Peter I (Portugal)
Peter I ( Dom Pedro I called) "the Cruel" ( O Cruel ) or "righteous" ( O Justiceiro ) (* 8. April 1320 in Coimbra , † 18th January 1367 in Estremoz ) was the eighth king of Portugal from the house of Burgundy .
Life
Peter I was born the son of King Alfonso IV and Beatrix of Castile . His youth was overshadowed by a serious conflict with his father, because when Peter was still a child, Peter had married him to a Castilian princess. When Peter grew up, however, he refused to consummate the marriage. Alfonso IV, who was still very interested in an alliance with Castile secured by marriage , forced Peter in 1340 to marry another Castilian princess, Constança Manuel . In their wake, the Castilian noblewoman Inês de Castro came to court, with whom Peter fell madly in love.
After the death of Constança Manuel at the latest, Peter started a relationship with Inês, he is said to have even secretly married her. He spent four happy years with her in Coimbra. This displeased the Portuguese nobility and King Alfonso IV extremely. It was feared that the de Castros, who were a powerful family in Castile, could influence Portuguese politics in this way, and even that Inês, with the help of their Castilian relatives, might try to find the son of Constanze Maria for the benefit of their own children to oust from the line of succession.
Taking advantage of Peter's absence, Alfonso IV had Inês de Castro convicted of high treason and beheaded in 1355 . This act caused a civil war between father and son. The conflict was temporarily resolved in the following year and Alfonso IV appointed his son co-regent; the fight would probably have broken out again if Alfonso IV had not died a short time later.
Peter I ascended the Portuguese throne in 1357. At the beginning of his reign he allied himself with Castile and thus achieved the extradition of the murderers of his lovers, who had fled there after the death of his father. Allegedly he had them tortured, having their hearts torn out while they were alive, in order to then eat them, which earned him the nickname “the cruel one”. It is also reported that he exhumed Inês de Castro and had Inês de Castro crowned queen in a solemn ceremony. Driven by thoughts of revenge, he ordered the present court to kiss the newly crowned queen on the rotten hand.
After that, however, he largely stayed out of the Castilian deals, which brought Portugal a time of peace. He centralized the country further and took special care of the judiciary, probably also to make it impossible to use the judiciary to remove unpopular people, as his father had shown in the case of his mistress. These efforts earned him his second nickname, “the righteous” among the people, where he was extremely popular.
He died in 1367 and was buried together with Inês de Castro - in two elaborately designed sarcophagi opposite - in the Cistercian church - Abbey of Alcobaça .
Marriages and offspring
Peter I was two, including his marriage to Inês de Castro, married three times.
- His first marriage was in 1325 (when he was five years old) Branca de Castilla (1315-1375), a born Princess of Castile (daughter of the Prince Regent Pedro of Castile). The marriage later divorced, and no children emerged from it.
- In his second marriage in 1339 he married Constança Manuel de Castilla (1320-1349), daughter of Prince João Manuel of Castile and Constanza de Aragón. He had three children with her:
- Luís (* and † 1340)
- Maria (April 6, 1342; † 1367), ⚭ 1354 Ferdinand of Aragon , Margrave of Tortosa
- Ferdinand I (October 31, 1345 - October 22, 1383).
- In his third (secret) marriage, he supposedly married Inês de Castro (* 1320 † January 7, 1355) in 1354 , daughter of Pedro Fernandes de Castro, lord of Lemos and Aldonça Lourenço de Valadares. He had four children with her:
Finally, he also had a relationship with Teresa Lourenço (* 1330). With her he had an illegitimate son:
- John of Avis (born April 11, 1357 † August 14, 1433), the later Portuguese King João I and founder of the House of Avis .
See also
literature
- Peter Feige: Peter I . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , Sp. 1930 f.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Alfons IV |
King of Portugal 1357–1367 |
Ferdinand I. |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Peter I. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | the cruel one (o cruel); the righteous (o justiciero) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | King of Portugal |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 8, 1320 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Coimbra |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 18, 1367 |
| Place of death | Estremoz |