They left
Coïmbra and the surrounding area where they had been lodging and took the
Alcobaça road towards
Aljubarrota. They travelled at a comfortable pace, resting their bodies and their horses, because of the many provisions they had following them. They sent scouts to ride out ahead who were to evaluate the
king of Castile's forces and assess how he might proceed.
Sir João Fernandes Pacheco had not yet joined the company of the
king of Portugal but remained garrisoned at the
castle of Ourem, five leagues from
Aljubarrota, and I believe he had no idea of the impending combat."
SHF 3-92 sync"I rather suppose that the
king of Castile was informed that the
king of Portugal was marching on him with his army, and when he knew that we were in the fields he rejoiced, as did all of his men, as they demonstrated by advising him to march against us and engage us in combat. The
Gascons of
Béarn who were present were particularly eager to fight us and requested that they might form the vanguard, which was granted them.
Sir Guillaume de Montferrand, a
Gascon who was present with forty lance said to us,
'You can all be sure of a battle since you have men of
Béarn opposing you, because they desire nothing else.'
The
king, whose battle it was to be on the morrow, came to spend the night at the
castle of Leiria, two leagues from
Alcobaça at
Aljubarrota, and the following day we reached
Alcobaça where we lodged. The
king of Castile lodged that night just short of a league away from
Aljubarrota, even as we had lodged at
Leiria, for they knew through their scouts what road we would take and that we would lodge at
Aljubarrota.
"My lord, I can tell you that the
Portuguese have always placed their trust entirely in the grace of God and in the good fortune they have known in former times at
Aljubarrota, which is why they halted there once again on that occasion.""
"Now tell me the reason for this," said the
duke.
"Of course my lord," said
Lourenço Fogaça. "In former times the great lord
Charlemagne, who was
king of France and Germany and
emperor of Rome and who was such a great conqueror in his time, defeated seven infidel kings at
Aljubarrota, and more than one hundred thousand infidels died there also; and this can all be found in, and is known about because of old chronicles. By means of this battle he conquered
Coïmbra and all
Portugal and turned it to the Christian faith. To mark the great and excellent victory he achieved over the enemies of God, he had an abbey constructed and built for black monks
6, endowing them with revenues in
Castile and
Portugal to their entire satisfaction. On top of that, my lord, it must have been about two hundred years ago that in that very same place a great battle was won by a lord of
Portugal in those days who was the brother of the king of Castile.
Portugal had never previously had a king, in fact, and he was known as the
count of Portugal. It so happened that these two brothers, the king of Castile and the
count of Portugal, fell into a deadly conflict with one another regarding the division of territories, to the extent that no peace could be found save by a battle, because the matter was so important to the
count and the
Portuguese that they would rather die than fall under the subjugation of the
king of Castile, who for his part was keen to keep them thus.
pb 272 r