Torre do Tombo · Order of Christ · 1460–1507
In the autumn of 1460 Prince Henry the Navigator went back over his charters and added, again and again, that the silver he left for Masses for his soul must be paid in silver. We told that story in Paid in Silver. This post follows the money. Forty years later, in 1499, King Manuel I copied Henry's formula into a new letter for the monastery of Batalha, and in the same letter turned the sixteen marks of silver into a fixed sum of coin: 36,480 reais a year. What Henry had guarded against happened anyway.
How this was made. The documents below are registered in the online catalogue of the Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo, and the catalogue summarises their content. We read the original register entries from the digital images, with AI assistance, and translated them into English. The readings have not been checked by a second palaeographer. Doubtful readings are marked [?].
What is new. To our knowledge, these later documents have not been read together with Henry's “in silver” clauses of 1460. The translations are, as far as we could find, the first in English.
What we found
The formula survived, the silver did not new
Manuel's letter of 12 August 1499 repeats Henry's words, dezaseis marcos de prata em prata, and then values the silver at 2,280 reais the mark, “which is its value”, and orders 36,480 reais a year to be paid instead. A second letter three months later drops the words em prata.
Henry's endowment had failed before 1499 new
The king explains why: the testament “was not being entirely fulfilled”, because the rents of Tarouca, which Henry had set aside for Batalha, had been pledged (apenhadas) so that nothing could be collected from them. An earlier royal letter had already moved the payment to Valdigem and to the revenue office of Viseu [?].
The Crown made up the difference new
Of the 36,480 reais, only 14,000 came from Henry's lands at Valdigem. The other 22,480 were charged on the royal revenue office (almoxarifado) of Leiria from January 1500.
A seventh letter of autumn 1460 about silver new
A copy of 1542 preserves a letter of Henry of 22 October 1460, written by the same clerk, Joham de Moraes. It gives the revenue of his shops at the fair of Tomar to the convent, “taken in silver”, at one hundred Masses for every mark. In 1507 Manuel I replaced that revenue, which “yields little”, with two and a half marks of silver a year.
Two corrections correction
The archive's catalogue says Henry's letter of 22 October 1460 was given at Tomar; the text says “in my town of Vila do Infante”. And we must correct our own first article: the overseer of Henry's chaplaincies was frei Antão Gonçalves (Antam Glz), his private secretary (escrivão da puridade), not “Antão Gil”.
Forty-seven years in six documents
Henry gives Batalha sixteen marks of silver a year for three daily Masses, from his lands of Tarouca and Valdigem, and adds above the line: em prata.
At Vila do Infante Henry gives the convent of Tomar the revenue of his fair shops, “taken in silver” at one hundred Masses per mark.
Henry dies at Vila do Infante.
Afonso V confirms the testament's choice of the alcaide-mor of Tomar, Antão Gonçalves, and his successors as overseers of the chaplaincies (archive catalogue; chancery of Afonso V, book 1, fol. 21).
The Tarouca rents are pledged and pay nothing. A royal letter moves Batalha's payment to Valdigem and to Viseu [?].
Manuel I, at Lisbon: the sixteen marks “of silver in silver” are valued at 2,280 reais each, 36,480 reais a year: 14,000 from Valdigem, 22,480 from Leiria.
A second letter at the prior's request repeats the settlement; possession of Valdigem from St John's Day 1500. The old letter is torn up.
Manuel I, at Tomar: the fair shops “yield little”; the convent gets two and a half marks of silver a year for 250 Masses, and the hospital of Santa Maria da Graça 700 reais.
Batalha: the sixteen marks become reais
The first letter, dated at Lisbon on 12 August 1499, is entered at the foot of folio 104 of book 41 of Manuel's chancery register and continues on the back. It begins by quoting Henry's testament: Batalha was to have every year “sixteen marks of silver in silver” from the rents of Tarouca and Valdigem.
… a boo paguamento da dita prata, que monta trinta e seis mill e quatrocentos e oitenta reais, aa rezam de dous mill e duzentos e oitenta reais o marco, que he a sua valia …“… good payment of the said silver, which amounts to thirty-six thousand four hundred and eighty reais at the rate of two thousand two hundred and eighty reais the mark, which is its value …”Manuel I to the monastery of Batalha, 12 August 1499 (our reading)
The letter does not say that anyone objected to silver as such. The trouble was the source. Henry had charged the sixteen marks on the rents of Tarouca and Valdigem, and the rents of Tarouca had been pledged, so that the monastery “could get no payment from them”. An earlier royal letter, now lost, had already moved the payment to Valdigem and, for the shortfall, to a royal revenue office, probably Viseu. When the monastery's proctor asked for another change, Manuel settled the matter in money. The value of the silver was fixed once and for all at 2,280 reais the mark. Valdigem was to pay 14,000 reais, whatever it was leased for, and the royal revenue office of Leiria the remaining 22,480, from January 1500. The old letter was torn up.
Where the 36,480 reais came from
By 1500 less than two-fifths of the payment came from the lands Henry had assigned to it.
A second letter, of 27 November 1499, issued at the request of the prior, repeats the settlement almost word for word and gives the monastery possession of the Valdigem rents from St John's Day 1500. In this letter the words em prata are no longer there.
Henry had written em prata so that his Masses would not depend on the value of the coin. Forty years later the Crown honoured the endowment, at what the letter calls the value of the silver, but it did so by turning the silver into exactly what he had tried to avoid: a fixed sum in reais. From then on, any fall in the value of the real would be the monastery's loss.
Tomar: the fair that “yields little”
The convent of Tomar, head house of the Order of Christ, kept a cartulary (tombo) of its property, made in 1542. Under “The chapels and anniversaries” it copies a letter of Manuel I of 17 March 1507, and inside it a letter of Henry himself of 22 October 1460.
Henry's letter gives the revenue of the shops he had built at the fair of Tomar to the prior and friars, for Masses for his soul. The revenue was to be “taken in silver” (levado a prata), at a hundred low Masses for every mark, “much or little, as the revenue yields”. It was written by the same clerk as the six charters of September, Joham de Moraes, at Vila do Infante, three weeks before Henry's death. It is the seventh letter of that autumn in which he counts his gifts in marks of silver.
By 1507 the shops “yield little” (rendem pouco). Manuel had first given the convent the pension of the town's notaries instead; when the overseer of Henry's chapels, Dom Diogo de Sousa, reported that this was hard to collect and that the Masses were said only as far as money came in, the king replaced it with a fixed grant. From St John's Day 1506 the convent was to have two and a half marks of silver a year, for 250 Masses at Henry's rate of a hundred per mark, paid by the royal receiver of Tomar, and the hospital of Santa Maria da Graça 700 reais for the house it had lost to Henry's fair. Here, unlike at Batalha, the grant is still reckoned in marks of silver.
What the documents show
| Endowment | 1460 (Henry) | Later | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Batalha, three daily Masses | 16 marks of silver in silver, from Tarouca and Valdigem | 1499: 36,480 reais a year | Tarouca pledged; silver valued at 2,280 reais; 62% paid by the Crown at Leiria |
| Tomar, Masses for the fair revenue | Fair revenue “taken in silver”, 100 Masses per mark | 1507: 2½ marks of silver a year | Shops yield little; Crown pays from Tomar revenue; 700 reais to the hospital |
| Overseer of the chaplaincies | Commander of Tomar castle, 7 marks of silver | 1461: confirmed by Afonso V; 1507: Dom Diogo de Sousa as overseer | Office still working in 1507 |
Henry's foundations did not die with him. They were confirmed, defended and paid. But within a generation the lands he had assigned to them no longer supported them, and the Crown stepped in. At Batalha it did so by changing the silver into money. Whether the value of those 36,480 reais held up in the sixteenth century is the next question; it will need the later accounts of the monastery.
The translations
Close translations of the three letters. Square brackets mark doubtful or illegible passages. The two Batalha letters are register copies in a fast chancery hand; the Tomar letter is a careful copy of 1542.
Dom Manuel etc. To all who see this our letter we make known that the Infante Dom Henrique, whom God keep, ordained and left in his testament that every [day] three low Masses be sung for his soul in the monastery of Batalha, and for that he ordered that sixteen marks of silver in silver be given each year to the said monastery, and that they should have payment of them from the yield of the rents of Tarouca and Valdigem. And because the said testament was not being entirely fulfilled, it pleased us that the said monastery should have payment of the said silver in the rents of the said place of Valdigem, in whatever they be leased for each year by the contador of our lands of the Beira, and that what fell short they should have from the yield of the almoxarifado of Viseu [?], because the said rents of Tarouca, which the said Infante had set apart for the said payment, were pledged (apenhadas) in such a way that it could get no payment from them, as was more fully contained in a letter of ours which the said monastery had on this. And now we were told by its proctor that, although we had thus ordered for it the payment of the said sixteen marks of silver in the manner aforesaid, he asked us in the name of the said monastery to change their payment to other rents […]. And having seen his petition, because our intention and will is that the said testament of the said Infante be fulfilled and the said monastery have good payment of the said silver, which amounts to thirty-six thousand four hundred and eighty reais at the rate of two thousand two hundred and eighty reais the mark, which is its value, it pleases us and we wish that the payment of fourteen thousand reais of the said sum the said monastery have each year, through its proctor or whomever it pleases, from the lease […] in the said place of Valdigem. And we order our said contador of our lands of the Beira that […] from [January?] 1500 onwards […] the said rents in the manner aforesaid, without raising any doubt about it. And as to […] we give them in part payment of the said 36,480 reais which the said silver amounts to […], and in case the said rent is worth more [or less], the said monastery shall always have them in payment of the said fourteen thousand reais […]. And the twenty-two thousand four hundred and eighty reais which are lacking to make up the said 36,480 reais, we wish and it pleases us that it have its payment of them each year, from this coming January of the year 1500 onwards, in our almoxarifado of Leiria. And we order our almoxarife of Leiria that from [the said January] onwards he pay them to it each year in full and without any deduction […], because our intention and will is that they always have full payment of them by this single letter without taking out any other from our treasury. […] the overseer of the chapels of the said Infante […] how the said three Masses are sung every [day] as the said Infante ordered […]. And for its security and our remembrance we ordered this our letter to be given to it, signed by us and sealed with our pendent seal. On the signing of which the letter which the said monastery had of the said 16 marks of silver, of which this makes mention, was torn. Given in our city of Lisbon on the 12th of August. André Dias made it. Year of the birth of Our Lord [Jesus Christ] 1499.
Dom Manuel etc. To all who see this our letter we make known that the Infante Dom Henrique, whom God keep, ordained and left in his testament that every day three low Masses be sung for his soul in the monastery of Batalha, and for that he ordered that sixteen marks of silver be given each year to the said monastery, and that they should have payment of them from the rents of Tarouca and Valdigem. And because the said testament was truly not being fulfilled, it pleased us that the said monastery should have, in payment of the said silver, the rents of the said place of Valdigem, in whatever they were leased for each year by the contador of our lands of the Beira, and what fell short they should have from the yield of the almoxarifado of Viseu [?], because the said rents of Tarouca which the said Infante had set apart for the said payment were pledged in such a way that it could get no payment from them, as was more fully contained in a letter of ours which the said monastery had. And now we were told by its prior that, although we had thus ordered for it the payment of the said sixteen marks of silver in the manner aforesaid, he asked us in the name of the said monastery to change their payment to other rents. And having seen his petition, because our intention and will is that the said testament be fulfilled and the said monastery have good payment of the said silver, which amounts to thirty-six thousand four hundred and eighty reais at the rate of two thousand two hundred and eighty reais the mark, which is its value, it pleases us and we wish that the payment of fourteen thousand reais of the said sum the said monastery have each year [from the] yield of the [rents] of the place of Valdigem. And we order our said contador of our lands of the Beira that, as soon as [this our letter] is shown to him, he put the said monastery in possession of the said rents of the said place of Valdigem from this coming St John's Day of the year 1500 onwards and let it collect them each year in payment of the said 14,000 reais […] without raising doubt or impediment of any kind. […] And the twenty-two thousand four hundred and eighty reais [which are lacking] to make up the said thirty-six thousand four hundred and eighty reais [it shall have] each year [its] payment from [this coming] January onwards in our almoxarifado of Leiria. […] And for its security and our remembrance we ordered this our letter to be given to it, signed by us and sealed with our pendent seal […] [on the signing of which the letter that] the said monastery [had] of the said 16 marks of silver [was torn] […]. [Given in our city?] of Lisbon on the 27th day of November. Francisco de Matos [made it]. [Year] of the birth of Our Lord [Jesus Christ] 1499.
Dom Manuel, by the grace of God King of Portugal and of the Algarves on this side and beyond the sea in Africa, Lord of Guinea and of the conquest, navigation and commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India, as ruler, governor and perpetual administrator of the Order and Knighthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ: to all who see this our letter, we make known that there was now presented to us the copy of a letter of the Infante Dom Henrique, my uncle, whom God have, of which the tenor is as follows:
Henry's letter. I, the Infante Dom Henrique, ruler and governor of the Order and Knighthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Duke of Viseu, Lord of Covilhã, make known to all who see this my letter that, considering that the sacrifice of the Mass is among the principal good things that can be done for souls, both of the living and of the dead, I have therefore established and ordained that the revenue of my shops of the fair of my town of Tomar, which by authority of the King my lord and father, whom God have, I had made, shall belong for ever to the prior and friars of the convent of the said Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ, whose administration I hold; and that for the said revenue they shall say for me each year, for my soul, the revenue of the said fair being taken in silver, at the rate of one hundred low Masses for each mark that the said revenue amounts to, and this much or little according to what the said revenue yields. Of which revenue the prior who now is of the said convent, and those who come after him, shall have the charge of leasing it at the best price he can, and shall have the money from it delivered to the sacristan of the said convent; and he, by order of the said prior, shall pay for the said Masses at the said rate of a hundred per mark. All these Masses shall be said in honour and praise of my Lady Saint Mary, with the commemoration of the Holy Spirit and the [responsory?] and the prayer “Fidelium Deus”. As soon as they begin the Mass, the priest who is to say it shall turn to those present, asking them in a loud voice, for the love of God, to say one Our Father and one Hail Mary for my soul and for those for whom I am bound to pray; and when the prayer is finished he shall go on with his Mass. And I command the said prior that each year, out of the said revenue, before any other expense is made, he shall have the said shops always kept up and repaired; and when they have been repaired, whatever is left over shall be spent on the said Masses as stated. Also it pleases me that, to help further in this, the said prior shall have the said sacristan collect all the rent that can be had each year from the houses and dwellings that stand in my said fair, out of which he shall each year pay to the hospitals of the said town as much as the houses they had there, where I had the said fair made, were yielding or could have yielded to them; and all the rest shall be spent likewise on the said Masses. And as a certificate that this is my will, I had this letter made, signed by me and sealed with the seal of my arms, which I ordered to be put in the tower of the archive of the said convent. Made in my town of Vila do Infante, on the twenty-second day of October. Joham de Moraes made it, in the year of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand four hundred and sixty years.
And whereas the said shops yield little, we, in order that the obligation of the said Masses might be better fulfilled, saw fit to give and appropriate to it the pension of the notaries of the said town, and that the said shops should be left vacant to us. And now, since Dom Diogo de Sousa, overseer of the chapels of the said Infante, has told us that the said pensions are hard to collect and are collected with trouble, and that the Masses were said only to the extent of what was paid; and since our will and desire is, in everything we well can, to fulfil his wish in the service of God and the discharge of his soul: we deem it good and we wish that, from St John's Day that has passed of the year 1506 onwards, the said prior and friars shall have each year for ever two and a half marks of silver, for which two hundred and fifty Masses are to be sung and said at the rate of a hundred Masses for each mark, as is contained in the said letter; and these are to be paid to them from the revenue of our olive oil [?] of the said town of Tomar, by this our letter, without any further letter from our treasury. They are to be delivered to the sacristan of the said convent, to be spent by order of the said prior on the said Masses with the said prayers in the manner contained here. Therefore we command the almoxarife or receiver of the said town to pay them each year the said two and a half marks of silver, and to make them a very good payment of it, in full and without shortfall; and by the copy of this letter and their receipt it shall be passed to his account. And also we wish that out of the yield of the said olive oil there be given, from the said St John's Day onwards, every year, to the hospital of Santa Maria da Graça of this town, seven hundred reais, delivered to its steward and brethren, on account of the house of which mention is made in this letter of the Infante. And the pension of the said notaries shall remain with us from St John's Day onwards. Given in the town of Tomar on the seventeenth day of March. Simão Vaz made it, in the year of Our Lord Jesus Christ 1507. And I, João da Fonseca, clerk of the treasury and chancery of the said lord, had it written and subscribed it.
Sources and method
- ANTT, Chancelaria de D. Manuel I, liv. 41, fols. 104 and 116 (PT/TT/CHR/K/41/104-825 and 116-866). Images on digitarq.arquivos.pt, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- ANTT, Ordem de Cristo/Convento de Tomar, liv. 232, fols. 65v–66v (PT/TT/OCCT/A/007/0232/00065A).
- ANTT, Chancelaria de D. Afonso V, liv. 1, fol. 21 (PT/TT/CHR/I/0001/118), cited from the archive's catalogue only.
- ANTT, Colecção Especial, cx. 72, mç. 8, no. 9 (Batalha, 30 September 1460) and the 1461 copy of Henry's testament, MSLIV/0516: see Paid in Silver.
- Nuno Valério, Desvalorizações monetárias na história de Portugal (2017), for the background of the real.
Method: we found the documents through the archive's online catalogue, downloaded the register pages, read them line by line with AI assistance, and checked the sums against the catalogue summaries (16 × 2,280 = 36,480; 14,000 + 22,480 = 36,480). Whether Henry's letter of 22 October 1460 is printed in Monumenta Henricina we have not been able to check. Corrections are welcome.