155 - How Martim Afonso de Melo spoke with Gonçalo Eanes about capturing Badajoz

Summary

The King of Portugal was angry at the negative attitude the Castilians were beginning to assume with regard to keeping the terms of the truce, as we have mentioned, both in freeing the prisoners and in executing the verdicts that they did not want to put in hand, even though his adversary was requested to do so by the friars and others that were sent to him. The king saw full well, as did those of his royal council, that in all he [the King of Castile] had incurred a penalty of 250,000 doblas. Since the state of the law derives from the facts of the case, and since the amount was so large that he could not take delivery in the form of movable goods, it suited King João to impose the penalty by taking possession of a city, town or walled village. He then spoke with Martim Afonso de Melo, his chief of the guard and a member of his royal council, about how he could receive any one such place as a forfeit. The latter replied, that if it so pleased him, he would work to give him Badajoz and Alburquerque, or one of them, by means of which there could be yielded up to him what they did not wish to give him. The king was very grateful and regarded it as a service, saying he should strive to bring it about.

Martim Afonso immediately left Viseu, where this matter had been spoken about, and went to Campo Maior. From there, he went frequently at night to Alburquerque, which lay about 4 leagues away, to see how the watch and patrols were organised. When he saw the three patrols and how they guarded the place, he returned before morning to where he had set out, so that no one found him missing. He used the same method when going to Badajoz, which lay 3 leagues away from Campo Maior.

Now it so happened that in the town of Badajoz was a Portuguese squire, with his wife and children, who had come from Elvas seeking sanctuary from justice and had already been there several days.