Dona Inês de Castro
(1320/1325 - 1355)
D. Inês de Castro, was a noble Galician, posthumous queen of Portugal, loved by the future king D. Pedro I of Portugal, of whom she had four children. It was executed by order of D. Pedro's father, King D. Afonso IV.
On August 24, 1339, at the Lisbon Cathedral, the marriage of the Infant Pedro I of Portugal, heir to the Portuguese throne, took place with D. Constança Manuel, but it was for one of the women of D. Constança, D. Inês de Castro , for whom Don Pedro would fall in love.
Under the pretext of morality, D. Afonso IV does not approve of the relationship, and exiles D. Agnes in the castle of Albuquerque in 1344.
Legend has it that distance does not erase the love they feel for each other where the two regularly wrote letters to one another with eternal swearings of love.
In October of the following year D. Constance dies in giving birth to the future king, D. Fernando I of Portugal. Widowed, D. Pedro, D. Inês returns from exile and the two begin to live together.
On January 7, 1355, the king gave in to the pressures of his advisers and taking advantage of Don Pedro's absence on a hunting expedition, he went with Pêro Coelho; Álvaro Gonçalves and Diogo Lopes Pacheco to Santa Clara where D. Agnes is executed, as decided by the council.
According to legend, the tears spilled on the river Mondego by the death of Ines would have created the Tears Fountain of Quinta das Lágrimas, and some reddish algae that grew there would be his blood shed.
D. Pedro revolts against D. Afonso IV and after months of conflict, the Queen D. Beatriz can intervene and make seal the peace.
D. Pedro did not rest until he could avenge his beloved, having pursued the assassins of D. Ines, until they were caught and executed.
D. Pedro ordered the construction of the two splendid tombs of D. Pedro I and D. Inês de Castro in the Monastery of Alcobaça, where he transferred the body of his beloved Ines in 1361 or 1362.
In 1367 D. Pedro finally joins D. Inês de Castro in the Monastery of Alcobaça.