0:00

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production

0:03

of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild

0:05

from Aaron Mankey listener discretion

0:07

advised. Hey, this

0:10

is Danish Schwartz. Before we begin, just a

0:12

quick reminder that I wrote a book that's

0:14

coming out in February. It's called Immortality,

0:17

a Love Story, and it's the sequel to the

0:19

book I wrote called Anatomy, a love story

0:21

all about a young woman who wants to be a surgeon

0:24

in the early eighteen hundreds in

0:26

Scotland, and a lot of characters

0:28

actually that I've covered on this podcast

0:31

appear in Immortality.

0:33

So if you like this podcast, please

0:35

preorder. It makes a huge amount of difference

0:38

and I would really appreciate it. If you also

0:40

want to support the show in other ways, we have a

0:42

Patreon and March available. Those

0:44

links are in the bio, but the best

0:46

support is just that you're listening to the show, So

0:49

thank you so much. Before

0:51

we get started this week, I just want to give a

0:53

quick content warning for some listeners

0:55

who might be sensitive. This episode has

0:58

um, particularly gruce Um, Blood

1:00

and Gore in detail, and so some

1:03

listener discretion is advised. On

1:11

a night in the year thirteen sixty

1:13

King Pedro the First of Portugal

1:16

sat down in his castle's dining

1:18

hall in sent o m for what he expected

1:20

to be an especially satisfying

1:23

meal. Servants walked in

1:25

with platters piled high with assorted

1:28

meats, while bottles of wine were

1:30

being brought forth for the king's approval.

1:33

Though despite the extravagant

1:36

spread, it quickly became apparent

1:38

to all in the room that the

1:40

king didn't have much interest in

1:42

the feast laid out before him.

1:46

Between the softly taken footsteps

1:48

of servers and the muted

1:50

clatter of cutlery against serving

1:52

dishes, the air that was hanging

1:55

in the dining hall that evening was

1:57

charged with a layer of antis

2:00

A patient Those

2:02

in the room attempted to maintain

2:04

the facade of normalcy,

2:06

but at the center of it all, the king

2:09

sat motionless, his vacant

2:12

gaze unmoving as

2:14

plate after plate of

2:16

untouched food arrived in

2:18

front of him. Perhaps

2:21

the king wasn't looking at his

2:23

plate so much as he was staring

2:25

at the knife next to it, watching

2:28

the metal glint invitingly

2:31

in the flickers of candlelight around

2:33

the room. Or maybe

2:35

he was distracted by the

2:38

empty chair next to him

2:40

the space that had once upon a time

2:43

been reserved for his queen, his

2:46

beloved, and as de Castro, the

2:48

woman who continued to hold his

2:50

heart, even if he could only

2:53

see her in the negative spaces

2:55

that, even five years

2:58

after her death persist did

3:00

inexorably like an opened

3:02

wound. Whatever

3:04

was holding the King's attention during

3:07

that dinner, the audible

3:09

trail of footsteps echoing from

3:11

beyond the dining hall quickly

3:13

shifted his focus back into the present,

3:16

His eyes locked onto the door

3:19

with newfound excitement, just

3:21

as the entry gave way and his guards

3:24

at long last brought in

3:26

the final two dinner guests

3:28

that the king had been waiting for

3:31

that evening, though

3:33

really King Pedro had been

3:35

waiting for these two men for

3:37

the better part of five years.

3:40

The two guests in question were

3:43

Alvaro Gonzales and Pero Coilo,

3:45

two of the men responsible for

3:47

the brutal murder of the King's

3:50

beloved and as to Castro in

3:52

thirteen fifty five. After

3:55

years of searching, King Pedro

3:57

had finally managed to track two

3:59

of the assas essence down, bringing

4:01

them back to Portugal to stand

4:03

trial for their crimes. Of

4:06

course, the main perpetrator

4:08

in his love's murder was Pedro's

4:10

own father, King Alfonso

4:13

the Fourth, but considering

4:15

that the late king had died in thirteen

4:17

fifty seven, there was little more

4:20

Pedro could do to punish his father from

4:22

this side of the earthly plane.

4:25

Gonsalves and Quelo, however, were

4:27

still very much alive in

4:30

offense that King Pedro sought

4:33

to rectify personally. There

4:36

was little struggle from the men as the

4:38

armed guards marched them into

4:40

the hall. After all, upon

4:43

their return to Portugal, a trial

4:45

had swiftly concluded that both men

4:47

were guilty of murder. Their

4:49

fates had been sealed from that moment,

4:52

their deaths assured. All

4:54

that was left was to face their sentence,

4:57

though I imagine their sense of res all

5:00

all but crumbled upon hearing their

5:03

king's plans for them. That

5:05

evening, as

5:07

the men were held helplessly

5:09

at the King's mercy, Pedro looked

5:12

down at the killers with the same

5:14

cold stare they had likely

5:17

given his beloved Inez before

5:19

repeatedly running their swords

5:22

through her chest. The

5:24

vacant expression that the king had

5:26

held at the beginning of the meal was

5:29

long gone. Vengeance

5:31

was now clearly burning through all

5:34

other thoughts behind his eyes. For

5:37

the murder of his wife, Pedro's

5:40

punishment was as simple as

5:42

it was brutal. The men

5:45

were to have their hearts

5:47

cut out of their chests. For

5:51

a moment. No one moved two,

5:53

stunned by the king's decree to see

5:56

it put into action. For only

5:58

a moment, though then

6:01

the guards descended upon the

6:03

men, and the room could do nothing

6:05

but watch on in horror as

6:07

the stones on the dining room floor

6:10

were painted in crimson, the

6:12

walls echoing an endless echo

6:15

of the criminal's blood curdling screams.

6:18

When the bodies were finally relieved

6:20

of their now unbeating

6:23

hearts, the hall likewise

6:26

fell silent. The only

6:28

sound was then the scrape

6:31

of knife on plait as

6:33

King Petrow finally dug into

6:35

the dinner in front of him.

6:38

If Pedro noticed a change in

6:40

the air, he did not let on. But

6:43

then again, maybe he had found comfort

6:45

in the grotesque display of violence

6:47

he had enacted. His in nas

6:50

may have been gone, but at least

6:52

now he wasn't the only man to know

6:55

how it felt to live without

6:57

a heart in his chest. I'm

7:01

Dana Schwartz and this

7:03

is noble blood. Outside

7:19

of Portugal, the infamous love

7:21

story of Pedro the First and an

7:23

esde Castro rarely finds

7:25

its way into popular discourse.

7:28

With so few primary sources on

7:30

the subject, let alone English

7:32

translations of scholarship available

7:34

for public consumption, it makes

7:36

sense that the tale of these two ill fated

7:38

lovers remains outside of

7:40

Portugal relatively unknown,

7:43

but within Portugal itself, the legend

7:46

of their love story and the ties they

7:48

have to Portugal's medieval history

7:50

makes them household names. To

7:53

better understand the context during

7:55

which their story takes place, I want

7:57

to give you a very brief summary

7:59

of what was happening in Portugal, or

8:02

more accurately, the Kingdom of Portugal

8:04

in the fourteenth century. During

8:07

this time, the Iberian Peninsula, or

8:09

what we today typically think of as Spain

8:11

and Portugal, was comprised of four

8:14

kingdoms, which for the sake of time I won't

8:16

go into too deeply, except for the

8:18

two which relate to that of our lovers,

8:21

the Crown of Castile and the Kingdom

8:23

of Portugal. By thirteen

8:25

forty, the two kingdoms could only

8:28

be described as having a

8:30

begrudgingly tolerable relationship

8:33

Back in thirty eight, King Alfonso

8:36

the fourth of Portugal had sent his

8:38

daughter Maria of Portugal to

8:40

be married to the King of Castile, which,

8:43

rather than unifying their kingdoms

8:45

as one might hope a marriage, would only

8:48

serve to create a larger rift

8:50

between them. This was largely

8:52

due to Alfonso the Fourth receiving reports

8:55

that his daughter was being mistreated by

8:57

the King of Castile, who, quite

9:00

after their union, began to pretty

9:02

immediately take up with a mistress.

9:05

In retaliation, Alfonso the

9:07

Fourth arranged for his son Pedro

9:09

the First of Portugal to marry

9:12

a Castilian noble woman named

9:14

Costanza Manuel. For those

9:16

curious as to why this specific union

9:18

would be considered a retaliation,

9:21

Costanza was, funnily

9:23

enough, the King of Castile's first

9:25

wife. Costanza's father had

9:28

arranged her marriage with the Castilian king

9:30

when she was just nine years old, which

9:32

meant that when the previously mentioned

9:35

daughter of Alfonso the Fourth of Portugal

9:37

was presented as another possible

9:39

wife for him, the king promptly

9:41

annulled their unconsummated

9:43

marriage so he could wed Maria

9:45

of Portugal instead. So

9:47

really, in other words, Costanza

9:50

was the jilted first wife of

9:52

the King of Castile, who then chose

9:55

Alfonso's daughter instead. It's

9:57

a little complicated, but I think you the

10:00

basic picture. Cut to a

10:02

few years later, and the King of Castile

10:05

is suddenly faced with the consequences of

10:07

his actions in the form of his current

10:09

and former father in law's deciding

10:12

to unite their collective hatred

10:14

of him with the strategic marriage between

10:16

his own ex wife, Constanta Manuel

10:19

and the future King of Portugal, Pedro

10:21

the First. Now,

10:23

I'm going to fast forward a bit because

10:25

the ensuing war and ultimate

10:27

peace treaty don't exactly serve the

10:29

story in any significant way. But

10:32

from this web of marriages and

10:34

political ally ship, I think the two

10:36

most important points to take away from

10:38

this are one, regardless

10:41

of treatise, tensions between the

10:43

Crown of Castile and the Kingdom of Portugal,

10:46

we're fraying dangerously thin. And

10:49

two, in thirteen forty,

10:51

Alfonso's son Pedro would

10:54

marry Costanza Manuel, which

10:56

is where our story truly begins,

10:58

because when Constanza arrived in Portugal,

11:01

she did so with her lady in waiting,

11:04

a Galician noblewoman by the name

11:07

of Inez de Castro. Now,

11:10

unfortunately for poor Costanza

11:12

neither her first nor second marriage

11:15

were destined to be fairytale

11:17

romances. In fact, almost

11:20

as soon as she arrived at court with Annez

11:22

and how Pedro all but cast

11:24

her aside in favor of her lady

11:27

in waiting. He of course still

11:29

performed his marital duties so as

11:31

to secure himself an heir to the Portuguese

11:33

throne. But that was about the extent

11:36

of Pedro and his wife's relationship.

11:39

As you can probably imagine, poor

11:41

Costanza was less than thrilled

11:43

with this development. Yes, she

11:46

was set to become the future Queen of

11:48

Portugal and her son would one day become

11:50

king, but she played this game once

11:52

before. One annulment later,

11:55

and Costanza knew all too well how

11:57

precarious her seemingly cemented

12:00

place in court really was. So

12:02

in an effort to keep Annez from continuing

12:05

her affair with Pedro, in thirteen

12:07

forty four, Costanza made a

12:09

strategic decision and named Inez

12:12

her newborn child's godmother.

12:15

Now this may seem counterintuitive,

12:17

doesn't it make Annez and her husband even

12:19

closer, But in the context

12:22

of medieval Portuguese and Catholic

12:24

traditions, naming someone a

12:26

godparent to their child essentially

12:28

made them family, which meant that

12:31

in one move, Costanza changed

12:33

Pedro and and As his relationship from

12:36

an extramarital affair to scandalous

12:38

lye incestuous. It

12:41

was a simple and effective solution

12:44

that could have even worked had her

12:46

son not tragically passed away

12:48

just eight days after he was born.

12:51

As it was, her son's death brought

12:53

further suspicion upon Inez by

12:56

the Portuguese court. King Alfonso

12:58

the Fourth was not blind to what was happening

13:01

between his son and his wife's lady

13:03

in waiting, and though he

13:05

had been unhappy with his son's choice

13:08

and mistress, he had initially dismissed

13:10

the affair, hoping it was simply lust

13:13

and it was clouding his son's judgment only

13:15

temporarily. However, after

13:17

the death of Costanza's firstborn

13:20

son, the son to which Anez

13:22

had been made godmother, the son

13:24

keeping Pedro and Anez a part,

13:27

Alfonso was now powerless to

13:30

stop the rumors that began

13:32

to stir at court. How

13:36

had the child died, hadn't

13:38

poor Constanza named that Harlot

13:41

the godmother wasn't at

13:43

all a bit too convenient?

13:46

For years, King Alfonso had

13:48

allowed Pedro to carry on with Anez,

13:51

but as the rumor mill continued to speculate,

13:54

the king decided it was finally time

13:56

to take action, and he banned

13:58

and As from court. And that

14:00

should have been it, at least

14:03

it would have been if their affair had

14:05

simply been driven by lust. But

14:08

when Annez was driven away from court,

14:10

the strength of her and Pedro's

14:12

love, if anything, became more

14:15

apparent. In some versions

14:17

of their story, While Annez was away,

14:20

Pedro wrote to her through small

14:22

messages, which he sent through

14:24

a channel of water that went between

14:26

their two residences. To Alfonso's

14:29

dismay, the distance between

14:31

the two did nothing to diminish their

14:33

devotion to one another, a

14:35

fact that became all too apparent when

14:38

in thirteen forty nine, Constanza

14:41

Manuel died at just thirty three

14:43

years old from complications

14:45

following the birth of her fourth

14:47

child. As the country mourned

14:50

the loss of their Infanta or princess,

14:53

King Alfonso really should not have

14:55

been that surprised to find

14:57

that his son had almost immediately

15:00

left court to find Inez,

15:02

without any marital obligations

15:04

now barring him from seeing her, Pedro

15:07

and Inez were finally free to be

15:09

together, and together they

15:12

were. They weren't married. Their

15:14

relationship would never be accepted by

15:16

King Alfonso, but Pedro and Inez

15:19

would go on to have three healthy

15:21

children. They were happy together,

15:24

at least until thirteen fifty

15:27

four, when they're happily ever

15:29

after came to an abrupt

15:32

and brutal end when

15:36

it came to his son. King Alfonso

15:38

the Fourth of Portugal was running out

15:40

of options for years following

15:42

Costanza's death, Alfonso attempted

15:45

to find another suitable marriage for his

15:47

son, but Pedro refused

15:49

to hear a word of it. Meanwhile,

15:52

Alfonso's royal advisers

15:54

reported back rumors that had been

15:56

floating around court. People

15:59

couldn't help but compare the sickly

16:01

and weak son Ferdinand, that

16:03

Pedro had had with his wife Costanza,

16:06

a legitimate son, with

16:08

the three strong and healthy

16:11

but illegitimate children that Pedro

16:13

had with Annez. Equally

16:15

troubling were the rumors that Inez's

16:18

Castilian brothers were spending

16:20

considerable time in the Prince's

16:22

ear, tempting him to intercede

16:24

on their behalf in Castilian

16:27

Civil War. Surely,

16:29

Anez was poisoning Pedro

16:31

with these thoughts biasing the

16:33

prince in favor of Castile.

16:36

Up until this point, King Alfonso

16:39

had at best tolerated and

16:41

as his presence in his son's life. But

16:43

with threats to the Portuguese line

16:45

of succession coming into question,

16:48

plus the ever growing potential

16:51

for an all out civil war that

16:53

could possibly end with the Kingdom of

16:55

Portugal in the hands of the Castilian

16:57

crown, Alfonso could no longer

16:59

a forward to ignore this young

17:01

woman who had stolen his son's

17:04

heart, and so, at

17:06

the urging of his royal advisers,

17:08

King Alfonso, along with a traveling

17:11

party that included both Alvaro

17:13

Gonzales and Paroquelo, made

17:16

their way to Combra to carry out

17:18

the assassination of Annez

17:20

de Castro. It's

17:24

impossible to say exactly

17:26

how events unfolded in Coimbra

17:28

that day. Later, dramatization

17:31

of Ineza's death would imply that

17:33

in As sat at King Alfonso's

17:35

feet begging for her life.

17:38

Some would say the king began to sympathize

17:40

with her as one of her children was

17:42

in the room with them, watching on in

17:45

terror, helpless to stop what would

17:47

inevitably come to pass.

17:50

For no matter if an As sat

17:52

at the king's feet, nor if

17:54

she pleaded for her life, the

17:56

end result remained the same. In

17:59

the fame Is Portuguese epic poem,

18:01

Ois Lucida's author Louise

18:03

vas Jacomas wrote of her death

18:06

quote, Thus, Annez, while

18:08

her eyes to have an appeal, resigned

18:11

her bosom to the murdering steel,

18:13

that snowy neck was stained with,

18:16

spouting gore another sword.

18:18

Her lovely bosom tore so

18:21

from her cheeks. The roses died

18:23

away and pale in death.

18:26

The beauteous Annez lay. On

18:30

January seven, fifty

18:32

five, Ines de Castro, mother

18:34

of three and the great love of

18:37

Pedro of Portugal's life, was

18:39

stabbed to death by the order of Pedro's

18:42

father, King Alfonso the Fourth.

18:45

The king may not have swung the blade

18:47

that took an As his life, but when

18:49

news of his father's betrayal finally

18:52

reached Pedro, none of that mattered.

18:54

All that mattered was that his anst was

18:57

gone, that she had been brutally

18:59

taken from the earth at the hands

19:01

of his own father, and he

19:03

was going to make him pay. If

19:06

Alfonso had hoped, and as his absence

19:08

would quell Pedro's desire to begin

19:10

a civil war, he was sorely

19:12

mistaken. Within days

19:15

of her death, Pedro had summoned

19:17

an army to go to war against

19:19

his own father. It was

19:21

only at the urging of the only

19:23

existing neutral party between them,

19:25

Pedro's mother and Alfonso's wife,

19:28

Queen Beatrice, that the two men

19:30

were able to stop the fighting. At

19:32

the queen's behest, father and son

19:35

signed a treaty of peace between them.

19:37

But if this episode's introduction was

19:40

anything to go by, I'm guessing

19:42

you already know that the piece was

19:45

just about the last thing on Pedro's

19:47

mind. It wouldn't be until

19:49

two years later, in thirteen fifty

19:52

seven, when Alfonso died and

19:54

Pedro ascended to the Portuguese throne,

19:57

that the young king could begin to

19:59

enact his re venge and at

20:01

long last find the justice

20:03

he longed for. For Aness. His

20:06

first order of business tracking

20:09

down the men responsible for her murder.

20:12

While his men searched far and wide

20:14

for any trace of the assassins, The

20:16

now King Pedro the First enacted

20:19

the second order of business he had,

20:22

commissioning the creation of two

20:24

tombs, one for himself

20:27

and one for his beloved Inez.

20:30

After her death, Ines had been buried

20:32

in Coimbra. The location of her remains

20:35

likely chosen out of convenience

20:37

rather than geographical significance.

20:41

But then again, Inez and Pedro

20:43

technically had no official ties

20:45

to one another. They had three

20:48

children together, but in the eyes of the Catholic

20:50

Church and by extension, Portugal

20:53

as a whole, and as to Castro,

20:56

technically meant nothing, which

20:58

was exactly In thirteen

21:01

sixty, Pedro would announce

21:03

to the world a secret that would

21:05

irrevocably alter the course of

21:08

Portuguese history. A

21:10

few months after he ordered the

21:12

death of and As his assassins,

21:15

with the hollow ache no doubt

21:17

still lingering in his chest, Pedro

21:20

revealed that seven years earlier,

21:22

he and and Az were married in a secret

21:25

ceremony, meaning not only

21:27

had his father killed the woman he loved,

21:30

but the king had also murdered what

21:32

would have been Portugal's future

21:34

queen. For centuries,

21:37

the validity of Pedro's

21:40

secret marriage claims have been

21:42

subject to debate. After

21:44

all, if you're a king and you get married

21:46

in a forest and no one's around to witness

21:48

it, does it still hold up in the eyes

21:50

of the Catholic Church. Some

21:53

chroniclers from the time contested

21:55

the union's legitimacy, but

21:57

ultimately their doubt would be a

21:59

foot note in the history books, especially

22:02

when the true intentions behind

22:05

the now king's posthumous wedding

22:07

announcements were revealed and

22:10

the now widowed king had

22:12

his late wife exhumed from her grave

22:14

on Combrian soil. With

22:17

his wife's killers now brutally

22:19

dead and his healthy children's

22:22

legitimacy secured, King

22:24

Pedro set out to complete his

22:27

final act of revenge against

22:29

his father. Now there

22:31

comes a point in stories like this

22:34

that the mythos surrounding the facts

22:37

often begin to outshine the

22:39

reality of the events themselves.

22:41

Sometimes a lack incredible

22:43

sources inspires others

22:45

to make up histories of their own. Some

22:48

stories that, while not exactly

22:50

factual, no doubt, make for a

22:53

great story. In the case

22:55

of Pedro exhuming his wife's

22:58

corpse, some say

23:00

that upon his ascension to the throne,

23:03

the king was so maddened in his

23:05

all consuming grief that

23:07

he ordered his men to disenter Inez

23:10

so that they could prop up her body

23:13

on the throne beside him

23:16

as his queen. They say

23:18

that Pedro had her dressed in

23:20

the finest robes and laid

23:22

a crown upon her head, demanding

23:25

members of his court approached

23:27

the throne so they could kiss what

23:30

was left of in iss weathered

23:32

hand as a way to pay

23:34

homage to their would be queen.

23:38

And to be fair, this

23:40

maccab display of fealty is

23:42

rather on brand for King Pedro.

23:45

This is the man, after all, who murdered

23:48

his wife's killers by cutting out

23:50

their hearts. But in reality,

23:53

and as his disinterment likely,

23:56

had little to do with forcing members of

23:58

the court to bow at his late

24:00

wife's ornately dressed corpse,

24:03

and more to do with the two tombs

24:06

Pedro had commissioned as soon as he

24:08

had ascended to the throne, for in

24:10

the end, Pedro's final act

24:12

of defiance against his father, as

24:14

well as his final act of love

24:17

for his late wife, lay

24:19

within the twin tombs

24:21

he planned to share with his beloved

24:25

Today, if you walked into the Cistercian

24:28

Abbey of Alcobasa, you would

24:30

be immediately taken in by the incredible

24:33

display of Gothic Cistercian

24:35

architecture. Impossibly

24:38

high, rib vaulted ceilings would

24:40

greet you as you passed through the monastery's

24:42

doors. They're intimidating heights,

24:45

subconsciously leading you down

24:47

the nave toward the main chapel

24:49

at the structure's end. And

24:51

if you were a tourist, after finding

24:54

your way to the end of the monastery's

24:56

pews, you would most likely

24:58

notice the crowds acting, not

25:01

gathering to view the main chapel under

25:03

a halo of skylights,

25:05

but gathering in two corners

25:07

of the transept on either side of

25:09

you. Upon closer

25:12

inspection, you would notice the onlookers

25:14

gathered around two intricately

25:18

carved white stone tombs,

25:21

the chamber to the right holding the tomb

25:23

of King Pedro, the first of Portugal,

25:26

and to the left, mirroring it perfectly

25:29

just steps away from her husband,

25:32

his wife Inez de Castro, in

25:35

direct defiance of his father,

25:37

Pedro's final declaration of love

25:40

for an Az was not made in hate

25:42

or violence, but in a gesture

25:45

that married his grief with

25:47

his hope for the future. By

25:49

claiming Anaz as his wife, Pedro

25:52

finally had sufficient grounds to

25:54

exhume her body and give her

25:56

the burial she rightly deserved

25:59

the areal of a queen. When

26:02

the elaborate tombs he had commissioned

26:04

were finished some time between

26:06

thirteen sixty one and thirteen

26:08

sixty three. Pedro had and As

26:11

his remains disinterred and brought

26:13

all the way from Coimbra to Alcabasa,

26:16

a nearly seventy mile journey

26:19

from there, and as his body was put

26:22

inside of one of the two

26:24

intricately carved tombs and

26:26

placed in the abbey where she

26:28

awaited the day the other matching

26:31

tomb would carry the body of her

26:33

beloved and the two of them would

26:35

be together once more. But

26:38

even with the inherent romance

26:40

of matching tombs aside, what

26:43

Pedro did for and Ez goes

26:45

far beyond just securing a place

26:47

for their bodies to finally be together,

26:50

To briefly bring you back to the main

26:52

chapel in Alcabasa for a moment.

26:55

The intricate images carved into

26:57

an ASA's tomb are beautiful, yes, but

27:00

they serve a specific purpose as

27:02

well. Scenes from the life

27:04

and death of Christ are carved

27:07

into the side of her tomb in

27:09

unspoken analogy between the

27:11

two figures, being presented like an

27:14

offering to the viewer. Both the

27:16

castro and the Portuguese coat

27:18

of arms adorn her final

27:20

resting place. But the greatest

27:23

gift Pedro gave an as his legacy

27:25

is perhaps the simplest addition

27:28

to the otherwise incredibly

27:30

intricate sculpture work. On

27:33

the lid of her tomb, a stone

27:35

likeness of Annez herself is laid

27:37

out on top of the very vessel

27:40

which contains her earthly remains. What

27:43

stands out about her stone counterpart

27:45

is not her serene expression,

27:48

nor the items placed in her hands,

27:51

but the crown placed atop

27:53

her head. When Pedro

27:55

revealed his secret marriage with an As

27:57

to the world, he knew there would be

28:00

skeptics who would never see her as

28:02

their queen. But in this one

28:04

detail, Pedro all but

28:06

wrote her legacy in stone

28:09

for generations to come. As

28:12

long as stone anyone

28:14

who came to the Alcabasa would

28:17

see his truth. It

28:19

was in Nez, not Costanza,

28:22

who was his wife. It was in

28:24

Nez who was his queen even

28:26

in death. And though

28:28

their individual tombs hold differing

28:31

images, both are inscribed

28:34

with the same words that

28:36

echo across the stone floors

28:39

where they lay together, words

28:42

that translate from the Portuguese to

28:44

mean until the end

28:46

of the world. That's

28:57

the tragic love story of Pedro, the first

28:59

of Portugue and in Nasda Castro.

29:01

But stick around to hear how their love

29:04

story has evolved over the centuries.

29:16

Although the tale of Pedro and Andez

29:18

has largely evaded English speaking

29:21

audiences in pop culture, I

29:23

think it's worth it to analyze why their

29:25

story, and particularly in Nez's

29:28

presence as a tragic figure, has

29:30

persisted in cultural iconography

29:32

in Portugal and Western Europe. Of

29:35

course, the story itself has everything

29:38

you could ever want in a tragic love story

29:40

slash episode of noble blood, romance,

29:43

betrayal, vengeance, his and her tombs,

29:46

to say nothing of the macabre idea

29:48

of a disinterred corpse sitting on

29:50

a throne. But in all seriousness,

29:53

what I find most interesting about most

29:56

interpretations of Pedro and and

29:58

AS's love story is the inherent

30:00

lack of an Ez that they all seem to share.

30:03

What I mean by that is, when conducting

30:05

research for this episode, I

30:08

found little to no information

30:10

on who and Asta Castro was as a person,

30:13

only how she related to Pedro's

30:15

story. Other than the physical

30:18

manifestation of their love in their

30:20

three living children, any love the

30:22

couple shared is expressed through

30:24

Pedro's grief and rage,

30:27

not through any sort of interaction

30:29

between the two, which does make

30:31

sense since the majority of their story

30:34

takes place after she dies.

30:36

But that's another thing, isn't it. The

30:39

love story of Pedro an Andez

30:41

is not so much about their love

30:44

as it is about her death. Any

30:46

characterizations that are given to her are

30:49

on the whole that she was pious and

30:51

self sacrificing, but there's

30:53

little to no evidence that she was

30:55

either of those things, unless

30:57

you assigned them as reactions she

30:59

may have had to the acts of violence

31:02

taken against her. It's

31:04

a sad truth that and As his presence

31:06

in her own story mattered more

31:08

when she was a corpse than when she

31:11

was alive. But then again, it's

31:13

not like treating women as blank slates

31:15

in which to project a man. Story

31:18

is something we haven't seen before. But

31:20

who knows, maybe after seven

31:23

hundred years, someone will finally

31:25

given as to cast the chance to tell

31:27

her own story.

31:44

Noble Blood is a production of I Heart

31:46

Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron

31:48

Manky. Noble Blood is hosted

31:51

by me Danish Words. Additional

31:53

writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston.

31:56

Hannah's Wick, Mirra Hayward, Courtney

31:58

Sunder and Laurie Goodman. The

32:00

show is produced by rema Il Kali,

32:03

with supervising producer Josh

32:05

Thayne and executive producers

32:07

Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and

32:09

Matt Frederick. For more podcasts

32:11

from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart

32:14

Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

32:16

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.