I
that hour he held the castle of Morella for me, the
King of Aragon. I stayed that day there; on the
next I left, and went to Ares, of which I also took
possession, giving to the footmen, who had taken
it from the Saracens, so much of the spoil that they
were quite satisfied and content.
CXXXVIII.
At that time there lived Don Sancho, King of
Navarre, son of another King Sancho; the best
king there ever was in Navarre." The King of
Castille caused Don Lope Diez, Lord of Biscay,
to make war on him, so that he took two or three
of his castles. The King of Navarre then sent me
¹ The Spanish translators intro-
duce the word feud to describe
the terms on which Don Blasco
de Alagon received Morella from
the king but the text uses only
the word tener, to hold, "quil
tenga per vos.
""
2 Brother of Berenguela, Queen
of Richard I. of England; he
reigned from 1194 to 1234. It
will show the strange confusion
of the times, to tell that in the
opening of his reign his alliances
with the Moors were such as to
draw from Pope Celestine III. in
1196 a Bull denouncing them, and
calling on him to unite rather
with the Christian kings of the
Peninsula in conquests from the
Mahometans. Next year, 1197,
he left his kingdom, went to
Morocco, and remained there
serving the Sultan for three years;
it was said, in love with the
Sultan's daughter; such is the
explanation of his conduct the
English chronicler Hovedan had
heard. During his absence, Al-
fonso VIII. of Castille stripped
him of considerable territories
in the Basque provinces. How-
ever, when the Sultan Moham-
mad Annásir made the great
campaign of 1212 against the
Spanish Christians, he joined
Alfonso VIII. with his army, and
had a share in the great victory
of Navas de Tolosa, in memory
of which Navarre bears in her
shield the chains with which the
Sultan's tent is said to have been
fenced.
236 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
word that if I would make a treaty with him, he
would sign a deed showing me such favour and love
that no king ever showed greater to another. I
therefore resolved to go to see him at Tudela; for
full twenty-five years he had not left town or
travelled anywhere. I told Don Blasco [Maça],
Don Rodrigo Liçana, and Don Atho de Foces, to
accompany me to the interview, and they all went.
When I got to Navarre, Don Sancho could not
come down to me to the town of Tudela, so im-
measurably and marvellously fat was he; he was
ashamed to let people see him if indeed it were
not in private; wherefore I had to go up to him
to the castle. Next day, at vespers, I ascended;
he received me well and with what courtesy he
could, for he came out to a place which he had not
visited for ten years, and embraced me (he was as
big as myself); that he did very joyfully and
laughing. We went hand in hand up some steps,
and found seats set in a cloister of his chapel.
said to me that my coming pleased him much; he
had never been so glad in his life that he remem-
bered. I replied that I was very glad too for two
reasons, for seeing him, and because I had greatly
wished to make his acquaintance. When we
had been some time in conversation, I said: "You
2
• Si donchs no era en lochs
amagat.
He
2 As tall, not as stout, it is to
be presumed. King James was a
giant.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 237
"have sent me word that you wished to see me
"for our common profit and honour; that I do
66
(6
sincerely believe, since you have sent to me
"to say so.
And since the words of the message
"are so pleasant and sweet to me, will you speak
"to me on this night, or will you wait till to-
morrow. It is now (I said) the hour of vespers ;
"to-morrow I will come here, and you can say to
"me what things you please."
please." He replied that
he would next day propose the best thing that any
man had ever proposed to me. I gave him great
thanks, and thereupon parted company for that
night.
CXXXIX.
In the morning I heard mass, and then went up
to see him in the castle. He began thus: “
"King,
"I believe you know, or should know, what great
"love and kindred there is between you and me;
<<
there is no one in the world so nearly related
"to me as you, except perhaps the son of the
"Countess of Champagne, who is my own nephew ;
((
notwithstanding which I hold that you are more
"to me than he is, for I love you more. The love
"I bestowed on him was badly placed; while I did
“him favour and love, he behaved very ill to me,
"for he parleyed and treated with my own subjects
"of Navarre to drive me from my kingdom, and
"make himself king; wherefore I sent for you,
238 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"
"for I would rather you had the kingdom than
"he, or any other man in the world. And I wish
"to tell you this with my own mouth, rather than
"that these people should act as intermediate
"between you and me. But let it be in this way,
“that_men_may not say hereafter that there was
any secret agreement between us two. I will
adopt you, and you shall adopt me; it is like
that I shall die before you, for I am full seventy-
eight years old, whilst you are not yet twenty-five.
"This I will do for the sake of my people, that
they may not hold me as a man who acted
"lightly."
""
I
CXL.
When I heard Don Sancho's discourse it pleased
me much. I said, "I give you great thanks; your
"love for me is quite plain; but it must not dis-
66
please you if I wish to consult the nobles who
"have come here with me; I will see you again
"at vespers and give you an answer." Deliberation
I said) was needed for this reason. I had by
Queen Leonor, the daughter of King Alfonso of
Castille, a son, and I had made all the nobles
and knights and cities of Aragon, and the city
of Lerida, swear allegiance to him.
After discussing this matter with my councillors,
Nos volem afillarvos aytot que afillets a nos: "take you to son."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 239
Don Blasco Dalagon,' Don Atho de Foces, Don
Rodrigo Liçana, and others, I sent them to King
Sancho with the following message:
"The king
"sends us to you; we desire to say things for him
"that he himself does not wish to say face to face
"to you. The King of Aragon, our master, has
"a son by his wife Leonor, but he is separated
"from her by command of the Pope. He has,
therefore, ordered Aragon and Lerida' to take
"the oaths to that son. The death of men is in
the hands of God, and young men die as well
as old. This is the greatest difficulty our master
"has; he cannot take away his son's right as long
"as he lives. Were it not for that, know well that
"he would desire what you propose, and it would
please him much, for he knows how great love
"you show him."
CXLI.
Don Sancho then said he would deliberate on what
my messengers had told him. He took into council
Don Sancho Ferrandez de Montagut, En Guillen
Baldoni, who was then the most powerful man in
Tudela, the chief magistrate of that town (Justicia),
and others whose names I do not remember. And
this was his reply early in the morning of the
This Don Blasco was Don
Blasco Maça [d'Alagó], as shown
by Zurita, Anales, lib. iii. c. 11.
2 Lerida is here taken for the
Cortes of Catalonia, there held.
240 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
:
second day that it was a great thing for him, who
was so old, to stake himself against two persons
such as I and my son were; but for the great love he
had for me, and that I might help him against the
King of Castille, who did him wrong and deprived
him of his inheritance, he would agree to it, and
would put my son and myself together as one con-
joint person; so that if he died before me, his king-
dom and all his land should remain to, me, and if
that happened to us both, meaning me and my son,
Don Alfonso, then in that case my kingdom and my
lands should remain to him (King Sancho). He
would make his men swear to me, and I should
make mine swear to him, that such agreement and
the charters relating thereto should be observed.
Our nobles then came straight to me and told me
how the matter had been settled between them.'
CXLII.
When I heard this I and those who were with
me rejoiced much; and
• The document itself, printed
by Zurita, Anales, lib. iii. c. II,
and in the Archivo de Aragon,
t. vi. p. 102, does not reserve the
rights of Prince Alfonso under
this treaty of adoption or affilia-
tion. It was solemnly confirmed,
a few weeks afterwards, by many
of the leading nobles of Aragon
and Navarre, and by six deputies
(procuradores) of towns of each
although I from that
country, in the name of all the
others, and in that of the kingdom
of Aragon. I cannot find that
the estates of Catalonia were
bound by, or entered into, this
arrangement, which, therefore, in
the case of the King of Navarre's
surviving James and his son,
might have severed it from
Aragon.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 241
moment became bound to go to war with the King
of Castile, nevertheless the agreement was a good
thing for me for three reasons: one, because the
wrong the King of Castile did Don Sancho at the
time was very great; another, because, as he was
seventy-eight years old and set himself against us
two, my son and myself, each of whom could live
as long or longer than himself according to right
and nature, there was good reason indeed for my
taking that venture against him; the other, that
since the King of Castile wrongfully did him hurt,
and he made us his sons and heirs of all he had, I
might well take the engagement of going to war
and defending the lands of my father, since he had
affiliated me and my son.
CXLIII.
Thereon I went up to Don Sancho and found
with him two or three of his own barons, who had
newly arrived. I thanked him greatly for the
honour and love he had done me, and said that in
that wise, as the nobles had treated with him, I
would accept and act. I would assist him against
the King of Castile and against every one who
might wrongfully do him hurt and thereon a day
was appointed in three weeks' time, on which Don
Sancho should bring together all the nobles of
Navarre, the knights, and from each city ten men,
R
242
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
with consent of all the rest that what they did the
others would grant, confirm, and approve; and from
all the large towns likewise four men from each,
with the authority of all the rest that they would
grant whatever they might agree to. I would do
as much on my side: I would send for those of
Aragon, for the barons (richs homens), bishops, and
for all the others, as he himself sent for the
Navarrese; and when his people had done oath
and homage of lordship and fealty to me, mine
would do in that manner to him.
CXLIV.
On the appointed day I went to Tarazona and
entered Tudela, as he (Don Sancho) could not
leave it with my nobles and the men of the cities,
and I took homage and the oath of loyalty and
fealty from all the above said, that I, or the infante
Don Alfonso, my son, should be king of Navarre,
and our descendants for ever after him. In that
way I made the nobles and the deputies from the
cities, ten men from each, go into Tudela, also
those of my own realm, who were to make oath
and homage to him, as the Navarrese had done to
me; moreover I appointed a man to go through
Navarre and take the oath and homage of those
from whom I had not got it; he in like manner
did the same thing in my lands.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
243
CXLV.
Those things done, I and he held council together
as to how we should deal with the business of the
King of Castile there were four or five nobles on
his behalf and as many on ours, and there were
besides citizens of Saragossa on his behalf and on
mine. All swore, their hands on the Holy Gospels,
that they would keep the matter secret, and that
each should give his opinion as to what had better
be done. The Council, however, was adjourned till
next morning, for it got near night: great business.
is better discussed in the morning, when it can be,
than at any other time. After mass, early next
morning, all they who had been in secret council.
came to the King of Navarre and to me to say
what they had thought on the business that night.
For Solomon says in his Proverbs that night bears
counsel; and that they might the better think over
it all that night I gave them till the morning.
CXLVI.
When morning came I told the King of Navarre
to speak first, for he was older and knew more of
the matter than I did. He began his discourse
thus: "King, of the affairs of Spain I have great
"knowledge, for this, that I have seen and taken
R 2
244
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
part in the great things done in my time. There
was war once between the King of Castile and
my father, and by the mercy of God, whenever
our men met theirs, the Navarrese got good
esteem; but the odds were great, for they are
many and we are few; that did us hurt, though
by the grace of God, if we only have you for help,
"I am equal to them. And let us do thus: I will
help you right well and with all my heart, and
"do you help me as a son should do, for I hold you
"to be my son; if we help one another well, we
66
""
(6
will, with the aid of God, overcome them, for we
"are right and they are wrong." With that Don
Sancho ended his speech, and told me to speak next.
I said that his nobles knew more of the border than
I and my barons did; and so the word came to
Don Garcia Almoravit, for all the Navarrese said he
should speak first, and he said: "King of Aragon,
"the state of this land I will tell to you; they of
"Navarre who are here know it as well or better
"than I do, as to the hurt that Don Lope Diez of
Biscay does the king, for the hurt that he does
"the kingdom he does to the king; he does it
"with his own forces, which are very great, and
"the King of Castile has ordered his men to help
"him, if he need them. But since our Lord God
"has done us so great a good as to bring you
"and the King of Navarre so close together, we
"have hope in God that you two will bring it all to
""
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 245
"an end, and will do honour to the king and to you
"in such wise as will please all the world, seeing
"the great wrong done him." And they told Don
Sancho Fernandez de Montagut to speak, and he
said: "My lord king, what would you more? that
"which we hoped from the favour of God we have
"it now; if you two together will undertake that
work, the thing will come to a good end; what can
"man say more? Since you guide well your enter-
'prise, the king and you will bring the work to a
"
good end." Then I told the nobles and them
of the Town Councils, of whom there are many,
to speak; and they said with one voice: "What
"is said, we confirm it all. Don Garcia and Don
“Sancho have said that if you two together will
"take this affair in hand, the work will end to your
honour; we will serve you as best we can.” The
King of Navarre said, "You wished our nobles to
speak, now let yours speak." And Don Atho de
Foces said, "This we will say on behalf of the
"King of Aragon. Put before us what we are to
"serve you both in, and I will risk in it all you
"have given me; I will do what will keep my
lands in pawn for five years. Since we put our
"bodies in it, it were ill to lament for our goods."
And Don Blasco de Alagon said: " My lord, the
"nobles of Navarre say well, that if you two together
"strive to carry on the work well and stoutly,
"we all, you and we, will be of more account;
246 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"and since God has brought together your love and
"the king's, you together can do much if you will."
And thereon Don Rodrigo Liçana said: "Take
counsel, you and the King of Navarre; you have
"to consider those who serve you in this enter-
prise, for it is by the help of your good vassals
(homens de valor) that you and he have to win
"what we have spoken of, and to bring it to
"a happy ending." The King of Navarre said:
Speak you, King of Aragon." And
And I said :
66
((
That I will do."
CXLVII.
"Well do you know, king, that when the hour of
"death comes we kings take from this world nothing
"but a shroud apiece, which is indeed of better
"cloth than those of other people; but this only
remains to us from the great power we once had,
that we can serve God with it, and leave behind
a good name for the good deeds we did. If in
((
this world we do not do them, there will come
"no other time in which we can. If you please, I
"will show you how you can conquer in this war, it
"will be in this wise: It is true that I have three
((
((
or four times more people than you, but you have
more money than I have, and more bread, and
"more of other things good in war. I propose to
"(
you that I should have two thousand knights, and
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 247
1
"that you should have one thousand.
((
In your land
you can raise them, between knights and men
"of birth, who know well how to manage horse
"and armour. And do you send to your cousin,
"the Count of Champagne, to come to you, and ask
"him to help you with a thousand more knights;
"he can well find them. And if peradventure the
((
""
Count of Champagne, when he hears of the treaty
"between us,' is unwilling to help you, do you alone
"raise two thousand knights, for by God's grace you
"have wherewith to pay them; money is no good
"to any man if it be not used; and in what can
you use it so well as in revenging the affronts
"the King of Castile has done to your father and
yourself? For that deed you will be honoured
"and will die honoured, whenever you and I shall
“die. And I will tell you how it will go. If we
"have four thousand knights by birth, and go into
"Castile, the Castilians are proud and presump-
"tuous people, and will fight us; nothing will
prevent a battle. By God's help we will gain it,
for we are in the right and they are in the wrong;
"and when we have beaten them in the field, as
"the villages of Castile are all without ditch and
(6
wall, we will get into them as into an open place;
"we will sack them, and our men will gain so
((
much, that they who are not with us will come
"for the gain we get, and will be with us."
¹ Disinheriting him.
248 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CXLVIII.
Thereupon King Sancho answered me very
fiercely and very angrily, and told me to manage
my affairs in my own way, and he would manage
his in his way.
When I heard his answer it
grieved me much. I told him that he ought to
have taken well all I had said to him, for I had
advised him to nothing but for his honour, and
that he might recover what he had lost. His
people, however, dared not say anything to him or
contradict him in anything, so that I addressed
myself to Don Sancho Fernandez, and said: "Don
"Sancho Fernandez, you do ill in not speaking the
'truth to your lord." And he replied: "It is for
you to do what you have here offered to the king,
and if God pleases it will turn to your honour and
'profit." As the agreement was between me and
King Sancho, I did not wish to contradict Don
Sancho, and so put off my reply till the next day,
saying: "To-morrow morning I shall speak about
that;" and so I left King Sancho, as I saw he was
vexed.
((
""
((
CXLIX.
Next day I saw King Sancho again, and asked
him to lend me a hundred thousand sous. He said
he would do it if I gave him security. So it was
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 249
agreed between him and me that I should deliver
to him Ferrera, Ferreylo, Penaredona, and La
Faxina, and that he would make the loan. I said
it pleased me well; and it was agreed that I should
furnish at Easter a thousand knights, and before
Michaelmas another thousand, and that he would
so behave towards me that I should thank him for
it,' and that he would besides furnish the other
thousand; and we separated on that understanding.
So Easter came, when I was to meet him. Other
affairs came on me, so that I had to cross at that
time to Mallorca; and to put off seeing him for
two months that I could not go to meet him.
When I did come he was minded to throw blame on
me. Before I met him there came to me a knight,
who had been full twenty-one years with him,
and who was also a friend of mine, named Pedro
Xemeniz de Valterre, who said: "Now, look what
"you will do, for the King of Navarre throws on
you the blame of your not coming at the time
66
<<
you undertook to do." I said to Don Pedro
Xemeniz: "I thank you much for letting me know
that;" and next day we met, I said to the
king: "I have come to see you; and I pray
((
you not to take it ill that I did not come on
"the day fixed, because I had to do things for
"the good of this very business of ours and that I
The meaning seems to be,
that the King of Navarre was to
treat the 2,000 Aragonese knights
so as to please their king.
250 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
(6
(6
might help you better." He said:
He said: "That may
be; but why did you not keep to the appointment
and the day?" I said to him: "It is better as
"it is, both for you and for me; you should not
regret it."
<<
CL.
"Now show me," said he, "how it is better, and
"I shall understand." And I said to him: " By
"this delay I have gained two hundred knights,
"whom you will have to help you. But now tell
"me, have you yourself made ready your thousand
knights? I do not find in all Navarre more than
"three hundred knights equipped and ready, whilst
"I have with me a thousand. And if you, whose
"concern it is, have not got ready, nor given any-
((
thing towards it, how can you blame me who have
'actually got the thousand knights under arms?
"for if you want them, there they are at your
"service; we will at once declare war on the King
"of Castile if you will only furnish the other
"thousand." Thereupon the King of Navarre said
that he would consider of it, and I went away.
As
I was going down from the castle of Tudela, I met
a retainer of Don Garcia Almoravit, who was taking
a message from his lord and from Juan Perez de
Basca,' on the borders of Castile, to the king.
My lord," said he to me, "I came here with a
((
I
· Another copy, Basta.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 251
((
message to the King of Navarre, and I have now
"been here good four days without being able to
"see him.” I said to him: "What message do you
bring?" He said: “So God help me. my lord, I
"will tell you; you stand so well with the king that
"I will not keep it from you. The nobles send to
"tell the king that if he would only send them two
"hundred knights, they would beat Don Lope
Diez of Biscay, and conquer in this war; there
is no doubt of that." I told the man that I myself
would deliver the message to the king; I could
not do it then, as I had just left the castle, but
would willingly tell him so at vespers.
((
CLI.
I accordingly returned in the evening to the
king, and said to him: "King, why do you act
"so? There is a knight at the gate who comes
"from Don Garcia Almoravit and from those of
(6
your household who are on the border; he says
"that for four or five days he has been unable to
"" see you.
I will tell you his message; he brings
good news." He said: "What news does he
bring?" I said: "In good sooth I will tell you;
"but do not say that I disclosed it. He says that
"with two hundred knights, whom you can find
"and send to the border, they would conquer
Don Lope Diez; and if Don Lope Diez were
252 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"but conquered, your war would be at an end.
"Make the man himself come in to see you and
Do you
((
explain." He said: "Let me tell you.
(( 'not know what that is? All the nobles deal
falsely with me, and wish only to extract money
from me." I said
I said: "They do not ask for money, all
("
they ask is two hundred knights, and do you send
"them those. What will you lose, while you can
((
gain great honour? Peradventure you will never
"have such a chance as now you have. I would
("
willingly go myself with sixty knights I have
"here with me, but that I have not yet declared
'war on the King of Castile; but I will find some
""
way of evading that. Do you proclaim a summons
"to arms in the town, and I will order my men
"to follow those you name as chiefs, and will give
"them rations for eight days, and they will do
"what you order."
And he said: "It is not your
business." I And when I saw that he had no
concern about his own business I was silent, and
said to myself, "I have done all I could do."
CLII.
When I saw that he did nothing more in the
matter, I went to my house and said to my barons :
"See you how it is with us?" and I then told
them what had been said. Don Blasco said to me:
"Nous ha de veer."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 253
"My lord, since the king has no care for his
(6
((
affairs, why should you have more than he? Do
you to-morrow take leave of him, and tell him
"that when he requires you he will find you in
"readiness, if only he will perform what he has
undertaken towards you.' I and all the rest
said: "Don Blasco says well, and so will I do."
When morning came I went up to the castle, and
told the king that on his performing what he had
promised he would find me in readiness with the
two thousand knights, according to agreement ;
that it lay with him, and not with me.
one day there, and then went away.
CLIII.
I remained
And when I was out of Tudela and had got to
Tahuste, I determined, since the king did nothing
well for himself or for me, to go into the Moors'
country and take Burriana. I fixed a day for my
people to meet me at Teruel in the beginning of
May, that is the barons (richs homens), the Master of
the Temple, the Master of the Hospital, and such
of the knights of Uclés and Calatrava who happened
to be in my dominions.' But not one of these
came on the day appointed for them to Teruel. But
there came, however, the Bishop of Zaragoza, named
That is, the knights in King
James's territories of the Castilian
Orders of Calatrava and Santiago.
Uclés was the seat of the last
named. That of Montesa, which
was purely Aragonese, was not
founded till 1317.
254 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
En Berenguer de Montagut, Don Pedro Ferrandes
de Açagra, and men of my own household, with
Don Ximen Perez Darenós, also of our house-
hold. I thus made up a hundred and twenty
knights, besides the townsmen of Teruel. On
the third day after leaving Teruel, I was about to
take up my quarters at Exerica, when from seven
to eight hundred Moors came out of the town. I
dared not quarter my army in the plain where the
castle stands, for the Moors hindered our approach
and defended themselves with crossbows and lances,
in the fields close to us. Thereon that same night
I resolved to lay waste the country beyond the
castle, towards Viver, leaving behind me thirty
horse in armour, besides all those who remained in
the tents, fully a thousand men, and with the rest
of my force lay waste the surrounding country;
and so I did. The Moors perceiving the horse in
armour, would not venture out. Next day I lay
waste below the town as I had done above it,
leaving the horse in armour at the tents.
CLIV.
As I came in from the foray there came to me
En Ramon Çamenla, knight commander of Aliaga,
1 Conseyl, in Spanish Concejo,
properly speaking the Munici-
pality; but in the present and
other instances the word is meant
to designate the militia or force
furnished by the towns of Castile
(milicia concejil) in the war
against the Moors.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 255
((
and another knight of the Temple, also a com-
mander, whose name I do not recollect at this
moment. Both entered the camp on horseback,
lightly armed,' but lance in hand, and came to me.
I sent for the bishop, the nobles, the townsmen of
Teruel, and others of my train, and they spoke
thus: "My lord, the Masters of the Temple and
"of the Hospital, the commander of Alcaniç, who is
"here with all the townsmen of Alcanic and Mon-
talbá, salute you; they say that they have got as
"far as the hill of Pascuas, two miles on this side
of Murviedro, and have been there for two days
according to orders, and have harried the valley
"of Segon. Now they are sending you a message
"and pray you to go to them quickly, else they will
"be unable to stay there, for they are few, and
"the power of Valencia, which is great, is coming
down upon them." I answered, "I will consider
it ;" and they left the tent saying plainly, that unless
I went to the assistance of my people, they would
all come away.
((
((
CLV.
I then held a council, and all those present said,
It were well to succour them and
succour them and go there."
With that answer the messengers went away.
Then I said to my councillors: "What then is to
"be done with these fine wheat-fields before us?
· Alforrats—without armour (?).
256 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"Are we not to lay them waste? And are the
"Saracens to keep us from them by force of arms?
"Let us send message to the knights to beg them
"to wait a day for us; next day we will be with
"them; I will tell you how we can in the meantime
""
""
destroy these corn-fields." "So help us, God!"
said all with one voice, "it were well not to go
"hence before destroying the fields, but how can
that be done?" "I will tell you," said I; “I
was never before on this frontier, but it seems to
'me as if these Saracens understood arms and
I were masters in them. Now there is a certain
"
66
way of using arms which becomes a custom; and
"with whatever skill one may attack, if the enemy
"knows well how to abide it he will surely be
"beaten. This shall be our way; we carry only
"lances, and the Saracens have lances and cross-
"(
""
((
bows; yet we are faster than they. I will tell
'you how to destroy their fields without their
being able to help it. Let us put twenty horse in
"armour in the upper road, and twenty more in
"the road below; we will give the shields to the
esquires; the crossbowmen shall go behind the
esquires, and the men who are to cut down the
'wheat will be just behind the crossbowmen."
was done as I proposed. Next day the crops were
destroyed, for the Moors knowing that if they
came to fight in their defence, the meeting would
be to our advantage and to their loss, dared not
(6
""
It
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 257
stir, and in this manner we wasted the whole of two
districts. Next day early we took up quarters at
Torres Torres, where we laid the country waste,
after which a message was sent to the masters and
to the others to say that we were coming.
CLVI.
Next day after mass we started for the valley of
Segon, where we met the masters of the Temple
and of the Hospital, the commanders of Alcaniç
and of Montalbá, and all together we went to lay
siege to Burriana. The siege of Burriana began
in the middle of May, when we made a "fonevol"
and a "manganel" to batter its walls with. The
Saracens in the place sallied out sometimes to
skirmish. When they saw that we had sheep and
cattle near their town, they came out-sometimes
a hundred footmen and sometimes seven horse-
men-which was all the force they had inside.
Before the sally, they generally posted crossbowmen
to shoot at our men if they should approach the
gate. At times they were successful, got some
of the cattle, and took it in; at other times our
people got possession of theirs. I, therefore, for-
bade the men to pasture cattle and sheep between
the camp and the town. One day, however, seven
of our mules and pack-horses (atzembles), though I
do not remember to what company of the army they
S
258 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
belonged, happened to be grazing in front of the
town. The Moors of Burriana saw them, and the
seven horsemen came out of the gate on the
Valencia side to try and get at them. At that time
a knight, named Guillen Dasin,' of the train of Don
Blasco de Alagon, was guarding the pasture with his
men, in his pourpoint, with his horse and an esquire
who had his arms. When he saw the Moors come.
out he armed himself, put on his iron cap and
went against the Moors, who were actually driving
away the beasts.
Had he been willing to attack
the enemy and recover the mules he might easily
have done so, for the army was coming up to
help him; but his heart was not stout enough for
him to set on the Moors, so they got four of the
beasts into the town, and the other two (sic)
returned to the camp.
2
CLVII.
Now I will name the nobles who were with the
army; first there was my uncle Don Fernando,
the Bishop of Lerida, En Berenguer de Aril of
Tortosa, the Master of the Temple, the Master
of the Hospital. There were also Don Blasco de
Alagó, and En G. de Cervera, lord that was of
Juneda, En. G. de Cardona, the brother of En R.
Folch; and there were Don Rodrigo Liçana, Dón
1 G. Dasi, or Dafin.
2 An error probably; the edi-
tion of 1515 adds, the Master of
Tortosa.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 259
Pedro Fernandez de Açagra, Lord of Albarracin,
Don Exemen de Urrea, Don Blasco Maça, Don
Pedro Corneyl, En Berenguer Guillem, father of
the present lord and an uncle of mine; the Prior
of Santa Christina, the commanders of Alcaniç
and Montalbá, the townsmen of Daroca and of
Teruel. Those of Zaragoza were on their way,
but Burriana was taken before they arrived.
There came also to me a master workman of
Albanguena, named Nicoloso, who made Our
trebuchet" at Mallorca, and he said: "Miçer,
you need not stay long here to take this place if
you do not wish; you can have it if
you like
"in a fortnight." I asked in what way? He said,
"Give me timber; there is plenty here of the lote
66
((
(6
I
tree,² and other kinds; and in eight days I will
"build for you a castle of wood, and I will make
"it move on wheels up to the place, as you know
"I made the 'trebuchets' move up at Mallorca."
I told him that he spoke well; but that I must
first hold council on it with my barons.
CLVIII.
I, therefore, sent for Don Fernando, the bishops
and the barons to come to me, and said: "Here
I Some men from Marseilles
were named as making a trebuchet
at Mallorca : "Nicoloso " ad-
dresses the king with the French
word "Miçer!" Can Albanguena,
elsewhere written Dalbenguena,
be meant for Auvergne?
2 Lladoner: the nettle or lote
tree Celtis australis.
S 2
260 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
((
"is a master-workman, who was with us at the
"siege of Mallorca, and made our ‘trebuchet’
there. He says that he can make a castle of
"wood in eight days, with which we can take
Burriana." I then told them that I had already
seen such a thing, and knew for certain that if it
were made, the town would soon be taken. They
asked, how could that be made? I said, "That I
"know well; but let us send for the man, and he
"himself will explain." While the man was coming,
I described to them the way it was made, as I
had seen at Mallorca: "the wooden castle (said I)
"will have two supports on each side, which will
"make four, besides two more in front of each
"(at the back and in front), to steady the other
four. There will be two platforms, one half way
"up the castle and the other on the top. The
upper platform will hold a number of men, one-
"half crossbowmen, the other half slingers, to fling
"stones at the Saracens manning the wall. The
"wall-towers will thus be thrown down, and the
((
((
I
Christians then will scale them. The Moors will
"not be able to defend them owing to the cross-
"bows and stones from the wooden castle. In this
manner shall the town be taken.”
The original reads thus: "Lo
"castell de fust havra ii vases de
"cada una part, e seran iiii menys
"de ii altres quen havra en la fron-
66 tera da cada una part denant
"e detras, e aquels fermaran los
"vases." I cannot say that I have
understood the passage and trans-
lated it right. The Spanish ver-
sion is about the same.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 261
66
((
CLIX.
Then the master workman himself came, and
told it to them in the same way I had told it.
All said that he must make the castle, and that
I should see that he made it and was provided
with all he wanted. Workmen were hired in the
camp; timber was cut down and brought to the
place, and the castle was built. All that time the
fonevol" did not cease throwing big stones into
the town. On the other hand, two very powerful
algarradas," which the besieged had, were shoot-
ing at the "fonevol"; but this was well covered
with hurdles, and stood lower than the "algarradas,"
besides, when the "fonevol" began to throw, the
algarradas" left off throwing, from fear of it.
When the wooden castle was made, we had full
a hundred sleepers for ways ready, well greased
and prepared. The master-workman fixed two
anchors in the ground under cover of a mantlet of
hurdles pushed forward, and fixed near the side
of the ditch by men with shields and in armour.
The points of the anchors were next driven
into the ground by mallets; through the ring of
each anchor large stakes and irons were driven
in by mallets; to these we fastened the ways on
((
I
¹ A word seems wanting in the
original; indeed, the whole pas-
sage is a very confused explana-
tion of the mechanism employed,
and my version may be wrong
on some points.
262 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
The master
which the wooden castle should move.
told us to have men to draw it next morning,
that he would show how it should go.
CLX.
At sunrise I mounted and rode to that part of
the camp occupied by the people of Daroca and
Teruel, to ask them to send me each two hundred
men. They sent them immediately, and I said,
Master, are you ready?" He said he would
be ready immediately; he had to fix the ropes for
working the ways. I said, “Master, by my advice
((
((
"
(C
you would delay moving the castle for two whole
He said, "Why, Miçer?" "For this
'days."
reason," said I.
"radas; if they
66
"The enemy has two 'algar-
work them against the wooden
castle, it has no screen, and they are sure to hit
"it as they would a board." He said, "Please
616
66
you let it go; if there were ten 'algarradas,' the
castle would not care more for them than for a
"If you like, I
"could very well in the course of to-day put up
"defences to it; I could send many carriers to the
"sea to bring the warps and cables of the ships;
piece of cheese." Yet I said, "If
((
thirty of them would be enough; I could easily
"put beams of timber on the top of the wooden
(6
castle, standing out a fathom; I then would tie
"the ropes to these and let them hang down, and
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 263
1
)))
they would most efficiently parry the blows of
"the 'algarradas.' He said, "Miçer, it is un-
necessary; this is not a time for such niceties."
I said, "You know best of this matter; I will not
oppose you in what think right."
you
(6
CLXI.
I then set to work, ordering men to pull at the
ropes; I called out Ayós," as sailors do, when
they launch a ship, or haul her in; and I thus moved
the castle. But when it had gone some way in
that manner, it stopped, for the supports (wheels)
could not move; arrows came down on us, and
wounded four of our people at the very beginning.
I had on my pourpoint and my "gonyo" at the
time; my iron helmet on my head, and a shield
with which I covered myself; there were besides full
twenty men with shields shielding those who were
pulling at the ropes. I kept them so close together
that I did not allow the wounded even to leave the
ropes, but made them sit down under cover, and
then had their wounds looked to secretly. Eight
or ten of them were wounded, for I could not cover
them so as to prevent arrows passing between the
shields the men were holding. When the wooden
castle had moved half the distance it had to go, the
master-workman said to me: "Send these men
away, for they are no good at all, and they do
264 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
66
(C
I
great harm; I will manage so that (?) in the
morning all will be set right. If you will give
me picked soldiers, experienced men, who will
obey my orders quietly, matters will be mended.”
I told him that he was right, and so left him. No
one ever drank so much in a day as I then did;
I swallowed two great cups of wine and water
before dinner, and then dined.
CLXII.
And in that business no one helped or offered
to help me. No sooner did I go to my dinner
than the "fonevol" left off working, and then the
Saracens set to work the best of their "algarradas"
and struck [the castle] ten times before I had
done eating. That grieved me so much that had
one struck me ten blows in the side he would not
have hurt me so much as did each blow aimed
at the wooden castle while I was eating my
dinner. I sent for the master-workman to come
to me as soon as he had done his dinner, and when
he came, said to him: "Would it not have been
This expresses what must be
the sense the words of the
edition of 1557 are "E yo aguisar
"los he en tal manya ques guar-
daran abreada denant si tro-
baran"; those of the edition
of 1515 are "e yo aguiar lo he
en tal manera que esguardaran
abrcada denant siltrobaran ;
66
"
both editions, though made upon
the same MS., have "abreada,"
a word of unknown, or no, mean-
ing at all. The modern one
gives e jo aguisar lo he en tal
manera que quan se guardaran
"al alba denant si lo trobaran,”
which is in part more intelli-
gible.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 265
"better to do what I told you, and follow my
"advice? Now it is too late." I could not at
that hour get men to go and draw it back to a
place where it might be repaired; so I left it
exposed all that night; and the "algarradas" did
not cease throwing stones at the castle, hitting it
more than a hundred times.
CLXIII.
When day came I saw very plainly that the
castle would be completely destroyed if it remained
where it was; so I sent word to the master-work-
man before dawn to have ropes put into the rings
so that we might in the early morning draw it
back. All my own retainers were armed, and at
morning, before the sun was up, I had the castle
drawn back towards the camp, and so far off that
the "algarradas" of the enemy could no longer
reach it. I and the rest of my people plainly saw
that the castle could be of no use, for the blows
of the "algarradas" had greatly injured it, and so
it was given up; and thereafter we would not
employ again that device of a castle. Then I, the
bishops and the barons, resolved that our "fonevol"
should batter, and that mines should be made, and
that there should be no change from that; so the
"fonevol" and the "manganel" battered, and we
had mines made.
266 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CLXIV.
And at that time there came on that coast two
galleys from Tarragona, one of Bernard of Santa
Eugenia, the other of Pedro Martell. I myself had
no galley at the time, and I was much afraid that
the King of Valencia might fit out two or three of
his galleys, and stop the provisions that came from
Tarragona and Tortosa; sailors and others well
acquainted with sea affairs advised me to keep those
two Tarragona galleys, and not on any account let
them go. I therefore went to the tent of the Master
of the Temple, sent for the owners of the galleys,
and entreated them in every wise, since the gal-
leys were on the coast, to keep them where they
were, and that I would willingly give what it had
cost to fit them out, and yet much more. They said
the galleys had cost them a great deal, and begged
me to let them go and not lose what they had spent.
on them. I said to the masters: "En Bernard,
66
you are a man of such repute, and you, En Pedro
"Martell, a man of such consideration in your own
town, that you should regard in every way my
'honour; why then should you wish me to leave
"this place and not take it? to say nothing of the
shame and hurt that I and all my army would
"endure. I have fought and destroyed in Aragon
((
and Catalonia all those who rose against me; I
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
267
"have conquered the county of Urgell and the
"kingdom of Mallorca; this is the first town in that
"of Valencia I have besieged; and raise the siege
"I certainly will not. I would have to raise it if I
"could not get food; therefore I pray you for God's
"sake, and as you are my born subjects, not to do
"me so great harm and so great dishonour."
CLXV.
They said they would consider of it, and while
they were deliberating messengers went backwards
and forwards between me and them; and it came to
this, that it would cost me sixty thousand sols to be
paid to them on the other side. I told them that I
would willingly give them the sixty thousand sols,
but if they asked me to pay them there it could not
be done. I could not at that time have paid down
one thousand sols unless some one did lend them to
me, or unless I put in pawn horses or other things.
That was not the time to do that, and therefore I
offered to find securities. They replied that for
nothing in the world would they accept security
unless that of the Masters of the Temple and of
the Hospital were given, and I accordingly asked
them to become such securities. The Master of the
Hospital at once said: "Guarantee me, and I will
go into it." But the Master of the Temple, named
R. Patot, said that he was not in the habit of
268 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES of Aragon.
And he said to
becoming surety for a king or for any one else; so
we parted for the time. The Master of the Hospital
then said: "I will speak to the Master of the
Temple and see what I can do."
him, "Why do we not do this? give that security
"for the King, and let him give us a confirmation.
"of all the charters and privileges we hold from his
(6
predecessors, and that will be better for us than if
"he gave us a hundred thousand sols." The Master
of the Temple said he would consult with his
brethren; the brethren advised him to do it, and
then he said he would. The Master of the Hospi-
tal then came to me and said: "Would you thank
the man who got this business done ?" Yes," said
I. "It can be done in this way," said the Master,
"that you make a fresh charter comfirming all those
<<
privileges we hold from your predecessors, and then
"we will do what you want." I said, "Know,
Master, that we will not do that; you ask for too
great a concession." What the Devil," said the
Master, "you are a strange man, to say, Yes, I will,
and then not do it." And I said, "Since you put
"it in that way I will do it, but it would be well to
"hear a third person in this business; I am a King,
"and you are the Master of the Order of the
Hospital." He replied, "If you bring another
"person into it all will be in vain; you and I are
(6
quite enough. If the Master of the Temple and
"his brethren knew, they would withdraw from the
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 269
6(
agreement and do nothing.." Then I said, “So
"be it; but remember if it ever comes elsewhere
"what agreement I made with you."
CLXVI.
Thus was the matter arranged. I sent for En
Bernard de Santa Eugenia and En Pedro Martell,
and gave them the security of the said Masters.
I kept the galleys in my service, and supplies
reached us by sea so fast and continuously, since it
was known that I had galleys, that there was plenty
of food in the camp. Then my uncle Don Fernando
sent me word that he and some of the nobles
wished next morning to confer with me; I
assented, and next morning he came to my tent.
There were besides him Don Blasco de Alagon,
Don Exemen de Urrea, Don Rodrigo Liçana, and
Don Blasco Maça; they all kept from the bishops and
from the nobles of Catalonia what they were going
to say. Only Don Exemen Perez of Tarazona and
the Justicia of Aragon claimed to be present, for
they were of my household. They empowered Don
Blasco de Alagon to speak for them, and he began
This passage is obscure; all
editions agree in giving the con-
cluding paragraph as follows:
(6 mas membreus que si venia en
"altre loch, queus membras que
("
aço avia feyt ab vos." The
Spanish translators think this
means "wherever we may be, you
"should remember that it was
"only you that helped us in such
(6
a business." I cannot guess
why the Master of the Hospital
preferred, and thought the Tem-
plars would likewise prefer, an
oral bargain between the king
and him to a formal document,
at that time at least but so it
seems.
270 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
thus" My lord, Don Fernando and I came here
((
to serve you in this siege you have laid to Bur-
riana; it is a fact that kings often undertake and
'attempt many things, as you have undertaken to
"besiege this place; but kings cannot perform as
"they would wish all they undertake, for if all that
((
you kings wish were done all the lands in the world
"would be yours. Now we see great difficulty in this
enterprise of Burriana; you cannot keep together
"the men of the towns, as they want to go home.
and get in their crops, and the nobles besides have
"no food. We should not like to have to tell you
"that there is no food in the camp, and that we
(C
shall be obliged to go away one after another and
leave you here almost alone, so that you would come
"to grief and shame. If it please you, we can so
manage matters that you get great gain; and thus
another time, when you have made better arrange-
"ments, you will be able to take the place, if God
"be pleased. We will help you now so that Zeit
give you so much treasure from what he has that
66
you may amply repay yourself and your barons of
"the expense you have been at in coming and
staying here."
CLXVII.
And I asked Don Fernando: "Don Fernando,
"and you other barons who are here, do you think
"I should act thus ?" Don Fernando said, "On my
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 271
"faith, my lord, it so seems to us, owing to the
((
difficulty under which Don Blasco has said that
"you and all of us are; we would not that you
"should come to shame, because certainly men will
"be obliged to leave you for want of food." I
immediately answered him, that it did not seem to
me as if I should give heed to such a counsel as
that; and I said to him this: "We answer you in
"this wise; the Lord has done to me much good
"and much grace in my youth, and by His favour
"everything I have undertaken has been brought
"to a successful end. In my youth I conquered a
kingdom across the sea; I am now in the kingdom
"of Valencia for the first time; and now that I have
"laid siege to such a petty place as this, not bigger
"than a farmyard, you wish me to give it up! Do
"not believe I will do such a thing. Rather I pray
66
you and command you, by my sovereign rights
"over you, to help me to take it and give me no
"such counsel; I would never return to Aragon and
"Catalonia with such great shame upon me as there
"would be if I did not take such a town as this."
CLXVIII.
After vespers I went outside the camp, and sent
for Don Exemen Perez de Tarazona and for the
Justicia of Aragon; they were brothers, and the
Justicia was the elder. The other was the more
prudent, and more to be relied upon for firmness and
រ
272 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
for everything else, only that the Justicia of Aragon
knew more of the laws of that kingdom, for he often,
nay, constantly, gave judgments according to them.
I said to them, "I sent for you for this reason, because
"my father and I made you what you are, and for
my misfortune and the misfortune of my subjects, I
"cannot disclose myself to any one in the army as
'I shall to you two. This morning Don Fernando
"and the nobles of Aragon called me to a council,
"and they came before me, and before you, Don
"Exemen Perez, who heard their words; they said
to me many things to discourage me from taking
"this place of Burriana; they offered me treasure in
quantity, which, they said, the King of Valencia,
"he who is called Zeit, would willingly give if I
"would raise the siege of Burriana. I believe that
they were to have a good share of the treasure, as
(C
much perhaps as they offered to me. When I
"heard those words, I said they were very hard
"and unfit for me to listen to; I ordered them
"not to say them, for it was what I would not for
anything in the world do, on account of the
66
66
great affront it would be for me to raise this
"siege." Nor could I refrain from weeping for the
great harm they were trying to bring on me, since
they preferred the King of Valencia's treasure to
saving my honour and the fidelity they owed me.
And when they saw me weep, they likewise began
to weep.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
273
<<
CLXIX.
The Justicia replied, "What then, my lord, will
you do with such men as these, who, when you
"least think of it, will leave you here alone; and
"what will you do in return for those who will not
"desert you till death?" And Don Exemen Perez
said, "My lord and master, you must reflect that
"you are surrounded by unloyal and false people; I
"wish I were dead, confessed, and absolved, rather
"than see the evil things your men do to you. I
"have here fifteen mounted retainers with me, and
I believe that I can keep more than a hundred of
"them in the camp who will not desert you; do
you consider what to do.
Our Lord will help you
((
"(
'to take this town of Burriana. The Justicia
then added, 'Don Exemen Perez, you are my
"brother, and you speak right well; but the king
"cannot be fitly accompanied by a hundred nor by
"two hundred knights, having penetrated so far in the
66
kingdom of Valencia as he has." Thereupon I
told them: "Do you wish me to speak the truth?
"Believe me, I would rather be hit by an arrow, so
"it was not to death, and justify myself towards my
people, than that they might say that I only raised
"the siege for the wound I had; but I will tell
you what I will do. I will send in the morning for
"the bishops and for the barons who are here of
"Catalonia, and for Don Bernard Guillem, who will
T
274 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
certainly do what I command him, and for the good
men of the towns who are here, and will beseech
"them as earnestly as I know, and am able to
(C
do, to stay with me till God give me Burriana, and
"I believe that they will grant me that. And when
"the rest shall know that I am aware of the false
"advice they gave me, and that these nobles offer
"to stay with me, they will not dare go away; and
"thus will I take Burriana in despite of the Devil
“and of the bad men who give me such bad advice.”
CLXX.
Then I did this. I sent for the barons and told
them what my idea was. When they had heard me,
the bishops first, and then the barons afterwards,
said that the advice was unfit, and that those who
gave it counselled ill; since I had come so far, they
would willingly help me with all their might to take
Burriana from the Saracens. They would act in such
wise that I should know that nothing was wanting in
them to support the burthens of the war, and help
us with good will. When that was done, there came
to me Don Bernard Guillem, and said, "My lord,
(C
you now see that the advice to raise this siege
"was not a good one to follow; I pray you grant
"me this, that the militia of the towns make three
"hundred hurdles, which I with my retainers will
place near the moat; do you give orders to your
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 275
"men to succour as if the Moors made a sally,
"for certainly we should be badly succoured by the
"others. I will be there night and day, and will
"not leave the spot until God give us Burriana
"and I myself can dine within the castle; and
"besides that, do you order your men to come at
"night in turns to help and succour me."
CLXXI.
I answered, that I gave him great thanks, and
understood well that he would again do me service.
I then sent for Don Exemen Perez de Tarazona,
and told him what En Bernard Guillem de Entença
had proposed and asked. He said it was the
offer of a good vassal, clearly showing that
he was my faithful born subject. Don Exemen
then prayed me to allow him to make part of the
relieving force, and asked as a grace that Don
Bernard Guillem himself should lead the under-
taking. And when they of the
camp, that is
siege, knew of
those who wished me to raise the
this, it grieved them much, as I heard those say
who had occasion to talk to them. As soon as
Don Bernard Guillem had his hurdles ready, he
made his knights and esquires in armour carry
them to the place where they were to stand, near
the moat. And when he had got ready the
mantlets which a master workman made for him,
T 2
276 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
he put them on the hurdles, and did not leave them
by day or night; indeed he ate his meals there,
and would not go into the camp. Nor did Don
Exemen Perez with his men leave him by day
or night, but each set of men took up the work
by turns, at different hours, so as best to bear
the burthen amongst them.
CLXXII.
One night, between the first sleep and midnight,
the Saracens, carrying fire-torches in their hands,
sallied out against the mantlet of En Bernard
Guillem de Entença, where the hurdles stood.
There were fully two hundred of the enemy, and
others were on the walls with two-footed crossbows
ready to shoot at those who came to protect the
hurdles. The cry arose in the camp,
"To arms!
"to arms! the Saracens have made a sally against
"En Bernard Guillem's hurdles." I heard the
noise, and they who lay beside me in my tent
asked if they should saddle the horses.
I said,
"Not by any means, but let each of you go to
"the spot on foot as fast as he can." Meantime,
I at once put on my quilted coat (perpunte) over
my shirt-I did not wait to put on the "gonella
and with some ten who lay beside me, with shields
on our arms,
arms, and iron caps on our heads,
ran to the hurdles where Don Bernard Guillem
"}
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 277
was. I asked on my arrival, "What is the matter,
"Don Bernard Guillem? and how goes it with
((
you?" He said,
He said, "My lord, well and fairly; lo!
"the Moors here tried to set fire to the hurdles,
"but by the grace of God we have defended
"them well."
""
CLXXIII.
Then one of the esquires said to me, "My
lord, Don Bernard Guillem is wounded by
"an arrow in the leg." I said,
"Let us get
"lint from the camp, draw out the arrow and
"dress the wound." I myself took lint, dipped it
in water, and put it to the wound; I then bound
it
up with a piece of the shirt of an esquire who
was there.
And when the wound was bound up
"(
I asked Don Bernard to go to the camp, for I
myself would remain and take care of the hurdles
till he was better. And he said, My lord, I
"will not do that, I shall get on here as well as,
"or better than in the camp." No baron but
me would assist Don Bernard; I saw that, and
said to him, "Courage, Don Bernard! bear it like
a man."
CLXXIV.
Meantime I set up some of the hurdles that
had been made in the camp. On the left, where
Don Bernard Guillem de Entença was stationed,
278 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I had two mantlets made, and every night knights
and esquires on foot came to watch the "fonevol."
I placed the mantlets there that they might be
nearer to Don Bernard Guillem. One Friday, after
dinner, my men sent me word that the mantlets
had been left without guards, and that I ought to
send a company to guard them. I immediately put
on a quilted coat (perpunte), and an iron cap, and
sword in hand, with eight knights' equipped in the
same fashion, went to the hurdles. I had previously
sent there a mattress and a bolster. As I lay
thus with my quilted coat (perpunte) unlaced, the
Saracens saw that the camp was asleep; they
knew that my pennon was there, and that I myself
must be in my tent. They therefore made a sally,
with fully forty men with shields, and up to a
hundred and seventy more in all. On the wall
and on the barbican the Saracens had cross-
bows ready, and the others brought fire with
them. There were two esquires at two of the
hurdles on the look-out against the
when they saw the enemy they said,
to arms! lo! here are the Saracens!"
instantly and put on their iron caps; I myself had
brought a sword from Monzon called Tizo,' which
was a very good one and lucky to those who
handled it. I would rather use it than a lance, and
I Tizó, probably from Tizona,
which was the name of a cele-
town, and
"To arms!
All got up
brated sword belonging to the
Cid.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 279
therefore gave mine to an esquire who attended
me. When my people in the camp heard the
noise, all went out accoutred as I was; the Sara-
cens left two torches fully burning near the hurdles
a little in front of us. We drove them before
us; they turned their backs and fled till in the
direction of the barbican into which we actually
drove them. We saw that we could not reach
them, for they were quicker than we, for they did
not carry either breast-plates (gonios), or quilted
coats (perpuntes); they had only shields and lances,
and so they got into the barbican, the other Sara-
cens defending them by throwing stones from the
wall. Seeing that we could not do them harm,
and that we might receive it ourselves, we returned
to the camp protecting ourselves by our shields.
And believe me, reader, when I say this to be
truth, that twice did I uncover my whole body
that the Saracens might wound me, so that, if I
had to raise the siege, I could say that it was my
wound that made me raise it. But our Lord Jesus
Christ knows how things should be and should
be done. He makes those to whom He wishes
well, act for the best. He took such care of me
that I received no wound, and took the town as
will be told afterwards.'
The preceding three pages vary considerably from the Spanish
translation.
280 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CLXXV.
無
​When the mines had advanced so that they
actually opened into the moat, I made my plan.
I posted a hundred men in armour between the
hurdles and the mines in the night, before day-
break, and ordered that at dawn all in the tents
should quietly and noiselessly arm themselves. At
the sound of trumpets all were to sally from the
mines to assault the town; they were to storm
the tower which the "fonevol" had battered down,
for it could be done. I sent word the night before
to the bishops and barons of what was to be done
in the morning, and told them, if they kept the
secret, the town would be taken next day. They
said, “May it so please God! tell us how?" They
were told of the plan I had made, which they
thought very good; and they said they would set
their companies in order, and that when daybreak
came they would all be ready. I said, "God speed
you, and take care to do so." And I myself set
about preparing the thing.
CLXXVI.
At morning they sent me word that they were
ready, and asked for orders how to act. I told
them to stand in readiness, for the trumpets would
presently sound; when they heard them sound
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.. 281
they were to push on. Daylight was coming on
when I ordered the trumpets to sound; the men
sallied from the mines and began to ascend the
wall. When the Saracens heard the trumpets sound,
and saw the camp in motion, they set up cries,
and sounded their horns, and before our men could
get up [the breach], six or seven of them came
who had no other arms but maces. One of them
drew up his sleeves, took a great stone and threw it
at the man who was foremost, but though it struck
him, the man was too near to be hurt. However,
the man got five sword-wounds in the legs, and
therefore could not go on whilst this was going
The other Saracens on the wall threw stones
down so that all the shields were broken, and my
men could not get up, do what they would, though
on the other hand the Saracens were greatly dis-
heartened by our assault, as well as by the
"fonevol" that kept battering the wall, and the
mines close to it.
on.
CLXXVII.
At the end of two days the Saracens of Burriana
began a parley; they offered to surrender the
town at the end of a month if the King of
Valencia did not succour them before that time. I
told them I would not wait three days, much less
one month; if they did not choose to surrender, they
282 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
must prepare for battle, which they would have to
their grief. They then asked me to allow them
fifteen days; I said I would not give them fifteen,
nor eight, nor five. When they saw how things
stood, they said they would agree to this, that I
should let them leave the town with what they
could carry with them, and they would surrender;
they should have five days for doing that, as
time to make ready their things to depart. I
should besides give them a guard to escort them
to Nules, and swear that no one should interrupt
them on the road, but allow them to reach that
town safe and sound. I said I would consider
of it.
CLXXVIII.
That was my conclusion; in view of the
expenditure that was going on every day, and
because Burriana was a better place for the con-
quest of Valencia than any other, there might
be at the storming of the town a great fight
between Catalans, Aragonese, and many foreigners
who were in the camp; again, there was in
the town much corn that would serve for those
who then guarded the frontier. For all these
and many other things and reasons, I thought it
· Entre Catalans e Aragoneses
e molta gent que y havia estranya :
I
It is evident that the king appre-
hended a fight over the plunder.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 283
well to accept the proposal; and so it was done,
the terms being that they should leave within four
days with what they could carry on their backs and
in their hands. In that way did I have Burriana.
And that men may know how many souls there
were in it, men, women, and children, there were
seven thousand and thirty-two. The siege lasted
two months from the day we pitched our tents till
the town was taken.
CLXXIX.
When Burriana was taken Don Pedro Cornell said
to me that if I gave him the means of staying at
it, and providing for the knights who stayed with
him and for their wants, he would remain there with a
hundred knights till summer. I reckoned with him
how much [money] the knights would want, and
how much food. It was agreed between us that I
should give him sixteen thousand "morabatins,” ·
and that he should remain stationed there till
I therefore asked him to send for his
summer.
I
* Morabetins, from the Arabic
blo, morábitin (Almoravides).
The morabetin, in Spanish mara-
vedi, was a coin introduced in
Spain by the Africans in the
eleventh century. The Morabitin,
or Almoravidin, were a dynasty
of African Moors, who, after
the overthrow of the Umeyyah,
and of the Moluk at-tawayif or
I
chiefs of petty kingdoms, estab-
lished on the ruins of the Califate,
became masters of Mohammedan
Spain. The morabeti was of gold,
or of silver, according to time.
Whoever wishes for information
on this point will find it in Saez,
Demostracion historica de la mo-
neda de Castilla en tiempo de
Enrique IV.; Madrid, 1805, 4to.
284 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
men at once and garrison the town, and said that
I would give the money to whomsoever he pleased.
But Don Pedro said he could not do that; it was so
great a matter that he must first go [home], muster
his vassals, and speak with them. I saw that he
was right, and therefore resolved to try what I
could do with Don Blasco de Alagon and Don
Exemen de Urrea. I begged them to garrison
Burriana, with them their respective bands, and
keep the town for me for two months, at the end of
which Don Pedro Corneyll (sic) would have to come
back. I did so, and begged them most earnestly
to stay two months for my sake. They made
excuses, and said that they could not do it; but
I spoke to them, and prayed it of them so much,
telling them how necessary a thing it was that they
should grant my request, and not be the cause of
my losing so great a boon as God had given me
through the default of my vassals, that at last they
gave way. When Don Blasco and Don Exemen
saw that I wanted it done so much, they said they
would do it if I would supply them and their
retainers with what they needed. I accepted, and
gave them many thanks.
CLXXX.
Then I divided my army, and borrowed from mer-
chants provisions for two months, and everything
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 285
else the garrison of Burriana might want. I went -
myself to Tortosa, and with me En Berenguer, the
Bishop of Lerida, and En Guillem de Cervera, who
was Lord of Juneda, and became afterwards a monk
of Poblet. When I had been a day in my quarters
in the castle of Tortosa, both of the above-named
came to me; there were with me at the time En
Pero Sanz and En Bernard Rabaça, my notary; En
Berenguer and En Guillem said that they wished
to speak to me in great secresy and for my good.
The Bishop of Lerida said, “ En Guillem de Cervera,
do you begin as was previously agreed between us."
En Guillem said he could not do that; the other
was a bishop and of greater dignity, wherefore
it was for him to speak first: "It would be (he
"said) for the great profit of you and of me, so great
"a thing is it that we can advise the king to do."
Then the Bishop began: My lord, you know
"well how near I am to you, and En Guillem de
"Cervera too; and how earnestly we desire your
profit and your honour;
“undertaken a great and
((
Co
now we see you have
costly enterprise; it is
"so great that we perceive you cannot carry it
through." I asked them, "What do you mean?"
They replied: "This that you have undertaken at
(6
"(
Burriana, for you know, and we know as well as
you, that you have no treasure and have no great
"revenue, and have no corn on hand anywhere in
"the world, but are embarrassed how to live in
286 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
""
going about your land; how do you think, then,
you can bear so great an outlay at this place,
"which is only within two days' journey of the
country of the Moors? And how do you intend
"to keep there so many horse and foot who cannot
"live there, but must fight and die, while you
'yourself cannot help them?" En Bernard de
Cervera said: "My lord, the Bishop has said what
("
I myself would say, for we are of one mind and
"thought in this; yet this will I say more, that the
"King of Castile and you together could not keep
"Burriana against the Saracens."
CLXXXI.
To the words I heard from them I made answer ;
but their speech grieved me much, for it came from
some of the wisest men in the kingdom, and when I
hoped they would comfort me did they bring discom-
fort and pain. Our Lord, however, gave me grace for
the success that I was yet to have in other things
that came afterwards, so that I took no notice of
their words, but disdained them, and spoke thus to
them: "I have no doubt that you have spoken right
"and mean well; you intend to keep me from trouble
"and outlay; but that trouble and that outlay I
“will gladly bear, rather than give up a place which
"God has granted to me. It must not grieve you
"if for once I will not follow your advice."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 287
CLXXXII.
And so I left them and went to Aragon, to
Teruel. One morning, between dawn and sunrise,
there came to me a messenger from En Exemen
de Urrea at Burriana. I was then lying in bed;
they knocked at the door, and one of my porters
said that there was a messenger at the door from
En Exemen de Urrea, and that he was the bearer of
good news. I said, "Let the messenger come in;
he is welcome, since he brings good news." The
messenger then came in, and asked me to give him
a reward for the good news (albixeres) whereof he
was bearer. I said that I would in proportion to
the goodness of the news he brought; the mes-
senger said he was well content. Then he told me
that the Saracens of Peñiscola had sent two of
their number to Don Exemen de Urrea, intimating
that he might send for me, since they would
willingly surrender Peñiscola immediately. "And
"Don Exemen,” added the messenger, "is actually
sending you by me the letter the Saracens wrote
"to him. Here it is." I had it read by a Christian
who knew Arabic (algarabia), and found the words
of the letter to be what the messenger said.
((
CLXXXIII.
Thereupon I heard the mass of the Holy Ghost
and the office of Saint Mary, in order that God
and His Mother might guide me in that business as
288 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
•
in every other I might afterwards undertake; I had
food cooked while I heard mass; I ate, and imme-
diately after took horse. There were with me at the
time seven knights only, with their esquires, besides
my own houshold servants. I did not require a
guide, for through occasional boar-hunting in the
mountain, I was confident that I could find the
road to Peñiscola. The day that I left Teruel
I crossed the plain of Muntagut and reached
Vilaroja, which belongs to the Order of the Hospital.
I rose before daybreak, and passed through a place
called Atorella, where there is now a settlement;
then I crossed the Trout river,' went through the
valley of Ares, and the pass of Prunelles, to
Salvassoria and Temi.³ I passed through the plain
of Saint Matthew, which was then a waste, and
reached the dry river bed at Cervera. At sunset I
got before Peñiscola, on the other side of the vine-
yards, towards the Almarge.
2
CLXXXIV.
And I at once sent word to the Saracens that I
was there. They rejoiced greatly; four of them
came out of the place, and said to me that they
were very glad of my coming and would send
me their presents; that it was then late, but next
morning they would do according to my will and
I
"Puis passam pel riu de les
Troytes," literally, "and then we
crossed the river of the Trout."
2 Dares or d'Ares.
3 Saluasoria et Athemi in the
more modern edition.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 289
would surrender.
Then at once the sheikhs of the
town sent me a hundred loaves, two pitchers of wine,
raisins, figs, and ten fowls as a present. At night
I made screens against the dew, of carpets and
blankets which we had with us, for I forbade cutting
down any tree; it would have offended the Saracens
if at our first entry we had begun to waste their land.
Except bread, wine, and cheese which I had with
me, we had no food except what they (the Saracens)
brought us. When it was full day, and the sun
had risen, I went with the small escort I had there
to the strand before the castle, with my quilted coat
(perpunte) on, my sword girt, and iron cap on head.
The Saracens when they saw me come, came out
to me, all, men, women, and children in the castle,
without any arms; they saluted me, and I said
to them that Don Exemen de Urrea had sent a
message on their behalf to Teruel, saying that I
should come, and they would surrender the castle
of Peñiscola, but only to myself. "I saw (said I)
"and read your letter which Don Exemen de Urrea
'sent me." Then they owned that they had sent
the letter; they would make a treaty with me and
surrender the castle at once, provided I allowed
them their religion, and the liberties they were wont
to have under their Saracen kings. They added
that they were prepared to deliver the town and the
castle to me on such terms. I replied that my
scribes (escrivas) were not there to attest the deed
Մ
290
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
as I had come hurriedly; but if they should write
the things they required of me, I would willingly
come to an agreement with them, and that whatever
agreement was made, that I faithfully promised to
keep, and would keep. They then said "My lord,
"thou wilt have it so, and we will have it so we
"will put our trust in thee, and will give up the
"castle on thy faith." They chose two Saracens,
the Alfaqui of the place, and another one, and I gave
them all my own escort to go up into the castle;
the other Saracens, full two hundred, stayed with me
outside. All stood before me, and I took care that
none of them could seize the reins of my horse.
When I saw my people enter the castle and shout
Aragon! Aragon! I and the Saracens together went
up there.
Next morning I went off to Tortosa
with the Saracens whom the people of Peñiscola
had sent to take back the dresses, the stores, and
the cattle I was to give them, as contained in
the capitulation. The very same day I got to
Tortosa all this was done, so that next day I
returned to Peñiscola, where the scribes had already
arrived, and gave them the papers to draw out the
capitulation in due form.
1 These words are not in Pro-
vençal, but in what approaches
old Castilian. "Senyor queres lo
tu axi e nos lo queremos e nos
fiaremos en tu e donarte hemos
(?) lo castello en la tua fe." The
modern edition gives the sen-
tence thus: " Seyor queres lo tu
"aixi (?) e nos lo queremos ens
"fiaremos en tu, e dartemos lo
"castello en la tua fe." Did the
Saracens of Peñiscola speak
Spanish on this ocasion?
THE CHIRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 291
CLXXXV.
Soon after the Master of the Temple and the
Master of the Hospital heard of my taking Peñis-
cola, the former went to Chivert, and the latter to
Cervera ; for my father and grandfather had granted
them that those towns should belong to their Orders.
So they insisted with the Saracens of Chivert and
Cervera that since I had taken Peñiscola, they
should surrender their castles to them. For as they
had a charter for it from my father and grandfather,
and as Peñiscola was the most renowned place in
that district, and yet had surrendered, there would
be no shame or disgrace in their surrendering also.
Thereupon the Saracens did surrender the said
castles, and immediately after I myself had Polpis.
CLXXXVI.
I had made an engagement with Don Pedro
Cornell to meet him in two months' time at the
latest, at Burriana; but one month after I was
with him, accompanied by twenty five knights. I
entered the town bearing my crane falcons; and
there came also with me Don Pedro Ferrandez de
Çagra' with fifteen knights. When I arrived those
whom I had left behind rejoiced greatly. During
my stay there my people made excursions, and I
Açagra, he is generally called.
I
U 2
292
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
was constantly hunting; what with wild boars,
cranes, and partridges, twenty-five knights lived
daily on meat in my household, besides other in-
ferior officers. In this manner I took Castello de
Burriana, Borriol, the Caves of Avinromà, Alcalaten,
and Villa Hameç.
CLXXXVII.
2
I waited at Burriana for Don Pedro Cornell
from Michaelmas to Christmas. I then determined
to make a raid on the banks of the Xucar, with
perhaps a hundred and thirty knights,' up to a
hundred and fifty almogavars and seven hundred
footmen. We marched all night from Burriana, and
when opposite Almenara,³ as we were going along
the sea, the Saracens made five or six signal-fires on
the coast below; then others who saw those signals
made another great fire on the top of a mound on
the ridge of hills (sierra) between Murviedro and
Puçol, that the people of the country might know
that a great raid was going to the banks of the
Xucar. And when we had got to the Murviedro
hills, the Saracens began to make signals from all
1 Cavalers de paratge; I be-
lieve this to be the equivalent of
hidalgo, i.c., hijo de algo, or ca-
ballero de solar conocido."
(6
Al nogavar, from the Arabic
المغاور
3 It is singular enough that the
words menára and mináret, both
derived from li, "a place to
light a fire," should have given
name to the very town where such
fire-signals were lighted. Upwards
of fifty different towns and vil-
lages, generally situated on moun-
tain elevations, still bear the name
of Almenara in Spain.
لذكر
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 293
the towers in Valencia. We went by the upper
pass; and finding that we were discovered went as
fast as we could, driving the mules which had been
left behind by those of the vanguard. In this way
we passed by Paterna and by Manitzes to a ford
that a guide knew, where the others had passed.
When we were in the plain the day broke, it was a
Friday; and we marched on to take up quarters
at the town of Espiota; as we passed by Alcocer
some two hundred men of the mule train went to
the town of Alcocer, and in despite of the Saracens
brought away plunder. This vexed me much, for
what we wanted was to fight, not to plunder. I
then went to Espiota, and took quarters there, for
the mules could go no farther.
CLXXXVIII.
And when we were housed a Saracen said that if
we would wait till sunrise Zaen would give us battle.
We sent to him to say that we would wait for him
till sunrise, and he might send any other message
he had to send. We waited for him in the morning,
but seeing he did not come we loaded our mules and
overtook our scouting party on the banks of the
Xucar, and went on to Albalat. There we stayed
four days; but the war was so cautiously managed
by the enemy that we could only make sixty Sara-
cens prisoners, and took nothing else on the whole.
294 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
raid. Yet we found a great deal of barley and
many fowls, and we loaded all our beasts with as
much as they could carry. We then crossed the
bridge of Quart, and in three days got back to
Burriana.
CLXXXIX.
At Burriana there came to me about Christmas
Don Pedro Cornell; he had bought what supplies
he could, and for the rest he brought money, for
there was at Burriana a market for flour, barley, and
wine, all which came by sea. I left the place, and
Don Pedro Cornell, according to agreement, re-
mained there with his hundred knights, who soon
began to make forays against Onda, Nules, Uxó, and
Almenara; they did not dare go very far into the
Saracens' country, but still made good raids. An
esquire of Don Pedro, named Miguel Perez, knew
Arabic (algarabia) very well; he went sometimes to
Almaçora to redeem prisoners,' of which there were
many in the place. One day two Saracens said to
him that if he would keep their secret and would
reward them accordingly, they would make his lord
have a great gain. The esquire said he would
keep their secret and get his lord to reward them
well; but what was the gain? They said, it was
Almaçora. The esquire then said that what they
said was really good; he would go to his lord and
Per traure catius dels sarains.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 295
speak with him on the subject. He came to Don
Pedro Cornell and told him the news; Don Pedro
was very glad and content therewith.
CXC.
He settled with his esquire to bring the two
Saracens, or one of them, to him, as he would then
make a bargain, and reward them accordingly. The
esquire went back, and one Saracen came for him-
self and for the other. Don Pedro Cornell said he
would reward them both well, and would even get me
to give them a heritage, and besides that, one good
horse and garments to each. But they said that it
was too great a thing for them to perform and do
without some Saracens, their relations and friends.
Don Pedro Cornell said, "What do you want me to
do for them?" The Saracen said: “
"Give them
heritages, and let them remain in the country."
Don Pedro Cornell said that he would get me to do
that, and gave them a letter to that effect.
It was
settled between them on what night they should
surrender the place; and Don Pedro put himself in
ambush with his armoured horse half a mile off.
The Saracen came out, and told them to send
twenty men, good knights or others, whom he could
get into two towers, and that the rest should be
ready to come when they raised a shout or made
signal by fire.
296 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CXCI.
Thither went the twenty esquires in armour, with
(perpuntes) their quilted coats and their breast-plates
(gonios), and their iron caps, with swords, but with-
out lances, which they could not well wield within
the towers. They went in, and as they entered
they were taken into a house where there were
thirty Saracens, who seized and bound them as
they entered. Three of the esquires who saw what
treachery was being done, drew their swords and
ascended the staircase of the tower; the Saracens
pursued, but could not overtake them. They got
on to the top of the tower and defended it well,
raising a cry for help. Those in ambush heard
them and ran to their help. While the Saracens
of Almaçora fought with them the knights and
people in ambush came up. On their way thither
they found a beam the Saracens had cut to make an
'algarada," for which, however, it did not answer;
they got over the moat of the town, and putting the
beam against the tower climbed up by it with the
help of leather belts which those on the tower let
down, so that the Saracens could not defend the
tower. When the Saracens saw that, they got
out of the tower and fled; but many were taken,
and besides all their goods and stores.
So was
Almaçora taken.
<<
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 297
CXCII.
Then I went again to Burriana, and after two
months' stay there returned to Aragon and Cata-
lonia. Next summer I returned to Burriana, and
there were with me my uncle Don Fernando, the
Bishop of Lerida, Don Blasco de Alagon, Don Pedro
Cornell, Don Exemen de Urrea, Hugh de Munt-
laur, Master of the Temple, Hugh de Fuylalquer,
Master of the Hospital. It was agreed that a raid
should be made against Alcira and Cullera; and I
resolved that two "fonevols" we had at Burriana
should be got ready, though secretly, so that no one
in the world should know of it. So that if the army
wanted "fonevols" they would be ready without
having to send for them. I accordingly had them
put into a barque well and secretly. When we got
to Cullera we encamped before the town, between
the river Xucar and the castle. All the Saracens
from the farms, all cows, asses, and goats, had been
previously put into the place; the hill-side below
the castle down to the town at the bottom, whence
they drew water, swarmed with women, children,
and cattle.
CXCIII.
When my men saw that, most of them said:
"Saint Mary! if we had but a 'fonevol'! we could
298 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
"kill them all from the top of that hill, and take the
town before three days were over." At vespers
the Bishop of Lerida, my uncle Don Fernando,
and the barons came to my tent to see me, and
have some pastime. They drew me aside, and
sending away the servants said: “ My lord, what
do you think of this place?" I said: "So help
"me God! I think it could be taken if there were
"here any one to do it." They replied: "Here are
"those who will do it, together with you, if only
66
they had the necessary appliances for a siege." I
said: "What appliances do you want?" They
said: "A'fonevol' is much needed." I then said
to them: "Do you really mean that we could take
that town if we only had a 'fonevol'?" They
said it could be so done. I replied: "If that be
the case I will give you two." They asked: "Where
have you got them?" I said: "Lo! in the 'grau,"
there they are in a barge." They said: "Then
you guessed what was likely to happen?" I said:
"I did guess, and lucky is he who guesses, not he
"who has to find out." They said: "Now tell us
what you think we should do." I replied: "It is first
necessary to consider where the machines should
((
¹ Grau. Many towns on the
Mediterranean coast of Spain,
like Valencia itself, are a mile or
two from the sea, on which is their
landing place, "grau" (the Latin
"gradus," stairs). The object of
such graus was more safety, than
convenience, for the place itself,
from the sudden attacks of cor-
sairs, who must leave their ships
to get at it.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 299
"be placed. I will go up the hill with thirty of
((
((
my mounted followers; and do you give me one
knight of yours; and we will look out for a place
"for the machines." They said: “You have
spoken well."
CXCIV.
In the morning at sunrise, after hearing mass, I
sent straightway for Don Pedro Cornell and Don
Rodrigo Liçana, and with my thirty men went up
the hill from the sea side. When we got to the
there were once two
spot above the castle, where
towers, we left our horses, put on our armour, went
down the hill, and got close to the castle within
point-blank crossbow-shot. There I carefully exa-
mined the spot, and found it a convenient one for
placing both the "fonevols."
fonevols." I saw that they could
be very easily set up, screened, and guarded from
the enemy, for there was in the castle no “algarada"
or other engine to prevent it. When I had seen
and considered the spot, I descended again and sent
for the barons. I went to the tent of the Bishop of
Lerida, En Bernard, to see him and hold a council
there; it was Saint John's day. I told the assembly
how the thing could be done, how we could batter
the tower from that place; even if a stone missed
and did not hit the mark, it would fall on the side of
the tower, full of women, children, and cattle. When
they saw the thing could be done, the greater part
300 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
((
of them asked what they should do for stones for
the engines, as there were none on the banks of the
Xucar, and they must be brought from far away.
I said, "I know three ways; let us see which is
"the best for us to get them: one is, to send to
"Riu Sech, and for that a hundred knights with
horses in armour will be needed, besides five
hundred footmen. Another way is to send down
"to the river Bayren, but for that again a consider-
"able force will be required, lest the Saracens
should hinder our getting the stones on board
ship. The other plan is to have here stone
"cutters for them to cut the stone out of this hill
"into shape for brigoles' or 'trabuquets.'"
((
CXCV.
Then I asked Don Fernando, "What do you
say to that?" And he said, "My lord, I must
"first deliberate on it; take no offence; I will
"presently be here again before you." After
deliberating Don Fernando came back, and spoke
for all the rest, as it had been previously agreed.
He said: "My lord, in what you have said to us
we see a great difficulty, for reasons we will
tell you.
It were not well that you undertook
anything that you did not achieve; in the
"whole camp there is not food for more than five
<<
66
days; Valencia is not yours, but of the Saracens ;
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 301
"should the sea become boisterous and bad, the
"ships could not bring supplies, and if they do
"not, you will have to raise this siege. To bring
"stones from such a distance, against so great
"forces of the enemy, is not an easy thing to
·
((
((
do; there
there is not a single stone-cutter in the
camp, nor are there in Burriana so many as the
engines will require, if they are to be supplied
"with stones, nor have you in this kingdom of
"Valencia any other place whence they can be
"supplied." Perceiving that all were of that mind,
I had to yield and agree to what they said.
CXCVI.
Next day accordingly the siege was raised, and
we went before Cilla, where we took up quarters,
for there was plenty of wood and good pasture
in the neighbourhood. After sleeping the siesta,
I sent for the Master of the Hospital, and for
Don Pedro Cornell and Don Exemen de Urrea,
and spoke in secret with them; there was no one
in the room but me and they. I said: "I sent
because it seems to me as if we are
"going badly out of this land, with so great an
'army as we have, and with only twenty or thirty
prisoners. The Saracens will hold us in little
worth, and so will the Christians; but if you will
"help me well I will show you how we can do a
(6
for
you
302 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
(6
'good deed. I am alone in proposing a thing, and
you are all against me, I can do nothing. When
"I have ended my speech, and Don Fernando
66
has also spoken, do you not wait for the others,
"but let each of you declare that you approve of
"what I have said. I will show you that we can in
"that wise get great gain and honour. These
"Valencian towers here before us are like eyes to
"a man; they save Valencia from the hurt that
many times it would get. Here is the tower of
Muntcada, which is, one of the best towers in the
"whole 'huerta." When we passed close to it there
"remained inside only the men-at-arms, for the
66
"
(C
women and children had all taken shelter in
Valencia. As they did not completely evacuate
"the farms when we passed by, and we did not
"then assail them, they will not expect us to attack
"them on our return; the women and children will
have come back; we can take the place in eight
"days, and besides prisoners we shall take more
"or less of their chattels and provisions. Now I
"will tell you how to take the place."
CXCVII.
"I will go down to Burriana and will get rations
"for the whole army for eight days, against a
"hundred prisoners the army shall give me, chosen
Orta, from the Latin hortus, huerto, huerta.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 303
"out of those in the tower [of Muntcada], where I
"believe a thousand or more can be taken; I will
(C
also bring a 'fonevol' from Burriana. For that
"I want no more time than a day to go, a day to get
"the rations, and on the third day I will be back to
you with the supplies and the 'fonevol.' And
"so when we leave this place we shall leave with
"honour to myself and to you; and when we come
"back another time they will not dare to abide our
visit in the towers of Valencia." Thereupon the
Master of the Hospital, En Hugh de Fullalquer,
said, "So help me God! our lord the king has a
'good plan, and we must help him in it; I tell you
"for my part that I will help him as much as I can.'
When Don Pedro Cornell and Don Exemen de
Urrea heard this, they said they held it for good and
noble counsel; but how would I do it? Certainly
I would have Don Fernando and some of the
""
others against it. I said, "With my own power
"and with the help you will give me, my wish
"will ultimately prevail."
CXCVIII.
I accordingly sent for Don Fernando, Don
Rodrigo Liçana, the Master of the Temple, En
I I presume that the somewhat
obscure text means as above, that
the king would get the rations
against the promise of delivering
to him a hundred Saracen slaves
to be taken in Muntcada. He has
just said the army had not yet
taken more than twenty or thirty.
304 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
66
Hugh de Muntlaur, the Bishop of Lerida, and
the other barons of Aragon and Catalonia, as well
as for some other knights who were there, all good
and honourable men, well skilled in arms. And I
sent away those who were first with me, that the
others might not know that I had spoken with
them. They returned, however, when the others
had come. I arranged the council round the tent,
and said to them, "Barons, we came here to do
"hurt to the Saracens; and if we now leave the
country, so great a company as is here having
done nothing but taking sixty prisoners, men and
women together, I will not go away with honour
to myself or to you. And it seems to me that we
"could make a good capture, and do great damage
"to Valencia, and that with God's aid I ought not
"to fail in it." They asked what my plan was. I
said, "The tower of Muntcada is a very good one;
"there are great riches in it; on the road to Valencia
"there is no better tower except Quart. In case of
"need we can send to Burriana for anything we
"want, which they of Valencia cannot stop, for we
"shall be between them and Burriana. Let us go
"to-morrow to besiege it in God's name; we will
"take it and get there great gain and honour, for
"that within a league of Valencia we take such a
tower as that is. Now, say what you think, the
enterprise seems to me a good one.".
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 305
((
(6
CXCIX.
All told Don Fernando to speak first, and Don
Fernando said, "It seems indeed a good thing if it
"can be done; but there are no supplies with the
army, and without supplies we cannot endure
or support the labour of taking a tower like that
"of Muntcada." I said, "If you had supplies,
would you do it?" Don Fernando replied, "Let
"the barons here and the Masters of the Orders
say; for me I will agree to what the others
agree to."
The Master of the Hospital asked
the Master of the Temple to speak; and the
latter said, "My opinion is that the plan is good,
"if the army has enough provisions; but it seems
plain to me that this place, the tower of Muntcada,
"is too near the towers of Valencia." I said,
Master, those towers are not here. He said,
"It seems to me you should first take Torres
Torres, which is also a good tower, and on the
road from Teruel to Valencia." I said, "Master,
"Torres Torres is a good tower, but Muntcada is
"as good as seven Torres Torres, and it will be
"to our great honour if we take such a place as
((
"(
((
* I suppose the Master meant
that Muntcada tower was danger-
ously near the great fortress of
Valencia; and that the king's
answer meant that it was not
}) I
near enough to be an obstacle.
The new edition gives the king's
answer thus: "Maestre en esta
terra no ha turchs," probably for
torres, as in other editions.
X
306 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES of Aragon.
"this so near Valencia; and it can be easier done,
"for though Torres Torres is a stronger place, yet
"this one is more worth for honour and gain."
On this the Master of the Hospital said, "The
"words the King has said are good, and since he
"has this good will to win the place, let it not
"stay for us, and let us help him to win it." Don
Exemen de Urrea said, "My lord, what you have
"said is good, and if you will give us what will keep
"us till you take it, it is my advice that you do it."
"And I also agree," said Don Pedro Cornell, "with
"what the Master has replied to you, and with Don
Exemen de Urrea." I then asked the Bishop of
Lerida what he had to say; and he answered, “You
"others understand fighting; I came here to serve
"God and the King; what you do, I will do." I
asked Don Rodrigo Liçana to speak; and he said:
CC
(6
(
My lord, since you desire it, and I see that all, or
the greater part, desire it and advise you to it, I
will do what you wish; but you already know how
"the Moors defend their fortresses; it were not fit
"for you to begin a thing you did not accomplish."
CC.
Thereupon I replied to Don Rodrigo Liçana and
to the others: "I will tell you what I will do; I
"will take up quarters near the tower, and on the
morrow early I will attack the town. The Moors
((
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon. 307
"will defend it. In the defence they will no
" doubt strive to hold the stockades, but our people
"will break them down, and in this the Moors
"will suffer heavy loss, for those who defend the
"stockades will probably be their best men, and
"those who are good for nothing will remain in
"the tower and in the "albacar." I will act in
(6
I
the fight as I find things to go; if you and I see
"that the place can easily be taken, I myself will
go down to Burriana with fifteen knights (it
were well that the whole force did not leave the
place). On the third day I will be back with the
almaianech,² or battering engine, and rations for
"eight days." All approved what I said, with this
condition, that they should give me a hundred pri-
soners for my share-it was calculated that more
than a thousand would be taken-and that I should
have the choice of them, to repay the outlay of
taking the tower. They saw that I was reasonable
in what I asked, and agreed to it.
CCI.
In the morning after mass the esquires and many
of the knights put on their armour, and began the
attack on the side next the camp. They soon
I
• Albacar, space between the
tower or keep and an outer wall,
(bailey?).
2
Almaianech, or rather Al-
:
manganec, in Arabic, is a
war engine for battering walls;
both are derived from the Latin
machina.
X 2
308 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
forced their way into the tower. All the best Moors
were at the stockades, and on forcing them seven
or eight of the bravest were killed, for my people
so pressed on them that they could not get into the
tower or the "albacar" (bailey).
When near the "albacar," I saw the Saracens de-
fending themselves badly and without spirit; I called
to the masters [of the Orders] and some of the
barons, and said, "Seems it to you that I should go
to Burriana, and that these people can be taken?"
They all assented. I said, “Then order
"Then order your men
"to send me all the mules they have, and they shall
"come back to you loaded with everything you
"want."
Before I
I took with me only twelve knights. When close
under Murviedro, I waited for the mules, and dis-
played my banners, and in a body we passed by the
sea-shore, and went along it to Burriana.
It was
about vespers when I entered Burriana.
ate my dinner I bespoke bread, wine, barley, and
sheep in sufficient quantity according to the list of
rations which the barons, the masters, and the
bishop had given me of what each of them
required.
CCII.
Next day at sunrise I ordered the rations to be
sent in, and I spent all that day receiving them.
The following day I left Burriana in battle array, at
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
309
the head of my knights, in armour, of which there
might be twelve or fifteen. I passed near Mur-
viedro, and at vespers got back to the Tower of
Muntcada with the "fonevol," so that before the
stars came out at night the "fonevol" was set up
behind a house, and during the night we put the
cords to it, so that next day at half tierce,' the
engine began to batter the tower. So great was
the crowd of women, children, cows and other
cattle, in the "albacar" (bailey), that the stones
thrown by the "fonevol" killed many of those
inside. And as the "fonevol" battered without
ceasing by day and night, the stench of the dead
cattle was so great that on the fifth day the Moors
of Muntcada surrendered the tower and themselves
as prisoners. There were taken out one thousand
one hundred and forty-seven of them; with much
good and fine silken and cotton cloth, pearl, neck-
laces, gold and silver bracelets, rich silks, and
many other valuable stuffs; so that what with the
prisoners and the goods, the spoil amounted to a
hundred thousand besants.2 I had with me at this
time some Saracens from Valencia; one hundred
prisoners were chosen for me as had been agreed ;
one of the Moors standing by and pointing out to
me which to take.
I That is about eight o'clock.
2 An old gold coin struck at Byzantium.
310 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CCIII.
It was then determined to demolish the tower,
and remain two days there for that purpose, and
then leave for Museros, another tower, intending to
batter it with the "fonevol," and storm it, unless
immediately surrendered. The tower of Muntcada
was accordingly demolished, and the whole force
went to Museros and laid siege to the tower there.
I began by setting up the "fonevol" against it,
having previously ascertained from a Saracen of
the place, whom an almogavar of mine had taken
prisoner, that Zaen, the King of Valencia, had
ordered that sixty men should stay to defend the
tower, whilst the women, children, and the rest,
should go into Valencia, which they had done.
Next day the "fonevol" began to batter the tower,
when three or four of its battlements were carried
away. At night the Moors put baskets full of
earth, that if our stones hit they might not injure
the roof of the tower. But as we had arrows in
the shape of spindles, which I had caused to be
made, lighted tow was put on them, the crossbows
shot these arrows at the baskets filled with earth,
and set them on fire. On the third day the
Saracens saw that their arts were of no avail; they
parleyed for a surrender on condition of saving
their lives. I agreed to that, for I would rather
have them alive than dead.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 311
CCIV.
came to
When I had the prisoners, there came
mie En Guillem Çaguardia, the uncle of En
Guillem Aguiló, then a prisoner of the Moors
in Valencia, and he prayed me very humbly that
as his nephew was captive, I would give him
sixty Saracens from Museros, for he believed that
against those sixty he could get En Guillem Aguiló
exchanged. With the consent of the barons I
assented to this, on condition that if he (En
Guillem) could not get his nephew in exchange
for them, the army should have the prisoners
again. He kissed my hand for the favour, going
away very content, and forthwith sent a Christian,
who could enter Valencia safely, to see if they
would give up En Guillem de Aguiló for those
sixty prisoners from Museros. The Valencians
agreed to the bargain, and immediately after En
Guillem de Aguiló was exchanged for the sixty
prisoners from Museros.
CCV.
When that was done I went to Torres Torres
to take up quarters. Before I got past Alventosa,
they gave me for the hundred Moorish prisoners.
I had with me no less than seventeen thousand
312
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
besants.
I
I would have got thirty thousand had
I kept them a month more; but I had to give them
up for such a small sum owing to the merchants
pressing me for payment of what I had borrowed
from them. I therefore paid that debt and some
others, and went to Zaragoza and thence to
Huesca.
CCVI.
From Huesca I went through my own country
towards Sariñena; I had resolved to take a castle
the Moors called Enesa, and the Christians the
Puig (hill) of the Onion (Cebolla); now it is called
Puig de Santa Maria. I was much puzzled as to
what baron of my dominions I should leave in
it, when the place was taken. I reflected that men
rise in praise and in worth only by good deeds,
and that I ought to entrust so great a place as that
was to some one who loved me well, and in whom
I trusted. And as Don Bernard Guillem de
Entença was my uncle on the mother's side, and
he had got. much from me, I resolved to entrust
the Puig to him rather than to any other man,
when God gave it to us. On the road I drew
him aside and said to him: "Don Bernard Guillem,
“you are a man whom I love and trust; you are
The edition of 1515 and the
new one say 30,000; that of
1557, xix milia, probably a mis-
print.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 313
((
very near of kin to me, and I would raise you
"and give you plenty, that you may do me such
"service that all men may say that I bestowed
"well what I gave you. Now I have thought of
"something in which you can serve me well, and
"for which I shall be bound to do you great good
"for the service you will have done to me." He
returned great thanks to me and kissed my hand
for the favour I promised him, and begged me to
say what service it was. I said that my intention
was to go and besiege the Puig de la Cebolla, which
was only two leagues from Valencia, and when
I had taken it to put him there, with a hundred
knights, as an advanced post. I told him how
the castle was on a hill, and was good, and strong,
and well built; that I would give him provisions
for a year, and all the winter he should keep the
outposts there for me. When summer came I
would be there, and would lay Valencia waste;
and with the damage done by the raids and
the waste I should do, I would have it ripened
like a fruit fit for eating. And when that was
done, the time would come for besieging Valencia,
for it was already distressed for food. I would
then send for all barons of my kingdoms, and for
the men of the towns, to come to help in the siege
of Valencia, and with God's help we would take it.
“When Valencia is taken (I said), all the kingdom,
as far as Xativa, will be ours."
314 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CCVII.
When Don Bernard heard that proposal of mine,
he spoke not and answered nothing, but stood a
long time doubting. And when I saw that he
doubted about what I had said to him, I added,
"Don Bernard Guillem, do not doubt that the
"proposal I have made to you is very good; keep
"it secret between you and me, and let no man in
"the world know of it till I have prepared the
((
means of executing it. Accept what I offer you
"and let it content you well, for of two things one
"cannot fail; if God lets you perform the service
"I want you to do for Him and for me, I will
"make you the most honoured man of my king-
"dom; and if you die in God's service and mine,
((
Paradise cannot fail you, that you have it not.
For these two reasons, you should not have any
"doubts whatever on the matter." On that he
came up to me, kissed my hand, and said that he
willingly accepted the gift I gave him;
him; that my
advice was good, inasmuch as he could not choose
amiss either of the two things I had spoken of.
CCVIII.
Thereon I agreed with him that I would summon
my army for next Easter, and I accordingly gave
orders for the barons, the militia of the cities and
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 315
I
towns, to assemble. At the beginning of Lent
men from Valencia came, and told me as certain
that the castle of the Puig had been dismantled.
When I heard that, it grieved me much; neverthe-
less I said to those who brought the news that no
harm had been done, inasmuch as the case being,
I would immediately build another castle whenever
I went there with the army. I ordered twenty
pairs of moulds for "tapia" to be made secretly,
so that no one in Teruel should know of it. On
Easter Sunday I was in Teruel; and before the
army came I began my preparations for departure.
Don Exemen de Urrea came with me, and my
household, Don Pedro Fernandez de Çagra, and
the townsmen of Daroca and Teruel; before the
others came I departed. As I was leaving Teruel,
the army on the road saw the beasts carrying the
"tapia" moulds. No one, however, in the army
knew my secret, where I was going or where not.
Before Xerica, whose fields were laid waste, Don
Pedro Fernandez de Çagra and Don Exemen de
Urrea came up to me after dinner, and said: "My
"lord, what is this? They say you are carrying
"moulds for 'tapia'; what do you intend doing with
"them?" I said: "I will not return you an answer
I Boxes of board, into which
the concrete for blocks of "tapia”
was poured. Tapia is an Arabic
word, alb, meaning a cob wall
nado), one made of unburnt clay
mixed with sand or straw. The
unburnt bricks are called in
Spanish adoves, from the Arabic
(French, pisé; Spanish, apiso-b, tob, with the article at-tob.
316 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"before every one; if you send the others away,
"I will explain, and tell you what it is and what
"it is not."
((
((
I
CCIX.
When the others had gone away, I told them:
I have done this in great secresy, and I pray
"and command you to keep it reserved till people
"see for what purpose it is done. I have had
"those moulds made because I wish to occupy
"the Puig now called Enesa, and which shall
"henceforward be called the Puig de Santa Maria.
"The Moors have pulled down the castle that
was once there, and I intend rebuilding it. When
"it is rebuilt, I will leave there a good and well-
"fortified outpost, whence we can make war on
"the Moors until Valencia shall be so weakened
"for want of supplies that we can besiege and
"take it." They said: "You should have let us
"know that; we would have been better pre-
pared with provisions and other things." I
knew by their faces as well as by their speech,
which they did not sufficiently dissemble, that my
plan did not please them much. And I said to
them: " "Barons, let what I have done and will do
"content you; for in this manner Valencia will be
"conquered better than in any other way in the
"world."
X
Puig in Catalonian means a hillock; it is pronounced puch.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 317
CCX.
Thereon, next day, I went to Torres Torres,
and on the third day, after laying the country round
waste, I left Torres Torres and passed by Mur-
viedro over a hill there, and then I passed close
to its castle, three or four crossbow-shots off. I
gave the command of the vanguard to Don Exemen
de Urrea; the men on foot were between him
and me, and they kept the rearguard. When we
were in the plain below and had passed Murviedro,
Don Exemen de Urrea sent me a message to say
that we were soon to have a battle; that Zaen,
with all his power, was at Puçol, and that we
ought to rejoice at it. My answer was that I
was right glad it was so. Shortly after this the
mule drivers and all those who were in the middle
of the train took to the hills for fear of the
Moors, save a few fighting men, who stood their
ground. There were with me at the time the
Master of the Hospital and the commanders of the
Alcanic and Castellon, fully two thousand men on
foot, besides one hundred horse, those of Bur-
riana, and fully thirty more horsemen in armour.
I had moreover sent out some light troops on the
road to Valencia, and placed them in ambush, so
that should Zaen, the King of Valencia, come out,
they might fight him to advantage. But Zaen did not
come out. Those were the men Don Exemen saw.
318 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CCXI.
When it was found that the armed men in the
distance were my own people, it pleased me much.
I went to the Puig, and set up my tent in the
plain below the town, and took up quarters
with great joy and content; those who had been
in ambush joining the rest of the army. In a few
days there came to me many barons, who had not
come before; also the townsmen of Zaragoza,
Daroca, and Teruel, who had remained behind.
When they came I distributed to them, according
to numbers, so many fathoms [of wall to build]; if
they could get it done in fifteen days or three
weeks they might go on their way; so they made
good work, and yet the work lasted not less than
two months.
CCXII.
All the time I was there several raids (cavalcades)
were made. So full was the grace of God on us
before the Puig, that no one who went out against
the Saracens but returned to the camp with some
plunder, more or less; no party that went forth
was beaten by the enemy, so well did our Lord
conduct them. And for the ships that came on
the sea I had made a paved road or quay near the
hill beside it, on which one could go to the sea
when ships came with what the army wanted, and
to bring up provisions.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 319
CCXIII.
When I had been full three months waiting for
Don Bernard Guillem de Entença to take charge
of the place (I would not leave till he came), a
message arrived by two knights Don Bernard sent,
saying that he was at Burriana and wished to see
ine. When I heard their message I thought that
Don Bernard had not brought his proper supplies.
I was not in good health at the time, and said to
the messengers, "For what does En Bernard
"Guillem want me at Burriana? I can do more
"for him here than I could at Burriana." They
said, “Any how he begs you to go there." I
replied, "I would willingly go, but I have been
"ill, and it is now July; if I expose myself to the
"heat, I fear that I shall get worse, so tell him to
come to me as well as he can, and risk it. He
"can speak with me here better than he could
"there." Thereupon the messengers went away,
and Don Bernard came next day. When I knew
that he was coming I went out to receive him.
There came with him up to a hundred knights.
When he met me he kissed my hand and I saluted
him. When that was done, I asked how it was
with him. He said, "Well."
"Well." I said, "I see you
"come well accompanied, but how is it with you
"for provisions?" When I had said that he
320 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
replied, "Let us go within, and I will speak with
you." As he said that, and did not give me an
answer, I thought as we went along that he had
not proper supplies with him. He told me that
besides the knights then with him full sixty knights
more were to come. When I heard that he had
brought more knights than I had ordered him to
bring, I concluded that all I had given him had
been spent in enlisting his force.
((
CCXIV.
After hearing that I went in, and he dined.
When he had eaten, and I had slept, I sent for
him to come to me; he came, and said he wished
to speak apart. with me, where no one else was.
I went aside, and he said to me: "I was unwilling
"to answer the question you asked me about the
supplies, for I have spent on the knights the
greatest part of the money you gave me to buy
provisions." "How is that?" said I; "have
you not brought supplies to Burriana by land
or by sea? You must know that I have none
here; on the contrary, the barons in my camp
themselves are in great distress. That is the
"reason why I am here waiting; for we have no
food, and if you have brought none, I can only
"tell you that you have played me a sad trick."
66
I have," said he, "in Tortosa, three hundred
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 321
I
"'cafizes' of wheat, Aragon measure, and fifty
hogs, but they are in pledge for fifteen hundred
"sols." I said, "By God! Don Bernard Guillem,
“a sad trick have you played me and yourself;
"for, relying on you, I had made no preparations;
"you cannot now keep your word to me, nor can
"I to you. Things here are run so close that the
knights with me will not stay unless they have
food, nor will your own knights either. Know
"for certain, that if it were not for your near kin-
"ship to me, and that I love you so much, I know
'no man in the world on whom I would not
66
(6
66
revenge myself for what you done to me. If
"this place is not held, perchance Valencia is lost.
"for ever; I shall never come again with so good
"a chance of taking that city." I added, "Go
hence, and think of it this night; I will pray Our
"Lord to give us good counsel, for certainly yours
"is bad." And he left me.
CCXV.
In the morning, after considering what had better
be done, I said to Don Bernard: "I see no way
"but this; I will go to Burriana. Do you give me
((
I Cafizes of wheat; a
“cafiz,”
or cahíz," is about twelve Eng-
lish bushels. The word is Arabic,
from. Cafiçada is the tract
of land requiring one cafiz of wheat
or other grain as seed. The Ara-
gonese measure, however, seems
to have been larger than that of
Castile.
2
Sols, about fifteen pounds of
our English moncy.
Y
322 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"what mules (atzembles) you have with you, and
"if I find any wheat there (beyond what the
"inhabitants must have for bare sustenance) I will
(6
I
send you all I can, and that must last you for
"fifteen days. I will thence go to Tortosa, and
from Tortosa I will send you supplies for two
months." I accordingly went to Burriana. When
I was about to raise the camp, I found that a
swallow had made her nest by the roundel on my
tent; so I ordered the men not to take it down till
the swallow had taken flight with her young ones,
as she had come trusting in my protection. They
sent the mules after me, and I loaded them with
bread, wine, and barley. I bought in the camp
sheep, cows, and goats, which had been brought in
by raids, and besides that, bespoke rations of meat
for a month. I then left Burriana for Tortosa, and
got there in two days. I loaded four vessels (lenys)
with bread, wine, barley, and salt meat for two
months, and sent all that to the people at the Puig.
CCXVI.
As I
Leaving Tortosa, I went to Tarragona.
was going into Tarragona, from the road above
Vilaseca, I saw many masts in Salou. I stopped
The original text of this
pretty story is, "Una horeneta
“havia fet un niu prop de la
"scudella del tendal: e manam
(6
que no levassen la tenda tro que
"ella sen fos anada ab sos fills,
(6
pus en nostra fe era venguda."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 323
there all day, and in the morning, at dawn, I said
to Fernando Perez de Pina, who was lying down
near me, "Are you asleep?" He said, "No,
my Lord."
I said: "Something has occurred to
"me which I think may be done in that matter
"of the Puig. Yesterday, as I passed Vilaseca,
"I saw masts in Salou; I believe they are loading
provisions for Mallorca. Get up at once; I will
to go
to go with you. Take
((
::
give you two porters'
possession of all, and
"vessels to come to me.
tell the owners of the
Before you leave [Salou]
"take note of all there is in writing, and bring away
"the rudders and the sails of the vessels, that they
(6
may not go away."
owners of the ships were brought before me, as
well as an inventory of everything there was
on board. I found I could give Don Bernard
Guillem de Entença at the Puig rations of flour
for three months, and of wine for six months, and
that there was besides salt meat and barley for
two months. I gave deeds to the merchants for
what I should pay them. I then went to Lerida,
and borrowed of the corporation (?) sixty thousand
sols; with that I paid the merchants, and with the
money that was over I sent people by sea to make
up the rations of bread and wine. After that I
went to Huesca.
Perez did what I said. The
I
"Dos porters," ushers or alguasils (?).
Y 2
324 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CCXVII.
Being at Huesca, there came to me a messenger,
a native of Huesca, name Guillem de Sales; he
came by order of Don Bernard Guillem de Entença
and of all the force I had left at the Puig; on
their behalf he saluted me. The man had a wound
in the face, and carried on it a bandage and lint.
He began by asking me for a reward for good
news (albixires).¹ I said to him that I would
willingly give him reward according as his news.
was. He said: "The news is such as will please
"and rejoice you. Here are letters from the barons
"and knights you left at the Puig; they say that
Zaen with all the power he could raise from
"Xativa to Onda, full six hundred knights and
forty thousand men on foot, came on such a day
very early, at sunrise, to attack the Puig; ten
66
(6
((
((
horsemen, who had gone to explore the land
'towards Valencia, hastily came back to the Puig,
"and made it known to Don Bernard Guillem de
66
Entença that Zaen was coming with all his army.
Thereon they heard mass and took the Sacrament,
"those who had not taken it; and all in armour went
"out of the Puig. They said, If we shut ourselves
"up in the town it will be worse for us; we shall
¹ Albixires (in Spanish "albri-
cias") comes from the Arabic
l, rei lætæ et optatæ nuntir.
"Pedir albricias de una nueva
buena," in Spanish, is to ask a
reward for good news.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 325
"be more easily taken than if we were outside
"They, therefore, commended themselves to Our
'Lord, and determined on having battle.
<<
CCXVIII.
"Meantime the Saracens came on, our vanguard
being at once attacked by the footmen of the
"frontier of Xerica, Segorbe, Liria, and Onda;
"their best warriors were put foremost. Their
"horsemen with the rest of the foot got in our
back, so that at their first onset our people had
((
to give way. But then our men returned again
"down the hill and recovered the ground they had
lost at first. The Saracens shouted and gained
ground again, the Christians drawing off towards
the castle hill. At this juncture there came a cry
"from the castle, from those who were looking on;
6X
I
(
they called out, Look at them; they will not
"resist. When the knights heard that cry, they
"said, 'Shame to you, shame,' and all cried with
"one voice, Saint Mary!' and charged the enemy.
"Then the rearguard of the Moors began to fly;
"they were higher up the hill than the others, and
"fled.
Then our vanguard attacked the Saracens
"and broke them. The battle was thus won, and
"the pursuit lasted as far as the Riu Seco, between
Torgos and Valencia; many died smitten by the
“
<<
<
sword, others without a wound. Of ours there died
I
"Vansen, Vansen e vencense."
326 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
(6
(6
"(
Ruiz Xemenez de Luziá, who on the first onset
went so far into the enemy's ranks that no one
saw him again till he was found dead. There
died also his son, the eldest son of Don Exemen
"Perez de Terga,' and another who bore the pennon
"of Don Bernard Guillem. There were besides.
"several knights wounded, who, however, did not
"die of their wounds.
((
"When the knights and townsmen of Teruel
'heard that the Christians had won the battle, but
"had lost many knights, from seventy to eighty of
“them mounted their horses and rode to the Puig,
"where they arrived at tierce on the second day."
CCXIX.
I was at Huesca when I heard the news, and
immediately made it known to the Orders. I
myself went to the cathedral, knelt before Jesus of
Nazareth, and had a Te Deum Laudamus sung by
the bishop and canons. I then went to Daroca,
and sent a message to all the chivalry of the place
to come to me. I also sent for the principal men
of the town and the heads of the villages, and had
them before me. When in my presence I prayed
and commanded them to have a thousand mules
within five days at Teruel, without fail. They said
that since God had hitherto guided me so well
· Elsewhere Triergua.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 327
and I wished it, they would do it. I then went to
Teruel, and sent round the villages, in the same
way, to bid them come to me and have within
three days a thousand mules equipped for carrying
provisions to the Puig. They said they would do
anything I might order, but that eighty horse-
men from Teruel were already there at the Puig,
where I would find them. I then prayed Fernandez
Diez to lend me wheat to load the two thousand
mules with. He said he would do it; they would
send round the villages and bring the wheat to
Sarrio; they would also meet us on the road and
not make us wait. I started with my own train of
retainers and a hundred horsemen besides, and I
reached the Puig, taking up my quarters at the
Alcubles. While I was there some one came to
me and said that Zaen, King of Valencia, was at
Liria with all his power, and would give us battle. I
said to the man, "Let him come if he dare, for I
shall certainly go on." I left the Alcubles, and with
our loaded mules and armoured horses went up to
the Puig with spread banners. Don Berenguer de
Entença and the knights of the Orders who were
there, came out to receive me, with En Guillem de
Aguiló and the others. I rejoiced much with them,
and they with me, over the good fortune that had
befallen us. All, however, could not come out to
receive me, for they had lost no less than eighty-six
horses in the last battle.
328 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CCXX.
2
Then I sent a message to En Exemen Perez
of Tarragona, who was at that time my lord
high steward for all the kingdom of Aragon,' to
send me sixty horses, none to cost more than a
hundred "morabitins." At this time there came to
me at the Puig, Don Artal de Alagon and Don
Pedro Cornell; they came because they had got
my message to come to me at the Puig. From
them I got word that the horses I had sent for
were already at Teruel; and I said to Don Bernard
Guillem, Don Bernard de Entença, En Guillem
Aguiló and the other knights who were at the Puig,
that I would before they left the castle replace all
the horses they had lost, for which they gave me
great thanks; moreover, that I would give up to
them one-fifth of all the spoils, because of their good
behaviour in the last battle; for all which they
returned me thanks, saying they knew and acknow-
ledged that I had done them great grace. I then
sent word to those who were bringing the horses,
and who were at Teruel, to bring them to Segorbe;
but as they dared not bring the horses except under
the escort of horsemen, I myself went to Segorbe
Reboster maior; in Spanish,
repostero mayor was the chief
steward in the king's house-
hold.
2 Alagó is the true Provençal,
or Catalonian, form of this proper
name, which in Aragon and Cas-
tile is written Alagon. The same
remark applies to Corneil, Cornell,
&c..
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 329
with a party. When I had been a day at Segorbe
the barons arrived with the horses. I prayed and
ordered them to tell the men not to sell their horses
too dearly because I had such need of them, but
meet us fairly. I would pay for them what they
were worth and more. They said they would
willingly do it. I then spoke with the knights, care-
fully examined the horses I wanted, and bought
forty-six of them which cost me sixty thousand
sols, thus making up eighty-six with those I had
sent for to Aragon. The nobles then returned to
Aragon, and I remained with fourteen knights.
CCXXI.
After that I returned to the Puig by way of
Murviedro. When I was near Murviedro I pro-
posed passing it by the hill above the castle, not
more than two crossbow shots off; some of my
people saying that it would be better to go by the
valley of Segon. But a knight, whose name I do not
remember at the present moment, said that I should
pass over the hill, we could very well get past before
they made us out. His opinion seemed to me the
best; and I said to them: "Do you as I say. I
"have here no pennon or banner, but I have a
horse-cloth, let us make a banner of it, and put
"ourselves and the horses into a clump. We will
66
carry our lances, shields, and iron caps, and will
330 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"go on the side between the horses and the castle,
"so close to the horses that they will think we are
66
'in greater number than we really are." So it
was done, all who were with me agreeing as to that.
And as we passed by, full a thousand Saracens
came out on the hill-side of Murviedro, with five
horsemen; they shouted and hooted, but dared
not come near us. So by God's will I got past
[Murviedro] and reached the Puig. The day I got
there I divided the eighty-six horses among those
who had lost theirs.
CCXXII.
When that was done I took leave of Don Bernard
Guillem de Entença, Don Guillem Aguiló, and the
knights; they came out with me as far as Puçol,
whence I made them go back, for I would not leave
the Puig without a garrison to defend it. I left
there also the horses of four or five knights who
came with me. I went that day to Burriana : it
was a fast day. After dinner En Guillem Aguiló
came all dismayed. I said, "How come you, in
such dismay?" He said he had come by sea in
a vessel. I asked if it was well with those at the
Puig. He said, "Yes, right well; but when I left
"them they said there was stirring news at the
place." Don Pedro Cornell was with us. One of
my suit then inquired: "What news was there?
En Guillem answered: "At the Puig they said that
""
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 331
"Zaen would be there to-morrow morning with all
"his power." I and all with me then said: "How
66
can that be? We left [the Puig] this very morn-
"ing, when there was not a word of that." En
Guillem replied: "I know for truth Zaen knew of
“your departure the moment you left the Puig, and
"that all the Saracens as far as Castellon and Con-
66
66
I
centayna have been gathered together. As soon
as the Saracens knew that you had left the Puig
they would surely come down so was the talk
"in the garrison." I and all the others held it for
nought; we believed that it could not be, and took
no heed of the news.
CCXXIII.
At midnight there was a very hard knocking at
the gate of the town: the porter came in to me
and said, "Some one knocks very hard at the gate
"of the town; he is on horseback, and says he
"wishes to speak with you." I told him to open
the gate; then Don Pedro Cornell came to me, and
I said to him, "Now we shall hear if the news
brought by En Guillem de Aguiló be true or not."
Don Pedro Cornell said, "By my faith, I fear so!"
And without delay Sancho de Mora entered with
his purpoint or quilted coat on, with his sword girt,
and his head uncovered, for he had taken his iron
I
Castalla, in the new edition.
332
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon.
1
(C
cap off; and he said: "My lord, God preserve
you! By order of
By order of Don Bernard Guillem de
Entença I come here with a message to Don
"Pedro Cornell, for he would not send word to
you direct."
Don Pedro Cornell said, “What
66
((
is the message?" He said: "He sends me to
tell you that Zaen with all his power will be to-
"morrow morning at the Puig, and that he must give
"him battle. If Don Bernard saw you in such
"a plight, he would not fail you, and therefore he
prays you to come to his succour." I said,
"Battle?" He said,
He said, "Yes, my lord, surely they
will be there this morning." On that, Don Pedro
Cornell said: My lord, I will tell you what to
do; we will accompany you as far as the Grau
of Oropesa, after which you have nothing to fear.
"If you go at once, I shall be the sooner back for
66
(6
'the battle since Don Bernard Guillem has sent
;
"for me, I will not fail him." And I said: "By
"the faith I owe to God and to you, Don Pedro
((
Cornell, it shall not be so; it was I who left my
“people at that place; they stayed there relying on
"God and on me, and as I am near them, they
"shall not fight a second battle without me." Don
Pedro replied: "My lord, do not do so; that is
"not for you to do; you ought to send us to such
things as these are, and not go yourself." I said:
((
((
Know, Don Pedro Cornell, that for nothing in
"the world will I not go; leave that talk, for
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 333
66
nothing shall persuade me." And to that some one
observed, “It well beseems a king not to abandon
his vassals so covertly." I heard all what they
said about it. Don Alaman de Sadaua was ill in
Burriana; he had a good steed; I sent one of
my own people to him to ask him to lend it to
me, as I had to go back to the Puig for the battle;
The gladly lent it to me.
CCXXIV.
I took horse at midnight, and went along the
sea shore. I had my chaplain with me, and when
I had got past Almenara, I said I would hear mass
and would confess, lest I had forgotten any sins, and
that all of us should take the Sacrament. I heard
mass, and every one who chose took the Sacrament.
As I went along, Don Fortuny Lopez de Sadaua
(who was a good knight, and had a habit of calling
every one he liked "nephew ") came up to me, and
said: "My lord, what do you think will become
of us to-day?" By my faith," said I, "to-day
the flour will be sifted from the bran! Then he
embraced me, and said, "God give us good luck!"
When I was near the river at Murviedro, Don
Martin Perez (he who was afterwards Justicia of
Aragon) came to me, and said: "My lord, you
"should send two knights to the Puig to know
"what news there is or is not, and how things.
(C
")
334
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon.
"are." I said, "Do you go then." He said,
"Give me someone to accompany me, and I
will go." I gave him a companion, and he went;
and before we got within a half a league of the
Puig, he came at full speed to me. When I saw
him come in that way I thought what I had heard
was truth, and said, "What news bring you?
He said, "Good; all is well with them at the
Puig, and there is no truth in what they told
you."
((
CCXXV.
"}
When I got to the Puig I held council with Ber-
nard Guillem de Entença and others about making a
foray in the plain of Valencia. I sent out "adalils
for that purpose, fifty horsemen; and they brought
in Saracens, about twelve men and fifty women,
who had gone out of the city, some for wood, and
others for food. When they came I asked them
if the Saracens had made any other gathering to
come against the Puig; I asked this of each
separately that they might not concert their answer.
They said that there was no gathering but of the
people of the town. When I heard that, I said to my
knights that I intended to go away, for certainly my
going was better than my staying there waiting for
1
Adalils is the plural of J
(dalil), with the article ad-dalil,
which Spaniards write adalid,
having turned the final into d.
It is, properly speaking, the
leader or guide of an army, and
comes from
ŵ
رد
دل
to guide.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 335
the enemy.
I could do better, I said, sending them
help for their wants from Catalonia and Aragon,
than by remaining with them. That day each
of our knights before parting gave to a friend [at
the Puig], some their iron caps, and some their good
lances if they had any, and I myself departed for
Burriana. I told Don Bernard Guillem to turn
back from the hamlet called Puçol, and he at my
command turned back. Don Bernard de Entença
said that he had to speak with me, and he followed
me to near the river of Murviedro. He had with
him about twelve knights, all of whom had horses,
arms, and quilted coats (perpunts), and who turned
back with him.
I
CCXXVI.
When he had left me and I had crossed the
river near the beginning of the marsh that goes
to the sea, Miguel Garces, who was of Navarre,
and has now settled in Sariñena, and the scouts
(troters) who went before the host called, "To
arms!"
Don Pedro Cornell, who heard the cry,
seized his arms and spurred forward; but I be-
thought myself, took his rein and said: "What is
"it, Don Pedro Cornell? is that the war-call of
"Xea? Do you wait here, and let us see first what
"it is before you are carried away by your ardour."
I
2
* Alqueria, from all, which
means the hamlet or village.
2 (6 Que sera, don Pero Cornell?
es apelido de Xea aço?”
336 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
There were then with me Don Exemen de Foces,
Don Ferran Perez de Pina, and Don Fortuny
Lopez de Çadava. Between my own men, those
of Don Pedro Cornell, and those of Don Exemen
de Foces, we might be fully seventeen. Don
Fortuny Lopez had only a helmet (barbuda²),
which he put on his head, and a scarlet robe 3
(garnatxa), which he put on his body; he rode a
mule and carried a lance; we had no horses in
armour, only our quilted coats (perpunts), our iron
caps, and lances. Meantime our scouts (troters)
drew off towards the sea as if they wished to get
shelter in a barque, in which Don Guillem de
Aguiló was going off.
CCXXVII.
4
Presently there came two muleteers, and I asked
what they carried; they said seven suits of armour
for man and horse. I ordered them to unload
arm horses with them. A
them at once, and to
I Sadaua?
2 Forepart of a helmet covering
the cheeks, the mouth, and the
chin, in Spanish "babera." In
the Exposicio des vocables oscur´s,
at the beginning of the edition
of 1557, the meaning is given
"armadura de cap feyta
barbelleres."
as,
3 "Guarnaja es armadura de cos
Ilugera feyta de malla," or what
was then called "coat of mail"; but
I suspect that the interpreter mis-
took "guarnage," or "guarnatxe,"
which might well mean a mail-
coat, for "garnatxe," sorte d'habit
long, ou manteau, whence the
Spanish garnacha; i.e. granacha,
: la scarlet robe still used by men of
law.
4 Adzemblers; in Spanish,
“azemileros,” from azemila, ällj,
a beast of burden.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 337
((
knight, whose name I do not remember, said,
Why do you not send for Don Berenguer de
Entença? he could still come in good time.”
I ordered Domingo de Fraga, one of my own
porters, to go for him and tell him to come as
soon as he could, since he saw how it stood with
While they were arming the horses I put on
a gonio," and iron footpieces on my feet; but
while I had put on the right one, one of my people
came up running and said, "Lo! here come the
Saracens!" I threw the shoe from my leg, saying:
us.
((
I
It matters not whether my feet are protected or
not, if my body and the horse are armoured." I rode
forward; the enemy were preparing to charge us; I
reckoned there might be a hundred and thirty horse-
men,2 between Don Artal de Alagon and his com-
pany, and the Saracens. I did not know certainly
that Don Artal was there. Before I armed myself,
the Saracens had taken Miquel Garces and an ass
which carried the bed of Don Exemen de Foces; 4
that was when I caused Don Pedro Cornell to
stop. I had scarcely mounted my horse when a
knight, who bore the pennon of Don Pedro Cornell,
The original reads "gōyjo,"
which I believe to be a misprint
for gonio. See above, p. 136,
note I.
2❝E caualcam al cauall, e els
(les ?) altres foren dreçats per
"venir contra nos, e asmauemlos
que eren be CXXX a cauall,
3
(6
entre Don Artal Dalago e sa
companya e els sarrahins," says
the text.
3"E nos no sabiam que Don
Artal Dalago hi fos," says the text
of all the editions.
4 Written Fosses.
N
338 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
and carried it behind me, was thus addressed by
Don Fortuny Lopez de Sadava,¹ "Blockhead that
66
you are! bear the pennon before the king, and
"not at his back." And the knight accordingly set
the pennon before me. Then Don Ferran Perez de
Pina said: "The enemy are many, and you are here
"with few men; there is nothing to be done for us,
"but to put ourselves forward and die; there is no
“help for it unless we go back to the Puig." I
said to him: "Don Ferran Perez, that will I not
"do, I never fled before the enemy yet, nor know
"I how to fly; but this I say, that whatever God
"orders for my lot, that will I share with them." I
took post on a hillock. The Saracens turned about
twice to attack me; but Our Lord willed it that
they should not come, and I got away from them.
A month after this some one said that Don Artal
[was with the Saracens], and knew that I was
there, and forbade them to attack me.
But it was
not so, for Miquel Garces who was their prisoner
had not been taken to him yet, and I had no
ensign or
or banner by which they could know
me except perhaps that of Don Pedro Cornell.
I
1 Fortuny Lopis de Sadaua.
See above, p. 336. The words
translated by Blockhead, &c., are
thus given in the original: "Baueca
"dom metets lo peno dauant
"lo Rey e nol tengate a les
'epalles." Baueca is for Babieca,
(6
the name of the horse belonging
to the Cid. In the Exposicio des
vocables oscurs the word baueça
is thus explained: "En lo capit.
❝65 baueça es dit bastia, e home
"fat y de poch saber.”
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 339
Afterwards, when the thing was over, I believe
that Miquel Garces really told them that I was
there. Meanwhile, the enemy saw Don Bernard de
Entença coming, whereupon after crossing the olive
grounds and fig gardens of the valley of Segon,
they moved slowly to Almenara, and I was really
glad when I saw them go away.
CCXXVIII.
Just as the Saracens began to retreat, Don Ber-
nard arrived; I asked him to go with me, and he
said he would, gladly; and that he would not part
from me till such a time at Burriana. I expected
the people of La Rapita to come out to me, but
they did not. When I got to Burriana, Don
Pedro Cornell asked me to eat and rest there all
day. I said, "Don Pedro Cornell, those are not
"the ways of war; through resting man sometimes
'loses much; by my faith I say I will not eat or
"drink to-night till I reach Orpesa." He asked why
not? "For this reason," said I; "should the Sara-
❝cens during this night have gone on to the Grau of
"Orpesa; they would overtake us altogether in the
66
((
morning, and destroy us. But surely they cannot
yet have passed there, so as to be between us and
"that town. Let us, then, go on to Orpesa, and
sleep there; thence we can go on in safety. Let
"Don Berenguer return and march all night; he
Z 2
340 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"has nothing to fear from the enemy; they will not
"attend to his movements as they will to mine."
So he [Don Pedro] took his leave, and went away.'
CCXXIX.
I then ordered that none of our men should
stay in the town, but should follow me; only I,
Don Pedro Cornell, and Pere Palasi left the town.²
When I had crossed the river Millars, a cross-
bowman came at a gallop on horseback with his
quilted coat (perpunt) on, his iron cap on his head, and
his crossbow bent. Pere Palasi said, "See what a
cavalier comes scampering towards us!" I and Don
Pedro Cornell were going towards the cavalier, when
Pere Palasi said, "I will go myself; it is not for you
to do that." We stopped, and Palasi asked the man
why he came galloping in that manner, and with his
crossbow bent as if he meant to shoot at us. He
said, "My lord, I am a dead man." I asked him,
"How is that?" He said,
"Aben Lop had lain in
"ambush for the commander of Orpesa at the hill
"on this side of the Grau, and has taken the com-
“mander prisoner." I said, "Were you with the
"commander?" He said, "Yes, my lord, I was.
"And how is it," said I, "that you dare come
I
"E pres nostre comiat e
anasen."
* "E nos manam que nul hom
"nostre no romangues en la vila
e quens seguissen, e no exim de
"la vila sino nos don P. Cornell,
"e P. Palasi." What town?
Oropesa? The passage, on the
whole, is anything but clear.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
341
"here when your lord is a prisoner, and that you
come with your crossbow bent, and turned towards
"me as if you wanted to kill me?
66
"shoot at the Saracens than at me.
You had better
You timid boy,'
"how could you thus desert your lord? If you were
"taken prisoner you would get out of captivity for
66
one hundred and fifty sols, or for two hundred sols
"at the most; and you have deserted him on the
"field! By Christ, you never did so bad a deed in
"all your life; dismount at once from the horse."
He said, "My lord, why am I to dismount ?" I said,
"For what you have done." I then took from him
his horse, his quilted coat (perpunt), his iron cap,
and his crossbow, and left him only his cassock 2
(gonella), and he had to come after us on foot.
CCXXX.
When I had gone a mile (miller) from the river, I
waited for my train. When it had joined me, we
all went in a body to the Grau, and took up quarters
there, it being already dark when we got to Orpesa.
I had brought from Burriana meat, bread, and wine.
We ate, laid down, and slept till morning; in the
morning I heard mass; the place belonged then to
the Hospital. That day I went to Ulldecona, and
entered Tortosa the next day. I then sent requi-
sitions round the towns of Aragon and Catalonia,
1 “Bacallar pudent.”
2 "Gonelle" in old French is
(6
the same as casaque d'homme."
See above, p. 136, note.
342
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
and summoned all men who held feuds from my
crown,' and also the cities, to be at Easter with the
army I was to lead against Valencia; and I forth-
with went into Aragon. When I was at Zaragoza,
Don Fernando, Don Blasco de Alagon, Don Exe-
men Urrea, Don Rodrigo Liçana, Don Pedro Cor-
nell, Don Garcia Romeu, and Don Pedro Fernandez
de Açagra came to me, so as to make a court
though I had not summoned them.
CCXXXI.
I had been at Zaragoza eight days or more, when
there came a message to me that En Bernard Guil-
lem de Entença was dead; the barons knew it
before me, and agreed that they would all come
to me and tell me of his demise, that I might delibe-
rate as to what should be done at the Puig of Santa
Maria after his death. They came all sorrowful
before me, and told Don Fernando to undertake the
task of telling me of the death of En Bernard
Guillem. When they entered I knew by their faces
that they had got bad news. I told the barons to
send out of the room all except themselves, Fernan
Perez de Pina, and En Bernard Vidal, a learned
man who accompanied me; all went away. Then
Don Fernando began his discourse for himself
and the others, and said, " My lord, all things in
"Tenien feu per nos."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 343
66
((
"the world have been made by Our Lord, and
"He undoes them when it pleases him. We are
"bound to you to do everything that can profit
you, and every disadvantage that befalls you must
grieve us. We have had news of what may do
you hurt, unless you quickly take thought about
"it. News we have that grieve us much, for the
"sake of a man of much worth, and for your own
"sake also. We make it known to you that En
"Bernard Guillem de Entença is dead; we know it
“for certain, and as he held of you so great a post,
"and so honourable, on the border, it is needful for
66
'you to take counsel as to what you are to do.”
CCXXXII.
When I heard Don Fernando's words I was
greatly troubled, and I could not answer for a space
of time, for the great grief I had felt at the death
of En Bernard. But after a time I forced myself
to answer them, and said: "The death of En Ber-
"nard Guillem grieves me much for many reasons;
"first because he was my near relative, my uncle
on the mother's side, and I had entrusted to him
“a place so dear to me as the Puig is, for by the
help of that, Valencia, I fancy, and its kingdom
"can be taken. And it grieves me for another
66
<<
((
reason, even more than all I have said, for that
he himself was good and loyal, and that he had
"much at heart to serve me; and he has died in
344 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
Yet I comfort myself
every good Christian
"God's service and my own.
"with this, that his soul, as
"must believe, will go to a good place. But I
me.
am so troubled by this news of his death, that
"to-night I cannot see or listen for grief; but to-
"morrow at morning mass, come all of ye to me,
"and we will take counsel together as to what
"is to be done respecting the place." All said
that I spoke well, and that they would come to
Next morning I heard mass in my own house,
which I would not leave, that people might not
know the grief in which I was. All came, and
I went with them into a room, and prayed and
commanded them to give me counsel and aid as to
what to do in so great a business as that. They said
they would go apart, and hold their council, and
would then come to me, and tell me their opinion.
I said that it was not necessary to go away from
me, but since they wished it, I was content. They
went away to deliberate; at the end of an hour
they returned and told Don Blasco de Alagon to
say what they had determined on, as he knew more
of Valencia than they, for he had been there for
two or three years. Don Blasco objected for a
time to speaking for them; but all said with one
voice that they wished him to speak, and Don
Blasco said he would say what they had resolved
on when away; and he said:
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 345
(6
(C
((
((
terests, and
CCXXXIII.
My lord, this is what we all have seen
"and thought. We have to consider your in-
and not only your interests, but the
outlay you must be at in keeping the Puig.
"You have not revenue enough for achieving so
great an enterprise as you have begun, and so
"it seems to us you should order your men to
come back; another time you may have better
means prepared for conquering Valencia than
now you have; the more you spend on that
place, unless you succeed, the worse will it be
"for you and for us. With all that, you can
<<
((
return hereafter to take Valencia, and with God's
"will you may take it." After this speech, Don
Fernando said: "My lord, remember that' when
"we began this business of the Puig, I said you
"could not finish it, and that you would make a
great outlay in vain; we are all of the opinion
"of Don Blasco." I then wished to know if the
others were of that opinion, and they all agreed
that they were.
CCXXXIV.
My answer was that I did not expect, to have
such a counsel from them; what I was doing I did
for the service of God, and none of my house had
ever done the same. The death of Don Bernard
346 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
Guillem was the death of one of my barons who
had defeated in the field the power of the King
of Valencia, and done the greater part of the work
towards conquering the kingdom. 'If on account
"of that death I should abandon the Puig, all
"would say that all the merit of holding the place
was his; but I will show to the world that such
my nature and such my courage, that the death.
"of Don Bernard will not be felt, not even if four
(6
is
or five such as he was were lost. I tell you that
"the place will not be abandoned, and that from it I
"will take Valencia and all the rest of the country
"afterwards." None of the barons assented ex-
cept Fernan Perez de Pina and En Bernard Vidal,
though they dared not say so before the others,
only aside. I ordered all who were there to be
with me at Easter; I would go immediately to
the Puig and comfort the garrison there, till the
army went to their assistance.
CCXXXV.
At the appointed time I went to the Puig with
fifty knights of my own household. Don Exemen
de Urrea came with me, and I ordered the son
of En Bernard Guillem, whose name was En
Guillem de Entença, to come with me; he might
be between ten and eleven years old at the time.
When I got there I found Don Berenguer and
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 347
En Guillem de Aguiló, and the knights of the
Hospital, the Temple, Calatrava and Ucles
(Santiago) in discouragement. I found that they
had the dead man in his coffin, and were waiting
for orders. I comforted them by my words, and
told them not to have fear because their lord was
dead, for I would be their lord, and would do for
them what he did for their gain and advantage,
and more.
I then had En Bernard Guillem buried
till such time as I could carry him to Escarp,' where
he himself had prepared his tomb.
CCXXXVI.
Next morning, after mass, I sent for his son,
En Guillem de Entença, who was there with me;
I made him a knight, and granted him all the land
that his father held of me. And the knights and
the others who saw that I behaved well to the
son and to those who had remained by the father,
gave me great thanks for it, and prayed to Our
Lord that He would give me a happy life, for the
good example I had made of the son, and my
resolution to hold that place. When that business
was settled, I made arrangements for supplying the
garrison till Easter, when I would again come with
the whole of my army; and I made Don Berenguer
de Entença governor of the place in the room of
• A celebrated monastery.
348 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
En Bernard Guillem. But when the men knew
that I wished to depart, they agreed with one
another (the greater part of them parleying apart)
that as soon as I was gone they would quit the
Puig; some, for business they had at home, some,
for bad excuses they invented, because they did
not wish to stay there. I knew nothing of all
that; but there were inside the place two Dominican
friars, to confess and to preach, one called Friar
Pedro of Lerida, and another whose name I do
not recollect, and they came to us. Friar Pedro
said that he wished to speak apart with me, and
then told me that he wished to depart with me
and not remain at the Puig. I said to him: "Why
"do you wish to go? You are much needed here,
"for one thing, to preach to them; for another,
"that if one of them came to die, you could con-
"fess him better than a chaplain who knows
(
((
nothing at all about it."
you why I wish to go.
He said: "I will tell
He said:
More than sixty knights,
"all men of account, of the best in this place, have
spoken to me, and have said that they will leave,
((
by day or by night, whenever you go." I said to
Friar Pedro: "It is a great marvel to me; they have
conquered in battle, I have made good to them
"the horses they had lost, and have besides engaged
"to supply them with all they might need for their
sustenance; how is it they cannot hold out till
"Easter, to which there are but two months, when
("
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon. 349
"I promise to come here with my army, and then
"go and besiege Valencia ?" Friar Pedro replied :
(6
((
I
Know, my lord, that if you depart it will cer-
tainly be 'viafors' with them; they will also
"go; and that is why neither I nor my companion
"can stay here. For my part, I do not choose to
"die till it is God's will that I should, that is, if I
"
can help it." I said to him, "Go you away; I
"must reflect all to-night, and to-morrow morning
"will give you an answer." The friars went away,
and left me in great concern, for the whole thing
seemed to me as a spider's web. After so much
work on my part, to lose it all in an hour! That
which I had managed to keep up together by dint
of so many prayers, and so many “honors" bestowed
on them, thus to be undone! Were I and my
knights now to give it up, great damage and great
hurt and shame would befall us all!
CCXXXVII.
Then I went to bed, without disclosing to any
one of those with me what Friar Pedro had said.
Though it was then January, and very cold, I turned
more than a hundred times from one side of the bed
to the other, and I sweated as if in a hot bath.
After a great deal of thinking I at last went to
sleep, worn out with fatigue and the want of rest.
¹ Catalan expression equivalent to sauve qui peut, or “all out.”
350 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
Between midnight and dawn I awoke and returned
to my anxious cares, and bethought me of what bad
people I had to deal with, for in the world there are
I
no people so arrogant as knights are; they would
not, when I left, feel any shame in stealing away by
night or by day and going to Burriana, which is
only seven leagues off; and through the country, as
I had conquered it, they might go, whether they
were many or few, when they pleased, without need
of an escort. I reflected how, by the help of God
and of His Mother, I had conquered from Tortosa
down to Burriana; and if that place of the Puig
were abandoned and lost, so might be the other
places I had taken. Wherefore I determined to
go in the morning to the Church of Saint
Mary, and call a council of the knights and all
the others. Before addressing them, I asked Friar
Pedro if he wished me to keep secret what he had
told me; he said, no, on the contrary, that it would
please him that I disclosed it. When all were
met in my presence I said: Barons, I know
"well and believe that you and all who are in
((
""
Spain know the great grace that our Lord showed
"me in my youth in the conquest of Mallorca
"and the other islands, and of what I have since
"conquered from Tortosa down to this place. You
"are here assembled to serve God and me. Now
Friar Pedro, of Lerida, spoke last night with me,
1 "Car elmon non ha tan sobrer poble com son cauallers."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
351
"and said that the greater part of you would go
away if I went; and I marvel much at it, for my
departure, I intended it to be for your advantage
"and that of our enterprise; but since I understand
66
("
that my departure disturbs you" (I said this
standing up), "I promise before God and this altar
"of His Mother, that I will not go beyond Teruel
"and the river at Tortosa till I have taken Valencia.
"I will send for the Queen, my wife, and for my
daughter (who is now Queen of Castile), to
come, that you may understand what a will I
"have to stay here, and conquer this kingdom
"for God's service."
(6
ઃઃ
I
CCXXXVIII.
When they heard those words of mine there was
no one in the church who did not take to weeping,
and I with them. I said: "Now be comforted,
"for I will not leave this till the city of Valencia be
"taken." They went away all joyful and content
with the good fare of the
That discourse ended, and
¹ The king, or the writer of the
Chronicle, did not intend the
words I have placed in a paren-
thesis to be understood as uttered
in his speech, but rather as ex-
planatory of it. This daughter,
Violante or Yolande, being the
child of the king's second mar-
riage, February 20th, 1234, can-
not have been more than three
words I had spoken.
they having left me, I
years old at this time. She mar-
ried in 1246 the Infante, Don
Alfonso, who became King of
Castile in 1252, after which date,
of course, the author of the
Chronicle must have written this
passage.
Her title of Roman
Empress is not mentioned; Al-
fonso X.'s (contested) election as
Emperor was in 1256.
352 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
forthwith sent my messengers to the Queen to come
to Tortosa, and to my uncle, Don Fernando, to
come with her. I stayed at the Puig after I had
said that full fifteen days, and then I departed for
Peñiscola, for I would not cross the Ebro, seeing
what engagement I had taken.
CCXXXIX.
And on the day I had appointed for the
Queen to be at Tortosa and Don Fernando with
her, they sent to me, at Peñiscola, word that they
had arrived. I sent them a message to come to
Peñiscola, for I could not cross the Ebro on account
of the agreement made with the knights at the
Puig; on their arrival I would tell them why I had
made such an agreement. But when the Queen,
my wife, and Don Fernando left Tortosa to come
to me, there came great rain, so great that when
they had to cross the Ulldecona river only one
knight could cross, who crossed by his horse swim-
ming; they told him before he crossed to come to
me at Peñiscola and tell me that the Queen and
Don Fernando had come to Ulldecona, but could
not cross the river with the ladies, and that I was
to send them word what to do. I told the mes-
senger that I myself would go there. After dinner
I took horse; the rain had ceased, but there was
I The Cenia.
I
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 353
such a sea raised by the wind that when the waves
struck the Castle of Peñiscola on the side of the Grau
of Tortosa they went over to the other side of the
castle, and when others came from the Oropesa side,
they too went over the castle on to the sand. I left,
and found that the water at Ulldecona had gone
down, but not much. I passed without swimming, but
the water was still high, and went up to the saddle
flaps. I found there the Queen and Don Fernando,
who had already heard what I had said to the
barons and knights at the Puig. I nevertheless
spoke apart with the Queen and Don Fernando,
and told them again what I had done at the Puig
because of the knights wishing all to return home
if I left at that time and season. I told them how,
when I learned the wish of those knights and heard
their intention, which was to abandon the place, not-
withstanding they had nothing to fear after the battle
they had won, since I had replaced the horses
they had lost and was leaving them food enough,
yet for all that they would not stay in the place,
and cared not for the mischief they would bring
about. I also told them how I insisted upon their
remaining there because the place was of much
consequence to me for the strong works I had
built there, which would be destroyed through
their baseness and weakness if I did not hinder
it, and because I feared two things: one, that
God would be offended at my undoing what He
A A
354
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
had done so well; the other, shame before the
world, that men could blame me and yet speak
truly.'
""
CCXL.
Upon that my uncle Don Fernando answered and
said, he wondered much at the plan I had formed,
and was about to act on. To take Valencia was a
great thing; what I wished, my predecessors had
till then been unable to accomplish. "Not to be able
(he said) to enter your own kingdoms because of
your engaging to accomplish so great a thing; not
"to speak with your lieges nor they with you, would
"be what could not be; such a great thing could not
"be done!" The Queen agreed with what Don
Fernando said, for on their road to Ulldecona
they had agreed they would speak thus.
(6
CCXLI.
I saw their wish was that I should go to Cata-
lonia and Aragon. But for all they said to me, I
did not give up the good design I had formed.
I told them that I came from the spot and knew how
things were; I had seen and heard them, and they
• This confused and tautologi-
cal passage suggests strongly the
belief that it was taken down
from the dictation of an old man
reviving his remembrance of old
troubles. The passage stands
thus: "Et quant nos entenem la
"lur volentat, ja fos ço que nols
"calia tembre res per la batalla
que haviem vençuda, e nos quels
"haviem smenat los caualls que
"haviem e quels lexauem prou
que manjar, per tot aço no volien
"romanir en aquell lloch," &c
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 355
themselves had not. I said:
I said: “Don Fernando, I ask
you how could I take Valencia if the Puig were
"abandoned? Before I laid siege to Valencia the
"Saracens could harvest what they have sown; if I
"went to Catalonia and Aragon before I had done
"deliberating with my lieges as to what had to be
done, certainly the Moors would have gathered in
what they have sown, for Valencia and its country is
"a very warm land, and such a town as Valencia
"if conquered must be taken by famine. Let us
((
((
((
not give them time to get grain, or supplies, or
"succour from any quarter; that is the best way
"I can find to take Valencia. Again, I have given
my solemn word that I will not pass the Ebro
or Teruel till Valencia be taken; and my agree-
“ment I cannot break, with the help of God and
"of those who hold fiefs from me in Catalonia and
"honors' in Aragon, and of the archbishops and
"the bishops who promised me aid when I held
"Cortes at Monzon. I have sent them word that
46
I
they are to come here with what they promised,
"and with God's will I shall have done so much
"before you arrive that everything will be ready
"for taking Valencia; for before you come the
Saracens cannot have harvested the wheat and
barley. You will come in time. I commend you
<<
(C
I "Nostres feus en Catalunya e
honors en Aragon." Feus (from
feudum) and honors are synony-
mous; both meaning an estate or
piece of land held in fief from a
superior on condition of fidelity
and certain services, which were
in general of a military nature.
A A 2
356 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"to God. Take care to come; you will find the
((
table served; and no otherwise will I do." He
and the Queen, seeing that it could not be other-
wise, asked me for some grants for their own ad-
vantage, which I readily gave. Don Fernando
returned, and I and the Queen next morning
crossed the river, whose waters had fallen con-
siderably. In two days I returned to Burriana,
left the Queen there, and returned next day to
the Puig, where they had great joy at our coming,
and seeing that I bore them in mind so well.
CCXLII.
Zaen, finding that I had set my heart on the
business, and made my wife come, was seized
with great fear; he sent Ali Albaca [with a
message] to Don Fernando Diez, whom he was
to make swear on the Gospels not to disclose it.
After that, Fernando Diez came, and said he
wished to speak to me in secret of something to
my great profit. When I heard that, I drew apart
to a chamber in the house in which I was lodging.
He asked me to keep the thing secret, and then
said: "There has, my lord, come
lord, come to you the
((
greatest fortune and the greatest honour that
"ever came to a man of your house. Zaen has
" sent me a message by Ali Albaca, which he
"made me swear on the Gospels to disclose only
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 357
(6
2
"to you; he says that he would bind himself
"to this, to give up to you all the castles from
"the Guadalviar to Tortosa,' and from Tortosa
"to Teruel; to build for you an alcazar (fortress-
palace) in the Çaidia; and to pay you besides
every year henceforth, in the city of Valencia, ten
thousand besants as rent." When I heard that
proposal I thought it in my heart a good and fine
one, and that it was a great thing that they would
give me; yet I said I would think of it.
I was
a great space of time thinking, as long as one
could walk a mile in, and then I said: "Fernando
66
(6
Diez, I know and believe that you would seek my
profit and honour; but this thing is one that I
"will not do, for this reason: I have arrived at a
"time and a point at which I can take Valencia,
"and so I intend having the hen and the chickens
"
((
too." Don Fernando wondered and crossed him-
self, and said he marvelled much that I should
refuse such offers, for (said he) "had this proposal
“been made in the time of your father or grand-
((
father they would all have jumped at it, and
danced at such good fortune as had befallen
"them." So Ali Albaca went back, and could not
do what he had come for.
I
from the Arabic, with the
article. Çaidía is the name for
"Tots los castells quants son
de Guardalamar tro a Tortosa."
2 "E queus faria un alquacer a
la çaydia." Alquacer, in Spanish.
"alcazar," is a fortress-palace,
or وسعيدية the citadel of Valencia
358 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CCXLIII.
While I was at the Puig there came to me a
message from Almenara, from the Alfaqui and from
another Saracen who was very powerful there, that
if they could only treat with me they would willingly
surrender Almenara. I was very glad of that
message. I rode forth next day early as if I were
going to Burriana, met the two Saracens on the
road, and spoke with them. They told me that
they would speak first with the Aljama¹ or assembly
of notables, and would then settle with me how I
should have the place. I went on to Burriana to
see the Queen and to comfort her, and bid her be
of good heart now that she had come to the front.
Next day I left Burriana, and as I passed by
Almenara, sent word to those two to come out to
me.
They came out as soon as they saw my
pennon. I asked them to name a day on which
they would surrender Almenara. They said that
Almenara was such a castle that for the service they
would do me in giving it up, I ought to do great
things; inasmuch as when the other Moors in the
country heard that I had Almenara, all the rest of
the country would surrender to me from Teruel to
Tortosa. I said it was for them to look after them-
selves before they thought of others; that several
"E dexeren nos que parlarien
"ab la Aljama, e que endreçarian
com nos poguesem hauer aquell
"lloch."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 359
other castles were also parleying with me for sur-
render, and that if they took the lead of the others
they would certainly get better terms from me for
the good beginning they had made. They asked
me to grant to each of them in heritage, besides
what he had already in Almenara, three yokes
(jouvadas ¹) of arable land; that I should grant to their
kinsmen who had given their help thirty yokes
of land, and that all those yokes should be taken
from the Alguebes,' that is, from those who had
abandoned the place and fled; that I should also
give them two hundred cows and a thousand sheep
and goats; that I should give dresses of scarlet
cloth to forty of their kinsmen, who joined with
them in the business; and lastly, that I should
give to them both hackneys, so that they might
count as knights or horsemen.³
3
CCXLIV.
When I heard what the two Saracens said, it
pleased me well, and I assented, for an old adage
says, “He who does not give what grieves him,
I
Jouvada, from the Latin ju-
gum, in Spanish yugada is the
extent of ground which a yoke or
pair of oxen can plough in one
day.
2.66
"E que totes aquestes jouvades
"serien de les alguebes, ço son de
"aquells qui havien desamparat lo
"llogar qui sen eren fuyts." Al-
guebe comes from, the ab-
sentee, or emigrant. In the Spanish
version the word is printed Alque-
bers, which has no meaning at all.
((
3"E que donassem a aquels
'dos sengles rocins qui anassen
en compte de cauallers."
360 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
does not get what he likes." *
2
I
I asked them to
name a day when the thing could be carried out;
they said they would speak first privately with their
friends, and would so arrange matters that within
eight days they would let me know that on which I
was to come to Almenara. Thereon I left them,
and in front of the very castle of Almenara, in
sight of those who had spoken with me, and who
were still on the hill-side, I let my falcons loose
upon a fine heron there, such as I would like to
have; it struck high in air and fairly. I was among
the first to ride up to it, but I would not let the
heron be killed by the falcons; I took it from
them, and gave them instead a fowl to feed on,
sending the heron alive to those with whom I had
had the parley, with a message to this effect; that I
sent them that as a New Year's present for Alme-
nara, and that I sent it to them alive, for I knew
their usage, and that they would not have it if
already dead.³ They were greatly pleased, and said
in the ear of my messenger, "Tell the king to be
"of good heart, for what he wishes about Almenara
will quickly come to pass." I rejoiced much at
their message, and returned that night to the Puig.
1
"Qui no dona ço que dol, no
ha ço que vol."
2 The text reads "grua," which
is a crane, in Spanish grulla; but
I should think that the "garza,"
or heron, is meant.
3"E enviam los a dir que per
"strena de Almenara menjassen la
66
(6
grua, e que nos lals enviavem
tota viva, per ço car' sabiem lur
"costum, que nola volien morta.”
Mohammedans, as is well known,
do not eat beef, mutton, or game,
unless the jugular vein is cut.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
361
CCXLV.
On the eighth day they sent to me secretly one
of their own who came to the camp by night with a
letter from them. The letter said that I might
come to Almenara when I pleased, for what they
had spoken of to me was concluded; and that I
should bring with me part, or the whole, of the
cattle I had promised them.
I had in my camp
seven hundred goats and two hundred cows, taken
from the Moors in a raid. I sent for Pedro Ramon,
of Tortosa, a clothier, who had a workshop at
Burriana, and happened to be in the camp; there
were also two or three clothiers from whom I could
get the stuff their workmen made; to all of them I
sent messages to come. I then went to Almenara,
and found all the Saracens, except the "caid" who
still held the castle for Zaen; he might have
inside with him some twenty men, all strangers to
the place. But all the people of the town and of
the district who were there, said that they would
surrender to me both the towers, and the bailey
(albacar) of the castle, and would join in the attack,
so that I might be sure I should take it.
CCXLVI.
On that I gave them the cattle, according to
agreement, and told them that next morning, when
362 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
they had surrendered the castle, they might go with
me to Burriana for the cloth, and I would complete
the delivery of everything else. It was already
evening. I went up into the bailey, I and about
twenty knights of my suite, with their respective
esquires. They gave me a house to live in, formerly a
mosque, ¹ but so near the castle that they threw great
stones at us; so that no one dared go out for fear
of the stones they threw. When it was broad day
next morning, I sent out of the house two knights
in armour, who went up to the gates of the castle,
and asked, Who commands in that castle?"
They replied that the commander would come
out and speak with them. Then the two knights
said to him, speaking in my name,
The king
((
says he is here, and bids you choose which
"you like best of two things; if you please he will
((
'give you of his own what you will do well to take.
"If you do not like that, but will have death rather
"than life, prepare yourselves, for he certainly will
"take you all before the hour of tierce."
CCXLVII.
And thereupon the governor of the castle said
he wished to speak with me. I went outside with
my shield and my iron cap on, lest they should
attempt some treachery, and asked, “What do
you
I
The word used is Mesquita, from the Arabic, a place of
worship.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 363
want?
Here I am."
Here I am." The governor said he knew
me well, but wished to know for certain whether
I really was there or not. And since I was there,
he wished to tell me that he was in that castle for
Zaen, the King of Valencia; he himself was a
knight,' he knew well he could not defend him-
self against me, for the people of the town were on
my side, and I could easily take the castle with the
force I had with me; but he prayed that since he
gave up the castle, I should deal well with him
and those who were in the place. I said that I
would willingly do that on condition that he should
make ready to come out, and should come to me,
when I would make him a proper gift. He replied,
he would do so; and he came and asked me to
give to him and to a relation of his, who was there
with him, two horses, one to each, for they had eaten
theirs that they might defend the castle for their lord;
and to give besides dresses, and cloth to the men
who were there with him. I gave him at once the
two horses, and sent to Burriana to Pere Ramon for
cloth for the men of the castle and of the town,
asking him to make up the quantity of cloth I had to
give them. Thus I got the castle at once.
CCXLVIII.
Then I sent to the Queen two knights, bidding her
come to me, as Our Lord had done me that great
"Era cavaller e conexia be que a nos nos poria defendre."
364 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
favour of giving me the castle of Almenara, where
she would be better lodged than at Burriana and
safer. When the messenger arrived, the Queen had
her dinner ready, and she said she would go when
she had dined; it was during Lent. The knights
said, "The King bids you come; he has prepared
dinner; you will dine better and more joyfully
"there than you would do here." When the Queen
heard that, she left her dinner. I waited till she
came, and went to meet her to the hillside below
the castle; she and I entered the castle and dined
with great joy.
CCXLIX.
Next day there came messages from Uxó, from
Nules, and from Castro, that if I would treat them
well they would surrender those castles. As I
had taken Almenara, the Saracens knew well
that it was the will of Our Lord that I should
have the whole land. I replied, that they would
be welcome, and that I would go out to meet
them at the tower of Forçada (Forcada?), where
the two districts of Almenara and Uxó meet,¹
opposite Almenara, and near the Rapita, which
tower was called
called Mancofa in the time of the
Saracens. I would not appoint one day for all
2
I "E nos exirlos hiem a una
"torra, qui es Forçada (sic) hon
((
se parten (?) lo terme Dalmenara
e de Vxo."
2
Perhaps this means, "which
"is now called Forcada, or
"of the fork-and was called
"Mancofa in the time of the
"Moors."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 365
the "caids" of those castles to come, for I did not
wish that one should know the treaty the other had
made. So I told the men of Uxó that I would go
to them at tierce next day; and appointed with them
of Nules that I would meet them on the third day
at the fig-garden in their territory, opposite Man-
cofa,¹ and so would make my treaty with each of
them. From each of the municipalities (aljamas²)
there were to come ten elders of the principal and
most powerful among them. Whilst I parleyed with
one body of men the others were not to be there. I
bade the men of Castro to stay with me, and I would
there conclude their treaty, which was to give them
a quantity of sheep and goats, dresses for five of the
elders, besides two horses which I was also to give.
I granted to them the free exercise of their law
(religion) and their franchises, as they used to have
them in the time of the Saracens ; and I gave them
five of my mounted esquires and ten footmen to
protect them.
CCL.
Next day I got five sheep and twenty hens, and
went with my bread and my wine to the Forçada
tower, as I had promised the men of Uxó. When
I had waited there for a time they came.
I had
kept for them two sheep and five hens living, that
"Al Figueral qui es sobre
Mancofa." Elsewhere Mancopha
and Mencofa.
2 The word used is Aljames, in
Spanish aljamas, the plural of alja-
ma, äz>, meeting, congregation.
366 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
they might all dine with me. When they came I said
I would have no parley with them till I had dined,
and they were merry with meat and wine.' I granted
them fifteen hundred sheep and goats, sixty cows,
dresses for thirty men, and besides three hackneys.
I gave them charters that they should keep their
law and all their usages as they had them in the time
of the Saracens, and that they should pay me my
dues as they did to their king. They said,
"Who
will deliver us all that?"
three days I would give them what I promised.
They were not to delay surrendering the castles,
for I pledged myself to keep my word. They
had faith in me. I had with me only Don Ladró
and nine knights, when the Saracens told me to
go to the castles, and that they would surrender
them.
And I said that in
CCLI.
Then I took with them the road to the town,
and there came to meet me at the foot of the hill
two hundred men and women with great joy.
When they came before me, all put down their
lances. Of the nine knights who were with me
at the time, I sent eight up to the castle, I myself
staying below with Don Ladró, and with all those
Saracens. When my pennon was hoisted on the
The editions of 1515 and 1557 say more explicitly, "till they had
dined and were merry," &c.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 367
Alcazar, I myself went up there; the Saracens also
were going up with me, but I told them, "Wait for
me here, I shall presently be with you." I thus took
possession of their castle, left there my men, and
then descended and went to Burriana, where I got
the cattle I had promised them, and the horses,
and the cloth, and gave it to them. All this was
done next day, without waiting for the third day,
and sent to them at once.
CCLII.
Thence I went to see the men of Nules, taking
dinner with me, and the Saracens eating with me;
I would not treat with them till they were well
warmed with meat and wine. After eating, I had
the writings drawn; I granted them a thousand
sheep and goats, fifty cows, dresses for twenty men,
and two horses. I went up with them to the
castle, which they forthwith surrendered. I left
there my "caids" 2 and my men, and put guards in
each of the castles, as was fit.
CCLIII.
-
Before I left Almenara, another castle, called
Alfandech, surrendered after one day's summons ;
"Que no voliem parlar ab
"ells tro que fossem escalfats del
❝menjar e del vi." See above, p.
360, note 3. It would appear from
these two passages that the Va-
lencian Moors were not so averse
to wine as their other Mohamme-
dan brethren in the Peninsula.
2 Alcayt, in Spanish alcaide,
from the Arabic ab.
368 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
so that five good castles were won in no time. I
then went to the Puig where my army was, and
they all had great and brilliant rejoicings with me
for the favour God had shown us.
CCLIV.
I stopped at the Puig, and kept Lent there; the
Queen kept hers at Almenara till Easter, when I
went to keep it with her; after that I went with her
to the Puig. On the third day after Easter there
came to me a messenger, a Saracen from Paterna,
secretly, with letters from the whole Aljama (con-
gregation), saying they would surrender to me the
town and the castle. Others came similarly from
Betera and Bufila,' saying they would surrender too.
I answered that I would go to them; they should
hold themselves in readiness to surrender the
castles when I came. I would let them keep their
law and all their usages, as in the time of their
kings, and would do much for them. And on the
fourth day, as I had undertaken, I myself went to
Paterna with a hundred knights, and the Queen went
also with me; all the Saracens, men and women,
came to me out of the place with great joy. I told
them that I would treat them well, and would free
them from dues for two years, for what they had
I Or Bulla.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 369
suffered. They gave God thanks for the good
words I had said to them, and opened the gates to
me. I entered, and left there the Queen with
some ten knights in garrison, and in the same
manner I got Betera and Bufila, after which I
returned to the Puig.
CCLV.
I
When the Saracens of Valencia learned that I had
got Paterna, the anger and grief they had were
doubled, at seeing I was coming so close to them.
I resolved, at the Puig of Santa Maria, to wait
for nothing more, but to proceed at once to the
siege of Valencia. I then had with me the Master
of the Hospital, En Hugh de Fullalquer; a Com-
mander of the Temple, who had about twenty
knights with him; the Commander of Alcaniz;'
Don Rodrigo Liçana, who had some thirty knights
under him; the Commander of Calatrava; En
Guillem de Aguiló, who had about fifteen; Don
Exemen Perez de Taraçona, and my own train
of retainers, who might be from a hundred and
thirty to a hundred and forty knights, all men of
noble birth. There were also in the camp a
hundred and fifty "almogavars," and well up to
a thousand footmen.
I Now Alcaniz. A commandary belonging to the Order of Calatrava.
BB
370 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
CCLVI.
I resolved that next day early, in the name of
the Lord, I would begin to move, and would
proceed to the siege of Valencia. I passed the
marsh at a crossing I had made, and went along
the sea shore to the Grau, and there forded the
river.² When I had got over it, we and the
baggage-mules (adzembles) went to some houses
half-way between Valencia and the Grau, but
nearer the Grau than Valencia; there I set up my
banners and tents, and took my station; it might
be a mile from that place to Valencia. My inten-
tion was to wait there for more troops to come from
Aragon and Catalonia, with which to besiege
Valencia. That day I saw Saracen horsemen from
Valencia, who went about between us and the town,
to see if they could steal anything from the army,
but I kept my knights from foraging till they knew
the country well.
CCLVII.
Next day before dawn, without my knowledge,
the almogavars and the camp-followers went to
I
"E passam un pas que nos
"haviem a la marjal e anam
nos "en riba mar tro al Grau."
Marjal, a fen, a low-lying
marshy ground. The word is
Arabic, and derived from
هرج
merj, a field, pasture-ground, &c.
No doubt the low grounds round
البحيرة the Albufera or lake ,or
here meant.
are
2 E passam alli a Guadalaviar,
i.e., the white river, olayı 81 algo
for such is the meaning of that
name: the dh of Wad-al-abyadh
having been converted by euphony
into r.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 371
take the Ruçafa,' close to the town, within two
cross-bow shots. I had at the time a malady in
the eyes, and could not open them till I had washed
them with hot water. They came and told me that
almogavars and footmen had gone to quarter them-
selves in the Ruçafa, of which they had actually taken
possession. En Hugh de Fullalquer, the Master
of the Hospital, came to me and said: "What do
you order us to do? They have all gone to take
quarters in the Ruçafa." I said: "Let us put
armour on the horses, and with banners spread let
""
((
us go to succour them, or else all are dead men."
And he said: "It shall be done as you command."
Then we all armed and proceeded towards the
suburb called Ruçafa; had I not made so much
haste to come, all those in the place would have
been killed or taken prisoners. When we entered
it, the Saracens were at the other end of it. I
made my people halt in an open space there was.
CCLVIII.
Then there came to me En Ramon Çavellá,
Commander of Aliaga, and Lope Xemenez de
Luziá, who said they could take full fifty Sara-
cens if they made an onset towards Valencia.
,Rusafah or Risafah رصافة
"a pavement, a floor paved with
bricks," gave its name to a palace
in Cordoba (La Rizafa), as well as
to a suburb in Valencia. The
Spanish word arrecife, a paved
road, comes from the same Arabic
root.
B B 2
372 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I said, I wished to see how that could be done.
They took me to the gate looking towards Valencia,
and there I saw Zaen posted with all the power
of Valencia at a tower half-way between that city
and the Ruçafa, in a spot where there were some
rocks, and where water had collected from the rains
and the watercourses. The tower now belongs to
En Ramon Riquer. I reckoned Zaen's force at four
hundred horsemen, and of footmen; the greater part
of those in Valencia; in my opinion, and in that of
those who were round me, the Saracens might be
about ten thousand, more or less. And within
a stone's throw of us and of them, there were
thirty or forty peasants gathering beans in a bean-
field. These were the Saracens whom Çavellá and
Luziá said they could capture if they made an
onset towards Valencia. I told them, "You are
((
wrong; it is the nature of an attack, like the
"one
66
one you propose making, that if unsuccessful
they who make it will have to come back as
fugitives. I do not know whether those fields
"are cut and traversed by watercourses for the
((
I
purpose of irrigation; if they are, the horses in
coming back through them will get into the water-
courses, some of them may fall inside, and we all
may sustain great damage; peradventure also if
"the enemy drives us back in flight to the Ruçafa,
I The word translated by
"water-courses" is asequies, from
the Arabic äl, “rivus quo riga-
tur terra."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 373
""
we might also lose that and the other places we
have taken." Wherefore I would not take their
advice on that; but at night I would send trust-
worthy men to see if the fields were irrigated or not;
if they were not, my men might return to me, and
then I would allow a charge to be made. In this
manner by the favour of God we did so much on
that first day that we were actually quartered within
two cross-bow shots of the city of Valencia.
CCLIX.
We stayed under arms all that first day; so
that no one of us even ate his food but sitting
on his horse, and that was only bread, wine, and
cheese. At vespers the Saracens turned head and
went back to the city; then I dismounted, put off
my armour, as usual,' and took food. After taking
my repast, I made fifty knights arm themselves
to watch the camp by night. When morning came
I heard mass; the Saracens did not come out
against us, but let us rest, and so we stayed for
five days.
CCLX.
Meantime there continued to come to me barons
and knights from Aragon and Catalonia; among
the first came the Archbishop of Narbonne with
"E puix nos descavalcam, e sempre desquarnim nos, e menjam."
374 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
forty knights and six hundred footmen; his name
was Pedro Arnyell. So our army kept increasing,
the Saracens being so straitened that they did not
dare come out against us, except to skirmish
with some of our men, for which it would not
do to put armour on our horses, as the Saracens
did not close with us so as to do us harm, nor
could we, as it was, get at them. So when the
barons and the city bands (ciutats) came, they
set themselves closer
beset Valencia all around, and
2
to the city than we had done when we first came
to it. The city men who took post the nearest
were those of Barcelona.
CCLXI.
I had next to consider from what side I would push
the siege, and a council was held for that purpose;
some said that the attack should be against the
Boatella, but I spoke against those who said so.
Of that opinion were also the Archbishop of
Narbonne and the other barons who were with
me; but I proved to them by reasoning, that we
could not push the siege from any place so good as
The right name of this bishop
was Pierre Amyell.
66
66
2 "E els Sarrahins strenguer-
ense en tal manera que no
gosaven exir ab nos, seno de
torneig que havien ab alcuns de
"la host; e per ço no hi calia
"guarnir caualls, que ells no se
"C
acostaven en tal guisa a nos que
nos los poguessem aconseguir."
Torneig is, properly speaking, a
tournament, or "pas d'armes” in
old French.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 375
I
that where we were then, for three reasons. One
was that if we set our battering engines against
the gate, it would only be where the Saracens
could sally out and set fire to them, as it would
be near their gate, which they could not do where
we then were. The place is farther from their
gate, and they will not dare to sally out as far.
So I would set the engines there where we then
were. If the Saracens attack the engines the army
can easily defend them and overtake the enemy
before they got back to the city, for at that time
there was no gate between the Boatella and the
Xerea. Another reason was, that the city came to an
angle there on that spot, and when the time came for
our mining the barbacan² and the wall, the opera-
tion could not be hindered from the towers, for
the wall came where the fight would be, and pro-
jected further than the rest of the city wall. The
third reason was, that if the army shifted itself to
the Boatella, they in the city could by their horse
get command of the ways between the sea and
the army, and we should be obliged to keep, in
order to protect the camp, an additional hundred
horse in armour, who would considerably lessen the
strength of the army, while it would harass those
Xerea is again an Arabic
word, meaning a way (via), and
also the law prescribed by God,
. At Granada there was also
a gateway so called, Babo-x-xarea,
"Puerta de la Justicia."
or
2 In Arabic Bab-el-Khanah,
äläll, the gate of the barbacan.
376 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
who had to do this guard. When the barons and
knights heard my reasons, they all assented to what
I said, and held my plan for the best.
CCLXII.
I
Then the Archbishop of Narbonne, who was a
bold man, asked me why I was there and did
nothing; I said I would act when the army came;
I would then attack the Boatella. Meantime there
came a "trebuchet" I had made at Tortosa, and
two "fonevols." I set them up and battered the
wall opposite to where the camp was. I had
besides mantlets made, which extended beyond the
engines, having underneath them men in armour.
The mantlets were then pushed up to some cub-
walls near the moat; wood and faggots were next
thrown into the moat, which was full of water;
then three men in armour crossed over to the
barbacan. When they told me that three men had
crossed to the barbacan, I would not believe their
word, and went to see what they were talking of.
I saw that the men had actually lodged themselves
and could well maintain their ground, and that they
in the town could not reach them with missiles.
I sent them two picks, and they worked with them
and made three holes in the barbacan, into each of
which two men could very well
I
1 "E combatriem la boatella."
These words are not rendered in
the Spanish version and are
go.
clearly at variance with what has
just been said.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon.
377
CCLXIII.
Meantime I sent one of the "fonevols" to Cilla
under two barons, Don Pedro Fernandez de
Açagra and Don Exemen de Urrea, who attacked
it for eight days, at the end of which time the
enemy surrendered. So was Cilla taken.
2
CCLXIV.
I
While we were mining into the "barbacan," and
the Saracens were defending it as well as they
could, there came against us, to the Grau of
Valencia, twelve galleys and six "atzaures" (smaller
vessels) of the King of Tunis, between first sleep
and midnight. There came also during the night
a message from those who were at the Grau,
saying that many galleys had arrived, they thought
from twelve to fifteen. Hearing that, I got ready
fifty knights, with horses in armour, and about
two hundred footmen, and I set them in ambush
on a bank at some distance from the sea, between
certain ditches (caues) and the bank,³ where they
could lie well. I exhorted them not to sally out
• Also written Ciyla, one league
from Valencia on the road to
Xátiva.
2
Vengueren a nos xii. galees e
vi. agzaures del Rey de Tunis, sus
entre prim son et mija nuyt. If
agzaures is, as I believe, a mis-
print for at-zaures, or az-zabres,
it may be a corrupt form of j,
and with the article, Az-
zabra, i.e., a small vessel
called by the Castilians zabra.
3 Another copy has canes, which
means "reeds."
378 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
till the enemy were well advanced, and not to give
up their ambush till half tierce. The Saracens,
however, for fear of the ambush, did not land.
When it was night, they put up full a hundred signal
lights on the galleys,' that they in the town might
see, and they beat their drums. They in the town
set full a thousand lights on the walls, and also
beat their drums, to let them know that they held
the King of Tunis for their lord. When they had
done all that display and noise (algazara 2), I ordered
the army also to prepare torches in every tent,
and when it became dark to light them all, and
throw them into the moat after setting up a great
shout; and it was done as I had ordered, that the
Saracens might understand that we cared little for
their bravados. In this manner did my men throw
five hundred burning torches against the rampart.
So the Valencians saw that we cared little for what
they had done, and that the galleys could in nowise
help them.
CCLXV.
Meantime I sent by the shore as far as Tortosa
and Tarragona, bidding them be on their guard
and to come in a body, which they did. I had
three galleys at Tarragona and Tortosa, which were
"Et quant vench a la nuyt
"faerem be cent alimares de foch
en les galees," thus in the ori-
ginal text, but I suspect that ali-
(6
mares is a misprint for almenares,
from, locus lucis, signum.
2
غزارة
Algazara is an Arabic word
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 379
immediately armed. After stopping two days [at the
Grau] the galleys of the Saracens went to Peñiscola,
and landed to attack the place.
Pina was inside with his men.
Fernan Perez de
He went out of the
castle which he held for me; he had with him ten
horsemen between himself, Don Fernan Ahones,
and others who were there. With this small force
and the Saracens of the town, who gave him very
good aid, Don Fernan beat off the people of the
galleys, of whom seventeen were slain. Meanwhile
the convoy from Tortosa, which consisted of twenty-
one sails, armed seven vessels (lenys) in such wise
that any one of them could take a galley if it ran
alongside of her.' The three galleys [of Tarragona]
and the seven vessels [of Tortosa] came all in a
body, so that when the enemy's galleys came to
know of this, they took flight and disappeared, not
daring to wait for them. In this manner there
came to me a great supply of bread, wine, barley,
cheese, fruit, and other smaller articles. So large
became the camp that there were at last in it no
less than a thousand knights and sixty [thousand]
footmen. One could find in it every article one
wished to sell or buy, as in a city; nay, there were
there apothecaries from Montpellier and Lerida,
who sold drugs and spices, such as one could find
• The text has: "E la caravana
"de Tortosa que foren xxi vela
armaren sept lenys in tal manera
que cascun dels lenys pren-
"guera una galea si se acostas
"al leny."
380 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
in a great town, for the sick as well as the sound.
Meanwhile I made my engines batter the walls
every day, and my men had frequent skirmishes
with those within, or made attacks. In one of
these the Exerea' was taken; more than a hun-
dred horse in armour got into it, and full fifteen
Saracens were killed in the defence.
CCLXVI.
Per-
At another time the men of the Archbishop of
Narbonne were skirmishing with those from inside,
but the Archbishop's men did not know the way of
the Saracens, who on that occasion, as in others, fled
from them to draw them nearer to the town.
ceiving that the enemy's footmen were only retreat-
ing with that end, I sent my people a message not to
pursue, or else the Saracens would do them great
hurt. They would not stay for my message; but I,
fearing lest thirty or more of them should be killed
by the Moors, went up to them on the same horse
I was then riding, and made them draw back. As
I was coming with the men, I happened to turn my
head towards the town in order to look at the
Saracens, who had come out in great force, when a
cross-bowman shot at me, and hit me beside the
sun-hood, and the shot struck me on the head, the
bolt lighting near the forehead. It was God's will
2
1 See above, p. 375.
2 "E un ballester tirans e de
"part lo capell de batut donans
"en lo cap ab lo corrall (cayrel?)
“prop del front.”
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES Of Aragon. 381
I
it did not pass through the head, but the point of
the arrow went half through it. In anger I struck
the arrow so with my hand that I broke it: the
blood came out down my face; I wiped it off with a
mantle of "sendal " I had, and went away laughing,
that the army might not take alarm. I then went
and lay down in a tent, when all my face and eyes
swelled, so that I could not see for the swelling of
the eye on the wounded side. When the swelling
in my face had gone down, I rode round the camp
that the army might not be discouraged.
CCLXVII.
Meantime Don Pedro Cornell and Don Exemen
de Urrea agreed that they would attack the tower
which stands at the gate of the Boatella on the street
of Saint Vincent. This they concealed from me
But though
2
and from every one else in the camp.
they made the attack and continued it for a good
while, what with the forces that came out to it from
the city, and the gallant defence of those within the
tower, Don Pedro and Don Exemen could not take
it, and had to retreat. I told them they had done
ill to begin so great an undertaking without my
counsel and that of the barons and knights of the
army, and that it was right well that they had fared
so ill.
I
Light silk stuff.
2 “La torra que es a la part de
“la Boatella, en la carrera de Sanct
"Vicent."
382 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
CCLXVIII.
Thereon I sent for the bishops and the barons of
the army, and we agreed that since the thing had
been begun, by all means the tower should be taken
the next day; that we would arm two hundred
horse and all the cross-bowmen of the army; at
sunrise we would go to the attack, resolved to take
the tower, and no man should draw back till it
was taken. At sunrise I went there myself; there
were about ten Saracens prepared to defend the
tower. We attacked them, and they defended
themselves well and gallantly; no men could defend
themselves better than they did. But so great was
the effect of the cross-bowmen on our side, and of
the stones that were thrown against the tower, that
no Moor could put his hand out of cover but it
was immediately pierced by an arrow. With all
that they would not surrender the tower when
summoned. Then one of our men set fire to the
tower. When they saw the fire they were cowed,
and said they would surrender; but I said we
would not give them quarter, as they had not
surrendered at first. I
burned them all there,
took possession of the tower, and returned to
the camp.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 383
CCLXIX.
When that was done, great fear fell on those
inside the city for the capture of that tower; we
made our engines batter the city night and day.
After a time, when a month was past, a Saracen
trader came out of the city under safe conduct; the
men of En Ramon Berenguer de Ager met with
him and brought him in on the croup of a horse.
He came before me and gave me news of Zaen,
the King of Valencia, how he managed his affairs
and what his plans were. He told me that three
things had greatly discouraged the Valencians;
firstly, that the galleys of the King of Tunis had
done so little for them; the second, the tower that
we had burnt; the third, the great army they saw,
that had invested almost the whole of Valencia; he
(the trader) thought they could not hold out long
because they had not supplies for so many people as
were in Valencia,-men, women, and children-
owing to our having surprised them and besieged
•
He
the town before they got in their harvest.
believed it certain that it would not be long before
we got it.
CCLXX.
When I heard the words the Saracen said to
me, they pleased me much, as well as those of
the army who happened to know of them. And
384 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
as this book is such that one should not put small
matters into it, I leave telling many things there
were, and will only tell the greatest, that the book
may not be much lengthened; but the things that
were great and good, of them will I speak and
treat. As to our camp, I can say of it that I,
who have made thirty of them at different times,
have never seen one so well supplied as that was
with the things that were necessary for man's help;
so that sick people got the help of apothecaries as
if they were at Barcelona or Lerida.
CCLXXI.
2
When it got to within fifteen days of Michaelmas,
Zaen sent me word that if I would give a safe
conduct to a Saracen named Ali Albata,' a native
of Peñiscola, he would send him on to parley with
me. I said I was well content that he should
come, and that I would give him a safe conduct;
when the messenger came, he told me what the
King of Valencia had sent him for; I said I would
consider it, and would give him an answer briefly.
I reflected that it was not well to make those words
of Ali known to any one in the camp, whether
baron, knight, or others; for there were many
among them who would not be pleased that
1 Elsewhere (p. 356) Albaca.
Neither name, however, seems a
patronymic.
2 As will appear presently, the
messenger said only in general
terms, that Zaen would treat for
the surrender of the town.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 385
Valencia should be taken; they would rather
it belonged to the Saracens than to me, as I
afterwards had sufficient proof of it. I went to
the Queen, and told her what Ali Albaca had said,
and what my intention was; if it seemed well to
her, I prayed and commanded that no one in the
camp but I and she, and the messenger who
acted as interpreter, should know of it. She said
that what I told her pleased her much; no one
had so great an interest in my honour and welfare
as herself; if God loved me and gave me honour,
she thanked Him for it, for her hopes were all
centred in me. She thought it well that no one
should know of these proposals, that I might not
be hindered in my undertaking; for she had seen
me take possession of other places and castles,
which my barons would rather see as they were
than in my power, and as to which they did many
things they should not do; wherefore she well
believed that since in small things they acted so,
they would with regard to Valencia show their
power in such wise that I should not take it.
She thought secrecy good beyond everything, till
I was sure of taking the city.
CCLXXII.
I then sent for Ali Albaca to come again to me,
and told him to state what he had come for.
He
C C
386 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
((
said that the words Zaen had to say were great and
of high import. 'They are not for me to speak
out, but Zaen, King of Valencia, sends me to say
that if you will he will send to you the Rais'
Abulphamalet (or Abulamalet) his nephew, his
"sister's son, and after himself the most powerful
"man in Valencia and in the kingdom, and the one
"in whom he most trusts. If it please God, before
((
66
I gave
you and he part, I trust that this business will
"come to a good conclusion." To that I replied
that he might go back to the town, and that the
other one should come as soon as possible. I
him a knight to escort him and take him back to
Valencia. And he fixed a time, next morning at
sunrise, when he would be with me, and that I should
send then a knight to escort him to the camp. I
agreed to do so. In the morning I accordingly
sent a knight, and he came. When he was before
me, he said that Zaen, King of Valencia, saluted
me. He told me besides, on that king's behalf,
that next morning, between tierce and sunrise, I
was to send two nobles to escort Rais Abul-
I
Rais, in Spanish arraez,
means a chief,,, but it is not
so easy to guess what is meant by
Abulphamalet or Abnalmalet, as in
the edition of 1557. If the former
reading be accepted, the prefix
Abu, l, indicates the father of
Alfamalet (?); if Abn, the mean-
ing undoubtedly is "the son of
Alfamalet." Supposing, however,
the last letter to be a c instead of
a t, we would have, Ab-
nalmalec or Ibn Malec, a very
common name among Arabs and
Moors.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 387
phamalet,' who would forthwith come to me. I
ordered Don Nuño and En Berenguer Roger de
Ager to get ready in the morning to meet Zaen's
nephew, Rais Abulphamalet, and to escort him to
me; and they said they would do so.
CCLXXIII.
2
Meantime two Saracen knights challenged any
two of our army to joust with them,, and they made
this known to me; Don Exemen Perez de Tarazona,
who was afterwards lord of Arenós, came to me
and asked me to give him that joust, together with
Miguel Perez de Isór. I told him I marvelled much
at him, that a man who was such a sinner as he was,
and of so bad a life, could ask to joust; I had my
fears that we all should be brought to shame through
him. But he begged of me so hard that I assented;
he jousted with the Saracen, and the Saracen over-
threw him. Pere de Clariana then went against the
other Saracen, and at coming together in the joust
the Saracen turned and fled, and he pursued him,
till he got across the Guadalaviar, and among his
own people.
CCLXXIV.
The next morning early, Rais Abulphamalet came
out with the Saracen who had jousted, and with ten
I Written Abnalmalet. See above, p. 386, note.
2
Periç Disor.
CC 2
388 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
I
other knights, well equipped and dressed, with good
horses and good new saddles, fit to go into any
court as well-appointed men. I had my house well
decked out to receive him. On entering, he would
not kiss my hand, but prostrated himself and
embraced me; then he seated himself before me,
and saluted me on behalf of Zaen, King of Valencia.
He said that he had not before seen me, and was
very glad to do so. I told him I prayed God to
prosper him, that I was well pleased that he had come
to see me, wherefore I would do him honour and
good in such wise that he should have to thank me.
He said that was what he expected of me, that I
was such that those whom I loved had ever good
and honour from me. I invited him to eat; he
replied that he thanked me much for the invitation,
but that he would not eat out of the city, that it
was forbidden him by his lord; but he held himself
as honoured by an invitation from me. I told him
that if he would not take dinner there, I would
send it into the town to him; he said that he
thanked me much more, that at another time he
would come when he could take it better, but then
he would not for he really could not. Then I said
that if he wished I would send away every one, and
he could speak in secret with me. He said that so
he wished, that he would not speak to me, except
That is, my knees. "E al
entrar que feu denant nos hanch
""
nons volch besar la ma mes ques
"humilia a nos e anans abraçar."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 389
before one or two only in whom I put much trust."
I made every one go away, except myself, him, and
the interpreter. Then I asked him what he wished
to say.
CCLXXV.
He said that Zaen marvelled much at me that I
was so enraged against him that I had made my
armies and my power come against his land and
his power; he did not think he had done anything
against me that he should receive so much harm
from me.
To that I answered and told him,
that yes, he had; when I went to the conquest
of Mallorca he came to make a raid in my land,
going as far as Tortosa and Amposta; what
harm he could do there against men and cattle
he certainly did do; he also attacked Ulldecona,
which is in my kingdom. And that yet in another
thing he had wronged me; I sent him once a
message that I wished to have peace and truce
with him, and as during my childhood I was
wont to have and take the fifths of Valencia and
Murcia, he was told to make good what they of
Valencia had failed to pay; I made demand on
him of a hundred thousand besants, sending to
him as messenger Don Pedro Sanz, my notary;
and he, despising my message and my love, only
I
"E sobra aço dexem li que si
"ell lo volia, quen farien exir tos
"los de casa, et que parlas ab nos
"tot de segret."
390 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
offered me fifty thousand besants. Whereupon I
discharged myself of his love, and decided to come
against him, since he had preferred fifty thousand
besants to my love."
((
CCLXXVI.
Thereupon the Rais answered and said: He did
not think that I had been wronged in that, for at
the time I was entitled to and received the fifths
of Valencia and Murcia, Zait Abuzeit was the king.
Things have since come to what God willed; but
"for what there now is between us and you, let us
"take counsel, and let it be well settled for your
"honour, for such is the wish of Zaen." I answered
that he spoke well, and that men had to consult what
to do with things in actual sight, not with things
past. He said that he wished to know from me
what I intended doing in these affairs that God had
ordained should come upon them; wherefore he
prayed me much that I should discover what my
wish was. If I wished his lord to give me accord-
ing to the means he had, he would give. But I
ought to know well what loss in men the city of
Valencia had suffered through our power ever since
the building of the fortifications at the Puig, and
how I had laid waste the corn lands and the garden
of Valencia, and done the same harm in other
places of the kingdom, in the best of them. To
"E sobra aço desexim nos de sa amor, e haguem a venir contra ell."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 391
that I replied that I thought it fit for the Queen
to be there, and no one else in the world to know
but ourselves and she, and he who spoke those
words as an interpreter. He said there were two
things he gave me great thanks for; one was that
I would bring no one but the Queen into the
conference, and that no one besides should be
concerned in it; the other, because it pleased him
well that I should keep the matter secret.
It was
better so for them and for me, for he knew well
that I had to guard myself against many who did
not wish my advantage or profit in that, nor in
other things.
CCLXXVII.
I accordingly sent for the Queen, and when she
came sent away all the women who came with her
and all the rest. She alone remained with me, and I
repeated to her the words that had passed between
Rais Abnalmalet and me, as above written. Then I
told him that I would say more to him in the
Queen's presence than apart, and this was the
answer: "I have reached this place where I now am
"encamped; God has conducted me in all under-
takings up to this day, and I have succeeded in
"them all. Since I am here, it is my intent and
66
my resolution, never to depart thence till I get
"Valencia. If the King wishes to avert the great
"mischief there will be at the capture of a city
392 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"like Valencia-so many Saracens, men, women,
“and children, who may then die or lose all they
"have-it will please me well." I said moreover
that for their good and profit I would take them
under my protection, and would escort them, with
all they could carry, for I should grieve at their
death. If I could get the place by their willingness
to surrender it, I would rather have it so than in
the other wise, by force; "For the greater part of
"the army (said I) wishes for the sack of the
town, and I will not have it so for the pity I
"have of you. This is my wish, and nothing else
"will I do, unless you positively force me to do
you hurt." He, the Rais, then said: "Those
"words are very weighty (cares); I cannot further
“confer with you without consulting my lord and
46
uncle, Zaen." I saw that he spoke reason, and
told him to do so in good speed. I invited him
again to eat, but he declined.
CCLXXVIII.
On the third day the Rais sent me word that if
I would give him an escort he would come out to
me. I sent one of my barons to him, and he came
immediately. He told me that the King of Valencia,
Zaen, had considered the thing, and that he knew
that the town could not hold out in the end; where-
fore, that he might not cause the Valencians to
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 393
}
bear more ill than they had already borne, he
would surrender the city on this condition: that
the Saracens, men and women, might take away
all their effects; that they should not be searched,
nor should any outrage be done to them, and they
all, himself and they, should go under escort to
Cullera. Since it was the will of God that I should
have the city, he had to will it so. On that I said
that I would consult the Queen, who alone was in
the secret. He said that he thought that was
good, and he went out of the house, where I and
the Queen remained. I then asked her what she
thought of Zaen's proposal. She said, that if it
seemed right to me to take those terms, she thought
it right also; for Valencia was not a thing that a
man who could have, should risk it from one day
to another. I felt that she gave me good advice,
and I told her that I agreed with what she said,
but I would add what I thought a very good reason
for accepting Zaen's terms, namely, that should the
town be taken by force, it would go hard for me
if a wrangling (baralla) over it arose in the army.
Not for base lucre nor for apparel of any sort¹
ought I to put off what my ancestors and myself
had so long desired to take and have; and even
yet, if I were wounded or fell ill before the town
I
Roba-alluding, I think, con-
temptuously to what the Moors
would take away as mere gar-
ments. The word, however, in-
cludes movables of any kind. It
is the Italian roba, and Spanish
ropa.
394 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
could be taken by force, the whole thing might still
be lost. Wherefore, so good a work as that should
not be put to risk, and one should follow it up
well, and end it.
CCLXXIX.
After saying that, I sent for Rais Abnalmalet,'
and answered him in this wise :-" Rais, you know
"well that I have made a great outlay in this
"business of mine; yet notwithstanding the outlay
"that I and my people have made and the ills we
"have suffered, for all that it shall not be but that
"I will agree to your terms, and have you escorted
"to Cullera, with all the goods that the Saracens,
"men and women, may be able to carry. For
"love of the King and of you, who have come
66
here, will I do your people that grace, that they
may go safely and securely with their apparel and
"with what they can carry, and wish to carry."
CCLXXX.
When the Rays heard that, he was content;
and he said he gave me great thanks, though their
loss was to be great; withal he thanked me much
for the grace I did them. After a time, I asked
him on what day it should be. He said they
I
Here, as in many other places,
the name of the Rais is written
Abualmalot, and Zaen is for Çaen.
See p. 386, note.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 395
needed ten days for clearing out. I told him that
he asked too much, that the army was growing
weary of the delay, for nothing was being done,
and it was not for their good nor for mine. And
so after long discourse we agreed that on the
fifth day they would surrender the town, and would
begin to depart.
When that was settled between me and him, I
told the Rays to keep the thing secret till I had
spoken with the Archbishop of Narbonne, with the
other bishops, and with my barons. He said he
would do so, and I told him I would speak with
them that very evening, and would give orders
that from that time no harm should be done to
them.
CCLXXXI.
When that was done, and I had eaten, drunk,
and taken sleep in a pavilion beside my quarters,
I sent for the Archbishop [of Tarragona], for the
bishops and the barons, as well as for the Arch-
bishop of Narbonne, who was there in the camp.
When all were present, I told them how Our Lord
had done me many favours, and among others had
now done me one for which I and they ought to
give Him great thanks. As they had a good share
in that great gain of mine, I would make them know,
that they all might rejoice in it, that Valencia was
396 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
ours at last. When I had said that, Don Nuño,
Don Exemen de Urrea, Don Pedro, Fernandez de
Açagra, and Don Pedro Cornell, lost colour, as if some
one had stabbed them to the heart; all murmured
except the Archbishop and some of the bishops, who
said that they thanked Our Lord for giving me that
gain, and that grace; not one of the others thanked
God for it, or took it well. Then Don Nuño and
Don Pedro Fernandez de Açagra asked how it
was done, and in what wise? I said that I had
engaged for the safety of the King of Valencia and
of the Saracens, all those living in the town, men
and women, and for escorting them to Cullera and
Denia; and that they were to surrender the town
on the fifth day from that. All said that since I
had done it, they approved of it. And the Arch-
bishop of Narbonne added: "This is the work of
God, and I do not believe but that of three
(6
*
things' one must be; either you have done
"service to God, or you are now serving Him
"in this, or you will serve Him hereafter." And
En Ramon Berenguer said: "We ought to give
"God great thanks for the
love He has shown
"you, and since that which you and your ancestors
had desired is now fulfilled through you, we
ought to be very thankful to Our Lord.”
(6
"E dix Larquebisbe de Nar-
bona, aço es obra de Deus, e
"yo no crech que de tres coses
66 en vos no haja la una, o que vos
(6
hajats servit a Deus, o que ara
"lo servits, o quel servirets."
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 397
CCLXXXII.
Next day, at vespers, I sent to tell the King and
the Rays Abulhamalet that, in order that the Chris-
tians might know that Valencia was ours, and might
do nothing against it, they should hoist my standard
on the tower, which now is that called of the Temple ;
they said they were content, and I went on the
Rambla,' between the camp and the tower. When
I saw my standard upon the tower I dismounted,
turned myself towards the east, and wept with my
eyes, kissing the ground, for the great mercy that
had been done to me.
CCLXXXIII.
Meantime the Saracens busied themselves about
departing within the five days I had agreed on with
them, so that on the third day they were all ready
to quit; and I myself, with knights and armed men
about me, brought them all out into the fields
between Ruçafa and the town. I had, however,
to put some of my own men to death because of
their attempting to take goods from the Saracens,
and carry off some women and children. So it
was, that though the people who came out of
Valencia were so numerous-there being between
I
Rambla, properly "the sands";
used in Catalonian towns for the
in Arabic, äl。,; the word is still public promenade.
398 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
men and women well fifty thousand-by the grace of
God they did not lose between them one thousand
sols, so well did I escort, and have them escorted,
as far as Cullera.¹
CCLXXXIV.
When that was done I made my entrance into
the city, and on the third day began the division
of the houses among the Archbishop of Narbonne,
the bishops, and the barons who were with me, as
well as the knights who were entitled to heritages
in the district. I also gave shares to the cor-
porations of the cities [of Aragon and Catalonia],
according to the number of men-at-arms each had
there.
CCLXXXV.
2
I
At the end of three weeks I appointed partitioners
to divide the lands of the district of Valencia.
made the yoke, "jouvada," to be of six "cafiçades."
I had the whole land of the district measured, and
the grants I had made carefully examined. When
this was done, I found that, in consequence of the
grants made to some of the men, the charters came
The Spanish translation, p.
265, gives here the text of the
capitulation, which I omit for
brevity's sake.
2 (1
"Jouvada," in Spanish "yu-
gada," from "yugo" (yoke), is
the extent of ground which a pair
of oxen can plough in twenty-four
hours. Cafizada," from cahiz,
a nominal measure of about six
English bushels, that which re-
quires that amount of grain as
seed.
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF Aragon. 399
to more "jouvadas" than the land itself. Many
men there were who had asked for a small portion
of land, and I found afterwards that, through their
cheating, it was twice or three times as much as
they ought to have had. As there was not enough
land for the grants, I took away from those who
had too much, and redistributed it, so that all had
some, as was fitting.
CCLXXXVI.
So was the land of Valencia divided; but as the
division would have been too great a work for me
to do, I had appointed Don Assalit de Gudar and
Don Exemen Perez de Tarazona, then my steward
(reboster major) in the kingdom of Aragon, as
partitioners. The bishops and barons then came
to me and said: We marvel much that the
"lands of so honourable a city as this is, the head
"of all the kingdom of Valencia, you should give
"to be divided by Don Assalit and Don Exemen
"Perez; though they may be good men and
"learned in law, it is not for them to make such
"a division. You should rather set to it the most
"honourable men you have here; and we pray
"and counsel you that you do so, for all people
"talk already of it, and say that you do not direct
"this matter well." I said:
I said: "Who do you think
then that I should set to do it?" They said:
400 THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON.
"We hold it good, and counsel you that you set
'to do it two bishops and two barons; just as
"the place is honourable, ought you to put honour-
"able men in it." I said: "Tell me, that I may
“better answer you, who you wish me to appoint,
"and I will consider it." They said they thought
it should be the Bishop of Barcelona, En Berenguer,
the Bishop of Huesca, En Vidal de Çavalles, En
Pedro Fernandez de Açagra, and En Exemen de
Urrea. I said: "I will consider of it, and will
give you an answer."
CCLXXXVII.
Thereupon I sent for Don Assalit de Gudar,
and Don Exemen Perez de Tarazona, and said
to them: "Hear what the bishops and barons.
"say, that I am to take out of your hands the
"division of the property (hereditaments), and put
"it into those of the Bishop of Barcelona, the
Bishop of Huesca, Pedro Fernandez de Açagra,
"and Exemen de Urrea." They answered: "We
"knew that they meant to say that to you, but we
""
((
'pray you not to put us out of it; it would be a
"shame to us." I said to them: "It seems to me
"that you are not of good judgment in this matter,
"for if they take up the business I am sure to
"overthrow them at their very beginning." They
asked in what wise, and I answered: "In this: I
THE CHRONICLE OF JAMES OF ARAGON. 401
"will do as they desire. I know that there is not
"land enough for the grants already made, and they
"will have to give back their charge because of
"their not knowing how to do the thing." They
again said: "We pray you not to take the charge
from us; it would bring shame on us;" and I
replied, “Leave it to me; in the end I will save
you both from shame and reproach." They said,
"It must then be as you wish." I accordingly sent
for the bishops and barons to come, that I might
give them an answer, as I had promised.
END OF VOL. I.
D D
LONDON:
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICI

ROLIND
MAR 23 1949
++
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNIV OF MICH.
LIBRARY
Filmed by Proconvation
1004
3 9015 01999 8270
Replaced with Commercial Microform
1994