28 - How the King acted in respect of those places in Castile which had declared for him

Summary

Speaking further about the suzerainty which King Fernando adopted in respect of the towns, large and small, which declared for him, you should be aware that such support for him was not declared so lightly as to prevent him from exerting the same authority over them as he did in other parts of his realm. Rather, they fully ceded themselves to him and obeyed him in all respects as their sovereign and natural liege lord.

Indeed, he resorted to just such a title and rank with regard to a number of places whenever he wrote to them, so that when writing to Zamora he called himself ‘King of Portugal, the Algarve and of the very noble town of Zamora’, declaring that by the death of his cousin King Pedro he was the rightful heir of the kingdoms of Castile and León and their natural liege lord.

He ordered coins to be struck bearing his insignia, both in gold and in silver, graves and barbudas, in a number of places which had declared for him, for example in Zamora, La Coruña, Tuy, Valencia [de Alcántara] and Miranda [do Douro]. In these places, he installed, as appropriate, his treasurers and officials, who then spent and issued via his charters and commands the aforesaid coins, which then circulated throughout the kingdom of Portugal. The king granted great privileges to the town of Orense, to Santiago and to the other places which had declared for him, allocating major stipendiary posts. Many people approached him from these towns large and small, requesting the property of those who had taken King Enrique's side, and won from him favours, privileges and positions. Moreover, everything was cheerfully granted. He distributed the property of churches and monasteries, such as they possessed, both in Portugal and in the places which had declared for him, giving it not only to the clergy, but also to the laity, if they asked for it first. He also gave the commandery of Toroño, as well as the villages and hamlets that pertain to it, to Rui de Meira, a knight of the Order of San Juan. He ordered the villages and hamlets of the Order of Alcántara to receive the cellarer García Pérez del Campo as the lieutenant for the Master of that Order.