118 - A response to certain statements that a historian included in his chronicle

Summary

After the duke had been with the king in that city for a few days, he decided to leave Portugal and go to that district [of Bayonne] that had been agreed upon with the ambassadors from Castile. The king, who was aware of all his plans, had already had six galleys fitted out in the city of Lisbon, which had left for Oporto to join others that were there. Thus, there were 14 in all, commanded by Afonso Furtado, who was the Captain General of the Fleet. The duke departed with his wife and family for that city where he was to embark, with the king and queen in his company. There they rested for a while, not because the galleys were not ready, for they were very adequately equipped with all the things that were needed, but rather for the duke to spend some time with the queen, his daughter, since he did not know when he would see her again.

Now, before the duke departs, since we intend to go along with him in order to tell you what happened to him in this matter, we wish first to respond to some misleading statements that an author at this point, more to be defamatory than to write history, inserted in his book. One of these was that the King of Portugal, in that city of Oporto, asked the duke, before he departed, to supply a dowry, as was the correct thing to do, for his daughter Philippa, whom the king had married. Another was that he should pay the salary owed to him and the men with whom they had invaded Castile, as well as the expenses he had incurred in that expedition. Further to these, that author states that the duke complained, saying to the king that he had entrusted his daughter to him and left her as surety for what he and his company were to receive as their salary, it being understood that the king would marry her as soon as dispensation was granted; however, he had taken her to wife, sleeping with her before the letters had come from Rome for which he had sent the Bishop of Évora and Gonçalo Gomes da Silva.