Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey listener discretion advised. Hey,
Speaker 1: this is Danish Schwartz. Before we begin, just a quick
Speaker 1: reminder that I wrote a book that's coming out in February.
Speaker 1: It's called Immortality, a Love Story, and it's the sequel
Speaker 1: to the book I wrote called Anatomy, a love story
Speaker 1: all about a young woman who wants to be a
Speaker 1: surgeon in the early eighteen hundreds in Scotland, and a
Speaker 1: lot of characters actually that I've covered on this podcast
Speaker 1: appear in Immortality. So if you like this podcast, please preorder.
Speaker 1: It makes a huge amount of difference and I would
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. If you also want to support the
Speaker 1: show in other ways, we have a Patreon and March available.
Speaker 1: Those links are in the bio, but the best support
Speaker 1: is just that you're listening to the show, So thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Before we get started this week, I
Speaker 1: just want to give a quick content warning for some
Speaker 1: listeners who might be sensitive. This episode has um, particularly
Speaker 1: gruce Um, Blood and Gore in detail, and so some
Speaker 1: listener discretion is advised. On a night in the year
Speaker 1: thirteen sixty King Pedro the First of Portugal sat down
Speaker 1: in his castle's dining hall in sent o m for
Speaker 1: what he expected to be an especially satisfying meal. Servants
Speaker 1: walked in with platters piled high with assorted meats, while
Speaker 1: bottles of wine were being brought forth for the king's approval.
Speaker 1: Though despite the extravagant spread, it quickly became apparent to
Speaker 1: all in the room that the king didn't have much
Speaker 1: interest in the feast laid out before him. Between the
Speaker 1: softly taken footsteps of servers and the muted clatter of
Speaker 1: cutlery against serving dishes, the air that was hanging in
Speaker 1: the dining hall that evening was charged with a layer
Speaker 1: of antis A patient Those in the room attempted to
Speaker 1: maintain the facade of normalcy, but at the center of
Speaker 1: it all, the king sat motionless, his vacant gaze unmoving
Speaker 1: as plate after plate of untouched food arrived in front
Speaker 1: of him. Perhaps the king wasn't looking at his plate
Speaker 1: so much as he was staring at the knife next
Speaker 1: to it, watching the metal glint invitingly in the flickers
Speaker 1: of candlelight around the room. Or maybe he was distracted
Speaker 1: by the empty chair next to him the space that
Speaker 1: had once upon a time been reserved for his queen,
Speaker 1: his beloved, and as de Castro, the woman who continued
Speaker 1: to hold his heart, even if he could only see
Speaker 1: her in the negative spaces that, even five years after
Speaker 1: her death persist did inexorably like an opened wound. Whatever
Speaker 1: was holding the King's attention during that dinner, the audible
Speaker 1: trail of footsteps echoing from beyond the dining hall quickly
Speaker 1: shifted his focus back into the present, His eyes locked
Speaker 1: onto the door with newfound excitement, just as the entry
Speaker 1: gave way and his guards at long last brought in
Speaker 1: the final two dinner guests that the king had been
Speaker 1: waiting for that evening, though really King Pedro had been
Speaker 1: waiting for these two men for the better part of
Speaker 1: five years. The two guests in question were Alvaro Gonzales
Speaker 1: and Pero Coilo, two of the men responsible for the
Speaker 1: brutal murder of the King's beloved and as to Castro
Speaker 1: in thirteen fifty five. After years of searching, King Pedro
Speaker 1: had finally managed to track two of the assas essence down,
Speaker 1: bringing them back to Portugal to stand trial for their crimes.
Speaker 1: Of course, the main perpetrator in his love's murder was
Speaker 1: Pedro's own father, King Alfonso the Fourth, but considering that
Speaker 1: the late king had died in thirteen fifty seven, there
Speaker 1: was little more Pedro could do to punish his father
Speaker 1: from this side of the earthly plane. Gonsalves and Quelo, however,
Speaker 1: were still very much alive in offense that King Pedro
Speaker 1: sought to rectify personally. There was little struggle from the
Speaker 1: men as the armed guards marched them into the hall.
Speaker 1: After all, upon their return to Portugal, a trial had
Speaker 1: swiftly concluded that both men were guilty of murder. Their
Speaker 1: fates had been sealed from that moment, their deaths assured.
Speaker 1: All that was left was to face their sentence, though
Speaker 1: I imagine their sense of res all all but crumbled
Speaker 1: upon hearing their king's plans for them. That evening, as
Speaker 1: the men were held helplessly at the King's mercy, Pedro
Speaker 1: looked down at the killers with the same cold stare
Speaker 1: they had likely given his beloved Inez before repeatedly running
Speaker 1: their swords through her chest. The vacant expression that the
Speaker 1: king had held at the beginning of the meal was
Speaker 1: long gone. Vengeance was now clearly burning through all other
Speaker 1: thoughts behind his eyes. For the murder of his wife,
Speaker 1: Pedro's punishment was as simple as it was brutal. The
Speaker 1: men were to have their hearts cut out of their chests.
Speaker 1: For a moment. No one moved two, stunned by the
Speaker 1: king's decree to see it put into action. For only
Speaker 1: a moment, though then the guards descended upon the men,
Speaker 1: and the room could do nothing but watch on in
Speaker 1: horror as the stones on the dining room floor were
Speaker 1: painted in crimson, the walls echoing an endless echo of
Speaker 1: the criminal's blood curdling screams. When the bodies were finally
Speaker 1: relieved of their now unbeating hearts, the hall likewise fell silent.
Speaker 1: The only sound was then the scrape of knife on
Speaker 1: plait as King Petrow finally dug into the dinner in
Speaker 1: front of him. If Pedro noticed a change in the air,
Speaker 1: he did not let on. But then again, maybe he
Speaker 1: had found comfort in the grotesque display of violence he
Speaker 1: had enacted. His in nas may have been gone, but
Speaker 1: at least now he wasn't the only man to know
Speaker 1: how it felt to live without a heart in his chest.
Speaker 1: I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood. Outside of Portugal,
Speaker 1: the infamous love story of Pedro the First and an
Speaker 1: esde Castro rarely finds its way into popular discourse. With
Speaker 1: so few primary sources on the subject, let alone English
Speaker 1: translations of scholarship available for public consumption, it makes sense
Speaker 1: that the tale of these two ill fated lovers remains
Speaker 1: outside of Portugal relatively unknown, but within Portugal itself, the
Speaker 1: legend of their love story and the ties they have
Speaker 1: to Portugal's medieval history makes them household names. To better
Speaker 1: understand the context during which their story takes place, I
Speaker 1: want to give you a very brief summary of what
Speaker 1: was happening in Portugal, or more accurately, the Kingdom of
Speaker 1: Portugal in the fourteenth century. During this time, the Iberian Peninsula,
Speaker 1: or what we today typically think of as Spain and Portugal,
Speaker 1: was comprised of four kingdoms, which for the sake of
Speaker 1: time I won't go into too deeply, except for the
Speaker 1: two which relate to that of our lovers, the Crown
Speaker 1: of Castile and the Kingdom of Portugal. By thirteen forty,
Speaker 1: the two kingdoms could only be described as having a
Speaker 1: begrudgingly tolerable relationship Back in thirty eight, King Alfonso the
Speaker 1: fourth of Portugal had sent his daughter Maria of Portugal
Speaker 1: to be married to the King of Castile, which, rather
Speaker 1: than unifying their kingdoms as one might hope a marriage,
Speaker 1: would only serve to create a larger rift between them.
Speaker 1: This was largely due to Alfonso the Fourth receiving reports
Speaker 1: that his daughter was being mistreated by the King of Castile, who,
Speaker 1: quite after their union, began to pretty immediately take up
Speaker 1: with a mistress. In retaliation, Alfonso the Fourth arranged for
Speaker 1: his son Pedro the First of Portugal to marry a
Speaker 1: Castilian noble woman named Costanza Manuel. For those curious as
Speaker 1: to why this specific union would be considered a retaliation,
Speaker 1: Costanza was, funnily enough, the King of Castile's first wife.
Speaker 1: Costanza's father had arranged her marriage with the Castilian king
Speaker 1: when she was just nine years old, which meant that
Speaker 1: when the previously mentioned daughter of Alfonso the Fourth of
Speaker 1: Portugal was presented as another possible wife for him, the
Speaker 1: king promptly annulled their unconsummated marriage so he could wed
Speaker 1: Maria of Portugal instead. So really, in other words, Costanza
Speaker 1: was the jilted first wife of the King of Castile,
Speaker 1: who then chose Alfonso's daughter instead. It's a little complicated,
Speaker 1: but I think you the basic picture. Cut to a
Speaker 1: few years later, and the King of Castile is suddenly
Speaker 1: faced with the consequences of his actions in the form
Speaker 1: of his current and former father in law's deciding to
Speaker 1: unite their collective hatred of him with the strategic marriage
Speaker 1: between his own ex wife, Constanta Manuel and the future
Speaker 1: King of Portugal, Pedro the First. Now, I'm going to
Speaker 1: fast forward a bit because the ensuing war and ultimate
Speaker 1: peace treaty don't exactly serve the story in any significant way.
Speaker 1: But from this web of marriages and political ally ship,
Speaker 1: I think the two most important points to take away
Speaker 1: from this are one, regardless of treatise, tensions between the
Speaker 1: Crown of Castile and the Kingdom of Portugal, we're fraying
Speaker 1: dangerously thin. And two, in thirteen forty, Alfonso's son Pedro
Speaker 1: would marry Costanza Manuel, which is where our story truly begins,
Speaker 1: because when Constanza arrived in Portugal, she did so with
Speaker 1: her lady in waiting, a Galician noblewoman by the name
Speaker 1: of Inez de Castro. Now, unfortunately for poor Costanza neither
Speaker 1: her first nor second marriage were destined to be fairytale romances.
Speaker 1: In fact, almost as soon as she arrived at court
Speaker 1: with Annez and how Pedro all but cast her aside
Speaker 1: in favor of her lady in waiting. He of course
Speaker 1: still performed his marital duties so as to secure himself
Speaker 1: an heir to the Portuguese throne. But that was about
Speaker 1: the extent of Pedro and his wife's relationship. As you
Speaker 1: can probably imagine, poor Costanza was less than thrilled with
Speaker 1: this development. Yes, she was set to become the future
Speaker 1: Queen of Portugal and her son would one day become king,
Speaker 1: but she played this game once before. One annulment later,
Speaker 1: and Costanza knew all too well how precarious her seemingly
Speaker 1: cemented place in court really was. So in an effort
Speaker 1: to keep Annez from continuing her affair with Pedro, in
Speaker 1: thirteen forty four, Costanza made a strategic decision and named
Speaker 1: Inez her newborn child's godmother. Now this may seem counterintuitive,
Speaker 1: doesn't it make Annez and her husband even closer, But
Speaker 1: in the context of medieval Portuguese and Catholic traditions, naming
Speaker 1: someone a godparent to their child essentially made them family,
Speaker 1: which meant that in one move, Costanza changed Pedro and
Speaker 1: and As his relationship from an extramarital affair to scandalous
Speaker 1: lye incestuous. It was a simple and effective solution that
Speaker 1: could have even worked had her son not tragically passed
Speaker 1: away just eight days after he was born. As it was,
Speaker 1: her son's death brought further suspicion upon Inez by the
Speaker 1: Portuguese court. King Alfonso the Fourth was not blind to
Speaker 1: what was happening between his son and his wife's lady
Speaker 1: in waiting, and though he had been unhappy with his
Speaker 1: son's choice and mistress, he had initially dismissed the affair,
Speaker 1: hoping it was simply lust and it was clouding his
Speaker 1: son's judgment only temporarily. However, after the death of Costanza's
Speaker 1: firstborn son, the son to which Anez had been made godmother,
Speaker 1: the son keeping Pedro and Anez a part, Alfonso was
Speaker 1: now powerless to stop the rumors that began to stir
Speaker 1: at court. How had the child died, hadn't poor Constanza
Speaker 1: named that Harlot the godmother wasn't at all a bit
Speaker 1: too convenient? For years, King Alfonso had allowed Pedro to
Speaker 1: carry on with Anez, but as the rumor mill continued
Speaker 1: to speculate, the king decided it was finally time to
Speaker 1: take action, and he banned and As from court. And
Speaker 1: that should have been it, at least it would have
Speaker 1: been if their affair had simply been driven by lust.
Speaker 1: But when Annez was driven away from court, the strength
Speaker 1: of her and Pedro's love, if anything, became more apparent.
Speaker 1: In some versions of their story, While Annez was away,
Speaker 1: Pedro wrote to her through small messages, which he sent
Speaker 1: through a channel of water that went between their two residences.
Speaker 1: To Alfonso's dismay, the distance between the two did nothing
Speaker 1: to diminish their devotion to one another, a fact that
Speaker 1: became all too apparent when in thirteen forty nine, Constanza
Speaker 1: Manuel died at just thirty three years old from complications
Speaker 1: following the birth of her fourth child. As the country
Speaker 1: mourned the loss of their Infanta or princess, King Alfonso
Speaker 1: really should not have been that surprised to find that
Speaker 1: his son had almost immediately left court to find Inez,
Speaker 1: without any marital obligations now barring him from seeing her,
Speaker 1: Pedro and Inez were finally free to be together, and
Speaker 1: together they were. They weren't married. Their relationship would never
Speaker 1: be accepted by King Alfonso, but Pedro and Inez would
Speaker 1: go on to have three healthy children. They were happy together,
Speaker 1: at least until thirteen fifty four, when they're happily ever
Speaker 1: after came to an abrupt and brutal end when it
Speaker 1: came to his son. King Alfonso the Fourth of Portugal
Speaker 1: was running out of options for years following Costanza's death,
Speaker 1: Alfonso attempted to find another suitable marriage for his son,
Speaker 1: but Pedro refused to hear a word of it. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Alfonso's royal advisers reported back rumors that had been floating
Speaker 1: around court. People couldn't help but compare the sickly and
Speaker 1: weak son Ferdinand, that Pedro had had with his wife Costanza,
Speaker 1: a legitimate son, with the three strong and healthy but
Speaker 1: illegitimate children that Pedro had with Annez. Equally troubling were
Speaker 1: the rumors that Inez's Castilian brothers were spending considerable time
Speaker 1: in the Prince's ear, tempting him to intercede on their
Speaker 1: behalf in Castilian Civil War. Surely, Anez was poisoning Pedro
Speaker 1: with these thoughts biasing the prince in favor of Castile.
Speaker 1: Up until this point, King Alfonso had at best tolerated
Speaker 1: and as his presence in his son's life. But with
Speaker 1: threats to the Portuguese line of succession coming into question,
Speaker 1: plus the ever growing potential for an all out civil
Speaker 1: war that could possibly end with the Kingdom of Portugal
Speaker 1: in the hands of the Castilian crown, Alfonso could no
Speaker 1: longer a forward to ignore this young woman who had
Speaker 1: stolen his son's heart, and so, at the urging of
Speaker 1: his royal advisers, King Alfonso, along with a traveling party
Speaker 1: that included both Alvaro Gonzales and Paroquelo, made their way
Speaker 1: to Combra to carry out the assassination of Annez de Castro.
Speaker 1: It's impossible to say exactly how events unfolded in Coimbra
Speaker 1: that day. Later, dramatization of Ineza's death would imply that
Speaker 1: in As sat at King Alfonso's feet begging for her life.
Speaker 1: Some would say the king began to sympathize with her
Speaker 1: as one of her children was in the room with them,
Speaker 1: watching on in terror, helpless to stop what would inevitably
Speaker 1: come to pass. For no matter if an As sat
Speaker 1: at the king's feet, nor if she pleaded for her life,
Speaker 1: the end result remained the same. In the fame Is
Speaker 1: Portuguese epic poem, Ois Lucida's author Louise vas Jacomas wrote
Speaker 1: of her death quote, Thus, Annez, while her eyes to
Speaker 1: have an appeal, resigned her bosom to the murdering steel,
Speaker 1: that snowy neck was stained with, spouting gore another sword.
Speaker 1: Her lovely bosom tore so from her cheeks. The roses
Speaker 1: died away and pale in death. The beauteous Annez lay.
Speaker 1: On January seven, fifty five, Ines de Castro, mother of
Speaker 1: three and the great love of Pedro of Portugal's life,
Speaker 1: was stabbed to death by the order of Pedro's father,
Speaker 1: King Alfonso the Fourth. The king may not have swung
Speaker 1: the blade that took an As his life, but when
Speaker 1: news of his father's betrayal finally reached Pedro, none of
Speaker 1: that mattered. All that mattered was that his anst was gone,
Speaker 1: that she had been brutally taken from the earth at
Speaker 1: the hands of his own father, and he was going
Speaker 1: to make him pay. If Alfonso had hoped, and as
Speaker 1: his absence would quell Pedro's desire to begin a civil war,
Speaker 1: he was sorely mistaken. Within days of her death, Pedro
Speaker 1: had summoned an army to go to war against his
Speaker 1: own father. It was only at the urging of the
Speaker 1: only existing neutral party between them, Pedro's mother and Alfonso's wife,
Speaker 1: Queen Beatrice, that the two men were able to stop
Speaker 1: the fighting. At the queen's behest, father and son signed
Speaker 1: a treaty of peace between them. But if this episode's
Speaker 1: introduction was anything to go by, I'm guessing you already
Speaker 1: know that the piece was just about the last thing
Speaker 1: on Pedro's mind. It wouldn't be until two years later,
Speaker 1: in thirteen fifty seven, when Alfonso died and Pedro ascended
Speaker 1: to the Portuguese throne, that the young king could begin
Speaker 1: to enact his re venge and at long last find
Speaker 1: the justice he longed for. For Aness. His first order
Speaker 1: of business tracking down the men responsible for her murder.
Speaker 1: While his men searched far and wide for any trace
Speaker 1: of the assassins, The now King Pedro the First enacted
Speaker 1: the second order of business he had, commissioning the creation
Speaker 1: of two tombs, one for himself and one for his
Speaker 1: beloved Inez. After her death, Ines had been buried in Coimbra.
Speaker 1: The location of her remains likely chosen out of convenience
Speaker 1: rather than geographical significance. But then again, Inez and Pedro
Speaker 1: technically had no official ties to one another. They had
Speaker 1: three children together, but in the eyes of the Catholic
Speaker 1: Church and by extension, Portugal as a whole, and as
Speaker 1: to Castro, technically meant nothing, which was exactly In thirteen sixty,
Speaker 1: Pedro would announce to the world a secret that would
Speaker 1: irrevocably alter the course of Portuguese history. A few months
Speaker 1: after he ordered the death of and As his assassins,
Speaker 1: with the hollow ache no doubt still lingering in his chest,
Speaker 1: Pedro revealed that seven years earlier, he and and Az
Speaker 1: were married in a secret ceremony, meaning not only had
Speaker 1: his father killed the woman he loved, but the king
Speaker 1: had also murdered what would have been Portugal's future queen.
Speaker 1: For centuries, the validity of Pedro's secret marriage claims have
Speaker 1: been subject to debate. After all, if you're a king
Speaker 1: and you get married in a forest and no one's
Speaker 1: around to witness it, does it still hold up in
Speaker 1: the eyes of the Catholic Church. Some chroniclers from the
Speaker 1: time contested the union's legitimacy, but ultimately their doubt would
Speaker 1: be a foot note in the history books, especially when
Speaker 1: the true intentions behind the now king's posthumous wedding announcements
Speaker 1: were revealed and the now widowed king had his late
Speaker 1: wife exhumed from her grave on Combrian soil. With his
Speaker 1: wife's killers now brutally dead and his healthy children's legitimacy secured,
Speaker 1: King Pedro set out to complete his final act of
Speaker 1: revenge against his father. Now there comes a point in
Speaker 1: stories like this that the mythos surrounding the facts often
Speaker 1: begin to outshine the reality of the events themselves. Sometimes
Speaker 1: a lack incredible sources inspires others to make up histories
Speaker 1: of their own. Some stories that, while not exactly factual,
Speaker 1: no doubt, make for a great story. In the case
Speaker 1: of Pedro exhuming his wife's corpse, some say that upon
Speaker 1: his ascension to the throne, the king was so maddened
Speaker 1: in his all consuming grief that he ordered his men
Speaker 1: to disenter Inez so that they could prop up her
Speaker 1: body on the throne beside him as his queen. They
Speaker 1: say that Pedro had her dressed in the finest robes
Speaker 1: and laid a crown upon her head, demanding members of
Speaker 1: his court approached the throne so they could kiss what
Speaker 1: was left of in iss weathered hand as a way
Speaker 1: to pay homage to their would be queen. And to
Speaker 1: be fair, this maccab display of fealty is rather on
Speaker 1: brand for King Pedro. This is the man, after all,
Speaker 1: who murdered his wife's killers by cutting out their hearts.
Speaker 1: But in reality, and as his disinterment likely, had little
Speaker 1: to do with forcing members of the court to bow
Speaker 1: at his late wife's ornately dressed corpse, and more to
Speaker 1: do with the two tombs Pedro had commissioned as soon
Speaker 1: as he had ascended to the throne, for in the end,
Speaker 1: Pedro's final act of defiance against his father, as well
Speaker 1: as his final act of love for his late wife,
Speaker 1: lay within the twin tombs he planned to share with
Speaker 1: his beloved Today, if you walked into the Cistercian Abbey
Speaker 1: of Alcobasa, you would be immediately taken in by the
Speaker 1: incredible display of Gothic Cistercian architecture. Impossibly high, rib vaulted
Speaker 1: ceilings would greet you as you passed through the monastery's doors.
Speaker 1: They're intimidating heights, subconsciously leading you down the nave toward
Speaker 1: the main chapel at the structure's end. And if you
Speaker 1: were a tourist, after finding your way to the end
Speaker 1: of the monastery's pews, you would most likely notice the
Speaker 1: crowds acting, not gathering to view the main chapel under
Speaker 1: a halo of skylights, but gathering in two corners of
Speaker 1: the transept on either side of you. Upon closer inspection,
Speaker 1: you would notice the onlookers gathered around two intricately carved
Speaker 1: white stone tombs, the chamber to the right holding the
Speaker 1: tomb of King Pedro, the first of Portugal, and to
Speaker 1: the left, mirroring it perfectly just steps away from her husband,
Speaker 1: his wife Inez de Castro, in direct defiance of his father,
Speaker 1: Pedro's final declaration of love for an Az was not
Speaker 1: made in hate or violence, but in a gesture that
Speaker 1: married his grief with his hope for the future. By
Speaker 1: claiming Anaz as his wife, Pedro finally had sufficient grounds
Speaker 1: to exhume her body and give her the burial she
Speaker 1: rightly deserved the areal of a queen. When the elaborate
Speaker 1: tombs he had commissioned were finished some time between thirteen
Speaker 1: sixty one and thirteen sixty three. Pedro had and As
Speaker 1: his remains disinterred and brought all the way from Coimbra
Speaker 1: to Alcabasa, a nearly seventy mile journey from there, and
Speaker 1: as his body was put inside of one of the
Speaker 1: two intricately carved tombs and placed in the abbey where
Speaker 1: she awaited the day the other matching tomb would carry
Speaker 1: the body of her beloved and the two of them
Speaker 1: would be together once more. But even with the inherent
Speaker 1: romance of matching tombs aside, what Pedro did for and
Speaker 1: Ez goes far beyond just securing a place for their
Speaker 1: bodies to finally be together, To briefly bring you back
Speaker 1: to the main chapel in Alcabasa for a moment. The
Speaker 1: intricate images carved into an ASA's tomb are beautiful, yes,
Speaker 1: but they serve a specific purpose as well. Scenes from
Speaker 1: the life and death of Christ are carved into the
Speaker 1: side of her tomb in unspoken analogy between the two figures,
Speaker 1: being presented like an offering to the viewer. Both the
Speaker 1: castro and the Portuguese coat of arms adorn her final
Speaker 1: resting place. But the greatest gift Pedro gave an as
Speaker 1: his legacy is perhaps the simplest addition to the otherwise
Speaker 1: incredibly intricate sculpture work. On the lid of her tomb,
Speaker 1: a stone likeness of Annez herself is laid out on
Speaker 1: top of the very vessel which contains her earthly remains.
Speaker 1: What stands out about her stone counterpart is not her
Speaker 1: serene expression, nor the items placed in her hands, but
Speaker 1: the crown placed atop her head. When Pedro revealed his
Speaker 1: secret marriage with an As to the world, he knew
Speaker 1: there would be skeptics who would never see her as
Speaker 1: their queen. But in this one detail, Pedro all but
Speaker 1: wrote her legacy in stone for generations to come. As
Speaker 1: long as stone anyone who came to the Alcabasa would
Speaker 1: see his truth. It was in Nez, not Costanza, who
Speaker 1: was his wife. It was in Nez who was his
Speaker 1: queen even in death. And though their individual tombs hold
Speaker 1: differing images, both are inscribed with the same words that
Speaker 1: echo across the stone floors where they lay together, words
Speaker 1: that translate from the Portuguese to mean until the end
Speaker 1: of the world. That's the tragic love story of Pedro,
Speaker 1: the first of Portugue and in Nasda Castro. But stick
Speaker 1: around to hear how their love story has evolved over
Speaker 1: the centuries. Although the tale of Pedro and Andez has
Speaker 1: largely evaded English speaking audiences in pop culture, I think
Speaker 1: it's worth it to analyze why their story, and particularly
Speaker 1: in Nez's presence as a tragic figure, has persisted in
Speaker 1: cultural iconography in Portugal and Western Europe. Of course, the
Speaker 1: story itself has everything you could ever want in a
Speaker 1: tragic love story slash episode of noble blood, romance, betrayal, vengeance,
Speaker 1: his and her tombs, to say nothing of the macabre
Speaker 1: idea of a disinterred corpse sitting on a throne. But
Speaker 1: in all seriousness, what I find most interesting about most
Speaker 1: interpretations of Pedro and and AS's love story is the
Speaker 1: inherent lack of an Ez that they all seem to share.
Speaker 1: What I mean by that is, when conducting research for
Speaker 1: this episode, I found little to no information on who
Speaker 1: and Asta Castro was as a person, only how she
Speaker 1: related to Pedro's story. Other than the physical manifestation of
Speaker 1: their love in their three living children, any love the
Speaker 1: couple shared is expressed through Pedro's grief and rage, not
Speaker 1: through any sort of interaction between the two, which does
Speaker 1: make sense since the majority of their story takes place
Speaker 1: after she dies. But that's another thing, isn't it. The
Speaker 1: love story of Pedro an Andez is not so much
Speaker 1: about their love as it is about her death. Any
Speaker 1: characterizations that are given to her are on the whole
Speaker 1: that she was pious and self sacrificing, but there's little
Speaker 1: to no evidence that she was either of those things,
Speaker 1: unless you assigned them as reactions she may have had
Speaker 1: to the acts of violence taken against her. It's a
Speaker 1: sad truth that and As his presence in her own
Speaker 1: story mattered more when she was a corpse than when
Speaker 1: she was alive. But then again, it's not like treating
Speaker 1: women as blank slates in which to project a man.
Speaker 1: Story is something we haven't seen before. But who knows,
Speaker 1: maybe after seven hundred years, someone will finally given as
Speaker 1: to cast the chance to tell her own story. Noble
Speaker 1: Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by
Speaker 1: me Danish Words. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston.
Speaker 1: Hannah's Wick, Mirra Hayward, Courtney Sunder and Laurie Goodman. The
Speaker 1: show is produced by rema Il Kali, with supervising producer
Speaker 1: Josh Thayne and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.