Based on an analysis of the royal entrance to Barcelona in 1405 made by Martin the Younger, king of Sicily, on his one and only visit to the city as heir to the Crown of Aragon, this study attempts to reflect on what might be learnt about these kind of ceremonies as a result of consulting of fi nancial documents kept in municipal archives, in this case the registers of the Clavaria in the Barcelona historical municipal archives. The information provided by this source, together with all the rest of the extant documentation, both royal and municipal, not only makes it possible to gain a knowledge of the important economic component of arranging a royal entry, but also to obtain a much more complete and detailed perspective of that event viewed chronologically. In this way we can follow the event, as in the royal entrance which is the subject of this study, from the initial solemnity of the ceremony accorded to the arrival of the illustrious visitor right up to the subsequent conflict caused by his presence in the city.

Peer reviewed