Early life
Born on 8 April 1320 in Coimbra, Peter was the fifth child of Afonso of Portugal and his wife, Beatrice of Castile. Of his six siblings, only two – sisters Maria and Eleonor – survived infancy. At six years old, shortly after his father ascended the crown, Peter was granted aFirst betrothal
In October 1327, marriage contracts were negotiated for Peter and Blanche of Castile, granddaughter of Sancho IV of Castile, and Peter's sister Maria and the future Alfonso XI of Castile. Since both Peter and Blanche were minors, the marriage had to wait. Blanche was taken to be raised in Portugal until she was of age for marriage, where she remained for eight years. According to the Chronicle of Pedro I of Portugal by Fernão Lopes, during her stay, she began to show signs of illness and "defects of judgement" which made her unsuitable for marriage and for procreation. She was examined by physicians, including those sent by Alfonso XI, who confirmed her weak mental health and incapacity, and, because of "Infante Pedro's refusal and the evident mental disorder of doña Blanca" the proposed marriage never took place.Marriage
In 1328, Peter's eldest sister, Maria, was married to Alfonso XI of Castile. However, soon after their marriage Alfonso began a long affair with the beautiful and newly widowed Leonor de Guzman. Maria bore Alfonso a son in 1334, who ultimately became Peter of Castile, but after the Castilian king refused to end his affair, Maria returned home to Portugal in 1335. Alfonso had been married once before, to his cousin's daughter, Constanza Manuel (granddaughter of James II of Aragon). Alfonso had the marriage annulled in 1327, after only two years, to clear the way for marriage to Maria. This angered his cousin Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, a powerful Castilian aristocrat, and for two years Juan Manuel waged war against the Castilians – who had kept his daughter Constanza hostage – until Bishop John del Campo of Oviedo mediated a peace in 1329. Alfonso, now enraged by the infidelity and mistreatment of his daughter Maria, forged an alliance with Juan Manual by marrying his son and heir, Peter, to Constanza. When Constanza arrived in Portugal in 1340, Inês de Castro, the beautiful and aristocratic daughter of a prominent Galician family (with links albeit through illegitimacy, to the Portuguese and Castilian royal families), accompanied her as her lady-in-waiting.Affair
Peter soon fell in love with Inês, and the two conducted a long love affair that lasted until Inês's murder in 1355. Constanza died in 1349, following childbirth complications. The scandal of Peter's affair with Inês, and its political ramifications, caused Afonso to banish Inês from court after Constanza died. Peter refused to marry any of the princesses his father suggested as a second wife; and the king refused to allow his son to marry Inês as Peter wanted. The two aristocratic lovers began living together in secret. According to the chronicle of Fernão Lopes, during this period, Peter began giving Inês's brothers, exiled from the Castilian court, important positions in Portugal and they became the heir-apparent's closest advisors. This alarmed Afonso. He worried that upon his death, civil war could tear the country apart, or the Portuguese throne would fall into Castilian hands, either as Juan Manuel fought to avenge his daughter's honor, or the de Castro brothers supported their sister. Peter claimed that he had married Inês against his father's orders. In any event, in 1355, Afonso sent three men to find Inês at the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra, where she was detained, and they decapitated her in front of one of her young children. Enraged, Peter revolted against his father. Afonso defeated his son within a year, but died shortly thereafter, and Peter succeeded to the throne in 1357. The love affair and father-son conflict inspired more than twenty operas and many writers, including: the Portuguese national epic '' Os Lusíadas'' by Luís de Camões, the Spanish ''Nise lastimosa'' and ''Nise laureada'' (1577) by Jerónimo Bermúdez and ''Reinar despues de morir'' by Luís Vélez de Guevara, as well as ''Inez de Castro'' by Mary Russell Mitford and Henry de Montherlant's French drama ''La Reine morte''.Possible bisexuality
In the chronicle of Fernão Lopes, the author included a chapter entitled "''How the King ordered his squire to be capped because he slept with a married woman''", leading some modern authors to suggest this "capping" (castration) was rather motivated by the king's jealousy. The squire, Afonso Madeira, is described as a great rider, hunter, fighter and agile acrobat, and records: "For his qualities, the King loved him very much and did him generous favors." Madeira, however, fell in love with Catarina Tosse, a married woman described as "brave, mad and very elegant, of graceful gifts and good society". To get closer to her, Madeira befriended her husband, and was thus eventually able to seduce her. The sovereign, however, is claimed to have discovered the affair, and decreed upon Madeira a brutal punishment—though the chronicler, enigmatically, insists upon the affection of the sovereign for the man, stating: "As much as the King loved the squire very much, more than should be said here .. Nevertheless, the chronicle records that Peter I ordered that "those limbs that men in greater esteem have" be cut from the unfortunate squire. Madeira is supposed to have received assistance and survived, but "thickened in legs and body and lived for a few years with a wrinkled face and no beard". According to the same chronicle, Peter I stuttered and had epileptic seizures.Reign
Peter reigned for a decade, and is often confused with his Castilian nephew because of their identical nicknames. Fernão Lopes labels Peter "the Just" and said that the Portuguese king loved justice—especially the dispensing of it, which he enjoyed doing for himself. Inês' assassins received his harshest punishment: the three had escaped to Castile, but Peter arranged for them to be exchanged for Castilian fugitives residing in Portugal with his nephew, Peter of Castile. The Portuguese king conducted a public trial of Pêro Coelho and Álvaro Gonçalves in 1361. After finding them guilty of Inês' murder, the king ripped their hearts out with his own hands, according to Lopes, because of what they had done to his own heart. Diogo Lopes Pacheco escaped and died in 1393. According to legend, Peter later had Inês' body exhumed and placed upon a throne, dressed in rich robes and jewels, and required all of his vassals to kiss the hand of the deceased "queen". However, contemporary evidence that the event occurred is minimal; Peter did have Inês' body removed from her resting place in Coimbra and taken to Alcobaça where it was reburied in the royalMarriage and descendants
See also
* Quinta das Lágrimas * Chronicle of the King D. Pedro I (by Fernão Lopes)Notes
References
Citations
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* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Peter 01 Of Portugal Portuguese infantes House of Burgundy-Portugal 1320 births 1367 deaths People from Coimbra 14th-century Portuguese monarchs People with speech disorders Sons of kings People with epilepsy Historical figures with ambiguous or disputed sexuality