Did you know? The letter of the queen who lost her palace…

By Ferran Garcés

Around this time, in 1415, a book was about to disappear from the old Bellesguard palace. In fact, almost all its books, a large number of trees, and the ownership of its proprietor…

The featured photo shows a page from a manuscript of Décadas by the Roman historian Titus Livius, published in 1505. The letter we are discussing today, written on November 27, 1415, refers to an edition of this book, but one century older, when the printing press had not yet been invented and, consequently, far more valuable. The letter is signed by Margarida de Prades , the owner of the old Bellesguard palace, though not for long, as she herself wrote: “We live and pass our lives and state with great toil and misery” (1).

To understand the letter—and Margarida’s hardships—we must go back in time to September 17, 1409. On that date, a royal wedding was celebrated in the Bellesguard palace between Margarida de Prades, the author of the letter, and King Martin I the Humane . The palace was known to house an exceptionally large library for its time, in an era known as Humanism, the cultural movement of the Renaissance.

Both husband and wife were raised in an erudite environment, and Margarida even inspired admired verses from renowned poets of her time. However, due to a crisis that had been long in the making, they also endured the dire economic situation of the crown (2). The aforementioned letter, written on November 27, 1415, serves as an example of both the cultural brilliance of the House of Barcelona and its waning decline.

King Martin I died on May 31, 1410, leaving Queen Margarida with a poisoned inheritance due to accumulated debts. At the time of the letter, the queen was in Perpignan, trying to improve her increasingly unsustainable personal situation. In fact, to cover the expenses of her trip and stay, Margarida had to borrow money, which she was never able to repay.

Why was she in Perpignan?

At the time, the French city was experiencing the most glorious days of its history. A host of great personalities had gathered there to address the resolution of the Western Schism, a major conflict dividing all the kingdoms of Europe. Margarida, however, merely hoped to find a protector for her cause.

What does the letter say?

In it, the widowed queen requested the Catalan-translated copy of Décadas by Titus Livius, which was part of the Bellesguard palace library (3). However, by the time of the letter, the influential attendees had already left the city. Everyone except her, who, lacking resources, had been unable to leave. Thus, she might have wanted the book to sell it for some money or simply to read it and relieve her boredom.

The situation was dire: most of Margarida’s servants had also abandoned her, and those in Barcelona no longer seemed to pay her much heed. As the book did not arrive, the queen reiterated her request on December 14 and tried again on January 4, 1416, to no avail. In reality, many of the books from the royal library at Bellesguard were being sold without the queen’s permission to cover the large amounts of accrued debt or due to a lack of effective authority to stop it (5).

A story without a happy ending

As you can imagine, our story does not have a happy ending. Margarida’s stay in Perpignan had drained her meager resources. A document from January 8, 1416, mentions the order to cut down some of the trees surrounding the Bellesguard palace to try to repay part of the loan she had taken out. Despite this, financial distress continued to plague the widowed and ruined queen. Another document, from November 25, 1419, tells how Martin I’s widow ultimately lost the Bellesguard palace and the rest of her possessions. It is worth noting that, not long before, Margarida had secretly married and even had a child. When these events became public, the queen lost all the few remaining rights she held over the royal estate (4).

With no hope of recovering, Margarida had to settle for refuge first in the Valldonzella Monastery in Barcelona and later in a humble monastery in her homeland, in Tarragona’s Priorat region, where she passed away at age 42 on July 23, 1429. By then, the Bellesguard library had been completely dispersed, including the Décadas of Titus Livius, the book that was never sent to Perpignan, around this time, in 1415…

Notes

Juncosa Bonet, E. (2021). «Nós vivim e passam ab gran afany e misèria nostra vida e stat». The economic difficulties of a widowed queen: The case of Margarita de Prades (c. 1410-1430). Part 2: The reign of Alfonso the Magnanimous until the queen’s death (1416-1430): «Nós vivim e passam ab gran afany e misèria nostra vida e stat», Aragón En La Edad Media, (32), pp.187–224.
Fort i Cogul, E. (1998, 2nd edition), Margarida de Prades, Episodis de la història, Rafael Dalmau, Barcelona, pp. 26-35. See also Durán i Cañameras, F. (1956), Margarida de Prades, Barcelona, pp. 28 ff.
Ferrer Santanach, M. (June 2010), “La traducció catalana medieval de les Décades de Titus Livi”, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 70.
For more information, see our blog article: Garcés, Ferran, February 17, 2023, “Did you know? The Star of Venus and a Secret Love…”
Vall i Comaposada, Josep M. (2014), Bellesguard. From the residence of Martin the Humane to Gaudí’s tower, Duxelem, Barcelona, p. 54.