A Queen Crowned after Death
INEZ DE CASTRO, queen of Pedro I. of Portugal, was the near relative of the King of Portugal, and also of the King of Castile; but, notwithstanding her royal descent, she consented to a clandestine marriage with Don Pedro, whom, for political reasons, his father the king had already contracted in marriage to a Spanish princess. She was married to Don Pedro on the Ist of January, 1347.
Three years afterwards she was murdered by assassins, instigated to the act by her father-in-law, the King of Portugal. When Don Pedro heard of her assassination, he was beside himself with grief and rage. He desolated with the sword those portions of his father's realm in which the assassins dwelt.
Two of the criminals fell into his hands, and were exposed to the most exquisite torture for three days and nights, after which their hearts were torn out while the victims were yet living. When he came to the throne, shortly after, he had the body of Inez taken from the grave, placed upon a magnificent throne, arrayed in robes of royalty, and crowned "Queen of Portugal." The court was then summoned, and compelled to do her homage as if she were a living queen.
One fleshless hand held the sceptre; and the other, the orb of royalty. The night after the coronation, there was a grand funeral cortege extending for many miles, each person carrying a torch. They escorted the crowned queen, as she lay in her rich robes in a chariot drawn by black mules, to the royal abbey of Alcobaca for interment. Her monument is still to be seen there, with Don Pedro's at the foot of it. It is said that Don Pedro lived for many years, a cold, gloomy, yet merciful ruler, winning the title of "Pedro the Just."
From the son of this princess, Don Juan, descends the present reigning house of Portugal.
An attempt made by Philip II. of Spain to secure the throne of Portugal by trying to prove the marriage of Inez illegal, shows clearly the political reason for the posthumous coronation of Inez de Castro, beloved wife of Pedro I. of Portugal.
In this curious story may be discerned the essential difference of characteristics, as between Spain and Portugal. Since they form but a single territory, with the rivers Minho, Douro, and Tagus running through them, and unseparated by mountain ranges, it appears that the diversity is of race. When the Northern tribes came down upon Western Rome, the Suevi settled the west coast of Spain; while the Vandals and Alans and Goths spread over the rest of the peninsula. The Suevi have maintained their individuality through all the intervening years, insomuch that the Portuguese are called at the present day by the Spaniards Sevasos, a corruption of Suevi.