CASTRO, INEZ DE (d. 1355), mistress, and perhaps wife, of Peter I. (Pedro), king of Portugal, called Collo de Garza, i.e., "Heron's Neck," was born in Spanish Galicia, in the earlier years of the 14th century, daughter of Don Pedro Fernandez de Castro, and Dona Aldonca Soares de Villadares, a noble Portuguese lady. Educated at the semi-Oriental provincial court of Juan Manuel, duke of Penafiel, Inez grew up with Costanca, the duke's daughter and her own cousin, who married in 1341 the infante Dorn Pedro, son of Alphonso the Proud, king of Portugal. The young infanta and her cousin went to reside at Lisbon or at Coimbra, where Dom Pedro conceived that luckless passion for Inez which has immortalized them. Pedro's connection par amours with Inez would of itself have aroused no opposition. He might even have married her after the death of his wife in childbirth in According to his own assurance he did marry her in 1354. But by that time the rising power of the Castro family had created hatred among their rivals, both in Spain and Portugal. Alvaro Gon zales, Pedro Coelho and Diogo Lopes Pacheco persuaded the king, Alphonso, that his throne was in danger from an alliance between his son and the Castros, and urged the king to remove the danger by the murder of Inez. The old king went in secret to the palace at Coimbra, where Inez and the infante resided, accompanied by his three familiars, and by others who agreed with them. The beauty and tears of Inez disarmed his resolution, and he turned to leave her; but the men about him had gone too far to recede. Inez was stabbed to death and was buried immediately in the church of Santa Clara.
The infante had to be appeased by the concession of a large share in the Government. The three murderers of Inez took ref uge in Castile. In 1357, however, Alphonso died, and the infante was crowned king of Portugal. Peter the Cruel, his nephew, sur rendered the murderers. Diogo Lopes escaped, but Coelho and Gonzales were executed, with horrible tortures, in the king's presence.
The story, not authenticated, of the exhumation and corona tion of the corpse of Inez has often been told. It is said that to the dead body, crowned and robed in royal raiment and enthroned beside the king, the assembled nobles of Portugal paid homage as to their queen, swearing fealty on the withered hand of the corpse. Inez was buried at Alcobaca, with extraordinary magnifi cence, in a tomb of white marble, surmounted by her crowned statue, destroyed by the French soldiery in 181o. From the brother of Inez, Alvaro Perez de Castro, the house of Portugal directly descended.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. See Fernao Lopes, Chronica del Rey Dom Pedro Bibliography. See Fernao Lopes, Chronica del Rey Dom Pedro (1735) ; Camoens, Os Lusiadas; Antonio Ferreira, Ines de Castro— the first regular tragedy of the Renaissance after the So f onisba of Trissino; Luis Velez de Guevara, Reinar despues de morir, an ad mirable play ; and Ferdinand Denis, Chroniques chevaleresques de l'Espagne et du Portugal.