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Writer's pictureEllie Webster

King Pedro I and the Macabre Tale of his ‘Skeleton Queen’, Ines de Castro


(Cover image – © Unknown Artist)



Shrouded in both fact and fiction, the tragic-yet-gruesome story of King Pedro I and his posthumously recognised wife Ines de Castro provides a striking counterpart to the later tale of Romeo and Juliet. Dozens of artists’ portrayals of the two lovers have been passed down throughout the centuries, depicting the events of Ines’ untimely death at the hands of assassins to her posthumous crowning have led to a blurred misfortune with unclear truths. However, today I aim to uncover this tale and the events that led up to the crowning of Portugal’s ‘Skeleton Queen.’


Despite being subsequently thrown into plots of family intrigue and revenge, the origins of Ines de Castro were those of a typical Galatian noblewoman. Born in 1325 to the powerful Castilian nobleman Pedro Fernandez de Castro, Lord of Lemos and his mistress Aldonca Lourenco de Valadares, Ines was in a placed in a significantly well-connected position. Although connected by illegitimate descent, Ines could track her lineage directly to the Castilian royal family. For instance, her grandmother – Violante Sanchez – was the daughter of Sancho IV. Additionally, her great-grandfather, Rodrigo Alfonso, was the son of Alfonso IX. Alongside her prominent royal connections, her father’s favour at court provided young Ines with a position as lady-in-waiting to Constance, the recently married Castilian wife of Pedro; son of Alfonso IV and heir to the Portuguese throne.


(© Unknown Artist)


Upon her allocation into the Portuguese court, Dom Pedro quickly fell in love with Ines. As a result, Constance was hastily neglected, weakening relations with Castile; which were already considerably unstable by this point. However, this was not the only worry that resulted from Ines’ and Pedro’s escapade. The position Ines found herself in provided amplified influence at court for her two brothers; Fernando and Alvaro Perez de Castro, who could rule through Ines’ impactful sways on Pedro. As Pedro’s trusted friends and advisors, the recently-exiled de Castro family’s increased powers greatly worried Alfonso, believing their advice to be against the best interests of Portugal.


Anxieties relating to the relationship between Ines and Pedro were also shared by his neglected wife, Constance. In an attempt to halt the intensifying relationship between them, in 1344 Constance requested Ines to be the godmother of her newborn son, Luiz: a significant position of moral kinship. In accordance with contemporary teachings of the Catholic Church, the relation of godmother and father to said child was borderline incestuous. However, Ines’ role as godmother to Luiz did not last long; as Luiz died only eight days later. Despite the unknown circumstances of Luiz’ death and high rates of immortality, many pointed to Ines and suspicions were raised. During the same year, after initially hoping her favour would wane, Alfonso exiled Ines to Albuquerque Castle.


However, this exile proved to be both temporary and ineffective. Though the exact date of her death is debated, Ana Rodrigues Olivera concludes that Constance was certainly dead by January 1349. However, the traditional date of her death is around November 1345; after the birth of her sole surviving son, Fernando. After thus, Ines was resummoned back to court with collective aims alongside Pedro to marry. Knowing that this was a lost cause, Pedro and Ines moved to Coimbra in protest; living in the palace attached to the convent of Santa Clara-a-Velha. There, the two caused scandal by living in a publicly as lovers. Despite their failed attempts in 1351 to gain a Papal dispensation to marry, which was rejected on the grounds of their relation as cousins, Ines and Pedro produced four children: Alfonso (1346-46), Beatrice (1347-81), Joao (1349-97) and Dinis (1354-1403). Now openly living as a married couple, anxieties of the Portuguese nobility intensified. It was believed that, through Pedro, the Castilian de Castro family would seize the crown for themselves. Additionally, if Pedro and Ines did indeed marry, the legitimacy of his surviving, legitimate son Fernando would be impugned. These fears would ultimately amass to Ines’ untimely demise in January 1355.


Despite his final decision to eliminate Ines, Alfonso IV was initially relucent to kill the mother of his grandchildren as a result of his conflicting personal and political interests. However, at a summary trial situated at Montemor-o-Velho, it was agreed that Ines was to be killed. Alongside three hired assassins – Pero Coelho, Alvaro Goncalves and Diogo Lopes Pacheco, Alfonso supposedly travelled personally to the Coimbra convent of Santa Clara-a-Velha to oversee the killing. Ines allegedly pleaded to the grandfather of her children, but Alfonso was left unmoved; commanding the assassins to do what they so liked as he left. Purportedly, Ines’ children were present at the scene of her grisly murder, in which she was either left stabbed or decapitated. Although her untimely death was situated in Coimbra, her fate is often associated with the Quinta das Lagrimas or Estate of Tears, where it is believed the blood of Ines continuously stains the red stone-bed of the spring. Though this was not her place of death, it has become legend that it was here that young Ines screamed her last before her unfortunate demise.


(© Unknown Artist)


Though he was not present during the events leading to her murder, the knowledge that his father had been the one to initially order the death of his love, the incensed Pedro waged war on Alfonso for several months. Alongside the support of Ines’ two Galatian brothers – Fernandez and Alvaro Perez, Pedro revolted throughout Portugal and laid siege to various cities, including that of Porto. Nonetheless, this familial dispute came to a subsequent end after the intervention of Queen Beatrice of Castile, wife to Alfonso and mother of Pedro: this intercession led to reconciliation between the two. However, by 1157 Alfonso died thereafter and Pedro ascended to the throne as Pedro I of Portugal. In spite of the fact that his reign marked a period of peace and financial prosperity, with the common population commemorating him as the Just, Pedro would quickly be designated the nickname ‘the Cruel’ for his ruthless persecution of two of the assassins who slaughtered Ines, Pero Coelho and Alvaro Goncalves.


After successfully capturing two of Ines’ killers after an agreement with the King of Castile, the chronicle of Fernao Lopes document Pedro’s orders; that the two should be tied to posts and their hearts ripped out from the back. Carried out near the royal palace in Santarem, Pedro supposedly watched their executions whilst eating dinner. However, multiple versions of this gruesome tale exist: an alternate version documented that Pedro personally cut out their hearts, while they remained alive, after they had pulverized his own. Additionally, another legend indicates that, so deep was Pedro’s hatred, he destroyed the village of Jarmelo, the homeland of Coelho. However, this village had already been significantly depleted after ongoing wars with Castile and the Black Death. Nonetheless, one thing is certain: Pedro quickly sought gruesome venges directly on those who had killed his beloved Ines.


On the other hand, Pedro supposedly demonstrated a forgiving nature to the third assassin, Diogo Lopes Pacheco. Diogo, who fled to France, reportedly received clemency from Pedro on his deathbed. However, the story of Ines de Castro did not end with the ghastly punishments of her killers. Her legacy as Portugal’s Skeleton Queen would amass some five years after her death, whereby Pedro made sure she would be remembered in death as she should have been in life; as his legally bounded wife and queen.


(© Unknown Artist)


In June 1360, Pedro proclaimed that he had previously married Ines in secret, within the town of Braganca. To conclusively verify his claim, Pedro amassed two witnesses: the Bishop of Guarda and one of his servants. Even though no exact date was ever provided, Ines was thereafter recognised as the legitimate wife of Pedro, and by default Queen.


As a result, Ines’ body was exhumed in 1361 from her resting place of Santa Clara, here she had spent her final years with Pedro and their children. From there, Ines was moved and reburied in Alcobaca, or the Tomb of Kings, in a funeral procession fit for royalty. This was a crucial step in the recognition of Ines as the king’s legitimate wife. Chronicler Lopes documented that:


‘Pedro ordered a tomb of white marble, finely surmounted by her crowned statue, as if she was a Queen; and then he caused the tomb to be placed in the Monastery of Alcobaça … escorted by many horses and noblemen and maids and clergymen. And all the way through, a thousand men were holding candles, in such a way that always the body was enlightened; and thus it arrived at the Monastery, which was seventeen thousand leagues away from Coimbra, where the body was buried with many religious services and great solemnity.’


According to Lopes, this was the ‘most magnificent translation ever seen in Portugal’. Also attributed to Ines’s posthumous recognition as queen was a hand-kissing ceremony, imposed on the Portuguese court and entire country. This ceremony consisted of courtiers ordered to kiss the hand of the corpse, who sat on the throne wearing the royal crown.


Throughout the centuries, many artists have tried their hand at depicting the macabre scene, including The Coronation of Ines de Castro in 1361, painted by Pierre-Charles Comte in 1849. The grisly event also inspired various romantics, including Victor Hugo and Pierre-Simon Ballanche. Despite serving as a source of inspiration for art and literature, the event itself likely never happened. The first records only appeared in the sixteenth century, in a 1577 play by Jeronimo Bermudez titled Nise Laureada. Though her gallant funeral procession can be indeed verified, the macabre hand-kissing ceremony cannot. Notwithstanding, Ines remains Portugal’s only posthumous queen who, according to Camoes, ‘after being killed was queen.’


(© Unknown Artist)


Still consumed by a ‘great madness’ for his beloved Ines, Pedro I reigned until his death six years later, at the age of forty-six. Through their collective tombs, Pedro paid his final homage to her. Situated in the Monastery of Alcobaca, Pedro and Ines were initially buried face-to-face, surrounded by angels as well as hybrids of humans and animals. By being buried facing one another, the eternal lovers would immediately lock eyes when Judgement Day arrived. However, records indicate that Pedro and Ines were initially buried beside each other but were shifted to a face-to-face position in 1780. In 1956, they were moved once again to the north and south transepts of the monastery.


In both her life and death, Ines de Castro embodies the Portuguese concept of saudade, the mysterious longing for something that remains unfinished and will return. After the death of Fernando, the surviving son of Pedro and Constance, King Duarte would marry Leonor of Aragon, a great-granddaughter of Ines de Castro. Legend and history remain indistinguishably intertwined within the story of Pedro and Ines, though one thing is certain: Ines de Castro remains an everlasting muse whose story continues to capture the hearts and minds of artists alike.

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