Noble Blood - The Corpse of Inês de Castro

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

King Pedro I of Portugal had one love of his life. And when she died, in 1355, Pedro would do everything in his power to make those who were responsible pay. Support Noble Blood: — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon — Merch! — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and pre-order its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot.

But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, The cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Hey, this is Dana Schwartz. Before we begin, just a quick reminder that I wrote a book that's coming out in February.

It's called Immortality, a Love Story, and it's the sequel to the book I wrote called Anatomy, a Love Story, all about a young woman who wants to be a surgeon in the early 1800s in Scotland. And a lot of characters, actually, that I've covered on this podcast, appear in immortality. So if you like this podcast, please pre-order. It makes a huge amount of difference, and I would really appreciate it. If you also want to support the show in other ways, we have a Patreon and merch available. Those links are in the bio. the best support is just that you're listening to the show, so thank you so much.

Before we get started this week, I just want to give a quick content warning for some listeners who might be sensitive. This episode has particularly gruesome blood and gore in detail, and so some listener discretion is advised. On a night in the year 1360, King Pedro I of Portugal sat down in his castle's dining hall in Santorum for what he expected to be. an especially satisfying meal. Servants walked in with platters piled high with assorted meats, while bottles of wine were being brought forth for the king's approval. Though, despite the extravagant spread, it quickly became apparent to all in the room

that the king didn't have much interest in the feast laid out before him. Between the softly taken footsteps of servers and the muted clatter of cutlery against serving dishes, the air that was hanging in the dining hall that evening was charged with a layer of anticipation. Those in the room attempted to maintain the facade of normalcy, but at the center of it all, the king sat motionless, his vacant gaze, unmoving,

as plate after plate of untouched food arrived in front of. of him. Perhaps the king wasn't looking at his plate so much as he was staring at the knife next to it, watching the metal glint, invitingly in the flickers of candlelight around the room. Or maybe he was distracted by the empty chair next to him, the space that had once upon a time been reserved for his queen, his beloved Anas de Castro, the woman who, who was a woman who, continued to hold his heart, even if he could only see her in the negative spaces that, even five years after her death, persisted inexorably like an opened wound. Whatever was holding the king's attention during that dinner, the audible trail of footsteps

echoing from beyond the dining hall, quickly shifted his focus back into the present. His eyes locked onto the door with newfound excitement, just as the entry gave way and his guards at long last brought in the final two dinner guests that the king had been waiting for that evening. Though really, King Pedro had been waiting for these two men for the better part of five years. The two guests in question were Alvaro Gonzalez and Per O'Colo, two of the men responsible for the brutal murder of the king's beloved Ennesta Castro in 1355. After years of searching, King Pedro had finally managed to track two of the assassins down, bringing them back to Portugal to stand trial for their crimes. Of course, the main perpetrator in his love's murder was Pedro's own father, King Alfonso I. But considering that the late king had died in 1357, there was little more Pedro could do to punish his father from this side of the earthly plain. Gonzalves and Cuelo, however, were still very much alive, an offense that King Pedro sought to rectify personally.

There was little struggle from the men as the armed guards marched them into the hall. After all, upon their return to Portugal, a trial had swiftly concluded that both men were guilty of murder. Their fates had been sealed from that moment. Their deaths assured. All that was left was to face their sentence. Though I imagine their sense of resolve all but crumbled upon hearing their king's plans for them that evening. As the men were held helplessly at the king's mercy, Pedro looked down at the killers with the same cold stare they had likely given his beloved Inez

before repeatedly running their swords through her chest. The vacant expression that the king had held at the beginning of the meal was long gone. Vengeance was now clear. burning through all other thoughts behind his eyes. For the murder of his wife, Pedro's punishment was as simple as it was brutal. The men were to have their hearts cut out of their chests. For a moment, no one moved, too stunned by the king's decree to see it put into action. For only a moment, though. Then the guards descended upon the men, and the room could do nothing but watch on in

horror as the stones on the dining room floor were painted in crimson, the walls echoing an endless echo of the criminal's blood-curdling screams. When the bodies were finally relieved of their now unbeating hearts, the hall likewise fell silent. The only sound. The only sound. was then the scrape of knife on plate as King Pedro finally dug into the dinner in front of him. If Pedro noticed a change in the air, he did not let on. But then again, maybe he had found comfort in the grotesque display of violence he had enacted.

His Inez may have been gone, but at least now he wasn't the only man to know how it felt to live without a heart in his chest. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. Outside of Portugal, the infamous love story of Pedro I and Nesda Castro rarely finds its way into popular discourse. With so few primary sources on the subject, let alone English translations of scholarship available for public consumption, it makes sense that the tale of these two ill-fated lovers remains outside of Portugal, relatively

unknown. But within Portugal itself, the legend of their love story and the ties they have to Portugal's medieval history makes them household names. To better understand the context during which their story takes place, I want to give you a very brief summary of what was happening in Portugal, or more accurately, the kingdom of Portugal in the 14th century. During this time, the Iberian Peninsula, or what we today typically think of as Spain and Portugal, was comprised of four kingdoms, which for the sake of time I won't go into too deeply, except for the two which relate to that of our lovers,

the crown of Castile and the kingdom of Portugal. By 1340, the two kingdoms could only be described as having a begrudgingly tolerable relationship. Back in 1328, King Alfonso IV of Portugal had sent his daughter, Maria, of Portugal, to be married to the King of Castile, which, rather than unifying their kingdoms, as one might hope a marriage would, only served to create a larger rift between them. This was largely due to Alfonso IV receiving reports

that his daughter was being mistreated by the King of Castile, who, quickly after their union, began to pretty immediately take up with a mistress. In retaliation, Alfonso IV arranged for his son, Pedro I of Portugal, to marry a Castilian noblewoman named Castanza Manuel. For those curious as to why this specific union would be considered a retaliation, Costanza was, funnily enough, the king of Castile's first wife. Costanza's father had arranged her marriage with the Castilian king when she was just nine years old, which meant that when the previously mentioned daughter of Alfonso IV of Portugal was presented as another possible wife for him, the king promptly annulled their unconsumated marriage so he could wed Maria of Portugal instead.

So really, in other words, Costanza was the jilted first wife of the king of Castile, who then chose Alfonso's daughter instead. It's a little complicated, but I think you get the basic picture. Cut to a few years later, and the King of Castile is suddenly faced with the consequences of his actions in the form of his current and former father-in-laws, deciding to unite their collective hatred of him with the strategic marriage between his own ex-wife, Constanza Manuel, and the future King of Portugal, Pedro I. Now I'm going to fast forward a bit because the ensuing war and ultimate peace treaty don't exactly serve the story in any significant way.

But from this web of marriages and political allyship, I think the two most important points to take away from this are, one, regardless of treaties, tensions between the crown of Castile and the kingdom of Portugal were fraying dangerously thin. And two, in 1340, Alfonso's son, Pedro, would marry Costanza Manuel, which is where our story truly begins,

because when Constanza arrived in Portugal, she did so with her lady in waiting, a Galician noblewoman by the name of Inez de Castro. Now, unfortunately for poor Costanza, neither her first nor second marriage were destined to be fairy tale romances. In fact, almost as soon as she arrived at court with Inez in tow, Pedro all but cast her aside in favor of her lady in waiting.

He, of course, still performed his marital duties so as to secure himself an heir to the Portuguese throne, but that was about the extent of Pedro and his wife's relationship. As you can probably imagine, poor Costanza was less than thrilled with this development. Yes, she was set to become the future queen of Portugal and her son would one day become king, but she'd played this game once before. One annulment later, and Costanza knew all too well how people. precarious, her seemingly cemented place in court really was. So in an effort to keep Inez from continuing her affair with Pedro, in 1344, Costanza made a strategic decision and named

Inez her newborn child's godmother. Now, this may seem counterintuitive. Doesn't it make Inez and her husband even closer? But in the context of medieval Portuguese and Catholic traditions, naming someone a godparent to their child essentially made them family, which meant that in one move, Costanza changed Pedro and Inez's relationship from an extramarital affair to scandalously incestuous. It was a simple and effective solution that could have even worked had her son not tragically passed away just eight days after he was born. As it was, her son's death brought further suspicion, upon Inez by the Portuguese court. King Alfonso IV was not blind to what was happening

between his son and his wife's lady in waiting, and though he had been unhappy with his son's choice in mistress, he had initially dismissed the affair, hoping it was simply lust and it was clouding his son's judgment only temporarily. However, after the death of Costanza's firstborn son, the son to which Inez had been made godmother, the son keeping

helping Pedro and Inez apart, Alfonso was now powerless to stop the rumors that began to stir at court. How had the child died? Hadn't poor Constanza named that harlot the godmother? Wasn't it all a bit too convenient? For years, King Alfonso had allowed Pedro to carry on with Inez, but as the rumor mill continued to speculate, the king decided it was finally time to take action, and he banned Ines from court. And that should have been it. At least it would have been if their affair had simply been driven by lust. But when Inez was driven away from court, the strength of her and Pedro's love, if anything, became more apparent. In some versions of their story, while Inez was away, Pedro wrote to her through small messages, which he sent through a channel

of water that went between their two residences. To Alfonso's dismay, the distance between the two did nothing to diminish their devotion to one another, a fact that became all too apparent when, in 1349, Constanza Manuel died at just 33 years old from complications following the birth of her fourth child. As the country mourned the loss of their infanta or princess, King Alfonso really should not have been that surprised, to find that his son had almost immediately left court, to find Inez. Without any marital obligations now barring him from seeing her, Pedro and Inez were finally free to be together. And together they were. They weren't married, their relationship would never be accepted by King Alfonso, but Pedro and Inez would go on to have three healthy

children. They were happy together, at least until 1354, when their happily ever after came to an abrupt and brutal end. When it came to his son, King Alfonso IV of Portugal was running out of options. For years following Costanza's death, Alfonso attempted to find another suitable marriage for his son, but Pedro refused to hear a word of it. Meanwhile, Alfonso's royal advisors reported back rumors that had been floating around court. People couldn't help but compare the sickly and weak son Ferdinand that Pedro had had with his wife, Costanza, a legitimate son, with the three strong and healthy but illegitimate children that Pedro had with Inez. Equally troubling were the rumors that Inez's Castilian brothers were spending considerable time in the prince's ear,

tempting him to intercede on their behalf in Castilian civil war. Surely, Inez was poisoning Pedro with these thoughts, biasing the prince in favor of Castile. Up until this point, King Alfonso had, at best, tolerated Inez's presence in his son's life, but with threats to the Portuguese line of succession coming into question, plus the ever-growing potential for an all-out civil war that could possibly end with the kingdom of Portugal in the hands of the Castilian crown, Alfonso could no longer afford to ignore this young woman who had stolen his son's heart. And so, at the urging of his royal advisors, King Alfonso, along with a traveling party that included both Alvaro Gonzalez and Peroquelo, made their way to Combra to care. carry out the assassination of Inez de Castro.

It's impossible to say exactly how events unfolded in Coimbra that day. Later, dramatization of Inez's death would imply that Ines sat at King Alfonso's feet, begging for her life. Some would say the king began to sympathize with her, as one of her children was in the room with them, watching on in terror, helpless to stop what would inevitably come to pass. for no matter if Inez sat at the king's feet, nor if she pleaded for her life, the end result remained the same.

In the famous Portuguese epic poem Oisleuidas, author Louise Vaz Jaquemois wrote of her death, quote, thus Inez, while her eyes to have an appeal, resigns her bosom to the murdering steel. That snowy neck was stained with spouting gore, another sword her lovely, bosom tore. So from her cheeks the roses died away, and pale in death, the beauteous Inez lay. On January 7, 1355, Ines de Castro, mother of three and the great love of Pedro of Portugal's life, was stabbed to death by the order of Pedro's father, King Alfonso IV. The king may not have swung the blade that took Inez's life, but when news of his father's betrayal finally reached Pedro, none of that mattered. All that mattered was

that his inest was gone, that she had been brutally taken from this earth at the hands of his own father, and he was going to make him pay. If Alfonso had hoped, and as his absence would quell Pedro's desire to begin a civil war, he was sorely mistaken. Within days of her death, Pedro had summoned an army to go to war against his own father. It was only at the urging of the only existing neutral party between them, Pedro's mother and Alfonso's wife, Queen Beatrice, that the two men were able to stop the fighting. At the queen's behest, father and son signed a treaty of peace between them. But if this episode's introduction was anything to go by, I'm guessing you already know that the peace was just about the last thing on Pedro.

mind. It wouldn't be until two years later, in 1357, when Alfonso died and Pedro ascended to the Portuguese throne, that the young king could begin to enact his revenge, and at long last, find the justice he longed for for Inez. His first order of business, tracking down the men responsible for her murder, while his men searched far and wide for any trace of the assassins, the now king Pedro I, enacted the second order of business he had, commissioning the creation of two tombs, one for himself and one for his beloved Inez.

After her death, Inez had been buried in Coimbra, the location of her remains, likely chosen out of convenience rather than geographical significance. But then again, Inez and Pedro technically had no official ties to one of the ones, another. They had three children together, but in the eyes of the Catholic Church, and by extension, Portugal as a whole, Ennese de Castro technically meant nothing. Which was exactly why,

in 1360, Pedro would announce to the world a secret that would irrevocably alter the course of Portuguese history. A few months after he ordered the death of Inez's assassins with the hollow egg, no doubt still lingering in his chest, Pedro revealed that seven years earlier he and Inez were married in a secret ceremony, meaning not only had his father killed the woman he loved, but the king had also murdered what would have been Portugal's future queen. For centuries, the validity of Pedro's secret marriage claims have been subject to debate. After all, if you're a king and you've get married in a forest and no one's around to witness it, does it still hold up in the eyes of the Catholic Church? Some chroniclers from the time contested the union's legitimacy, but ultimately

their doubt would be a footnote in the history books, especially when the true intentions behind the now king's posthumous wedding announcements were revealed, and the now widowed king had his late wife exhumed from her grave on Coimbrain soil. With his wife's killers now brutally dead, and his healthy children's legitimacy secured, King Pedro set out to complete his final act of revenge against his father. Now there comes a point in stories like this that the mythos surrounding the facts

often begin to outshine the reality of the events themselves. sometimes a lack incredible sources inspires others to make up histories of their own. Some stories that, while not exactly factual, no doubt make for a great story. In the case of Pedro exhuming his wife's corpse, some say that upon his ascension to the throne, the king was so maddened in his all-consuming grief that he ordered his men to dissenter Inez, so that they could prop up her body on the throne beside him as his queen.

They say that Pedro had her dressed in the finest robes and laid a crown upon her head. Demanding members of his court approach the throne so they could kiss what was left of Inez's weathered hand as a way to pay homage to their would-be queen. and to be fair, this macab display of fealty is rather on brand for King Pedro. This is the man, after all, who murdered his wife's killers by cutting out their hearts. But in reality, Inez's disinterment likely had little to do with forcing members of the court to bow at his late wife's ornately dressed corpse, and more to do with the two tombs Pedro had commissioned. as soon as he had ascended to the throne, for in the end, Pedro's final act of defiance against his father,

as well as his final act of love for his late wife, lay within the twin tombs he planned to share with his beloved. Today, if you walked into the Cistercian Abbey of Alcobasa, you would be immediately taken in by the incredible display of Gothic Cistercian architecture. impossibly high rib-vaulted ceilings would greet you as you passed through the monastery's doors, their intimidating heights subconsciously, leading you down the nave toward the main chapel at the structure's end. And if you were a tourist, after finding your way to the end of the monastery's pews, you would most likely notice the crowds collecting, not gathering to view the main chapel under a halo of skylights, but gathering in two corners of the transept on either side of you.

Upon closer inspection, you would notice the onlookers gathered around two intricately carved white stone tombs, the chamber to the right, holding the tomb of King Pedro I of Portugal, and to the left, mirroring it perfectly, just steps away from her husband, his wife, in a man. DeCastro. In direct defiance of his father, Pedro's final declaration of love for Inez was not made in hate or violence, but in a gesture that married his grief with his hope for the future. By claiming Inez as his wife, Pedro finally had sufficient grounds to exhume her body and give her the burial she rightly deserved, the burial of a queen. When the elaborate tombs he had commissioned were finished. Sometime between 1361 and 1363, Pedro had Inez's remains

disinterred and brought all the way from Coimbra to Alcabasa, a nearly 70-mile journey. From there, Inez's body was put inside of one of the two intricately carved tombs and placed in the Abbey, where she awaited the day the other matching tomb would carry the body of her. beloved, and the two of them would be together once more. But even with the inherent romance of matching tombs aside, what Pedro did for Inez goes far beyond just securing a place for their bodies to finally be together. To briefly bring you back to the main chapel in Alcabasa for a moment, the intricate images carved into Inez's tomb are beautiful, yes, but they serve a specific purpose as well. Scenes from the life and death of Christ are carved into the side of her tomb,

an unspoken analogy between the two figures being presented like an offering to the viewer. Both the Castro and the Portuguese coat of arms adorn her final resting place. But the greatest gift Pedro gave Inez's legacy is perhaps the simplest addition to the otherwise incredibly intricate sculpture work. On the lid of her tomb, a stone likeness of Inez herself is laid out on top of the very vessel which contains her earthly remains. What stands out about her stone counterpart is not her serene expression nor the items placed in her hands, but the crown placed atop her head. When Pedro revealed his secret marriage with Inez to the world, he knew there would be skeptics who would never see her as a child. their queen. But in this one detail, Pedro all but wrote her legacy in stone. For generations to come,

as long as stone, anyone who came to the Alcabasa would see his truth. It was Inez, not Castanza, who was his wife. It was Inez who was his queen, even in death. And though their individual tombs hold differing images, both are inscribed with the same words that echo across the stone floors where they lay together. Words that translate from the Portuguese to mean until the end of the world. That's the tragic love story of Pedro I of Portugal and Inezda Castro, but stick around to hear how their love story has evolved over the centuries. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wode. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network.

It's Will Ferrell. Woo. Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place they come look for up and coming talent.

He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you. which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Yeah. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone?

I'm Ago Vodam. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo. Woo. Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot.

I don't know what that means. but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place they come look for up-and-coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved.

And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar

of, you know, the cat just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be... Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Although the tale of Pedro Enonez has largely evaded English-speaking audiences in pop culture, I think it's worth it to analyze why their story, and particularly Inez's presence as a tragic figure, has persisted in cultural iconography in Portugal and Western Europe.

Of course, the story itself has everything you could ever want in a tragic love story slash episode of noble blood, romance, betrayal, vengeance, his and her tombs, to say nothing of the macabre idea of a disinterred corpse sitting on a throne. But in all seriousness, what I find most interesting about most interpretations of Pedro and Anez's love story, is the inherent lack of Inez that they all seem to share. What I mean by that is when conducting research for this episode, I found little to know information on who Anastacastra was as a person, only how she related to Pedro's story.

Other than the physical manifestation of their love in their three living children, any love the couple shared is expressed through Pedro's grief and rage, not through any sort of interaction between the two. Which does make sense since the majority of their story takes place after she dies. But that's another thing, isn't it? The love story of Pedro Anne-N-Nez is not so much about their love as it is about her death. Any characterizations that are given to her are, on the whole, that she was pious and self-sacrificing. But there's little to know evidence that she was either of those things.

unless you assign them as reactions she may have had to the acts of violence taken against her. It's a sad truth that Inez's presence in her own story mattered more when she was a corpse than when she was alive. But then again, it's not like treating women as blank slates in which to project a man story is something we haven't seen before. But who knows? Maybe after 700 years, someone will finally give Inez de Castro the chance. to tell her own story. Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grimmin-Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz.

Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is produced by Rima Il-Kaali, with supervising producer Josh Thane, and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on.

a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.