Beyond Epistolary Standards? The Language of Entreaty in Political and Diplomatic Communications from Thirteenth-Century Iberia

Summary

The Rhetoric of friendship was—as it continues to be—used to navigate politics and diplomacy and to mediate among representatives of complex political, religious, and cultural worlds like those of thirteenth-century Iberia and the Western Mediterranean. By examining an instance of correspondence between the Iberian rulers James I of Aragon (r. 1213–1276) and Alfonso X of Castile and León (r.1252–1284), this study reveals how the discourses and performance of friendship, which were based upon widespread cultural models, constituted a means of communication and legitimization, and a tool to establish and preserve power structures. Friendship, so often conceptualized as a supportive, nurturing and inclusive bond, could be also used to implement politics of exclusion and intimidation against individuals and communities, alienating them from such networks. This study offers insight into the multidimensional nature of these complex dynamics within which family, politics, and identity played significant roles, as did the language and rhetoric of friendship through which these connections were often presented and managed. An examination of the strategic uses of Latin and the vernacular, alongside the “code-switching” between both, with considerations of how chancery protocols and practices might have informed linguistic and lexical choices, expose the multiple strategies of political communication in which mediation and intercession helped navigate complex social networks, often bridging social distance and cultural divergencies.

The letter under scrutiny in this study, edited and translated below, is one among the approximately fourteen thousand individual documents either issued by, or related to, King James I and preserved in the Archive of the Crown of Aragon (ACA). James I is regarded as the initiator of a long-standing royal chancery tradition in the Kingdom of Aragon based on the systematic copying and preservation of documents which were issued in the king's name. The ACA holds thirty-three registers (documents copied before being issued) related to James I's reign. Each register includes about two hundred cartas, mostly organized in chronological order. The documents that date between 1235 and 1250 predominantly refer to donations regarding the newly conquered Kingdom of Valencia, while the records from 1257 onwards are wide-ranging and include outgoing correspondence, such as the letter discussed in this study. Most of these documents are in Latin, although there are examples in Catalan and Aragonese, which were two of the vernacular languages spoken and written in the territories under James I's control.