than Ceuta, urging them to fulfill the treaty and wondering what the delay was. In January 1438, still undecided, Edward of Portugal convened the Portuguese Cortes in Leiria for consultation. Ferdinand's letters were read before the Cortes, wherein Ferdinand expressed his desire to be released, and noted that Ceuta did not serve Portugal any strategic purpose and should be abandoned regardless. Contrary to later legend, it is clear from these letters that Ferdinand did not seek out a martyr's fate, that he wanted Ceuta to be handed over to the Marinids according to the terms of the treaty and that he wanted to be released swiftly. At the Cortes, urged by Peter and John, the burghers and clergy voted largely for the swap, but the nobles, rallied by Ferdinand of Arraiolos, argued strongly against it, with the result that the Cortes were dissolved without a decision being made. The decision to keep Ceuta was only made in June 1438, after a conference in Portel between Edward and Henry the Navigator. Henry once again urged a repudiation of the treaty and proposed alternative schemes to secure Ferdinand's release, e.g., ransoming him for money, persuading Castile and Aragon to join in a mass release of Muslim prisoners in exchange, raising a new army and invading Morocco all over again, etc. After repeated entreaties from Ferdinand, Henry finally dispatched a message to his imprisoned brother giving his reasons for not fulfilling the treaty: firstly, that Henry had not had the royal authority to make such a treaty to begin with, and secondly, because of the beach skirmish at Tangier, Henry considered the treaty had already been violated and thus he was under no legal obligation to honor it. Prisoner in Fez The Marinid authorities in Morocco were surprised and angered by the Portuguese repudiation of the treaty. Rumors of a plot to land a Portuguese amphibious force to break Ferdinand out of Asilah (a coastal city) prompted a decision to move him inland. On 25 May 1438, Abu Zakariya Yahya al-Wattasi, the powerful vizier of the Marinid palace in Fez, took charge of the hostages from Salah ibn Salah and ordered Ferdinand and his entourage transferred from his comfortable quarters in Asilah to a prison in Fez. Of the original entourage, two did not make the transfer to Fez. Frei Fernão Gil, the confessor, had died in the winter of 1437–38, whereas Rodrigo