saul antónio gomes Denis’ last testament dates from December 31, 1324, seven days before his death, and presents the invocation andintitulatio, proceeding to a long arenga of a spiritual nature, then beginning the biographical narrative that describes him to be in conflict with the infante (or prince, in English), his heir. Clauses relating to the chapel ordered for his soul follow, listing the magnificent treasures of the royal chapel, which would revert in part to the Cistercian monastery of Odivelas, where he wanted to be buried, and in part would pass to his heir. He was a very rich and generous king, as shown by the numerous legacies he left. Three letters were made from this testament by a public notary. This fact is significant, as it is now clear that kings used public notaries to draw up their wills, not chancellors or notaries from their own chancery. As an act by a notary or public notary, the king’s will names witnesses, the notary’s signature followed by the perhaps autograph signature of the king.34 Public and general notaries wrote the wills of AfonsoIVand Pedro I, and endorsed their signs of authentication. That of AfonsoIV,35 madeon February 13, 1345, “in the villa of Leiria in Paços de El Rey”, was drawn up by Vasco Eanes, notary general in the kingdoms of Portugal and the Algarve.36 It is a testament indeed, but with the structure of an ordination of a chapel for the souls of the king and the queen, established in the Cathedral of Lisbon. This was, in fact, the only medieval Portuguese king who chose to be buried in a cathedral. It offers a delicate literary invocation: “In the name of God the Almighty Father, who is the beginning, middle, and end of all good”, proceeding to a very brief spiritual proem (“because the devout works that men do in this earthly world please God so that he will give them reward in his heavenly kingdom”), moving on to the title and exposition: 249 34 Gomes 2021, doc. 39. 35 Sousa 2005. 36 Sousa 1739, p. 225. However [I] King Afonso IV, by the grace of God King of Portugal and the Algarve, for the honour and praise of God and of the Glorious Virgin Saint Mary his mother, and of the Martyr St. Vicente, I have built at my own ex-
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