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Open Access The "Treasons" of Bernat de Cabrera: Government, Law, and the Individual in the Late-Medieval Crown of Aragon

On 26 July 1364 at the hour of terce in the marketplace of Zaragoza near the Toledo gate, the great "counselor and courtier" Bernat de Cabrera was formally executed by "having his head cut from his shoulders." The reason for this surprising – some contemporaries would say shocking – development was Cabrera's commission of "many different crimes of lèse majesté," especially those which aided an inexorable, Castilian enemy to cause "the destruction and depopulation of our Republic." Ostensibly, the execution was carried out without complication under the authority of the crown prince Joan. The grisly deed met with the approval of a vast multitude who crowded into the Aragonese capital and "were very pleased at the execution," revelling in the fact that Cabrera would suffer the same evil he had inflicted on others. Behind the carefully-painted scenery of this royal spectacle of a great noble condemned and executed for the betrayal of royal law and the sovereign it represented, a number of sub texts remain to be read.

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 01 January 2000

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  • Until a short time ago, in German speaking countries there has neither been a periodical dealing primarly with interdisciplinary research of the Middle Ages, nor has there been a forum for regular publications in other languages. Wishing to close this gap, the journal «Mediaevistik» therefore pursues two aims: 1. To publish research methods and results which deal with studies within the different categories of the Middle Ages as a subject, and 2. to offer a forum for studies in all other important European languages and thus stressing and furthering the internationality of this particular field of research. The time frame is approx. the 8th to the 16th century, corresponding with the geographical boundaries of Latin Christianity in the High Middle Ages.

    All articles in Mediaevistik are published as full open access articles under a CC-BY Creative Commons license 4.0. There are no submission charges and no Article Processing Charges as these are fully funded by institutions through Knowledge Unlatched, resulting in no direct charge to authors.

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