'Good people, I am well aware that with the best of intentions and because of the great affection you have for me, you are offering me the crown and kingdom of
Portugal, which is a momentous thing. You declare, as do I, that I have the same or a stronger claim to them than does my niece the
queen of Castile, the daughter of
Leonor da Cunha, because in truth she is a bastard - her
mother's
husband is still alive and residing in
Castile - but there is one issue: you cannot act on this affair and matter alone. The nobles of this realm, all or in part, must agree to it.'
'Aha!' replied the
Lisbonners, 'we shall have enough of them, since we already know what is in the minds of many who have revealed their intentions to us, and of the three principal cities of this realm beside us,
Evora,
Coïmbra, and
Porto.'
The present
king responded to this and said, 'Then so be it. My desires are the same as your own. You are aware that
lady Leonor, who calls herself queen of this country, is still in this town, and with her she has her advisor
Sir João Fernandes Andeiro, who wishes to safeguard the crown and inheritance of
Portugal for the
queen of Castile, and he will never depart from her side, for he arranged her marriage to the
king of Castile and broke off her engagement to the
son of the
earl of Cambridge in order to forge a peace between
Castile and
Portugal. He has perhaps sent, or may yet send, a message to the
king of Castile inviting him to come with all haste and with forces enough to combat and subdue all rebels.
João Fernandes Andeiro has already had his part in this, as you know, and he will make his involvement yet more plain on the day of the funeral of my lord and brother the
king, which will soon be performed in this town and which all of the noblemen in the land, or some of them, if they do not excuse themselves, will attend.
And so we must prepare ourselves and take counsel accordingly.'
Those who were in the presence of the
grand master of Avis said, 'What you have said does not come as a surprise, because we know full well that this is the case. We will prepare for that day according to what we hear
João Fernandes Andeiro say, as you will see.'
With that their meeting ended."
SHF 3-82 sync"It was not long afterwards that the funeral of
king Fernando of Portugal took place in
Lisbon at the
church of St Francis where he now lies. A great many noblemen of the kingdom of
Portugal were present because they had been invited by the
queen and by
João Fernandes Andeiro who took care of the
queen. The present
king was there along with much of the population of the country, in particular from the three aforementioned cities of
Coïmbra,
Evora and
Porto, since they were in agreement with the
Lisbonners. When the funeral of
king Fernando was over,
João Fernandes Andeiro, on behalf of the
queen, entreated the noblemen of
Portugal who were present not to leave
Lisbon that day or the next because he wished to speak with them, and also with the town representatives, and discuss how he should go about sending to
Castile to
king Juan and his wife,
lady Beatriz their mistress, for she was legal heiress to the kingdom of
Portugal. Most of the nobles who heard these words paid no attention to them. They were afraid of the people of the realm gathered there because they had already heard many of them murmuring that they wished to crown the
grand master of Avis, and
João Fernandes Andeiro had also heard it.
pb 264 v