Dom Pedro Primeiro
the Founder of the Brazilian Empire
the King-Emperor
the Liberator
the Magnanimous
the Soldier King.
the Cruel:
"[He] . . . styled the Cruel, has been stigmatised as unnatural, cruel, an infidel, and a fratricide; but Pedro's fratricide consisted in executing an illegitimate brother who was about to assassinate him, and his infidelity appears chiefly to have been hatred of the monks. The latter, in their turn, hated him, and as their pens were more lasting than his sceptre, Pedro's name has descended to posterity blackened by the accusation of almost every crime which man could commit."
" . . . Pedro earned his epithet 'the Cruel' with his first act, which was to imprison and then execute his father's mistress, Leonor de Guzman, with who, Alfonso had 10 children (9 sons). Leonor's oldest son, Enrique of Trastamara, challenged Pedro's right to the throne. . . Enrique's objections to Pedro were strengthened when, in 1358, Pedro executed his illegitimate half brother Fadrique for suspicion of treason; in 1359-60, when Pedro murdered two other half brothers, Juan and Pedro; and again in 1361, when Pedro was suspected of murdering his wife, Blanche of Bourbon, sister-in-law to Louis IX of France, which led to French support for Enrique. . . ." (Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485: 507)
" . . . Pedro . . . amused himself in some such ways as this. He imprisoned and foully treated his first wife, Blanche of Bourbon, and . . . had many noblemen, among others Don Juan, his cousin, executed in his presence. Once, it is stated, in the presence of the ladies of the court he commanded a number of gentlemen to be butchered until the Queen, his mother, fell into a dead faint. . . 'He then caused to be murdered his own aunt, Doña Leonora of Aragon, mother of the above Don Juan, for nothing except that Aragon would not make peace with him. . . A certain priest coming before to say that St. Domingo had appeared to him n a dream and counselled him to tell the king that he would meet his death at the hands of his brother . . . ordered the poor dreamer to be burnt alive. One lady, Urraca Osorio, for refusing his address, was burnt alive in the market place of Seville. . . ." (Popular Science Dec 1902: 174)
"Some authors have endeavoured to rescue the memory of Peter from odium and execration by representing him as just rather than cruel; but there are sufficient proofs of the correctness of the epithet by which he has been stigmatized. The murder of his father's concubine and of his own wife, and the death of many nobles who had merely excited his suspicions or offended his pride, stamp his character with merited infamy. . . ." (A new geographical, historical, and commercial grammar: 415)
" . . . Pedro of Castile (was) a man generally known to history as the Cruel because of his many executions of members of his family and leading nobles. Several authors argued that his executions were appropriate punishment for traitors and that he might more properly called the Justiciar. The suggestion that he may have been mentally unbalanced seems exaggerated and, in any case, cannot be proven. He exhibited the same brutality as other fourteenth-century kings, such as his father and the kings of Aragon and Portugal, who with equal justice might also be called Cruel. Even so, his executions do seem excessive. The nearly twenty years that followed his accession at age sixteen were filled with hatred and civil war, as the kingdom of Castile was torn asunder, until he met a horrible death at the hands of his brother." (A History of Medieval Spain: 419)
" . . . In his twenty years as king (1350-1369), Pedro murdered more than sixty vasallos del rey, some of them in such a cruel way that he has been given the epithet Pedro the Cruel. Although the epígonos enjoyed the support of a few great families -- especially the Manrique, la Vega, Mexía, and Albornoz -- they were unable to match Pedro's superior forces. Fearing for their own lives, they spent much of their time in exile in France or Aragon, especially after Pedro killed Enrique de Trastámara's twin, Fadrique, master of the Order of Santiago (1358). . . ." (The Mendoza Family in the Spanish Renaissance 1350-1550)
the Cruel:
--"Afonso died in 1357, and Pedro ascended the throne, determined to avenge Ines' death, Her assassins were extradited from Castilla, where they had fled, and were brutally put to death, after which he spent the rest of his reign following his interests as a self-styled judge dispensing rough justice throughout the country. He had, for example a nobleman beheaded for maliciously destroying the wine vat of a peasant and a bishop whipped for adultery." (The History of Portugal: 35)
--In spite of being based on medieval concepts of justice, such infamous cruelty would give the King the nickname of Pedro the Cruel. Nevertheless, according to the 1891 Hispanic-American Encyclopedia, his entire reign was evidence of his sweet and benevolent character. Of all three Pedros who were reigning in Hispania (Castile, Aragon and Portugal) at the time - all three known by the nickname the Cruel - the Portuguese king was the one who least deserved it. He protected the people and curbed the excesses of the nobility, and so nobles and clergymen nicknamed him the Cruel, while the folks remembered him rather as the Just."
--" . . . As soon as he was crowned in 1357, and in spite of his promises of forgiveness, King Dom Pedro I recovered two of Ines' assassins from Castile, where they had sought refuge (the third had escaped to France). He then had them tortured and executed in a barbaric but highly symbolic way: from one of the men who had killed the love of his life, the heart was ripped out of the body through his back, and from the other, the heart was pulled out through the chest. All this happened in front of the Royal Palace, where the King was able to watch the terrible scene while having dinner!
the Doer of Justice: ". . .The chief characteristic of Pedro I (1357-1367) was the pleasure he took in seeking out and punishing lawbreakers, whether laymen or clerics; hence his title, 'the Doer of Justice.' Allying himself with Pedro the Cruel of Castile, he took summary vengeance on the murderers of his mistress. He repressed the violence of the nobles and the usury of the Jews, and this with his generosity earned him the respect of the people, savage despot though he was. . . ."
the Justiciar: " . . . Pedro's main concern throughout his reign was the administration of justice, which did much to reinforce the unity of Portugal and gained him the epithet of 'the Justiciar'. . . ." (Robertson: 54)
the Strict.
Banana Pedro (Br. Pedro Banana)
Cashew Pedro (Br. Pedro Caju)
Emperrador:
"By the end of the 1870s, there were three main factions that opposed the empire: the republicans, the abolitionists and the army. Meanwhile Pedro II was withdrawing more and more from politics. The vogue for caricatures of the emperor dates from this period. He was mocked for how he dealt with state affairs and for his indecision (which was becoming increasingly apparent). He began to be called nicknames including Pedro Banana, Pedro Caju and Emperrador (Banana Pedro, Cashew Pedro -- a reference to the long format of his head -- and Emperrador means 'someone who holds things up' from the verb emperrar). . . ." (Brazil: A Biography)
the Conspirator Prince:
the Magnanimous: "Dom Pedro II, de Alcantara, surnamed 'The Magnanimous,' shared with Queen Victoria the honor of being the best-beloved monarch of the nineteenth century." (World's Great Men of Color, Vol II, Vol 2: 203)
the Man of Sao Cristovao (Por. o Homem de Sao Cristovao): "The attitude of this new generation of politicians toward the emperor differed sharply from that of their seniors. Instead of referring to him as Alguem [Someone] or O homem [The Man] (both terms being capitalized), they dubbed him 'o homem de Sao Cristovao' [the man of Sao Cristovao] (without capitalization), a person specific in time and space and so in no way universal and omnipresent. Whereas the older politicians had always been willing to place the emperor and his actions in the best light possible, the new generation tended not to give him the benefit of the doubt. For them Pedro II was neither the indispensable man nor the model citizen. They saw him as an aging eccentric with antiquated ideas and interfering ways who fell asleep at odd moments and who frittered away his time on inessentials. Some politicians did not hesitate to express their opinions in public. In his speeches to the Chamber of Deputies, Antonio Ferreira Viana, a master of devastating one-liners, coined such phrases as 'forty years of lies and betrayals,' 'the conspirator prince,' the new caricature of Caesar,' and 'the Empire of the deficit.' These phrases were quickly picked up by the popular press and became part of the political discourse." (Barman: 318)
the New Caricature of Caesar:
the Great (Sp. el Grande)
the Ceremonious:
--". . . . He certainly had the requisite interest in chivalry, for he had the section of the Castilian Siete Partidas dealing with knighthood translated into Catalan and published under his name, and his imposition upon his own court of the elaborate ceremonial regulations of the court of Mallorca after his annexation of that kingdom in 1344 led his contemporaries to bestow upon him the sobriquet 'the Ceremonious.. . ." (The Knights of the Crown: 281)
--"The principal cultural influences on his realm were French, Eastern, and (eventually) classic. Conscious of his image led to his Chronicle . . ., an elaborate dynastic mausoleum at Poblet, appeals to history in his speeches, and other forms of pageantry (hence his nickname 'Ceremonious'). . . ." (The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300-1500: 389)
--"Pere's love of pomp and ceremony -- not exceptional for the age -- which earned him the sobriquet of 'the Ceremonious,' stemmed from his sense of royal dignity, his consciousness that he was one of the 'great lords of the world' (v. 30). . . ." (Chronicle, Part 1: 98)
Pedro de Castilla y Fonseca.
el Mozo:
the Younger:
Pedro de Castro.
Pedro de la Guerra: " . . . The king was in love with Dona Juana, daughter of Don Pedro de Castro, surnamed De la Guerra, and widow of Don Diego de Haro, a descendant of the ancient Lords of Biscay. As virtuous as she was fair, Dona Juana was proof against all temptations. The passion of the king only increasing with the opposition it met, he at last spoke of marriage, and offered his hand and crown to the young widow. . . ." (Stone: 103)
Pedro de Mendoza, Lord of Almazan and of Monteagudo
Pedro Gonzales de Lara (d. 1130)
the Disinherited.
the Pilgrim, the Wanderer (Sp. el Romero): " . . . He may have joined the First Crusade in the following of Raymond IV of Toulouse, earning the nickname el Romero ('the wanderer, pilgrim'). . . ." (Wikipedia)
Pedro González de Mendoza (1340-1385)
9th Lord of the House of Mendoza
Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, Cardinal of Spain.
the Third King of Spain. "Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, commonly represented as the 'third king of Spain' during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, the eminence grise who shaped national policy for much of his active life, fathered three illegitimate children, all sons. . . ." (Lover, Religion, and Politics in the Fifteenth Century Spain: 100)
Pedro González de Mendoza, Lord of Almazan.
the First Castilian Humanist: Pedro Lopez de Ayala (d.1407), has been called the first Castilian humanist and certainly ranks as one of the great Castilian authors of this era. Soldier, diplomat, and statesman, in his youth he followed Pedro the Cruel but abandoned im in 1366 for Enrique II and thereafter loyally served Juan I and Enrique III; the latter named him chancellor of Castile. With all these preoccupations he still found time to compose chronicles of the reigns of these monarchs covering the years from 1350 to 1397. . . ." (O'Callaghan: 645)
the One-Eyed:
--Pedro Lopez de Ayala lost an eye during the reconquest of Antequera.
--"The Ayalas were descended from the house of Haro, lords of Biscay. Several of them had held high offices at the Court of Castile. The grandfather of the founder of the castle had been High Chancellor of Castile, and the Great Chamberlain of Juan the First; and his father, the first lord of Fuensalida, was High Steward, and first Alcalde of Toledo. He lost an eye at the siege of Antequera---taken from the Moors by Ferdinand, afterwards King of Aragon, in the year 1410, and thus acquired the surname of the One-eyed. . . ." (The Picturesque Antiquities of Spain: 229)
Pedro Luis Borja Lanzol de Romani
Cardinal de Borja
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