Tudela
After an hour drive I reach Tudela which was fun, as I ended up following my nose and driving right into the old part of the town where the streets were narrowest and the rental car could barely squeeze between the walls. After a couple of close calls I parked and walked to the cathedral which was impressive and empty, as it had just opened.
Spending time in an empty cathedral is special, as you can feel the peace of the silence that you just can’t with other tourists gawking about. The courtyard was also very beautiful and peaceful.
Historian Marion Turner says in her excellent biography of Chaucer, Chaucer: A European Life, that “when proclamations were made in Tudela, they were made in markets and city squares on Thursdays, in mosques on Fridays, in synagogues on Saturdays, and in churches on Sundays”. Chaucer would have seen all of this and would have probably been impressed by this level of tolerance given that England had expelled its Jewish population in 1290.
After a quick stop at a mercador to stock up on snacks, it was off to Olite and a highlight of the trip.
Olite Castle
Approaching the small town of Olite from the south, one building was visible from about 2 kilometres away – Olite Castle. This was where Chaucer arrived in March, 1366 after crossing the Pyrenees, and where he would have met King Carlos the Second (also known as King Charles the Bad – he was French, the count of Evreux). Chaucer needed to gain passage through Navarre in his search to find the mercenary Sir Hugh Calveley and turn him to the cause of the Prince Edward (called ‘the Black Prince’ after his death). We know Chaucer was here because a researcher in the 1950s found a clerk’s record granting Chaucer and two companions safe conduct through Navarre, approved by King Carlos. Historians posit that Chaucer was there as a spy to turn Calveley – and so the genesis of this story was born.
I had booked a parador (a government-run hotel) that had been added to the castle during its renovation a hundred years earlier. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I entered the front door of the parador which was effectively entering the wall of the castle itself.
After checking in I climbed the steps to my room and passed a full suit of 14th century armour. Crazy!
Then spent the next few hours exploring the castle (entry was free). The castle had been added to since Chaucer visited, and the result was nothing short of jaw dropping. The 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside brought home the fact that the walls of Olite Castle had never been successfully breached, protecting King Carlos as he maintained tight control over the passes into Navarre that any army might take.
Carlos had a reputation in Chaucer’s day as a two-faced negotiator, saying whatever he needed to say to extract the deal that would best serve him. He succeeded until Sir Calveley, the very knight Chaucer had come to find, finally turned away from Enrique and toward Pedro and the Black Prince and began sacking villages nearby, forcing Carlos to agree to terms set by Prince Edward to cross through Navarre with his army in February, 1367. Prince Edward then faces Enrique a few weeks later at the Battle of Najera, the largest battle in the Hundred Year’s War.
Olite Castle in 1367 already considered one of the finest castles in Europe. It was surrounded by olive groves, renowned for its hanging gardens, with exotic animals (lions and giraffes among them) kept in the gardens.
One other interesting fact about Carlos was his tolerance, for his master bowman was Muslim, his physician was Jewish, and he allowed people of all religions to practice their faith (thus the freedoms allowed those in Tudela, which he also controlled).
So Olite Castle was a crucial place for Chaucer to be a year earlier in order to gain the favour of King Carlos and passage to Rioja and Castile.
I then visited the modest church also built into the side of the castle. I stepped inside to period music playing and the sense of utter peace. After visiting huge, often overwrought cathedrals over the past few days, this modest, intimate church left me with a far deeper feeling of connection.
Almost as if I’d been there before (I had the same feeling when i visited the main marketplace in Milan in 2015 on my first research trip).
Chaucer would have no doubt also visited this church during his stay. Yet another moment of connection to the past along this journey.
Picked up an excellent bottle of local wine, slept like a baby (the walls are three feet thick), and left the next morning for Pamplona to return the car and catch a train to Barcelona.