123 - The beginning of our reply concerning the dispensation about which we said that the aforementioned historian had spoken

Summary

Since we have returned from Bayonne, in English territory, with the affairs of the duke concluded, it is fitting that we should reply, before we relate anything else, to that ill-delivered statement that the aforementioned historian made, stating slanderously that the pope had given no dispensation to the king to marry, nor had any such letter come to him, and that it had been left to the duke to send for it.

The basis for this allegation is likely to be as follows. There are few men who have no enemies or adversaries, and are well-loved by one and all, and this was certainly not King João's case: not just among his Castilian neighbours, but also among his fellow Portuguese, he had many enemies and many adversaries. These, not out of any zeal for goodness, but rather pregnant with slander, gave birth to two false statements: first, that Pope Urban [VI] had refused to grant him dispensation; second, that Pope Boniface [IX], who succeeded him, had granted the dispensation subject to certain conditions. Consequently, the errors born of such tales were very far from trivial. Since a short written passage, however, cannot resolve major doubts, nor reach full conclusions in few words, in sum it is fitting for us to respond to this by detailing two principal factors: the one, who granted the dispensation and on what conditions; the other, what was the cause for its delay.

You have already heard how the people and the prelates of the kingdom, as soon as the Master was raised up as king [1385], sent a supplication to Pope Urban explaining to him what had persuaded them to elect him as their prince and liege lord and to place him on the throne; and, since, in order for him to hold the kingdom and be able to marry legitimately, it was necessary that he be granted a dispensation, they asked His Holiness to do so and to ratify everything they had done in the matter. You have also heard how the Bishop of Évora and Gonçalo Gomes da Silva, who had set out in two galleys for the Curia with this supplication over a year earlier, later on had sent a message to the king when he was dealing with the duke, recounting how they arrived in Genoa where they found the Holy Father.