145 - How the king spoke to certain people about the treasure that he wished to build up for the war

Summary

The king thought this was good advice and, curbing his desire to think about it further, began to put forward something else, which he proposed in secret to certain knights whom he trusted, and who held the mandates of certain towns and cities at the said Cortes. This was as follows.

He said he was asking them to discuss and put in train with the other proctors who were there some means by which they would provide him every year with a certain sum of money to put in the treasury. This was because everything that the realm gave him, as they could well see from the account books, was divided among vassals that were Castilian, namely on jennets, pensions, wages, the maintenance of officers of the marches, the funding of official posts, and voluntary benefits (that we class as variable), as well as many other gifts and expenditure on embassies. Likewise, the expenses of his household and that of his wife, his sister the Queen of Navarre, who was there at that time, his mother-in-law, Queen Leonor, and children and brothers; and other monies that he gave to the Portuguese princes, and to the noblemen, knights, ladies and other people of that kingdom who had lost everything they had in his service, and whose sons and brothers had been killed because they remained loyal to him and his wife. He considered this expense well employed, even though it amounted to a vast quantity of doblas. After they had seen how his money was spent, they would easily understand that he had nothing left with which to build up his treasury.

He had made a truce with Portugal for particular reasons, the main one being that when the truce ran out he might return to war immediately and do battle once more with the Portuguese, leaving it to the will and judgement of God and not allowing such an aim to fall into oblivion, owing to the great dishonour suffered by Castile. Moreover, by then, the sons of the lords and knights who had died in the war would be old enough to serve him in a new conflict.