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The Love Story of Pedro and Inês
In the 14th century, Afonso IV, king of Portugal, arranged the marriage of his son Pedro, the heir of the Portuguese throne, to Constança, a noble ladt from Castile. To keep the princess company it came from Castile a beautiful girl, a maid of honour of noble lineage, whose name was Inês. Inês de Castro lived in the court with Constança and Pedro, enjoying the daily leisure: reading, music and dance and the troubadour's poetry. Her elegance and charming beauty made Prince Pedro notice her, and soon after, the fire of love and passion set fire to Pedro'heart. The Prince's love folly became more and more evident, and the meetings of the two lovers more and more frequent. Constança lived, each day, more and more distressed and sad and she finally died when giving birth to a child. The court became desolated but Pedro was free, at last, to fall into Inês'arms. Afonso IV, Pedro's father, lived worried because of his son's love and banished Inês. However the distance didn..t diminish the love felt by them. They communicated trough letters. The strength of their love was so big that going against his father's will Pedro sent for Inês. Pedro and Inês started to live in Santa Clara - Coimbra, on the left river bank of the river Mondego. There their children were born and played happily among the tenderness of their parents, the green of the flowers and the blue of the sky. Meanwhile in Lisbon, the prince Fernando, Pedro and Constança's son was being raised to sooner or later be king. What would happen if Inês, a Castilian noblewoman, became the Queen? It would the possible that one of her sons would become the Portuguese King, even though it was necessary to kill the lawful heir of the throne... Then, it would be easy for the Castilian Nobility to take over and Portugal would lose its independence. The King Afonso IV listened to his Counselors and became very worried with the situation. Then he decided to act. In the beginning of 1355, the Prince Pedro couldn't imagine what was going to be plotted against his beautiful and beloved Inês. So, he left with his friends to one more hunt, trough mountains and forests. On 7 January, at night fall, Inês de Castro was taken by surprise by the arrival of the King and his Counselors. Surround by her three children, Inês begged the King for her life, having his grandchildren in mind. In spite of the lancinating appeals, when the moonlight appeared Inês was dead. As he heard the news, Pedro enraged defied the King. The Queen promoted the peace. But, as he became King, Pedro didn't forget the hatred he had toards the murderers that coldly killed his Inês. He ordered them to be found, and cruelly they were killed: to one of them, his heart was taken off through his chest, to another the heart was taken off trough his back while Pedro ate abundantly. In the end Pedro had the courage to bite both hearts. He ordered the construction of two sumptuous tombs in the Monastery of Alcobaça - one for himself and the other for Inês, that meanwhile he had removerd from Coimbra to Alcobaça in a funeral procession, followed by a crowd of common mem that wept for Inês'misfortune; and by noblemen and clergymen that were forced to attend it. It says the legend that Pedro crowned Inês as Queen and forced the Nobility to kiss her hand, after her death.