I'm currently reading a very interesting book by Ricardo Raimundo called "Escândalos da Monarquia Portuguesa" ("Scandals of the Portuguese Monarchy" -
http://www.wook.pt/ficha/escandalos-da-monarquia-portuguesa/a/id/14679077). I highly recommend it if you, like me, like those side stories which are much more interesting than "ordinary" History, but obviously too irrelevant to make it.
Anyway, one of the book chapters is dedicated, precisely, to Pedro V and his very odd relationship towards women, including his wife Stephanie. As this is one of my favourite couples in Portuguese History, I was very glad to read some information I had never heard about them and decided to share it with those who don't understand Portuguese as this book is still not available in any other language. The book mentions that King Pedro V was a very introspective young men who had showed signs of high intellect since a young age. Probably because he was more intelligent than most people he knew, he didn't feel fulfilled when talking to others and found most people, specially women, to be extremely stupid, so he isolated himself from society. In addition to his awkward social skills, Pedro was also painfully shy and prude. The only woman whose company he found enjoyable was precisely his future wife, Princess Staphanie, who he met in Dusseldorf in September 1854, when they were both 17. They shared the same interests and so became deeply attached to each other, being often seen walking hand-in-hand in the Palace park. However, there was a deeply afflicting issue in their marriage: after one year, they still didn't have any children.
Many at court suggested that there might be something wrong with the couple and some even suggested that the marriage had not yet been consummated. After Queen Staphanie's death, the doctors mentioned that, in scientific terms, she was still a virgin (her hymen was intact), which fed these rumors even further.
However, Stephanie wrote the following in a letter to her mother regarding her first night as a married woman:
"The Duchess of Terceira was with me until I went to bed and then Pedro came, but I could not sleep for one second the entire night." She then adds, in German (the rest of the letter had been written in French): "I felt rather embarrassed, uncomfortable and I feel that, all in all, this habit of man and wife sleeping together is not very pleasant."
Up to a certain degree, this seems to suggest that something "unconformable" happened on their wedding night. Furthermore, both Stephanie and Pedro mentioned to friends and family that they would like to have children. Pedro even mentioned in a letter to one of his uncles that he would love to have a big family.
After reading this, my conclusion is that Pedro and Stephanie were very much in love with each other, but being both so young, inexperienced and shy, they didn't have enough time to be completely comfortable with each other and even less to produce a child, which is very unfortunate.
