The Twelve of England (in Portuguese: Os Doze de Inglaterra) is a Portuguese chivalric legend of 15th-century origin, famously related by the poet Luís de Camões in his 1572 Os Lusíadas (Canto VI). It tells the story of twelve Portuguese knights who travelled to England at the request of twelve English ladies to avenge their insult by a group of English knights.
Legend According to the legend, in the 1390s, twelve English knights insultedCamões does not make the content of the insult explicit; but Pedro de Mariz (1598) and Manuel Correia (1613) say the English knights simply called the ladies "very ugly" - too ugly to be loved, and too ugly to serve in the ducal household, and challenged any man to prove them wrong. Camões insinuates the insult arose only after the ladies refused to yield to the knights' advances. twelve ladies-in-waiting of the household of the Duchess of Lancaster. The ladies appealed to their master, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, but he was unable to find any English champions to defend the honor of the ladies. The twelve offending knights, renowned for their martial prowess, were too widely feared. Recalling his Iberian campaigns of the 1370s and 1380s, and the bravery of the Portuguese knights he encountered there, Lancaster recommended that they search for a champion among them.
In one version of the legend,de Mariz (1598: p.140) John of Gaunt wrote down the names of twelve Portuguese knights from memory, had the ladies draw lots to be matched with a knight, and then had each of the ladies write a letter of appeal to their champion. John of Gaunt wrote a separate letter himself to his son-in-law, John I of Portugal, asking him to grant the Portuguese knights permission to travel to England for this noble endeavor.
(In another version, related in Teófilo Braga's poem, John the Gaunt made an open request to John I, and scores of Portuguese knights applied, from which twelve were selected from an urn by Queen Philippa of Lancaster in Sintra.Braga, 1902: p.95 Their exact match with an English lady was sorted later - John of Gaunt shuffled the anonymous chivalric mottoes of the twelve knights, and had each of the twelve ladies select one, only learning the exact identify of their champion afterwards.)Braga, (1902, p.207)
The twelve were scheduled to set out by ship from Porto, but one of them, Álvaro Gonçalves Coutinho, nicknamed o Magriço (the Lean One) told the others to go ahead without him, that he would make his way overland via Spain and France.
The eleven knights set sail from Porto and landed in England, where they were well received in London by the Duke of Lancaster and the ladies, but there was great nervousness about whether Magriço would arrive on time. Magriço travelled overland at a languid pace, taking time to meander on the route, and visit various curious locations along the way.
When the day of the tournament arrived, legendarily held at Smithfield, London,Braga, 1902: p.300 there was still no news of Magriço, leaving the damsel destined to be defended by him (named 'Ethwalda' in one version) quite distraught. But just as the fight was about to be enjoined, Magriço arrived on the scene with great fanfare, just in time to take his position alongside his compatriots, heartening the distressed lady.
The twelve Portuguese champions successfully dispatched the offending English knights that day, in what was characterized as an unusually hard and brutal fight. The ladies' honor was successfully defended. But a few of the English knights had been killed in the tournament field, and in the aftermath, the Portuguese were threatened with revenge by the friends of the fallen. Fearful of being betrayed if they lingered in England, the Portuguese knights applied to John of Gaunt to secure them passage back to Portugal quickly. However, Magriço, still possessed by a spirit of adventure, decided to linger on in northern Europe, and eventually entered the service of the Count of Flanders for some time. Álvaro Vaz de Almada also went on adventures in continental Europe (legendarily engaging in a duel with a German knight in Basel).
Origins The legend of the "Twelve of England" was famously related by Portuguese poet Luís de Camões in his 1572 epic poem Os Lusíadas. In Canto VI, Stanzas 40-69, while Vasco da Gama's fleet was crossing the Indian Ocean, a soldier named Fernão VelosoFernão Veloso is a historical figure, see João de Barros, Decadas da Asia (1552), Dec. I, Lib. IV, Ch. II, p.283 regales his fellow Portuguese sailors with the story of the "Twelve of England" to pass the time and inspire their bravery.In English translations, see W.J. Mickle, 1776, The Lusiad, or the discovery of India, an epic poem, p.247, T.M. Musgrave, 1826, The Lusiad, an epic poem p.229; R.F. Burton, 1880, The Lusiads p.230, and J.J. Aubertin (trans.) 1878-84, The Lusiads of Camoens vol. 2, p. 22
Historians have found some versions of the legend prior to Camões's telling, notably a mid-15th-century manuscript known as Cavalarias de Alguns Fidalgos Portugueses.Cavalaria was first published in Magalhães Basto (1935). Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcelos's 1567 Memorial das Proezas da Segunda Tavola Redonda (which precedes Camões by a few years) briefly mentions that 'thirteen' (not twelve) Portuguese knights were dispatched to England "to defend the ladies of the Duke of Lancaster".Vasconcelos Memorial (1567: Ch. 46, p.234) The summaries by Pedro de Mariz (1598) and Manuel Correia (1613), although published after Camões, seem to rest on pre-Camões sources.Pedro de Mariz (1598 p.140); Manuel Correia (1613: p.175 The legend was retold in various versions after Camões, with occasional embellishments and variations.See Costa (1935) and Hutchinson (2007)
The twelve The identities of the twelve of the legend have been subject to speculation. An early 17th-century commentator Manuel Correia names five (Coutinho, Almada, Agostim, Lopo Pacheco, and Pedro Homem)Manuel Correia (1613: p.175 while the remaining seven were identified in a 1732 tract by Védouro.Teófilo Braga (1874: p. 433-34; 1902: p.95, p.298); Pimentel (1891, p.141ff). Curiously, these authors seemed to have overlooked the account of José Soares da Silva, whose 1732 Memórias para a Historia de Portugal (vol. 3, Ch. 281, p.1364), also supplies a complete list as well as a few more details about the twelve. For a rough English translation of Silva's text, see T.M. Musgrave's note in 1826 trans. The Lusiad: An epic poemp.494 Although many Portuguese noble families would later claim an ancestor of theirs was among the twelve, expanding the list enormously, the following is most generally accepted list of the twelve:
Named by Correia: Álvaro Gonçalves Coutinho, nicknamed o grão Magriço, son of the Marshal of Portugal Gonçalo Vasques Coutinho, and brother of Vasco Fernandes Coutinho, 1st Count of MarialvaSee genealogy of Álvaro Gonçalves Coutinho, 'O Magriço' at GeneAll.net Álvaro Vaz de Almada, future Count of Avranches. Would have been a child at the time. João Pereira da Cunha Agostim, second son of Gil Vasques da Cunha (alferes mór, of John I), and thus nephew of the Constable of Portugal Nuno Álvares Pereira, nicknamed 'Agostim' for having killed an English knight of that name in a duel.José Soares da Silva Memórias para a Historia de Portugal (1732: p.1368). (Musgrave 1826 trans., p.495)See genealogy of João Pereira da Cunha Agostim at GeneAll.net Lopo Fernandes Pacheco Pedro Homem da Costa
Added by Védouro (and Soares da Silva)
Álvaro Mendes Cerveira Rui Mendes Cerveira, brother of the above Soeiro da Costa, alcaide-mor of Lagos, Algarve, future captain of Prince Henry the Navigator. Improbably young at this time.Pimentel, p.142 Luís Gonçalves Malafaia, future ambassador of John II of Portugal to the court of Castile; also improbably young.Pimentel, p.142. See also genealogy of Luís Gonçalves Malafaia at GeneAll.net Martim Lopes de AzevedoGenealogy of Martim Lopes de Azevedo at GeneAll.net Rui Gomes da Silva, possibly the future alcaide of Campo Maior, son of Aires Gomes da Silva, father of St. Beatrix da SilvaGenealogy of Rui Gomes da Silva at GeneAll.net Álvaro de Almada, nicknamed the Justador, - according to Silva, a nephew of the Count of Avranches,Possible genealogy of Álvaro de Almada 'o Justador' at GeneAll.net but some other authors assume it is just a confused repetition of Avranches himself.e.g. Pimentel, p.142-43.
Common alternates to the above list are:
João Fernandes Pacheco, lord of Ferreira de Aves, brother of Lopo Fernandes Pacheco,Genealogy of João Fernandes Pacheco progenitor of the Dukes of Escalona in Castile - commonly substituted in place of Almada 'o Justador'.Almada 'o Justador' is wholly omitted and definitively replaced with João Fernandes Pacheco by José da Fonseca in his 1846 Paris edition of Lusiadas p.508. See Pimentel, 1891: p.143. Vasco Annes da Costa, the first named "Corte-Real", fronteiro-mor of Tavira in the Algarve, ancestor of the Corte-Real explorers and captains of Terceira Island of the Azores - to bring the number up to 'thirteen', as originally stated by Vasconcelos.Corte-Real's presence among the twelve was first proposed by Francisco Soares Toscano in his 1623 Parallelos de Principes e Varoens Illustres, p.193
In Teófilo Braga's 1902 poem, the twelve English knights are named as Austin (killed in the opening fight by Álvaro Vaz de Almada), Athelard, Blundell, Loveday, Argenton, Clarency, Corleville, Otenel, Turneville, Morley, Glaston and Reginald (who fought Magriço in the last fight).T. Braga, 1902: p.203-04 The twelve English ladies are also named: Adhelm, Egberte, Oswalda, Jorceline, Luce, Florence, Egwin, Gotslina, Gerlanda, Ailmer, Tatwine and Ethwalda (Magriço's lady).Braga, p.205 These names are purely literary fictions by Braga, with no known historical counterparts.
History
While the particulars of the legend are doubtlessly fanciful, there may be some (slim) historical basis for such an encounterFor a review of possible historicity, see Costa (1935) and Hutchinson (2007). If such an event happened, it would have to be sometime after 1387 (when the Anglo-Portuguese alliance was sealed by the marriage of John I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt) and before the death of John the Gaunt in 1399. Narrowing the window further, it was probably sometime after 1389, when John of Gaunt returned to England from his failed Iberian campaign, and before the death of John of Gaunt's wife, the Duchess of Lancaster, Constance of Castile in 1394.The 15th-century Cavalarias identifies the Duchess as Constance of Castile, thus placing the date for this event definitely before her death in 1394. Braga (1902) prefers to identify the Duchess with Gaunt's third wife, Katherine Swynford, the duchess from 1396 to 1399. The common date frequently cited is 1390.Soares da Silva (1732: p.1364). In the location cited by Teófilo Braga of Smithfield, in London, also occurred a large and very famous tournament held by Richard II in 1390.