The Chronicle of the King D. Pedro I, or Chronicle of D. Pedro, is a historical record of the chronicle genre written by Fernão Lopes covering the period of time corresponding to the reign of D. Pedro I of Portugal, known as the Just, or the Cruel, which took place between 1357 and 1367.
The Chronicle of D. Pedro I is divided into forty-four chapters and begins with a Prologue. Of the many subjects treated throughout the Chronicle, the most noteworthy are Justice, to which he dedicates the Prologue and six chapters,António Borges Coelho, "Ideologia e História na Crónica de D. Pedro", prefácio à Crónica de D. Pedro, Livros Horizonte, 1977, pag. 15-38 the organization of the State and the king's decisions, Inês de Castro, to which he dedicates six chapters, reporting in particular Pedro's declaration about his marriage to Inês, the persecution of her murderers and the description of the transfer of Inês' mortal remains from Coimbra to Alcobaça,Saraiva, António José, O Crepúsculo da Idade Média em Portugal, Gradiva, Coleção Cultura e História do jornal Público, 1996, pag. 47 a chapter dedicated to D. João I, the bastard son of D. João I, the bastard son of D. Pedro I. João I, bastard son of D. Pedro and future king,Teresa Amado, Crónica de D. Pedro, em Dicionário da Literatura Medieval Galega e Portuguesas. Editorial Caminho, Lisboa, 1993, pag. 182-184 and also the Kingdom of Castile to which he dedicates sixteen of the chapters, in this case dealing with decisions or undertakings of King Pedro I of Castile, nephew of the homonymous Portuguese king, and for whose history Fernão Lopes must have had access to the Chronicles about the same time of the Castilian chronicler Pedro López de Ayala.Salvador Dias Arnaut, Introdução à Crónica de D. Fernando, Livraria Civilização Editora, Porto, 1979, pag IX-X
Fernão Lopes, who began by having the profession of notary, was in 1418 appointed keeper of the Torre do Tombo, i.e., head of the state archives, a position of trust of the court, and which allowed him access to important documentation for the preparation of his Chronicles.Saraiva, António José e Lopes, Óscar, História da Literatura Portuguesa, Porto Editora, 17ª edição, Corrigida e Atualizada, 1996, pag. 122 Fernão Lopes probably starts writing the Chronicle of D. Pedro in 1434 because it was in this year that King D. Duarte awarded him for his future work the annual tença of fourteen thousand reals.
It is the first of the three great chronicles of the precursor of Portuguese history, and also the first royal chronicle with characteristics close to those that defined the genre cultivated in the fifteenth century and in the two following, being the other two chronicles of Fernão Lopes the Chronicle of D. Fernando and the Chronicle of D. João I."And the people said that there had never been such ten years in Portugal as these when the King D. Pedro reigned."
Ending of Chronicle of the King D. Pedro I.
Summary
Among the subjects covered by Fernão Lopes in this Chronicle are Justice, to which he dedicated the Prologue and six chapters, the organization of the State and the king's decisions, Inês de Castro, to whom he dedicated six chapters, relating in particular the public declaration of D. Pedro about his marriage to Inês, the persecution of her murderers and the transfer of her remains from Coimbra to Alcobaça, D. João I, father of D. Duarte, to whom Fernão Lopes had entrusted the preparation of the Chronicle and to whom he would certainly be very pleased with his father's panegyric. Duarte, who had entrusted Fernão Lopes with the preparation of the Chronicle and who would certainly enjoy the panegyric of his father, to whom he dedicated chapter 43, and also the Kingdom of Castile, to which he dedicated sixteen chapters, in this case dealing with decisions or undertakings of King Pedro I of Castile, nephew of Pedro I of Portugal, and for whose history Fernão Lopes must have had access to the Chronicles of the same time by the Castilian chronicler Pedro López de Ayala.
Justice Fernão Lopes wanted to give D. Pedro the image of a king concerned with Justice, which is why he received the nickname Justiceiro (Justice), or also Cruel, in this case also because of the type of punishments sentenced, as can be read in the Prologue and in six of the forty-four chapters of the Chronicle where he describes specific cases of application of justice.
About the importance of justice in governing the kingdom, Fernão Lopes writes in the PrologueJustice is a virtue that is called every virtue, so that anyone who is just, this one fulfills every virtue, because justice, as well as the law of God, holds that you do not fornicate or be a gargantuan, and by keeping this, the virtue of chastity and temperance is fulfilled. And so you can understand about the other vices and virtues. This virtue is very necessary for the king and also for his subjects, because if the king has the virtue of justice, he will make laws so that all may live straight and in peace. And his subjects, being just, will obey the laws he lays down, and in obeying them they will not do anything unjust against anyone, and such virtue as this everyone can gain by the work of good understanding.Regarding the notion of justice as "virtue that is all virtue", it is possible that Fernão Lopes knew Aristotle's texts, since he, in the Nicomachaean Ethics, quotes a Greek proverb with an idea very close to the one referred by Fernão Lopes: "Justice contains all other virtues".
In the five chapters dealing with specific cases of justice, chapters 6 to 10, one describes the theft and murder of a Jew (ch. 6), and the remaining four are cases of adultery. In two of the five cases mentioned, the case of a bishop (high clergy, ch. 7) and another of the admiral of the realm (high nobility, ch. 10), the punishments initially decided by the king were ultimately not applied in the face of requests for clemency by influential people.
The State To Fernão Lopes, the State was established by men to accomplish the public good. It was not established to carry out any divine order on earth, nor to be the secular arm of the Church, as argued by Augustinian Luther, his conception of the State being close to the much later doctrine of the social contract.
Inês de Castro Another of the themes that the Chronicle highlights is the set of events related to Inês de Castro. When Pedro ascends to the throne Inês de Castro had already been murdered, and the Chronicle relates first in chapters 27 to 29 how Pedro officially declared that he had betrothed her in an incognito manner, with witnesses, so that she could be recognized as queen.Lopes, Fernão, Crónica de D. Pedro, Livros Horizonte, 1977, cap. 27-29, pag. 117-129
Then, in chapters 29 to 31, it is told how Pedro agrees with his counterpart from Castile to exchange fugitives from both kingdoms, among whom, on the Portuguese side, are the three assassins of Inês de Castro. Of these three, two are deported to Portugal and are tortured, and one, Diogo Lopes Pacheco, manages to escape to France.Lopes, Fernão, Crónica de D. Pedro, Livros Horizonte, 1977, cap. 29-31, pag. 123-133
Finally, in chapter 44, it is related how D. Pedro had the remains of Inês de Castro transferred in a pompous ceremony to the Alcobaça Monastery and how he had two marble tombs richly decorated with the lying statues of each, one for Inês de Castro and the other for her own body to be laid in the future, as happened.Lopes, Fernão, Crónica de D. Pedro, Livros Horizonte, 1977, cap. 44, pag. 166-167
Medieval literature is full of love couples. The loves of Amadis de Gaula and Oriana are probably the most conventional, inspired by those of Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, which their antecedents in those of Tristan and Iseult, whose passion became known as the archetype of romantic love, proper to the West.
But Fernão Lopes, referring also to the loves of "Queen Dido" (immortalized by Virgil in the Aeneid and known through medieval adaptations, such as the Roman d'Eneas, one of the sources of the First General Chronicle of Alfonso X) and of "Adriana" (Ariadne), popularized by Ovid, and commenting that they are "composite loves, which some authors rich in eloquence and flourishing in dictation have ordered as they saw fit", describes what happened between D. Pedro and Inês de Castro and says that he is the author of the love affair. Pedro and Inês de Castro and says that their loves are not feigned, and "are told and read in the stories that have their foundation on truth", that is, in the narratives of cases that happened, as were (or were supposed to be) the chronicles.
The chronicler narrates how the transfer of Inês de Castro's mortal remains took place:And remembering to honor her bones, because he couldn't do more, he ordered a mourning of white stone, all very subtly made, with her image raised on the upper grave, with a crown on her head, as if she were queen; and this mourning he ordered to be placed in the Alcobaça Monastery, not at the entrance where the kings lie, but inside the church, on the right hand side, next to the main chapel.
And he had his body brought from the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha, where he was lying, in the most honorable way possible, because he came on stilts very well arranged for such a time, with great horsemen, accompanied by great noblemen and many other people, and ladies and maidens and clergy. On the way there were many men with tapers in their hands, in such a way arranged, that their bodies always went all the way through lighted tapers, and thus they arrived at the said monastery, which was seventeen leagues away, where with many masses and great solemnity that muiment was placed. And this was the most honorable transference that until that time had been seen in Portugal.
Similarly, the king ordered another beautiful and well-designed mural to be made for himself, and he had it placed next to his own, so that when he died they could lay it on him.
D. João I
The fact that D. Pedro was the father of D. João I, whose memory D. Duarte had specially recommended that Fernão Lopes celebrate. Duarte had especially recommended Fernão Lopes to celebrate when he commissioned him to write the histories of all the kings, contributed to the care with which the chronicler treated the figure of this future monarch and sought to clarify historical aspects of his life that had so much influence on later history. The emphasis given to the dream in which D. Pedro sees the future Master of Avis symbolically saving Portugal (chapter 43) must have this explanation.
In this aspect, that of the praise of a character through a premonitory dream, the Chronicle of D. Pedro is similar to the Chronicle of D. João I. While in the latter (chapter 33) is Álvaro Gonçalves Pereira, prior of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, in doubt as to which of his sons, Pedro Álvares or Nuno Álvares, would be the protagonist of a prophecy of a future of great battles and victories, in the Chronicle of Dom Pedro (chapter 43) is the king himself, Dom Pedro I, about his son John. Pedro I himself, about his son João, confirming his choice as Master of the Order of Avis, in the famous dream "in which I saw all of Portugal burning with fire, so that the whole kingdom looked like a bonfire; and being so amazed at such a thing, my son João came with a stick in his hand, and with it he put out all that fire", predicting a future reign of justice, just as Pedro himself had done.Fátima Regina Fernandes, "As Crónicas e as Chancelarias Régias: A Natureza e os Problemas de Aplicação das Fontes Medievais Portuguesas", Revista Ágora, Vitória, n.16, 2012, pp. 77–94,