| Notes |
- BIOGRAPHY
Pedro I 'o Justiceiro, king of Portugal, was born on 18 April 1320, the son of Afonso IV 'o Bravo', king of Portugal, and Beatriz of Castile. His first marriage, when he was eight, was contracted with Blanche of Castile, but she proved mentally retarded and so the marriage was annulled. His second marriage was contracted when he was sixteen, but he had to wait four years before Constanza Manuel de Castile, daughter of Juan II Manuel 'el Scritor' de Castile, lord of Villena, Escalona, Peñafiel and Cartagena, and Infanta Constanza of Aragón, came to Portugal. Constanza brought with her a beautiful Castilian girl, Inez de Castro, and Pedro fell deeply in love with her. Nevertheless Pedro and Constance still produced two sons and a daughter, of whom the second, Fernando, would have progeny. Luiz, the first-born, had Inez de Castro as godmother. According to the Church, this placed her in a prohibitive affinity with Pedro that was to bar any subsequent marriage with him.
When Constanza died in 1345 after giving birth to Fernando, Pedro and Inez began living openly together. They had four children of whom a daughter Brites and son Joao would have progeny. Although Pedro's father urged him many times to remarry, Pedro claimed that his grief for Constanza prevented him from making any other marriage. At the same time Inez not only proclaimed that she was not Pedro's wife, but that 'she never was, nor could be, his wife'.
The two brothers of Inez persuaded Pedro to claim the Castilian throne; this alarmed Pedro's father, who feared Pedro might set aside Constanza's children in favour of those by Inez. Alfonso IV went to Coimbra to kill Inez himself while Pedro was absent, but was dissuaded by the pleas of her little children. However, three courtiers returned after Alfonso IV had left and killed her.
Pedro, who had been in the north of Portugal, raised an army and attacked his father. The short and bloody civil war was ended by Queen Beatriz, who mediated between her husband and son and restored peace in Portugal. Two years later, in May 1357, Alfonso IV died and Pedro I became king of Portugal.
He was now in a position to avenge Inez, which he did by having Castile hand him two of her murderers whom he had executed before him, while the third murderer escaped to England. Pedro wanted to legitimise his children by Inez, but the pope declared that the children could be legitimate only if their mother was crowned queen. Pedro then had her body exhumed from her grave in Coimbra and taken to Alcobaça where, dressed in royal robes and placed on a throne, she was solemnly crowned on 24 April 1361 in the presence of the whole court and then reinterred.
As king he preferred to be present whenever justice was to be done, sometimes in disguise, to expose corrupt or unfair judges. He actively pursued hunting, feasting and womanising. His affaire with Teresa Gille Lourenco resulted in an illegitimate son Joao who later became king of Portugal. Pedro I was only forty-six when he died on 18 January 1367 in Stremos.
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1320 - 1367 (46 years)
Siblings
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