27 - Concerning the royal council which the King of Castile held with his advisers before he invaded Portugal

Summary

While the King of Castile was in Ciudad Rodrigo, determined as he was to invade Portugal, he learned that the King of Portugal had left Guimarães, crossed the Douro and headed for Coimbra. Once these reports had been confirmed, notwithstanding his intent, he chose first of all to hold a royal council with his advisers to decide whether it was right for him to invade Portugal in person or whether it was better to post officers of the marches along the border region and wage a different form of warfare. Indeed, on this matter there followed a major and most remarkable meeting of the council, in which many excellent arguments were discussed. However, of all of those that were put forward, let these briefly suffice:

Some counsellors declared that their advice to the king was that he ought to invade Portugal with his entire force and strive to recover the kingdom, which belonged to him by right, since he already held such a large part of it and had so many good opportunities to gain the remainder. They urged that no sensible man could possibly believe or imagine how the Master of Avis, who called himself king, could make so bold as to stand waiting for him and do battle. Furthermore, even if the Master were so bold and wished to do battle, he did not possess as many troops as valiant as those the king led and so would not to dare to await him. Besides that, the king had ordered it to be proclaimed to the troops in Santarém and in the other towns which continued to declare their loyalty to him, when he had left Lisbon, that he would return very soon, God willing, in order to go to their aid and to reward them for their loyal service to him. However, if they saw that the king was withdrawing from that town back into his own realm, they would conclude that he either did not wish or dare to invade Portugal, which would greatly perturb them and cause them to lose their noble intentions of serving him.