134 - How the king went to besiege Melgaço

Summary

We return to the king, who had stayed in Braga, thoroughly wearied of the war in which he was involved. Yet, even though it was winter, he did not slacken his efforts. He decided to move against Melgaço, 5 leagues further up the River Minho from Tuy and half a league from the actual river. It was a fortified town without suburbs, with a good town wall and a strong castle, under the lordship of his kingdom, which the enemy had taken from him. The king arrived at this place with his army – it was in the month of January [1388] – in which there rode Dom Pedro de Castro, the Prior of the Order of the Hospitallers [Álvaro Gonçalves Camelo], João Fernandes Pacheco and other captains and lords. There were probably in all about 1,500 lances and many foot soldiers. Those who were within to defend the town were Álvaro Pérez de Sotomayor and Diego Prieto Jiménez, and in their company as many as 300 men-at-arms and many other foot soldiers furnished with shields.

As soon as the king arrived, the tents were pitched and the camp set up, but not far from the town. Without giving them any respite, those within began to fire with cannons and to skirmish with those outside. Neither side did any damage to the other, not even with the cannons that they fired.

On the following day they skirmished, and Pero Lourenço de Távora was wounded by an arrow; some of the men of the town died and others fled, wounded. Although that day they shot nine cannon stones against the men of the camp, they did them no harm. In the next two days, they shot twenty stones without further skirmishing but did no damage. On the Friday they did not fire cannons, but skirmished, when one of the men from the camp was killed and many were wounded on both sides. On the Saturday they fired three cannons, and one at night, without doing damage. On the Sunday, a skirmish occurred between the men of the town and those of Dom Pedro de Castro. A man-at-arms and two foot soldiers of Dom Pedro's were killed, as were others, six in all; of those of the town some were wounded but none killed. On the two following days they fired eight cannons, but they caused no damage.