Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 December 2023
As mentioned elsewhere in this book, at the beginning of King Pedro's reign, the King of Castile gave orders in which he sent for the body of Queen Maria, his mother. She had passed away in Portugal whilst King Afonso [IV], her father, was still alive. He let it be known through a letter to King Pedro, his uncle, that it was his wish to transfer her body and lay it to rest in Seville, in the Royal Chapel, alongside King Alfonso [XI], his father. Accordingly, he ordered the Archbishop of Seville and other prelates from his kingdom to accompany the body of the queen. In addition, he commanded that Gómez Pérez, his Purveyor of the Royal Household, to whom the body was to be entrusted, should travel ahead to make all appropriate preparations for the body to be transferred in an honourable manner and to organize everything necessary for the transfer, so that when the prelates arrived they could find everything ready and leave immediately.
This greatly pleased King Pedro, who wrote asking the King of Castile to send for the body whenever he saw fit. The King of Castile immediately sent his purveyor, who was entrusted with the body in the town of Évora, where it lay, so that he could organize the preparations in accordance with the orders he had been given. When the archbishop and the other prelates and people came for the queen's body, a letter was brought to King Pedro from his nephew, the King of Castile, which read as follows:
Dear king and uncle, we the King of Castile and León, send you our salutations as to one whom we greatly admire and for whom we would desire a long life and health with honour, just as we would wish the same for ourself. We wish to inform Your Grace that we have seen a letter of credence that you sent to us through your vassals Martim Vasques and Gonçalo Eanes de Beja, who have presented on your behalf the credentials with which you invested them. Furthermore, dear king and uncle, our wish is to love you, to maintain at all times the good relations afforded by our kinship, and to act in your honour as we do in our own.
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