WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

with the emphasis on Ayala’s first-person-like perspective presents a paradox: diachronically, it
structures a series of concurrent histories omnisciently; synchronically, it undermines their
“witnessed” quality by showing events that were beyond the sight of any one credible witness.
This tension heightens when Ayala describes the turning events of the Trastamaran
Revolution. Although Ayala cannot give a faithful account of the events as witnessed in Pedro’s
camp as he, like many of the nobles he could call to verify the narrative, abandoned Pedro’s side
to favor the Trastamaran cause, he does not even feign verisimilitude by claiming that any other
“faithful stories,” from knights or lords, could verify his narrative. Instead, he foregrounds
Pedro’s defeat by recording events in a first-hand fashion, as if he was actively witnessing. 310 In
contrast, when Ayala’s role as a unique witness may justify a first-hand tone in narrating the
events of the Revolution, he tends to rely on tropic devices (particularly that of the “mirror of
princes” and the “interpreted prophecy) to make his first-hand narrative sound fictional.
For example, after the Battle of Nájera, Pedro managed briefly to regain the Castilian
throne with the help of the Black Prince expelling Enrique who, after a year of power, lacked the
power of the Free Companies to defend his interests. Ayala, who, along with the majority of the
nobility, switched to support Enrique, became a prisoner of war in Pedro’s camp; in this position,
he could have plausibly provided an eye witness account of the events following Pedro’s
victory. 311 In recording the event, however, his Corónica eschews any personal investment from
the narrator giving us what appears like a fictional account. According to Ayala, immediately
after Enrique’s defeat at Nájera, Pedro sends a letter to a Moorish wise man, named Benaharin,
reporting the victory of his forces and the rebirth of the kingdom. In reply, the Muslim sage
sends nothing less than a speculum principum, a mirror of princes. This epistolary manual
310 Michel Garcia, Obra y Personalidad del Canciller Ayala, Estudios, Vol. 18 (Madrid: Alhambra, 1983) 44.
311 For Ayala’s place during the war, see Germán Orduna, “Introducción,” Rimado de Palacio, by Pedro López de
Ayala, Ed. German Orduna (Madrid: Clásicos Castalia, 1987) 17.
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