ave been greater deeds of arms, but there never was
one so boyish, so gallant, and so gay.

_THE CROWNING OF INES DE CASTRO_

ABOUT the year 1340, when Edward III. was King of England, a young
Spanish lady set out from Castile on the long journey to the Court of
Portugal. She was the only daughter of John Manuel, Duke of Villena, a
very rich and powerful noble, much dreaded by the King of Castile for
his boldness and restlessness. Not many years before he had suddenly
left his post as Warden of the French Marches, to fight against the
Moors in the province of Murcia, and though the King was very angry at
his conduct, he did not dare to punish him, for fear that in some way he
himself would suffer. Villena's daughter Constance had passed much of
her time at the Castilian Court, where she lived in the state that was
expected of a great lady of those days, but when the treaty was made
which decided that she was to marry Dom Pedro, Crown Prince of Portugal,
her household was increased, and special attendants appointed to do
honour to her rank.

Now among the ladies chosen to form part of Constance's court, was a
distant cousin of her own, the beautiful and charming Ines de Castro.
Like Henry II. at the sight of Fair Rosamond, the young Dom Pedro, who
was not more than twenty years of age, fell passionately in love with
her. He did all in his power to hide his feelings from his bride, the
Infanta Constance, but did not succeed, and in a few years she died, it
was said of grief at her husband's coldness, after giving birth to the
Infant, Dom Fernando (1345). After her death, Dom Pedro's father King
Alfonso was anxious that he should marry again, but he refused all the
brides proposed for him, and people whispered among themselves that he
was already secretly wedded to Ines de Castro. Time went on, and they
had four children, but Ines preferred to live quietly in a convent in
the country, and never took her place as Dom Pedro's wife. Still,
however secluded she might be, large numbers of her fellow Castilians,
weary of the yoke of their own King, Pedro the Cruel, flocked into
Portugal, and looked to her for protection, which Dom Pedro for her sake
always gave them, and chief among these foreign favourites were Ines'
two brothers, Fernando and Alvaro Perez de Castro. This state of things
was very bitter to the old Portuguese courtiers, who complained to the
King that in future the country would only be governed by Spa