We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
The king left the area around the Vilariça Brook, which was rich in grain when he arrived there, stretching out for up to a league, as it was the month of May. But although the king had commanded that the crop should not be damaged, his order was followed only for a very few days, because the pressure from his many troops was so great that they could not be prevented from availing themselves of the crop, with the result that all the corn was used up, and nothing was left over.
The king and the count set off with their troops, crossing the Douro into the province of Beira. When the king reached the foot of the hill on which stands Castelo Rodrigo, which had declared for Castile, he ignored it, as it is strong, and chose not to tarry there, because he was in a hurry to invade Castile. He headed for Almeida, which had also declared for the enemy. When the king arrived there, the township of Almeida was held by a Castilian governor named Lope González Pie de Hierro, who was waging war from there against Pinhel and other places which claimed allegiance to Portugal. The king set up camp with his troops near Almeida, not intending to attack it, but just to sleep there that night.
While the king was settled in his encampment, a number of foot soldiers, porters and muleteers spotted some beehives close to the town's fortifications and had a good mind to go and seize them. They started calling out to one another, ‘Aha! Martim Eanes! It's Martim Eanes!’ For these beehives which they wanted to seize indeed belonged to Martim Eanes. So they began to cry out, chattering and shouting, and set off to seize them. The inmates of the castle emerged to defend them, and so intense was the contest between the inmates and those from outside that it soon turned into a skirmish. The king sent orders telling them not to skirmish in that fashion, since it was not his intent to attack Almeida, but rather to proceed on his way as he had been doing. Nevertheless, the skirmish flared up so vigorously that several valiant squires joined in, and the numbers of soldiers from the encampment grew.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
