130 - How the king declared for the Pope of Rome and betrothed his daughter to the Earl of Cambridge

Summary

As you heard in its appropriate place, King Fernando had declared himself in favour of the man who called himself Clement VII, whose party was backed by the King of France and the King of Castile, as well as by certain other great lords. When the English came, as they sided with the Pope of Rome, Urban VI, they did not hear Mass said by any Portuguese friar or cleric. Then the earl told the king that he had come to serve and help him in his war against the King of Castile, who was schismatic, backing a pope who was in Avignon; and that if he wanted God to help him in his war, he should yield his obedience to the Holy Father in Rome. The earl's king, his liege lord and all the Privy Council of England advised him to tell the King of Portugal this, as they were sure that Urban VI was the real Pope and none other. King Fernando answered that it pleased him and agreed to do so.

On 19 August, the Feast of the Decapitation of Saint John the Baptist, having debated the matter at length with the Archbishop of Braga and other learned men of his realm who swore on the Sacred Host in the cathedral of that same city [of Lisbon], publicly and in the presence of all the people, the king declared Urban VI and none other to be the true Pope. This was done in the presence of the English and many other people.

On that same day, at the third hour, the king betrothed his daughter Princess Beatriz to Edward, son of the Earl of Cambridge, both of them very young children, per verba de praesenti. They were then placed in a great and well-appointed bed, in the new chamber in the king's palace. The Bishops of Dax and of Lisbon, as well as other prelates, prayed over them, as is the custom in England, and blessed them. The bed was finely adorned, its cover being a black tapestry with two large figures of a king and queen in the centre worked in seed-pearls, large- and medium-sized according to their place in the pattern.