Queens of Portugal

[umigon]

I have always wondered why they chose that name for her too!

Anyway, here is the biography of a Portuguese queen whose story I love: Inés de Castro.


Inés de Castro (1327, Vigo, Galicia, España-1355Coimbra, Portugal

Inés was the bastard daughter of a noble from Galicia and she was the half-sister of Juana de Castro, who would be later seduced and illegally married to Pedro I of Castile.

Inés, although illegitimate, had a good education and was sent to Portugal with princess Constanza Manuel de Castilla, who was to become Prince Pedro of Portugal's wife. Inés was one of her ladies-in-waiting and was just 12 years old.

Pedro was at the time in love with a Portuguese courtier. Constanza, very jealous, sent Inés to Pedro because she thought that, as Inés was one of her sweetest maids, she would succeed to convince Pedro of abandoning his mistress. Well, he did abandon her, but only because Inés was prettier.


He soon fell in love with young Inés and he made her his mistress. Constanza, desperate for her husband's love, asked the couple a favour when she gave birth to her first son, Luis. They were to  be the godparents of the child and, for some reason, this barred them from ever having carnal contact. But, however, the baby died and Pedro and Inés could become lovers again.


Constanza died in 1345 and two children were left from her marriage: Maria and Fernando. By then Inés, called "Heron's neck", was already Pedro's official mistress and they lived happy together with their children: Beatriz (1347-1381), Alfonso (1348-1356), Juan (1349-1397) and Dionisio (1354-1397).

Alfonso IV, Pedro's father, was fed up with this situation because he wanted his grandson Fernando to be brought up with his father and a convenient wife and not "the Heron Whore", as Alfonso called Inés. On January 7th, 1355, Inés's throat was slit on the orders of Alfonso IV. His son was so angry that a war between father and son started.

When in 1357 Alfonso IV died Pedro became King of Portugal. He declared the he had married Inés de Castro on the 1st January 1354 and that their children were legitimate. Then, he made her corpse be exhumed and seated her on a throne with a Crown put on her head. She was then officially crowned Queen Inés of Portugal, already dead! Strange spectacle for courtiers, watching the coronation of a dead corpse!


Pedro never married again, none of Inés's children became King of Portugal.

[bell_the_cat]

Meant to thank you for the info on Ines (quite a popular name in Eastern Germany, by the way as is Manuela!).

About Ines de Castro: was she popular, or did other people share the opinion of King Alfonso? I'm thinking maybe didn't have any supporters other than Pedro, which was a dangerous position to be in.

[umigon]

Yes, she had no supporters... just her mother-in-law, Queen Beatriz, who was always kind to her and sent presents to her children by Pedro. Constanza had also been kind to her, after resigning to lose Pedro's love, she looked for Inés's favour, creating some type of menage-à-trois. In fact, Inés tried to bring up Prince Fernando with her own children, but King Alfonso wouldn't permit that. Then, when Juana de Castro, her younger legitimate sister, married Pedro I of Castile, who already had two wives at the same time, people saw the Castro family as some type of social climbers, and we know how much common people have always hated social climbers, so much if they were supplanting a legitimate queen! Alfonso ordered her murder in order to call his son to his duties, as prince and father of an heir, but instead of that, and logically, he went to war against his own son...

[bell_the_cat]

Her story reminds me of Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of Edward IV of England (who didn't of course get murdered - it was her sons who suffered).

[umigon]

Thanks, Bell!


Well, her children also suffered. After the death of King Fernando, Pedro and Constanza's son, in 1383, four people were proclaimed the rightful king: Beatriz, Fernando's daughter, the two surviving sons of Pedro and Inés, and Joao de Aviz, a bastard son of Pedro and Teresa Lourenço. Beatriz was really the rightful queen, but a civil war started. Beatriz was supported by the children of Inés de Castro, although they had also been proclaimed kings (yes, both of them, I don't really know why).

Beatriz married the King of Castile to gain his support. In the end Beatriz and Inés's children were exiled in Castile and Joao became King, funding the Aviz dynasty.

[umigon]

Juana of Castile is the daughter of Queen Isabella's brother and was her rival for the throne, wasn't she?
She seems to have lived a long time. Hope it wasn't in prison or anything awful like that.

Yes, Juana of Castile was born in 1462 to Enrique IV, "the Impotent" and his queen, Juana of Portugal. After her marriage to her uncle Alfonso V of Portugal (in 1475, when she was 13, being her second husband!), she retired to a convent. She was controlled by her aunt and godmother queen Isabella, who passed her a pension but wanted to prevent Juana from having any children (potential enemies to her own children!). It was thought that Juana could marry Isabella's son, Juan, although Juan was 12 years younger than Juana. Juana prefered her retirement in Portugal than marrying Juan. With the pass of time she was permited to leave the convent quite oftenly to the market place or even to the Portuguese Court. In 1505, when Ferdinand had just been widowed, he tried to marry her. By then Juana was 42. Ferdinand wished to have a child by Juana because if they had a son, this son would have be the rightful king of Aragon and he would have a claim to the throne of Castile, so Ferdinand could then take it away from his son-in-law's (Felipe of Austria) hands. Juana, however, refused, saying that she was not a young woman anymore (it could have been a sweet revenge though, marrying Isabella's husband!). Juana led a discreet life, and Ferdinand granted her absolut freedom. She could do whatever she wanted, it was clear she had no political ambitions, and that she very probably couldn't have children. She was no useful political pawn for anyone and she was devoted to reading and studying. Blonde and blue-eyed and reported to be very beautiful, this lady died aged 68 in 1530, both Carlos I of Spain and Joao III of Portugal did mourning for her...

[bell_the_cat]

Thanks Umigon for the answers!

I'm sorry to hear how it turned out for Ines's sons. Did the fact that they supported Beatriz's claims count against her in the end? She was after all the rightful heir. It would go to show that you have to watch who your coalition partners are (I've got this on my mind at the moment because of the German election results!).

Glad to hear it turned out all right for Juana! She sounds like a sensible lady. A child with Ferdinand would have meant trouble!

[umigon]

I thinbk Beatriz would ave lost the Crown anyway, she had no important supports except for the King of Castile. But then, when the war was being lost, Juan of Castile just stopped the fight and resigned to the victory of Juan de Aviz, although he didn't recognise hiom as king of Portugal. However, and after all, he had gained a new and teenager wife (Beatriz was a mother for the first time aged just 12!!).


About Juana, yes. She had no intention of getting married to her former enemy and supplanting her cousins with her own children... It was something that would have only complicated her life, and Juana had learnt much from her errors and from those of her parents during her early years, but that is another story!

[YaBB_Jose]

Not a very common name I must say; however, some old castilian names are starting to eb used again, liek Mencia, Urraca (I know, poor girls), Guiomar (which I love)... Not all have a tranbslation (necessarily)...

Mencia is a Spanish name.
I believe the daughter of Isabel Sartorius, Felipe's former girlfriend (and some say her daughter) is called Mencia.
In Portuguese you should write Mécia.

José

[YaBB_Jose]

Matilde of Maurienne (1125-1157), wife of Alfonso I. Married in 1246, mother of Sancho I.

aka Mafalda daughter of Amedeo III count of Savoy and Maurienne.

You could add:
D.Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen(1890-1966), wife of D. Manuel II
and from the Miguelist line:
D. Adelaide of Loewenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (1831-1909) ;
D. Isabel (Elizabeth of Thurn und Taxis) (1860-1881)
D. Maria Teresa (of Loewenstein-W.R.) (1870-1935)
D. Maria Francisca d'Orléans e Bragança (1914-68)
D. Isabel de Herédia (1966-...)

[synnadene]

MARIA ANNA, Archduchess of Austria (1683-1754), daughter of Emperor Leopold I. and Eleonore Magdalene of Pfalz-Neuburg.
Wife of King Joao V. of Portugal.

Please, post portraits and infos!

[YaBB_Jose]

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8874905&pt=Maria%20Anna%20Josepha%20of%20Habsburg
http://genealogia.netopia.pt/pessoas/pes_show.php?id=4641

Eldest daughter from her father’s second marriage to archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Tirol.
She got married to D. João V, who was six years younger and to whom she was very devoted in spite of the fact that she knew he was unfaithful to him, mainly with the nuns of Odivelas Convent on the outskirts of Lisbon  .
http://www.arqnet.pt/portal/portugal/temashistoria/joao5.html
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._Jo%C3%A3o_V


The couple got married in 1708 and for a couple of years they could not produce an heir  , so the king made a promises to built a church if they got one.
Finally the queen got pregnant and the king paid his promise by ordering the construction of the Convent of Mafra, housing a Royal Palace.
It is considered the Portuguese version of the Escorial Palace.
http://www.ippar.pt/monumentos/palacio_mafra.html
http://www.pbase.com/diasdosreis/mafra


The Queen was responsible for the role that the future Marquis de Pombal had during her son’s reign as she was a good friend of Pombal’s second wife, the austrian countess Eleonore of Daun, and she did everything she could to favour the couple.
D. João V was not sensible to her pledges but D. José appointed him as Prime-Minister and devoted his reign to hunting (animals and women) his favourite sports  .

D. Maria Ana was a very religious and prude woman.
She acted as Regent for several times during the king’s illness and his health retirements.
At the beginning of her reign she strongly repelled her brother-in-law Infante D. Francisco who had dreamed of acting like his father D. Pedro II did, by courting the Queen and having his brother deposed  .

Sorry I can't post pictures so you will have to look at the articles.

[umigon]

She was, in fact, the daughter of Leopold by his third wife, Eleanor of Neuburg.

[YaBB_Jose]

Ooops ! You are right, my mistake  .
D. Maria Anna and D. João V were also first cousins as their mothers were sisters

[Bernardino]

Queen Maria Anna was very fond of navy matters...she loved walking through Lisbon riverside watching the ships being build...

I wonder if that was a consequence of her being brought up on an interior region (Austria)...