122 - How the King of Castile amassed the gold that he had to pay to the duke

Summary

Any well-informed person who may read this history has good reason to feel doubt as to where the King of Castile could obtain the 600,000 francs that he had to give to the duke, seeing that he did not have any way of paying the salary of those foreigners he had posted along the frontier, nor of the 2,000 lances the King of France had sent to his aid. What happened concerning this issue came about as follows:

As soon as the king learned that the Duke of Lancaster was in the aforesaid town of Bayonne, and that he had to send his ambassadors there, knowing well that they would sign the treaty, he summoned Cortes at once to the town of Briviesca, to which came the proctors of the towns and cities of the kingdom. In this gathering they discussed how to collect such a vast amount as the duke was due to receive. Even though some spoke against it, in the end it was agreed that the king should impose a special levy throughout the entire kingdom, from which neither cleric nor layman nor gentleman nor any other person, regardless of status or condition, should be exempt. Those who recommended this said that, since the king was freeing the kingdom from such a mighty claim on it and from subjection, everyone should help to pay through such a levy. For the execution of this they issued writs and sent them throughout the kingdom. The noblemen, ladies and damsels were very aggrieved at this, and there was much unrest among them, so that no money was collected.

Realising this, the king had to seek another way, which was this: When King Enrique bought back from Sir Bertrand [du Guesclin] the city of Soria and the towns of Almazán, Atienza, Deza and other towns that he had given him, he levied a special tax which he called a loan, saying in his letters that he would order it to be deducted from the rents which he was due to receive from them. This was shared out among all the towns, a certain amount from each, so that he then collected more than 15,000 maravedís, from which he made the payment for the purchase of those towns.