«Que de vostres letres nos vesitets»

Abstract

The chancery records in the Archive of the Crown of Aragon and the Archive of the Kingdom of Valencia preserve a large quantity of letters dispatched throughout the reign of Maria of Castile (1416-1458), wife of Alfonso the Magnanimous. This paper proposes to use that correspondence as a special source for a study of the different facets of the house and court of the Aragonese queen, and ways of addressing this systematically. Correspondence, which hitherto has been used very little in studies on late mediaeval Iberian courts, contains a type of information that is less sequential than government documentation, but the information it provides is very valuable. The letters cover all manner of subjects, offering a fuller view of the queen’s public life, and also of more personal aspects. They speak of matters of government, but also of the more intimate concerns of a woman who ruled on her own in the Crown of Aragon, one of the most powerful Western states in the late middle ages.

Keywords

• 15th century
• Crown of Aragon
• correspondence
• house and court
• letters
• María of Castile