168 - How the king left Badajoz and went to besiege Count Don Alfonso, and concerning other things that happened afterwards

Summary

The king left Badajoz with his wife and proceeded through his kingdom to León, and in all the places through which they travelled, be they walled or not, they were given a warm welcome. The four worthiest men from each locality held poles bearing a cloth of gold over the queen from outside the town as far as the place where she was to stay. While the king was in León, he received word that his brother, Count Alfonso, was providing supplies to Gijón and all its forts. The king then ordered his lord chamberlain, Pedro Fernández de Velasco, and his chief provincial governor in Galicia, Pedro Ruiz Sarmiento, to go to Asturias with a detachment of men, and they reached a place near Gijón, where the count was staying.

A few days later, the king went there and besieged the count in the castle. The count and the men who were with him went over to the king, and he pardoned him and his men; they signed an agreement, stating that the count would always serve him well and loyally, and the king vowed that he would grant him favours. The king received the Blessed Sacrament with him as a token of their pledges.

Then the king departed and made his way to Valladolid, and then on to Segovia; in these cities, he held Cortes, as you will hear presently. Although on these occasions he ordered other things to be done and laid down laws, few of which were kept, this was not the case with the one in which he decreed that from this time onwards, the ‘Era of Caesar’, which until then it had been customary to use in Castile and León, was not to be written on documents, but from the following Christmas Day onwards, ‘the year of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ’ was to be used instead, and that first year was 1384.