A ascendência de Thomás Allen Payne na Inglaterra não é conhecida, mas seguramente está ligada a coroa inglesa, e ele, possivelmente era um primo de Philippa de Lancaster, já que esta era bisneta de Matilda Pagan (Payn) de Chaworth (1282-1322) e de Henry Plantagenet (1281-1345). O pai de Philippa de Lancaster, João de Gaunt, teve por segunda esposa Katerina de Swimford a filha de Paim de Rouex.
"'Dos documentos do Record Office de Londres resulta evidente que alguns dos oficiais mais poderosos da casa familiar da rainha e muitas camareiras foram inglesas, ainda que os não mencione Fernão Lopes. O seu Chanceler foi, como já dissemos, Adam Davenport, e uma das damas de confiança chamou-se Elizabeth Elmham. A figura mais notável da colónia foi Sir Tomas Payn ou Payno, secretário da rainha, que se intitula num documento também tesoureiro." [Sagres: A Revolução Estratégica]
Ficha:
Nascimento: por volta de 1365 em Salisbury, Wiltshire, Inglaterra.
Morte: 31 de agosto de 1404 (34-43) em Portugal.
Local de enterro: Salisbury Cathedral (Wiltshire), Inglaterra.
Ocupação: Tesoureiro e conselheiro de Philippa de Lancaster
Filho de John de Montacute, 1st Baron Montacute e Margaret de Montacute
Mais informações:
"Porventura haverá documentação inglesa que possa ajudar. Através de um motor de busca e digitando "Philippa of Lancaster" ou "Philippa Plantagenet" talvez se descubra alguma coisa.
Quanto aos Paim, aqui referidos pelo nosso confrade Nuno Corte-Real, parecem de facto descender (cito o Nobiliário da Ilha Terceira) do secretário de D. Filipa de Lencastre, Thomas Elim ou Thomalim Paim. O solar desta família na Terceira era o Palácio de Santa Luzia (Condes da Praia da Vitória), onde "se premeditaram os actos preparatórios do heróico brado da restauração de 22 de Junho de 1828, e nele assistiu el-rei D. Pedro IV a um sumptuoso baile que lhe ofereceu o conselheiro Teotónio d'Ornelas, depois Visconde de Bruges e Conde da Praia da Vitória, na noite de 5 de Março de 1832" (NIT, Vol. I, cap. II, Angra do Heroísmo)." [http://geneall.net/en/forum/69632/nobres-que-acompanharam-d-filipa-de-lencastre/]
"Despenser teria tido suas próprias razões para ajudar Elizabeth: o único magnata de Norfolk a se juntar ao bispo em apoio a Richard era Sir William Elmham, que provavelmente era o pai de Elizabeth) Uma carta sem data de um momento mais calmo, Philippa agradecendo a Despenser por seu segundo presente para ela de pano de Rennes e linho fino ("drape de Reines et de laune"), juntamente com "Little purses" ("petitz burses") trazidas por Arundel Herald e seu tesoureiro, Thomas Payn." [England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, 12th-15th Century: Cultural, Literary, and Political Exchanges, página 148]
"Embora Payn seja um sobrenome comum, vários homens com este nome também se aproximaram de Philippa, seu irmão, e/ou serviço real, sugerindo uma rede familiar. Um Sir Thomas ou Thomas Elie ou Thomelim Payn serviu como tesoureiro de Philippa e viajou para a Inglaterra em missões diplomáticas para seu marido; Os estudiosos aceitaram isso como "uma hipótese razoável", citando Russell, aquele Robert Payn era o filho de Thomas." [England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, 12th-15th Century: Cultural, Literary, and Political Exchanges, página 152-153]
"De acordo com Russell e W.J Entwistle, a esposa de Thomas era uma mulher portuguesa chamada Antónia Dias d'Arca. Dias d'Arca pode ter sido uma segunda esposa, casada por um viúvo Thomas Pan depois que ele aceitou serviço com Philippa. Também é possível, no entanto, que Thomas tenha se casado com ela antes de 1386 e que ela era a mãe de Robert, apoiando a sugestão de que Thomas e, portanto, Robert Payn, tivessem experiência com Portugal ou, pelo menos, com a língua portuguesa antes de Guant partir de Plymouth." [England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, 12th-15th Century: Cultural, Literary, and Political Exchanges, página 153]
"De volta à Inglaterra, um John Payn de Helhougton, Norfolk, era mordomo do irmão de Philippa, Henry, em que capacitava ele ter relações com Geoffrey Chaucer e John Gower. Não foi marcado por estudiosos até agora, um Robert Payn também serviu como cavalariço da câmara real sob Richard II e Henry IV. Outro cavalariço real, mencionado com Robert em 1400, foi Thomas Elys. Desde que Robert Payn, o cavalariço real era um leigo, e colocado na Inglaterra até pelo menos 1400, é improvável que seja o homem que ocupou uma posição elevada na equipe de Philippa em 1402 e mais tarde se tornou um cânone de Lisboa. No entanto, ele provavelmente era um da família - como era, talvez, Thomas Elys, que poderia conter a chave para o mistério do segundo nome do tesoureiro. A Figura 7.2 apresenta uma possível genealogia dos Payns (incluindo outros filhos conhecidos de Thomas Payn)." [England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, 12th-15th Century: Cultural, Literary, and Political Exchanges, página 153]
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Surviving letters also reveal Philippa's surprising friendship with the controversial bishop of Norwich, Henry Despenser. Despenser had won fame for suppressing the Peasants' Revolt in Cambridgeshire, and notoriety for leading an ill-fated "crusade" in 1383 against the Flemish supporters of the anti-pope Clement VII. He was also one of the few magnates to stand by Richard II in his last days. It was bold of Philippa, therefore, to write Archbishop Arundel in 1399, asking him to resolve the ill-will between her brother Henry and Despenser, "a man from whom we have received great kindness and many favor." She notes that she is writing to Henry as well.
SOme time after, still in 1399, Despenser wrote to thank her for ther intervention. He has been ill, he says, but her letters have revived him. The bearer of these letters was Philippa's chamber-lady, Elizabeth Elmham, a native of his diocese, whom he promises to help in some unstated affairs.
(Despenser would have had his own reasons for helping Elizabeth: the only Norfolk magnate to join the bishop in support of Richard was Sir William Elmham, who was probably Elizabeth's father) An undated letter from some calmer time has Philippa thanking Despenser for his second gift to her of cloth of Rennes and fine linen ("drape de Reines et de laune") along with "Little purses" ("petitz burses") brought by Arundel Herald and her treasurer, Thomas Payn.
Peter Russel has found two Portuguese references to a Robert Payn: one from 1402 identifying Ruberte Paym as a well-paid official of Queen Philippa's household; and a Lisbon house-lease from 1430. Payn's name is absent from a later list of Philippa's household, drawn up probably a few years after 1402 but definitely before 1414. Russel hypothesizes that Payn left Philippa's employ some time after 1402 to become a canon a Lisbon Cathedral, at which point he began his translation The Escorail headnote describes Payn as a native (natural) of England, but his Portugues was so good that he may have grown up among the English merchant colony resident in Lisbon. John Matthews Manly connected the translator with the "Robert Payn, of Whitby, clerk' who left England in early 1390 to seek a benefice from the pope. The connection seems weak; the records do not say whether the Whitby clerk succeeded, or where this benefice was.
manly also found a Robert Payn who "in 1416, shortly after the death of Philippa in Portugal, was appointed rector of Aldeburgh by Sir Gerard Usflete, husband of Elizabeth Duschess of Norfolk, who had been in the household of John of Gaunt." This could have been the translator, repatriating after the death of his patroness- in which case the Lisbon house-lease of 1430 would represent either him returning to Portugal, or the residence of a nephew named after him (see figure 7.2)
Although Payn is a common surname, a number of men of that name also turn up closely associated with Philippa, her brother, and/or royal service, suggesting a family network. A Sir Thomas ou Thomas Elie or Thomelim Payn served as treasurer to Philippa and traveled to England on diplomatic missions for her husband; scholars have accepted it as "a reason-able hypothesis," to quote Russell, that Robert Payn was Thomas's son.
According to Russell and W.J Entwistle, Thomas's wife was a Portuguese woman named Antónia Dias d'Arca. Dias d'Arca may have been a second wife, married by a widowed Thomas Pan after he took up service with Philippa. It is also possible, however, that Thomas had married her before 1386 and that she was Robert's mother, supporting the suggestion that Thomas and therefore Robert Payn had experience with Portugual or at least the Portuguese language before Guant sailed from Plymouth.
Back in England, a John Payn from helhougthon, Norfolk, was butler to Philippa's brother, Henry, in which capacity he had dealings with both Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower. Unremarked by scholars until now, a Robert Payn also served as groom of the royal chamber under both Richard II and Henry IV. Another royal groom, mentioned with Robert in a record of 1400, was Thomas Elys. Since Robert Payn the royal groom was a layman, and placed in England until at least 1400, he is unlikely to be the man who held a high position on Philippa's staff in 1402 and later became a canon of Lisbon. However, he was probably one of the family ---as was, perhaps, Thomas Elys, who might hold the key to the mystery of the treasurer's middle name. Figure 7.2 presents a possible genealogy of the Payns (including other know sons of Thomas Payn).
The connections with Philippa are strong: the translator of the Confessio was or had been in her household, his father was her trasurer, and other family members were in service with her brother. Philippa's son Duarte owned a copy of the Portuguese Confessio---or Livro do Amante, as he calls it; he quotes from it in his Leal conselheiro of 1438. Fernando de Castro o Moço, the patron of the newly discovered manuscript, was associated with two of Duarte's brothers: he was in Fernando's service and he was related to an important official in Enrique's houschold. From all these data it should be easy to assume that Philippa, having obtained a copy of the Confessio from one of her many English contacts, had then engaged Robert Payn to translate it as a present for her husband, and more generally their court, and that she further had the work translated from Portuguese into Castilian as a gift for her half-sister, Catherine, and her brother-in-law, Enrique III of Castile.
Many authoritative scholars, however, have searched for alternate explanations. In 1930 Manly suggested that Payn obtained and translated the work himself, as a bid for royal favor. Peter Russell, in 1961, asserted that Payn must have translated the book after Philippa's death, in 1415, because his exemplar belonged to the first recension of the Confessio, which speaks favorably of the king whom her brother deposed in 1399. In 1975 Robert Warren Hamm credited Philippa's father or brother, who could have intended the translation as "a velvet-gloved reminder of Lancastrian political power in that part of the world. In 19991 Bernardo Santano Moreno argued that the Portuguese translation could not have been created before 1433, when Philippa's newly crowned son instituted regulations that could explain certain monetary values mentioned in the text. This dating led to the theory that King Duarte and his cousin Juan II of Castile may have collaborated on the bilingual translation project. The discovery of Palacio II-3088---a later exemplar of the Portuguese translation whose colophon dates it to 1430---doesn't seem to have reduced the popularity of the Duarte-Juan theory in some circles. Most recently, R. F. Yeager has surveyed a wide range of potential initiators or sponsors of the translations, including Philippa, her father, her stepmother, her brother, her half-sister Catherine, her son Duarte, Payn himself, other unspecified members of Philippa's orr Gaunt's entourages, Eglish merchants resident in Lisbon, Richard II, and Gower's executor, Sir Arnold Savage.
Can it be a coincidence that most of the alternative initiators proposed by these scholars are male? Not all of the scholars who speculate about the Iberian Confessio's exclude Philippa, but none pays sufficient attention to the web of associations that link her to the Payn family and to the prospective owners and readers of the translations. Nor has any scholar-even Russell, who cowrote a short biography of Philippa in 1940-discovered more in her than the hyper-pious and dutiful daughter, wife, and mother.