The Real-Life Romeo and Juliet

The love of Pedro and Inês of Portugal

Inês de Castros’s Drama (c. 1900), oil on canvas by Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro

If you look hard enough, you will find several iterations of the plot in Shakespeare’s famous play Romeo and Juliet all around the world. One example of this is Masuccio Salernitano’s Il Novellino, with the love story of Mariotto and Ganozza, written in the 1400's — which is actually the source for the Luigi da Porto’s story, used by Shakespeare to write his play.

However, there is a historical account that is often associated with the famous star-crossed lovers that star in Shakespeare’s brilliant play. This is the story of D. Pedro, King of Portugal, and his lover D. Inês de Castro. In a story that has become as much a myth as it was reality, it is sometimes difficult to discern what actually happened.

However, the main plot remains the same (and there are documents to support most of it).

D. Pedro, the Prince of Portugal

A 19th-century depiction of D. Pedro I, King of Portugal, in the ceiling of the “Room of the Kings” in Quinta da Regaleira, Sintra, Portugal.

D. Pedro was born on the 8th of April 1320, the son of the Portuguese king Afonso IV and his wife Beatriz of Castille. Being the heir to the Kingdom of Portugal, his father soon arranged a matrimonial match that was…