saul antónio gomes named “qui presentes fuerunt et uiderunt”, for a total of just three ecclesiastical witnesses and five lay persons, and ending with the signature of the royal chancellor: “Iulianus regis notarius affuit”.14 The same validation can be read in the codicil to this will.15 Quite different, as mentioned, is the sovereign’s second will and respective addition, written in October and December of 1210. In these acts, no witnesses appear, nor is the name of the royal chancellor included, only the indication that “facte fuerunt isteVI carte” of the act drawn up in October, and with two copies of the addition: This addition, however, survives to us in a chirograph cut with the letters ABC(thus dividing the parchment in halves), in the archive of the Cathedral of Zamora, with no traces of this act in the archival funds that have survived from Braga and Alcobaça. It should be noted that also in these two acts of Sancho I, from 1210, we are faced with a great restraint in the use of words. The invocatio is very simple (In Dei Nomine) and the intitulatio(Ego Sancius…) andexpositio(Timens diem mortis…) repeat the formulation of the acts of 1188. As we can see, several original letters were drawn from the royal testaments without their content being entered into the registration books of the respective chancelleries. Even considering that most of the original record books of the chanceries of the kings of Portugal, for the historical period considered, have disappeared, with only copies or renewed readings of them remaining, it must be recognized that the royal will, due to its confidential nature and political implications, circulated only in original letters, duly sealed and closed, entrusted to the custody of mainly ecclesiastical persons whose archives were true strongholds. In 1211, Afonso II, one of the monarchs with the strongest legal intuitions, ascended to the throne. He entered history with the nickname 243 14 Azevedo et al. 1979, doc. 30. 15 Azevedo et al. 1979, doc. 31. 16 Azevedo et al. 1979, doc. 194. Et ut quicquid in carta ista continetur firmius obseruetur precepi fieri sex cartas consimiles sigillo meo munitas quarum unam tenet Bracarensis archiepiscopus et alteram abbas Alcupacie.16
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