28 - Other arguments, contrary to those which you have heard, as to why the King of Castile ought not to invade Portugal

Summary

Once those giving the foregoing advice had finished speaking, others responded from a very opposing viewpoint, stating that the king ought by no means to invade Portugal at that juncture, and putting forward the following reasons: the first was that the king was sometimes wont to fall ill from his frequently recurring ailments and that it was not very long since he had suffered from a serious illness from which he had not yet completely recovered. If he fell ill when invading Portugal, they said, this would be a very adverse factor in such an incursion, because there were now few captains or none in his army capable of directing a military campaign as it should be, since those who had been capable were all dead, either succumbing to the plague when the king was besieging Lisbon, or being slain in the Battle of Trancoso, which had only recently been lost. As a result, in these two events and in other adverse occurrences which had befallen the king, he had lost the best captains and men-at-arms in his entire realm, so much so that they calculated that some 3,000 had been lost.

In addition, the captains whom he had with him in Ciudad Rodrigo were youthful men who had no experience of warfare or battle, and it was highly dangerous to submit them to the immediate test of a battle such as this one, since it was common knowledge that the Master of Avis, who called himself king, was determined to venture his entire enterprise in battle, recognising that this was his only way forward. All those whom the Master had with him, who amounted to some 2,000 men-at-arms, were equally resolved and firmly intent on this, as men whose only opportunity was to invest everything in the field of battle. This was also the advice of a number of archers who had joined the Master from England, though they were very few.

Furthermore, the Portuguese had recovered the city of Braga, as well as towns and villages in the Minho, and victory in the Battle of Trancoso and other gallant achievements had made them arrogant and sure of themselves.