King D. Pedro I and Wives (Constança of Aragon, Inês de Castro and Teresa Lourenço)

[Marengo]

Pedro I, King of Portugal and the Algarves, (Coimbra, 8 April 1320 - Estremoz, 18 January 1367); married 1stly in?, on ?, Princess Blanca of Castille, the marriage was annuled (1315-1375) married 2ndly in Lisbon on 24 August 1339, Princess Constança of Peñafiel (Castille) (?,? 1315, 1318 or 1325 - Santarem, 13 November 1345); married 3rdly in on Dona Ines de Castro (Galicia 1320 or 1325 - Coimbra, 7 January 1355); he legitimised his son from Teresa Lourenco (around 1330 - ?)

Reign: 1357 - 1367

Predecessor: King Alfonso IV of Portugal and the Algarves

Suceeded by: King Fernando I of Portugal and the Algarves

Children Pedro & Constança: Prince Luís of Portugal, Princess Maria of Aragon, Marchioness of Tortosa; King Fernando I of Portugal

Children Pedro & Ines: Prince Alfonso of Portugal, Princess Beatriz of Castille, Countess of Alburquerque and Haro; Prince João of Portugal, Lord of Porto de Mós, Ceia and Montelonso, and also Duke of Valencia de Campos; Prince Dinis of Portugal, Lord of Villar-Dompardo, Cifuentes, Escalona and Alvar de Tormes

Child Pedro & Teresa: King João I of Portugal

Parents Pedro: King Alfonso IV of Portugal and Princess Beatriz of Castile

Parents Blanca: Prince Pedro 'The Cruel' of Castille and Princess Maria of Aragon

Parents Constança: Prince Juan Manuel of Castile, Duke of Peñafiel and Princess Constanca of Aragon

Parents Ines: Don Pedro Fernandes de Castro and Aldonça Suárez de Valadares

Parents Teresa: Lourenço Martins and ?

Siblings Pedro: Queen Maria of Castille, Prince Alfonso, Prince Dinis of Portugal, Princess Isabel, and Prince João of Portugal and Queen Leonor of Aragon

Siblings Blanca: Princess Beatriz of Castille, Princess Constance of England, Duchess of Lancaster; Princess Isabel of England, Duchess of York, Prince Alfonso of Castille

Siblings Constança: Princess Beatriz of Castille, Prince Fernando Manuel, Lord of Escalona, Penafiel and Villena and Queen Juana Manuel of Castille

Siblings Ines: Milia Pérez de Castro and Alvar Pérez de Castro

Siblings Teresa: 13 legitimate siblings

[Marengo]

Peter I (Portuguese: Pedro, pronounced [ˈpedɾu]; 8 April 1320 – 18 January 1367), called the Just (Portuguese: o Justiceiro), was the eighth King of Portugal and the Algarve from 1357 until his death. He was the third but only surviving son of Afonso IV of Portugal and his wife, princess Beatrice of Castile.

Afonso IV married his daughter Maria to Alfonso XI of Castile, but quickly learned that she was being mistreated by her husband. Alfonso's cousin, Juan Manuel, had also been rebuffed by the king when his daughter Constanza was rejected in favor of the Portuguese princess. Feeling as though his daughter was being dishonored, Afonso was glad to enter into an alliance with Juan Manuel and married Pedro to Constanza. When Constanza arrived in Portugal, Inês de Castro, the daughter of a Castilian landed aristocrat accompanied her as her lady-in-waiting. Pedro fell in love with Inês very quickly and the two conducted an affair until Constanza's death in 1345. The scandal of this affair caused Afonso to banish Inês from court, but this did not end the relationship since the two began living together in secret. According to the chronicle of Fernão Lopes, this period was when Pedro began giving Inês' brothers important positions at court. This behavior alarmed Afonso and made him believe that upon his death the Portuguese throne would fall to Castilians. This is the official motive behind Afonso's next actions: he sent three men to find Inês and murder her in 1355. Pedro's rage at the murder of his love is what supposedly sparked his desire to revolt against his father. This revolt lasted from 1355 until 1356 when Afonso defeated his son. One year later, in 1357, Afonso died and Pedro succeeded the throne.

Read the entire wikipedia article here.

[Marengo]

Constance of Peñafiel or Constance Manuel of Castile (b. 1315-1323, d. November 13, 1345) was the daughter of Juan Manuel, Duke of Peñafiel (1282-1348), called "el escritor" (the writer), Duke of Peñafiel, and his second wife Constance of Aragon. She was Queen consort of Portugal.
While still a child she became the first wife of future King Alfonso XI of Castile (1311-50), also a child at the time, in Valladolid. The marriage was annulled in 1327.
She became the second wife of King Pedro I of Portugal (1320-67) on August 24, 1339 in Lisbon. They had three children.

Read the entire wikipedia article here.

[Marengo]

Inês Pérez de Castro (Inés in Spanish; 1325 – January 7, 1355) was a Galician noblewoman, daughter of Pedro Fernandez de Castro, lover and posthumously declared lawful wife of the Portuguese King Pedro I of Portugal, and therefore Queen of Portugal.
Inês came to Portugal in 1340 as a maid of princess Constance of Castile, recently married to prince Pedro, the heir to the throne. The prince fell in love with her and started to neglect his lawful wife, endangering the already feeble relations with Castile. Moreover, Pedro's love for Inês brought the exiled Castilian nobility very close to power, with Inês's brothers becoming the prince's friends and trusted advisors. King Afonso IV of Portugal, Pedro's father, disliked Inês's influence on his son and waited for their mutual infatuation to wear off, but it did not.
Constance of Castile died in 1349. Afonso IV tried several times to arrange for his son to be remarried, but Pedro refused to take a wife other than Inês, who was not deemed eligible to be queen. Pedro's legitimate son, future king Fernando I of Portugal, was a frail child, whereas Pedro and Inês's illegitimate children were thriving; this created even more discomfort among the Portuguese nobles, who feared the increasing Castilian influence over Pedro. Afonso IV banished Inês from the court after Constance's death, but Pedro remained with her. After several attempts to keep the lovers apart, Afonso IV ordered Inês's death. Pêro Coelho, Álvaro Gonçalves, and Diogo Lopes Pacheco went to the Monastery of Santa Clara in Coimbra, where Inês was detained, and killed her. Pedro rebelled against his father, causing civil war.

Read the entire wikipedia article here.

[Elspeth]

Inês de Castro: The Queen Who Was Crowned After Death

by Elsa M.

Before Romeo and Juliet, there was another pair of star-crossed lovers whose affair ended in tragedy but whose love story has been immortalised in literature and art. Inês de Castro was a 14th-century Castilian lady-in-waiting at the Portuguese court when she and Dom Pedro, the heir to the Portuguese throne, fell deeply in love. Their affair threatened to destabilise relations between Castile and Portugal, so King Afonso arranged to have her assassinated. When Dom Pedro became King, he disclosed that he and Inês had been secretly married and that she was his rightful Queen. Legend tells that he had her remains exhumed, seated on the throne, and crowned. Whether this legend is grounded in reality or not, Inês was reburied at the Monastery of Alcobaça, where she and King Pedro lie in matching tombs.


More...

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[Elspeth]

Elsa has written a very interesting article about one of the more colourful episodes of European royal history: a love story that really is stranger than fiction! This article is well worth a read for anyone who thinks that Henry VIII was the last word in outrageous behaviour with wives and mistresses.

[Marengo]

Thanks a lot Elsa! Since I had the privelige of reading your article before it was published it made my visit to Coimbra (and Quinta das Lagrimas! - where she was murdered) more interesting.

[Al_bina]

Elsa,
Thanks a lot for your article! It is a truly sad love story. The main thing is that Dom Pedro did really love her.

[sirhon11234]

What a tragic love story.... They should make a movie out of this story.

[ANNIE_S]

I love this story. I read it some years ago in a history book. I agree with you, sirhon, it´s a movie story...

[saravfernandez]

Originally Posted by sirhon11234

What a tragic love story.... They should make a movie out of this story.

they made a movie out of it... "ines de portugal" from a portuguese director

[Elsa M.]

Thank you all for reading the article.
The credits go for Elspeth and Marengo too, since they helped me through the process of writing it.

Originally Posted by saravfernandez

they made a movie out of it... "ines de portugal" from a portuguese director

There are 3 movies about this story, as can you can read in the article

[Elspeth]

Anybody who thinks royal history is just a dry recitation of dates and wars should read this article. There's always been such a lot of human emotion involved, and this episode had more than its share!

[Menarue]

The arms of the Castro family are still to be seen in Cascais on the ruins of the walls that used to surround the castle.

[Regina]

Elsa, thanks for your article

this is an article one can read a couple of times! It is really a tragic story but definitely worth reading and, IMO, your story can touch one deeply.

It's so hard to imagine how the Prince felt when he knew his Inês was dead...

I believe Queen Inês is the only queen who was crowed after death! That is already a special fact about her.

I also liked the chosen pictures a lot.

Very well done, dear friend!

[Marengo]

Can't think of any other corpses that were crowned either, curiously enough...

I think it was more a story of power than a story of love btw, the Castillians trying to mingle in Portuguese affairs, as usual.

[Menarue]

I think of it more as a love story, there was a political side to it, that was the excuse for Inez´s murder but she was an extraordinarily beautiful woman and Pedro fell for her the moment he saw her and his grief made him seek vengeance. One of the murderers got away but the other two must have rued the day they decided to obey the King and murder her. A great tragedy also was that Pedro became King when his father died only 6 months later. 6 months too late for Inez.

[Elspeth]

I wonder, had she still been alive when Pedro became King, whether his legitimate son really would have been in danger. I gather the reason he couldn't marry her was because of her illegitimate descent, and I assume that taint would also apply to her children.

Mind you, if Pedro could make her Queen, I suppose he could insist that one of her children become King after him.

[Kelly]

What a wonderful although sad story. Thanks! I had never heard of this one before. So what happened eventually to her descent?

[Marengo]

Her sons Denis and João were claimants to the Portuguese throne during the crisis that followed the death of Pedro II. His niece Queen Beatriz of Castile (daughter of Fernando and Leonor Telles was another became king João I.

To Elspeth: Fernando, the son of Pedro and Constanca had his own Ines: he married Leonor Telles who in terms of notority surpasses even Ines.

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From Niccolo Zingarelli, the Quartet of his Ines de Castro Opera:

YouTube - Niccolo Zingarelli - Ines de Castro - Quartetto