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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
After losing the battle [of Aljubarrota], the king constantly gave his heart over to many ideas about how he could gain Portugal and avenge the dishonour that he had received in the battle. The truce that he agreed, those devices he gave, and pardons that he issued to everyone in the kingdom, except to his brother Don Alfonso, whom he held prisoner, were all based on helping and furthering those things we have mentioned. In order to pursue this objective, the king came to conceive a strange idea, which is this.
Before the Cortes began, he summoned some of his royal council in great secrecy and told them that they should know that two years previously, for certain, but [actually] four more before that, he had settled upon leaving his kingdom to his son Prince Enrique, as follows: he, the king, would hold during his lifetime the cities of Córdoba and Seville and the bishopric of Jaén, along with the entire frontier region, the kingdom of Murcia and the lordship of Vizcaya, as well as all the revenues from church lands that he had from the pope. All the rest would belong to his son, the prince, who would be called King of Castile and León. The reasons that led him to do this were as follows:
First, that everyone in his kingdoms knew full well that the Portuguese had always said that, despite his marriage to Queen Beatriz, the daughter of King Fernando, they, the Portuguese, did not wish to obey him or receive him as their king, because the kingdom of Portugal would be conjoined with that of Castile, ceasing to remain a separate kingdom, as had always been the case from ancient times till now. Taking the revenues and aforementioned places and leaving to his son the title of King of Castile, he would call himself King of Portugal with its undifferenced arms upon the banners and seal, without impaling them with those of Castile. When the Portuguese saw this, they would go over and obey him as their liege lord and king. As to the governance of the kingdom that he wished to leave to his son, because he was a minor of less than eleven years of age, there should be certain prelates and knights from his royal council, and wealthy citizens, to rule and govern the kingdom.
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