In a letter to Pere III dated 11 March 1381, the fifteen-year-old duchess of Gerona, Violant de Bar, joyously announces her first pregnancy: "notifich a Ia vostra senyoria per tal com se que n'haurets plaer que'm s6 feta prenys, e'm trob be ab lo prenyat, grades ne vajen a Deu" (ACA, reg. 1821, fol. 68<). 1 So begins her procreative trial as wife of the king's first-born son,Joan, heir to the powerful Crown of Aragon. Fifteen years later, we find King Joan dead without a legitimate male heir and the process of his brother Marti's succession in great confusion because, according to historian E.L. Miron,