While the king was celebrating his marriage and spending a few days at his ease in Oporto, the time had elapsed which had been stipulated for him to join the duke and invade Castile, for he should have been ready on the day after Christmas Day. However, it was now already the month of March 1387, at which time the duke and his wife were staying in a village near Bragança.

The king left Oporto, bound for Bragança, taking the queen with him, and ordering all his troops to follow him. He reached the Monastery of Castro de Avelãs, which stands less than 1 league from Bragança. Since the king, as we have indicated, was under an obligation to be in readiness earlier than that but, owing to certain hindrances, had been prevented from doing so, lest anyone should accuse him of breaking the agreement as a result of idleness on his part, he hastened at once to the village where the duke was staying. There, in the presence of Princess Constanza, Sir John Holland and other nobles, the king made the following statement to all of them.

They were well aware, he said, that an alliance of friendship between them and their successors had been drawn up in various clauses and duly sworn to. Among those clauses it was laid down that he, in person, together with certain numbers of lances, crossbowmen and foot soldiers, would assist the duke in the war that they had declared; and that, because of the marriage which he had entered into with the duke's daughter and because, too, of the aid which he was to give at his own cost, he was to receive from them certain towns and villages in Castile, once they had been captured by them, and which were named in the treaty. While he and his men were getting ready to start out on their journey as promised, certain impediments, such as his marriage to the duke's daughter, entered into as requested of him, as well as other pressing matters, had meant that he had found himself unable to supply that assistance as readily as had been expected of him. Nevertheless, he was now there with his troops, ready to assist the duke and to carry out what he had promised to do.