Constança Manuel

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King Pedro I of Portugal
King Alsonso XI. of Castile

Constança Manuel (* around 1318; † November 13, 1345 ) was with King Alfonso XI as a child . of Castile and later became the wife of King Pedro I of Portugal (1320-1367). She had brought Inês de Castro from Castile to the Portuguese court as her chambermaid, with whom Crown Prince Pedro immediately fell in love and whom his father King Afonso IV had murdered in 1355 in order to secure the succession of Constança's biological children. Their fate exemplarily reflects the power-political instrumentalization of women as members of the nobility in the Middle Ages.

Marriage to Alfonso XI. of Castile

Constança Manuel was a Castilian noblewoman, daughter of Don Juan Manuel , a grandson of King Ferdinand of Castile (1201–1252) and daughter of Constanze of Aragon. Constança's father, Don Juan Manuel, was also the tutor of the Castilian King Alfonso XI, who was crowned at the age of one . (1311-1350). When he was just about 7 years old, D. Joao Manuel married his daughter to his student Alfonso XI, who, according to the rules of the time, came of age at the age of 14. However, this connection was never made. Alfonso XI. repudiated Constança and had the marriage annulled in 1327. Constança was held captive in a fortress. In order to improve his relations with Portugal, Alfonso XI married. 1327 Maria of Portugal (1313-1357), a daughter of King Afonso IV of Portugal (1291-1357) and thus also the sister of Crown Prince Pedro.

Marriage to Pedro of Portugal

D. Juan Manuel was looking for a replacement for the lost reign of his daughter. After the marriage between the Portuguese Crown Prince Pedro and Branca, a niece of Alfonso of Castile, had already been dissolved in childhood due to the bride's illness, he obtained the consent of the two kings of Castile and Portugal to marry Constança with Dom Pedro , therefore with the brother of the new wife of Alfonso XI who replaced her. Alfonso XI. did not allow Constança to leave Castile, but only agreed to a marriage in their proxy. The ceremony took place on February 6, 1336 in the Convent of Saint Francisco in Évora . Crown Prince Pedro and his parents were present as well as their appointed representatives on the part of Constança. The bride's dowry was set at 300,000 doubloons.

Delayed departure to Portugal

The decision to withhold Constança gave rise to a conflict between the two kings, as did the poor treatment of Afonso IV's daughter by her new husband, Alfonso XI. Because he soon turned away from her and banished her to a monastery. These disputes led to armed conflicts that lasted from 1336 to 1339 between Castile and Portugal, the beneficiaries of which were the Moors, the common enemy of both countries during the Reconquista . In view of the weakness this caused against the Moors, the two kings began peace negotiations in 1339, which led to the Peace of Seville in July 1340 . Constança had already been allowed to leave for Portugal in 1339, where the wedding was performed again in Lisbon on August 24, 1339 in the presence of the two bride and groom. As the future Queen of Portugal, Constança received the cities of Montemor-o-Novo, Alenquer and Viseu as gifts.

Inês de Castro

Confrontation with Inês de Castro

When she moved to Portugal, Constança was accompanied by her chambermaid Inês de Castro (born between 1320 and 1325, murdered on January 7, 1355), a young Galician woman, daughter of the powerful Castilian nobleman Pedro Fernandes de Castro. Dom Pedro fell in love with her, but the romance with Inês had political implications as Pedro's father feared the influence of her brothers, Álvaro Pires de Castro and Fernando de Castro, on his son. When Constança gave birth to her first child, Luís of Portugal, in 1340, she asked Inês de Castro to be his godmother. According to the rules of the Catholic Church, the relationship between the godparents and the parents of the person to be baptized was considered to be a common moral parenthood, which ruled out a love between godparents and a natural parent as incestuous. Luís, however, died after a week. The List Constanças bore fruit even later after her death when Afonso IV. 1351 insisted in a letter to the Bishop of Braga on the marriage prohibitions between Inês and his son Pedro in order to prevent an exemption from the marriage prohibition by the Pope. Pedro continued his relationship with Inês in all openness until his father finally expelled Inês de Castro from the country in 1344 and sent back to Castile. In 1342 Constança gave birth to a daughter, Maria of Portugal, and on October 31, 1345 a son, Fernando of Portugal, who later became King Fernando I. Constança died 13 days later in childbed. When Afonso IV had Inês de Castro murdered in 1355, he believed he was acting as the legitimate heir to protect the rights to the throne of his grandson Fernando, since his son Pedro also had children with Inês de Castro (Pedro had later - in 1360- even claimed that Inês was secretly having married).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ José Mattoso and Armindo de Sousa in: Historia de Portugal, Bd. II A Monarqia Feudal , Editorial Estampa Lisbon, ISBN 972-33-0919-X (volume II), page 485f.
  2. ↑ José Mattoso and Armindo de Sousa in: Historia de Portugal, Vol. II A Monarqia Feudal , Editorial Estampa Lisbon, ISBN 972-33-0919-X (volume II), page 486
  3. ↑ José Mattoso and Armindo de Sousa in: Historia de Portugal, Vol. II A Monarqia Feudal , Editorial Estampa Lisbon, ISBN 972-33-0919-X (volume II), page 486
  4. ↑ Cristina Pimenta: D. Pedro I, Entre o Reino ea Recordação de Inês , 2007, ISBN 978-972-759-952-3 , page 104f.
  5. ↑ José Hermano Saraiva: História de Portugal , Publicações Europa-América 1998, ISBN 972-1-03611-0 , page 102 f.
personal data
SURNAME Constança Manuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of King Pedro I of Portugal
DATE OF BIRTH around 1318
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 1345