Letter from Joan I of Aragon

November 8, 1391 King Joan I of Aragon wrote this letter to his wife, Violant de Bar, on November 8, 1391. In it, Joan thanks Violant for sending him a small box of perfumes that he says helped him convalesce and regain good health.
PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles

Connection to Website Themes

Spousal Power Dyanmics: In this letter Joan expresses his gratitude for Violant’s counsel on matters of state.

Community Social Norms: The extent to which Joan expresses deference to Violant’s judgement challenges the social norms of marriage, especially for a king and queen. The masculine ideal created a clear expectation of the man’s paramount authority. However, time and time again, surviving documents for both the elite and non-elite show that women routinely participated in political matters.

Church and State: Before delivering it, chancery scribes copied the letter into a register along with copies of with other letters sent under Joan’s secret seal. The word secret most likely corresponds to the modern use of the word private. Letters such as these, between husband and wife, also represented matters of state governance. Especially in the archival context of the monarchy of the late fourteenth-century Crown of Aragon, royal marriages took on an even more public qualitiy.

What is Love: Joan addresses Violant as molt cara companyona, my dearest companion, at the beginning of each sentence of the letter.