Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Names and terminology
- Map 1
- Map 2
- INTRODUCTION
- Part I Context
- Part II Contacts
- 4 TEACHING TRUTH
- 5 DESTROYING ERROR
- 6 WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD
- 7 DIPLOMACY AND ESPIONAGE
- 8 THE COMPLEXITIES OF EVERYDAY LIFE
- CONCLUSIONS
- Appendix Dominican studia
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - DIPLOMACY AND ESPIONAGE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Names and terminology
- Map 1
- Map 2
- INTRODUCTION
- Part I Context
- Part II Contacts
- 4 TEACHING TRUTH
- 5 DESTROYING ERROR
- 6 WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD
- 7 DIPLOMACY AND ESPIONAGE
- 8 THE COMPLEXITIES OF EVERYDAY LIFE
- CONCLUSIONS
- Appendix Dominican studia
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In September 1269, an aging and somewhat embittered king James the Conqueror found himself cast up on the shores of southern France. Against the wishes of his sons and subjects (most of whom stayed sensibly at home), James had decided to relive his past glories by leading a small crusading fleet to the Holy Land. Unfortunately, the storms and contrary winds of an early Mediterranean autumn forced abandonment of his plans as a result of seasickness long before contact could be made with the “infidel.” In his Llibre dels fets James later recalled the day he was blown ashore:
And while we were in that port [Agde, about a day's march south-west of Montpellier], our head cook said to us that outside in a boat were Fra Pere Cenra and Fra Ramon Martí, who had arrived from Tunis. And they asked what ship it was and they said to them that it was the ship of the king, who had returned because of the bad weather. And we thought that they would wait there for us, but they went from there to Montpellier.
James' memory was inaccurate on at least one point. The Dominican friar Peter Cendra (also Cenra, lat. Cineris) had died many years previously, and it was his brother Francis – then prior of St. Catherine's in Barcelona – who so rudely neglected his king at Agde. Nevertheless, the incident made an impression and stuck in James' mind.
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- Dominicans, Muslims and Jews in the Medieval Crown of Aragon , pp. 222 - 249Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009