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Prince Pedro, A Case of Dynastic Disloyalty in Fifteenth Century Portugal?

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Royal Women and Dynastic Loyalty

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Abstract

Third son of John I (r. 1385–1433), the founder of the Portuguese Avis dynasty, and of Philippa of Lancaster (r. 1385–1415), infante Pedro died in 1449 in the battle of Alfarrobeira, fighting against his king and nephew Alphonse V, in whose name he had been regent. The circumstances of his death, but also of his accession to the regency in 1438, were controversial among his contemporaries, and remain so today among Portuguese historians. Costa-Gomes recently observed that modern (pre)conceptions have biased the debate and suggested we pay more attention to the perceptions of those involved in the events. Rodrigues uses contemporary sources to demonstrate that the conflict arose because different conceptions of loyalty and honor coexisted in the political societies of the Iberian monarchies. However, dynastic interests could recommend reconciliation, and women—especially Queen Isabel, Pedro’s daughter, and the duchess of Burgundy, Pedro’s sister, also named Isabel—helped to unite the estranged family members.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Rita Costa-Gomes, “Alfarrobeira: The Death of the Tyrant?” in Death at Court, ed. Karl-Heinz Spieß and Immo Warntjes (Wiesbaden: Harrassovitz Verlag, 2012), 140–1.

  2. 2.

    This last will and testament is now missing but we know some of its clauses through chronicles and other documents. See, for instance, Rui de Pina, Chronica do Senhor Rey D. Affonso V, in Crónicas de Rui de Pina, ed. M. Lopes de Almeida (Porto: Lello & Irmão Editores, 1977), 590.

  3. 3.

    Duarte’s legitimate surviving siblings were Pedro, Henrique, Isabel (married to the duke of Burgundy), João and Fernando. However, Fernando was held as a hostage in Morocco after the defeat of the Portuguese army in Tangiers in 1437 and did not take part in any of the events we will analyze in the following pages. He eventually died there in 1443.

  4. 4.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 591.

  5. 5.

    On them, see Eloy Benito Ruano, Los infantes de Aragón (2nd ed., Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2002).

  6. 6.

    On this king, see Pedro Andrés Porras Arboledas, Juan II rey de Castilla y León (1406–1454) (Gijón: Trea, 2009).

  7. 7.

    On this tormented period in the history of Castile, see Luis Suárez Fernández, “Los Trastámaras de Castilla y Aragón en el siglo XV (1407–74),” in Historia de España, edited by Ramón Menéndez Pidal (4th ed., Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1986) XV, 69–153.

  8. 8.

    A truce had put an end to the war between the two monarchies in 1411, but only in 1431 was a permanent peace treaty signed in Almeirim. Paz Romero Portilla, Dos monarquías medievales ante la modernidad. Relaciones entre Portugal y Castilla (Coruña: Universidade da Coruña, 1999), 65–82.

  9. 9.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 602–3. The text of the agreement reached in the Cortes is published in Monumenta Henricina (Coimbra: Comissão Executiva das Comemorações do V Centenário da Morte do Infante D. Henrique, 1964) VI, n. 96, 264–79.

  10. 10.

    Humberto Baquero Moreno, A batalha de Alfarrobeira. Antecedentes e significado histórico (Coimbra: Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, 1979) I, 25–34.

  11. 11.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 616–19.

  12. 12.

    The bibliography on the events of 1383–1385 is overwhelming; on the Lisbon insurrection, see Valentino Viegas, Lisboa a força da revolução (1383–1385) (Lisbon: Livros Horizonte, 1985), 66–90.

  13. 13.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 638–9.

  14. 14.

    Ana Maria S.A. Rodrigues, Leonor de Aragão in As tristes rainhas: Leonor de Aragão, Isabel de Coimbra (Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores, 2012), 200–1.

  15. 15.

    Moreno, Alfarrobeira, 69–96.

  16. 16.

    Fernán Pérez de Guzmán, Crónica del Serenísimo Príncipe Don Juan, segundo rey deste nombre en Castilla y en León in Crónicas de los reyes de Castilla, edited by Cayetano Rosell (Madrid: M. Rivadeneyra, 1877), 582–606; Pedro Carrillo de Huete, Crónica del Halconero de Juan II, edited by Juan de Mata Carriazo (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 2006), 404–33.

  17. 17.

    Except for Princess Joana, whom she had taken with her in her Castilian exile; Rodrigues, Leonor de Aragão, 234–6.

  18. 18.

    Rodrigues, Isabel de Coimbra in As Tristes Rainhas, 280–5.

  19. 19.

    Luís Adão da Fonseca, O condestável D. Pedro de Portugal (Porto: Instituto Nacional da Investigação Científica, 1982), 29–34.

  20. 20.

    Moreno, Alfarrobeira, 99–133.

  21. 21.

    Mafalda Soares da Cunha, “Estratégias senhoriais na regência do infante D. Pedro,” Estudos Medievais 9 (1988), 283–4.

  22. 22.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 679.

  23. 23.

    Saul António Gomes, D. Afonso V (Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores, 2009), 81.

  24. 24.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 698–9.

  25. 25.

    Monumenta Henricina IX, n. 185, 294–7.

  26. 26.

    Moreno, Alfarrobeira, 327–32.

  27. 27.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 708.

  28. 28.

    Pedro also prevented the duke of Braganza from crossing the duchy of Coimbra with his retinue to reach the court to which he had been summoned by the king. Pina, D. Affonso V, 708–26.

  29. 29.

    Ana Maria S.A. Rodrigues, “Between Husband and Father: Queen Isabel of Lancaster’s Crossed Loyalties,” Imago Temporis. Medium Aevum 3 (2009), 214.

  30. 30.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 739–47.

  31. 31.

    Tiago Alexandre Viúla de Faria, “Pela ‘Santa Garrotea’: Ofício cavaleiresco nas vésperas de Alfarrobeira,” in XIV Colóquio de História Militar: Portugal e os Conflitos Militares Internacionais. Actas (Lisbon: Comissão Portuguesa de História Militar, 2005) II: 61–86.

  32. 32.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 749.

  33. 33.

    Gaspar Dias de Landim, O infante D. Pedro (Lisbon: Biblioteca de Clássicos Portugueses, 1892) III: 116–17.

  34. 34.

    Costa-Gomes, “Alfarrobeira,” 144–6.

  35. 35.

    These were the arguments stated in the instructions given to the ambassador sent to Castile. These instructions are published in Monumenta Henricina X, n. 49, 71–9 and were translated to English by Rita Costa-Gomes, “Alfarrobeira,” 153–8.

  36. 36.

    Jean Jouffroy’s four Latin speeches were edited, translated to Portuguese and studied by Manuel Francisco Ramos, “Orationes de Jean Jouffroy em favor do infante D. Pedro (1449–1450 – Retórica e Humanismo Cívico” (PhD dissertation, University of Porto, 2006).

  37. 37.

    Fonseca, D. Pedro, 62–3.

  38. 38.

    Monumenta Henricina X, n. 50, 79–81.

  39. 39.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 758.

  40. 40.

    Ramos, Orationes, 139–73.

  41. 41.

    Ramos, Orationes, 175–249.

  42. 42.

    Ramos, Orationes, 251–75.

  43. 43.

    Likewise, in Pina’s account, the battle started “per caso e sem deliberaçam” (by hazard and without deliberation) and the material author of Prince Pedro’s death remains unknown. Pina, D. Affonso V, 745–7.

  44. 44.

    Monique Sommé, Isabelle de Portugal, duchesse de Bourgogne. Une femme au pouvoir au XV e siècle (Lille: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 1988), 77–88.

  45. 45.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 755.

  46. 46.

    António Caetano de Sousa, Provas da História Genealógica da Casa Real Portuguesa, edited by M. Lopes de Almeida and César Pegado, vol. II-I (Coimbra: Atlântida, 1946), 61–4.

  47. 47.

    Moreno, Alfarrobeira, 618–19.

  48. 48.

    Humberto Baquero Moreno, “Isabel de Urgell e a política do seu tempo,” in A Mulher na Sociedade Portuguesa: Visão Histórica e Perspectivas Actuais, vol. 2 (Coimbra: Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, 1986), 421.

  49. 49.

    Fonseca, D. Pedro, 78–9.

  50. 50.

    Rodrigues, Isabel de Coimbra, 314–16. Queen Isabel had already been responsible for the first burial of her father in the church of Alverca, according to an anonymous eulogy of her father. “Panegírico do Infante D. Pedro,” ed. Luís Silveira, Ocidente XXIV-79 (1944), 217.

  51. 51.

    In fact, he lived to succeed his father in 1481 as King João II of Portugal (r. 1481–1495).

  52. 52.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 770–1. His wife, Isabel of Urgel, was also buried there after she died in 1469, thus leaving empty the funerary monument she had commissioned for herself in Coimbra cathedral during the years in which a solemn burial was denied to her husband.

  53. 53.

    Pina, D. Affonso V, 771.

  54. 54.

    Queen Isabel was entombed in the Chapel of the Rosary in 1456 and King Afonso V in the Chapter House of the Monastery in 1481. They were transferred to the funerary monument in the Founder’s Chapel, where they lie today, in the twentieth century. Saul António Gomes, “João Eanes Rabuço e o túmulo de D. Afonso V e de D. Isabel,” in Vésperas Batalhinas. Estudos de História e Arte (Leiria: Magno, 1997), 253–5.

  55. 55.

    They were entombed in a funerary monument at the base of the main altar while the chapel King Duarte had commissioned for them was under construction. In fact, the building was never completed and in the beginning of the twentieth century their conjugal tomb was transferred to what is now known as the “Imperfect Chapels” of the monastery of Batalha.

  56. 56.

    On the plot of the duke of Braganza against King João II, see Humberto Baquero Moreno, “A conspiração contra D. João II: o julgamento do duque de Bragança,” Arquivos do Centro Cultural Português 2 (1970), 47–103.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Maria S. A. Rodrigues

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  1. Department of History, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

    Caroline Dunn

  2. Department of History, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

    Elizabeth Carney

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Rodrigues, A.M.S.A. (2018). Prince Pedro, A Case of Dynastic Disloyalty in Fifteenth Century Portugal?. In: Dunn, C., Carney, E. (eds) Royal Women and Dynastic Loyalty. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75877-0_7

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