Chapter 57 - How the Bishop of Guarda told King Juan that he would hand the city over to him, and how the king made a final decision to invade the country

Summary

While the king was nursing his great urge to invade Portugal, though he still hesitated a little because of the large number of advisers who opposed him on this, there was present at the time a certain Bishop of Guarda, the chancellor of Queen Beatriz, who had journeyed with her from Portugal for her marriage, as you have heard. The bishop informed the King of Castile that the town of Guarda, of which he was the bishop, was very strong, stood on the Portuguese frontier and that all the other people who lived there were his own criados and would do as he told them, so that if he were to be favoured by the king's advance on the town, he would be there to give him an immediate welcome.

The king was very pleased at what the bishop told him, which greatly increased his desire to invade Portugal by any means. He at once left Puebla de Montalbán, where he had been staying, and sent for companies and men-at-arms to hasten to join him from wherever they happened to be.

The king and queen arrived at the bridge of Alcolea, which the archbishop was at that time building across the Tagus. The archbishop gave orders that they and their party should be given all that they needed. They remained there for two days and then left for Talavera, from where they went on to Plasencia. There the king informed his Royal Council that the Bishop of Guarda had told him that he would hand Guarda over to him and asked the counsellors what their opinion was in that respect.

Some of them repeated that it was his sovereign duty to uphold the treaties which he and the Portuguese had signed and mentioned again the oaths taken and the penalty clauses to which he and his proctors would be subject if they broke them; for that reason they should in no way set them aside. They added that, if he were to enter the town in that manner, the Portuguese would be afraid of him and would say that he wanted to take over the land against their will and to their great sorrow; also, that the governance of the kingdom, in accordance with the treaties, belonged to Queen Leonor his mother-in-law, and that he had no right at all to do so.